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Evaluation Analyst (IPSA-9)
Job Info
- Job Identification: 26093
- Posting Date: 04/30/2025, 09:54 AM
- Apply Before: 05/15/2025, 05:59 AM
- Job Schedule: Full time
- Locations: Istanbul, Türkiye
- Agency: UNDP
- Grade: IPSA-9
- Vacancy Type: International Personnel Service Agreement
- Practice Area: Effectiveness
- Independent office: Independent Evaluation Office
- Contract Duration: 1 Year
- Education & Work Experience: Master's Degree - 2 year(s) experience OR Bachelor's Degree - 4 year(s) experience
- Required Languages: English
- Vacancy Timeline: 2 Weeks
Job Description
Background
The Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP supports the oversight and accountability functions of the Executive Board and the management of UNDP, UNCDF and UNV. The structural independence of the Office underpins and guarantees its freedom to conduct evaluations and report evaluation results to the Executive Board. The IEO conducts independent evaluations and other activities according to its programme of work approved by the Executive Board. The work of the IEO includes:
- Conducting thematic programmatic and other independent evaluations, ensuring strategic and representative coverage of UNDP programmes and results against national, regional and global scales;
- Developing evaluation standards, procedures, criteria and methodological guidance for UNDP evaluations, and contributing to innovation in evaluation methodology and dissemination of good practices;
- Providing UNDP and its development partners with timely knowledge and lessons drawn from evaluations that can feed into development programming at global, regional and country levels;
- Assessing the quality of decentralized evaluations of UNDP, UNCDF and UNV, and monitoring compliance with best international evaluation and data collection standards, including the UNEG norms and standards, code of conduct and ethical guidelines;
- Communicating its evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations through multiple channels and maintaining a searchable, publicly accessible repository of all UNDP, UNCDF and UNV evaluations, and respective management responses and resulting actions;
- Supporting the development of communities of practice, and partnering with professional evaluation networks to improve evaluation utility and credibility;
- Supporting the harmonization of the evaluation function in the United Nations system, including contributing to the annual work programme of UNEG, participating in systemwide evaluations, and prioritizing joint evaluations with United Nations organizations; and
- Promoting national ownership and leadership in evaluation through country-led and joint evaluations.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Evaluation Analyst will support the implementation of IEO’s work plan for the Regional Bureaus for the Asia Pacific, and for Europe and Central Asia guided by IEO’s knowledge and data management strategy, as well as country programme, thematic evaluation and evaluation syntheses research and process manuals. It will include the following:
Guide and support the conduct and management of impartial and independent evaluations and syntheses in alignment with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) professional standards:
- Support in and conduct data collection and analysis processes such as evaluation portfolio analysis, document reviews, project financial (and other) data analysis and primary data collection
- Conducting comprehensive research, gathering pertinent data, and sourcing both primary and secondary data to bolster evaluation studies and assessments;
- Compile and electronically file data related to evaluation subject for future reference or use;
- Prepare the necessary ToRs, outcome papers, evaluation report sections, charts, graphs, presentations and audit trials related to the subject;
- Support in the preparation of background notes and talking points for presentations to personnel and Senior Management;
- Support identification, contracting and management of evaluation teams and contracts;
- Support the effective allocation and tracking of resources for relevant evaluation activities.
- Liaise and coordinate with IEO section teams, external evaluation consultants, regional hubs and other teams as needed for the conduct of evaluations
Provide evaluation technical assistance and capacity development support in coordination with the regional RBM teams:
- Provide the provision of training and coaching on evaluation, self-evaluation, monitoring and results-based management to country offices and other organizational units;
- Support in offering advice/, information and guidance to project/programme managers on evaluations;
- Support regional RBM teams with improving country office evaluation plan development and implementation, and contribute to improving the quality of decentralised evaluations.
- Contribute to meetings with the regional RBM teams, regional advisors, project/programme managers to ensure that evaluation results are taken into account in project design, implementation and appraisal;
Promote UN coordination on evaluation and facilitate knowledge sharing:
- Collaborate with other UN evaluation units and professional evaluation bodies;
- Participate in United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) or United Nations Evaluation Development for Asia and the Pacific (UNEDAP) task forces and Europe and Central Asia (ECA) evaluation network
- Keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation and explore innovative approaches in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
- Share relevant information and experience within the Community of Practice and Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization
Institutional Arrangement
The Evaluation Analysts will be supervised by the IEO Regional Evaluation for Europe and Central Asia and will work in close collaboration with other units of IEO.
Competencies
Core Competencies:
- Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
- Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
- Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
- Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
- Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
- Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
- Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.
Cross Functional and technical competencies:
- Business Direction & Strategy-System Thinking
- Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
- Business Management- Project Management
- Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
- Business Management- Communication
- Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
- Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
- Business Management- Working with Evidence and Data
- Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making.
- Digital-Tech literacy
- Ability to apply new digital tools or adapting their original use to create new insights, fresh perspectives or develop solutions.
- Understand the potential as well as the limitations of certain technological developments; being able to identify how technology can add value when it's used as a ""means to an end"".
- Evaluation - Technical Evaluation Skills
- Experience in developing and communicating methodological guidance across complex evaluative approaches.
- Proven understanding of theories of change and logic models and able to use a systems approach to identify, recreate and facilitate the development of theories of change and logic models for complex programs, policies and initiatives; to facilitate evaluative thinking among stakeholders.
- Ability to develop high-quality terms of references for complex evaluations, demonstrating a strong ability to prioritize and focus evaluation questions.
- Demonstrated ability to design and conduct complex evaluations, drawing on existing best practices as well as developing innovative approaches.
- Excellent evaluation methods knowledge, including the ability to apply and interpret a range of evaluation methods and approaches, both quantitative and qualitative, ensuring that appropriate evaluation data collection and analysis methods are used. Understands and ensures the appropriate use of multiple and mixed methods.
- Capable of analyzing data from diverse sources, identifying trends and gaps in information, being able to ensure that data and information used in evaluations are appropriate, accurate, of high quality and collected and analyzed from an ethical perspective.
- Possess strong analytical skills, with an ability to elaborate credible findings, with evidence traced through the analysis into findings, which are then placed within their context. Uses analytical skills to synthesize data where relevant and identifies unintended results.
- Experience in drafting evaluation documents.
- Has excellent reporting skills, with highly credible conclusions substantiated by evidence; and generating clear, realistic and feasible recommendations.
- Evaluation- Technical Capacity Development skills
- Experience in developing and communicating methodological guidance across complex evaluative approaches.
- Understanding of UNDP’s governance approaches and programmatic work.
- Knowledge and experience in supporting Governments in Governance, monitoring and evaluation.
- Experience in developing and working within diverse partnerships
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Social Sciences, Economics, Public Administration, Political Science, International Relations, or other relevant areas is required. OR
- A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience:
- Minimum of 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in conducting research in the international development context with expertise in the use of machine learning applied to development is required.
Required skills:
- Experience in using computer and office software packages, web-based data management systems; Microsoft Office Word, Advanced Excel, PowerPoint, TEAMS, SharePoint, MS Project, NVivo is required.
Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section:
- Proven statistical experiences and knowledge of software available for quantitative analysis, including databases, spreadsheets, and statistical packages and monitoring and evaluation tools will be an asset.
- Prior work experience at or familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other UN entities will be an asset.
- Technical expertise and qualifications in one of the key focal areas for UNDP (environment, governance etc) will be an asset.
Required Language(s):
- Fluency in English is required.
- Working knowledge of another UN language is highly preferred (specially Russian)
Equal opportunity
As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.
UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.
Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority
UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.
Right to select multiple candidates
UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Scam alert
UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.
