The Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, Accountability and Reporting (MELR)Specialist will lead the design, planning, and implementation of robust monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems to effectively track progress toward project targets. The Specialist will play a key role in ensuring evidence-based decision-making and accountability by generating timely, high-quality data and communicating results to internal and external stakeholders.
Responsibilities:
Spearhead the creation of a robust, theory-based monitoring, evaluation, learning, and reporting framework that captures the complexity of women's empowerment across economic, social, and protection dimensions.
Design and conduct participatory workshops, technical working group sessions, and bilateral consultations with MGCSW-PMU leadership, UN Women programme teams, state-level gender ministries, implementing partners, and beneficiary representatives to ensure inclusive framework development.
Organize validation meetings at national and state levels to secure stakeholder buy-in and ensure cultural appropriateness and contextual relevance of the MELR framework.
Align the MELR framework with SSWSEEP's overall results framework, UN Women's Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDGs 1, 5, 8, and 16).
Embed UN Women's Results-Based Management (RBM) principles, including accountability for results, learning orientation, and adaptive management approaches.
Develop theory of change refinements: Support the articulation and refinement of component-specific theories of change that clearly map assumptions, risks, and causal pathways.
Develop indicators that measure not only women's participation but also their agency, empowerment, and transformative changes in gender relations.
Integrate indicators that capture the experiences of marginalized groups, including adolescent girls, women with disabilities, internally displaced women, and women from ethnic minorities;
Establish outcome harvesting mechanisms: Design systems to capture unintended positive and negative outcomes, particularly related to shifts in gender norms and power dynamics.
Conduct comprehensive mapping of national, state, and local M&E systems, identifying integration opportunities and avoiding duplication.
Ensure coherence with national gender policy frameworks, financial inclusion strategies, GBV prevention and response protocols, and economic development plans.
Facilitate MGCSW leadership in framework development to ensure sustainability and government ownership.
Design comprehensive disaggregation: Establish disaggregation requirements by sex, age (adolescent girls 15-19, young women 20-24, adult women 25+), geographic location (state, county, payam), displacement status, disability status, marital status, and economic status.
Develop vulnerability profiling: Create systems to identify and track the most marginalized beneficiaries, including female-headed households, survivors of GBV, women with disabilities, and conflict-affected populations.
Establish intersectional analysis protocols: Design methodologies to analyze how multiple identities and circumstances affect project outcomes.
Identify primary data sources (beneficiary surveys, administrative data, partner reports), secondary data sources (government statistics, research studies), and tertiary sources (satellite data, mobile phone data where applicable).
Establish data quality standards: Define data collection protocols, validation procedures, and quality assurance mechanisms.
Create systems for beneficiary feedback, partner input, and community validation of data and results.
Conduct baseline data analysis: Lead comprehensive analysis of existing baseline survey data, identifying gaps and additional data needs.
Support baseline updates: Design and oversee additional data collection to address baseline gaps, particularly for newly added project components or geographic areas.
Establish baseline documentation: Create comprehensive baseline reports that serve as reference points for measuring change and impact.
Education:
A master’s degree (or equivalent) in Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, or Gender/Women's Studies is required.
A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Project programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.
Work Experience:
At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in monitoring and reporting of development projects/ programme is required.
Experience in the United Nations systems is desirable.
Field experience is desirable.
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, and experience in handling web-based management systems is required.
Experience in the use of a modern web-based Enterprise Resource Planning System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.
Languages:
Fluency in English is required.
Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (Arabic).
