RAM Monitoring Specialist, CST level II At World Food Programme

Job Title: RAM Monitoring Specialist
Grade: CST level II
Type of contract: Regular Consultant
Duration: 11 months
Duty Station: Bangkok, Thailand
Vacancy Number: 828520
Date of Publication: 21 July 2023
Deadline of Application: 6 Aug 2023

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. WFP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific (RBB) supports operations in the region providing technical assistance to its offices in the Asia Pacific region to test and apply new innovative programmatic approaches including methods and tools to monitor their operations and meet new information needs for evidence-based decision-making.
In line with the corporate priority to enhance efficient and effective monitoring and operating under the structure of the Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) division, the regional bureau RAM-Monitoring team has the responsibility to support and improve the

capacity of the country offices (COs) to ensure adequate and appropriate monitoring of their programmes, for accountability and – most importantly – for learning purposes to ensure findings of monitoring are fed back into programme to the benefit of the people WFP serves.

RBB is seeking a regional RAM Monitoring specialist who will support the regional monitoring agenda and ensure the timely and quality delivery of the evidence value chain approach in COs in the region. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Regional Head of RAM while operating directly under the Regional Monitoring Advisor, and will work closely with the Monitoring team, the functional units in programme at RBB and with the relevant divisions and units in Headquarters (HQ).

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Within delegated authority, the RAM Monitoring Specialist will be responsible for the following duties:

Survey and data management and analysis support

• Provide technical advice and hands-on support to the RBB Country Offices in organizing assessments, baseline/endline surveys, post-distribution monitoring surveys. This includes questionnaire reviews, sampling advice, and support to COs to use the corporate RAM Information Management platform ecosystem.
• Provide guidance and direct support when required to all RBB COs in data analysis. Ensure advanced analysis is conducted (t-tests, chi-square tests, regressions, propensity score matching, etc.) to enhance the validity of the findings.
• Support the COs in data management and integration; data cleaning and processing, and conducting trend analysis where possible to generate additional insights.
• Produce advanced analytical outputs (using R or other relevant applications) and support COs to streamline data analysis processes through integration, automation and file management.
• Conduct cross-country analysis to provide synthetic findings for the region.

RAM CO/RBB products

• Review draft CO assessment/monitoring reports, dashboards, and bulletins and provide detailed technical feedback.
• Coordinate with the Operation Information Management team to support the COs in developing monitoring products and RAM regional products, ensuring such products are designed to enhance evidence generation and appeal to target audiences (internal and external).
• Produce regular analytical regional monitoring reports for internal and external audiences as required.

Corporate monitoring support

• Support all RBB COs in the use of corporate systems and requirements for monitoring, such as COMET, ensuring the compliance and validity of logframes, indicator selection (and methodologies), data entry (outcome, output, cross-cutting), and needs based plans.
• Supporting the standardization and uptake of corporate tools across RBB COs; including (but not limited to) the COs’ appropriate utilization of the indicator compendium/other guidances, Survey Designer, and Data Library.
• Support the regional RAM team with data quality, review, and editing of the Annual Country Reports as a primary focal point for at least 4 countries in the region.
• Conduct monitoring oversight on RBB countries to ensure compliance and to mitigate risks.

CO staff development and capacity building

• Lead technical training on quantitative methods as required including content development.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Education:

Advanced university degree in social sciences, rural development, agriculture, international development, statistics, development economics, performance management, monitoring and evaluation or other related fields, or First University degree with additional years of relevant work experience and/or training/courses.

Experience:

• Minimum of six years of relevant professional work experience in research, data analysis, statistics, data visualization, and communication.
• Experience in managing complex monitoring and/or evaluation activities spanning a range of policies and programme initiatives in international development or humanitarian contexts is an asset.
• Experience in conducting technical training.

Skills and Abilities:

• Advanced quantitative analytical skills including propensity score matching, t-tests, chi-square tests, regressions, etc.
• Advance knowledge of statistical software such as SPSS, STATA, or R
• Demonstrated experience in conducting technical data analysis or statistics training.
• Experience in managing remote surveys, including preparation of data collection tools, managing partnerships with call centers, and data quality control.
• In-depth knowledge of monitoring and evaluation methods, metrics, statistical applications and reporting systems.
• In-depth knowledge of results-based management principles and practices. Desirable knowledge of UN/WFP corporate accountability frameworks.
• Practical knowledge on how monitoring data is collected, compiled, analyzed and presented for management decisions, programme adjustment and donor reporting in large organization. Desirable knowledge of such processes for UN agencies / WFP.
• Proven ability to develop quality reports and analyses with minimal direction.
• Experience with product design software for graphic design, such as the Adobe suite of products.
• Proven ability to network effectively with multiple work units.
• Willingness to build capacity of others through formal and informal training processes; ability to facilitate and train different audiences.

Language

• Proficiency in both oral and written communication skills in English

All WFP Employees are expected to demonstrate the competencies and standards of behavior aligned with our core values and defined in the WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK, namely:

• Leading by example with integrity,
• Driving results and delivering on commitments,
• Fostering inclusive and collaborative teamwork,
• Applying strategic thinking,
• Building and maintaining sustainable partnerships.