Evaluation Capacity Development and Quality Assurance Consultant – NYHQ, Evaluation office, (Remote/Work from home) Individual Consultant International Position Senior level Short term contract

Contract Duration: 6 months

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, education

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The UNICEF Evaluation Office (EO), located in New York HQ, provides global leadership and oversight of the evaluation function in the organization. As such, it manages independent, corporate evaluations and evaluation syntheses, provides technical assistance and quality assurance for evaluations commissioned at the decentralized level (country and regional offices, as well as other divisions in HQ offices), develops evaluation methods, and reports to the UNICEF Executive Board.

The Director of Evaluation provides strategic leadership to the global evaluation function at all three levels of the organization (global, regional and national). The mission of the UNICEF evaluation function is to help drive results for children by fostering evidence-informed decision-making. Evaluation in UNICEF supports both learning and decision-making, which in turn support better results for children. Evaluation also helps to hold UNICEF accountable for contributing to results for children, or for failing to do so.

The evaluation function conducts a diverse set of independent, credible, and impartial corporate thematic, institutional effectiveness, humanitarian, country-led, impact and joint evaluations to ensure UNICEF uses evaluation evidence to improve outcomes for children.

Since 2022, the Evaluation Office has embarked on an ambitious Global Blended Evaluation Learning Programme, which is made up of three components:

• InSPIRE – Independent Self-Paced Introduction to Responsive Evaluation: a certified self-paced UNICEF Agora Course introducing standards, norms and concepts of evaluation to UNICEF staff and partners who are interested in evaluation and/or may want to pursue a career in evaluation;

• IMPrESS – Intermediate Moderated Programme for Evaluation Systems’ Strengthening: an online, moderated course delivered by Key Aid Consulting responding to UNICEF staff and partners’ needs, to improve their evaluative decision-making and management and prioritize utilization-focused, quality evaluation that is context-specific, fit for purpose and addresses equity and human rights;

• ExCEL – Executive Course for Evaluation Leaders, a two-week face-to-face training delivered by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) of the National University of Singapore (NUS), specifically tailored for senior government partners and UNICEF staff, selected based on their responsibility for evaluation, and who have an ongoing and/or upcoming evaluation. ExCEL aims to increase their ability to not only have a good understanding of evaluation but also help build a culture of evidence-based decision-making, strengthen capacity for evaluation, and manage key stakeholders in evaluation. As a result, senior government officials should be inspired to become Champions of Evaluation within their country.

The Evaluation Office has stated in the new Plan for global evaluations, 2026–2029, presented at the UNICEF First regular session of 2026, its intention to “renew and bolster the UNICEF commitment to national evaluation capacity development”.

There is indeed a significant and sustained demand from national governments and Country Offices, particularly for ExCEL and IMPrESS. However, severe financial constraints at the Evaluation Office, resulting from the FFI restructuring exercise, brought about significant limitations in its capability to deliver results in National Evaluation Capacity Development, a key priority for the evaluation function as a whole. To overcome these bottlenecks, the Evaluation Office requires specialised technical inputs by a senior-level consultant who is familiar with each of the above-mentioned programmes to propose and implement innovative, cost-efficient modalities to effectively deliver the Courses with significantly fewer resources, while maintaining the highest evaluation norms and standards.

The Evaluation Office is therefore seeking an experienced evaluation capacity development consultant to support the refinement of its National Evaluation Capacity Development for UNICEF staff and partners, specifically regarding the following priorities:

• InSPIRE has been  finalized, but requires a final expert review to ensure that it is in line with the latest international and UNICEF standards, particularly its alignment with the most recent UNICEF revised Evaluation Policy approved by the Executive Board in 2023, as well as related implementation procedures and guidance.

• IMPrESS has been delivered in 101 countries and benefited 923 participants (721 partners and 202 UN staff) who graduated from the Course in the last three years. The Course has received excellent feedback and several Cohorts are being requested for 2026. More could be delivered during the current quadrennium, following the current modalities. Building on its success, IMPrESS has the unique potential to become a regular offering by National Schools of Governments in many countries. Institutionalizing the course will require the expertise of a senior consultant with proven experience in managing specialized technical evaluation online training for government staff, as well as demonstrated ability to engage strategically with senior-level staff of public administration institutions and schools of governance in different settings.

• ExCEL has been the flagship evaluation capacity development programme of the Evaluation Office for the past four years. Through 12 Cohorts, it has been delivered to 104 Government Delegations coming from 83 different countries, benefitting a total of 293 government officials and 115 UNICEF staff. The LTA for this Course has come to an end in 2025. Given the substantially reduced financial resources at the disposal of the Evaluation Office, the new LTA to be established should be built around strong partnerships with the selected academic institution. It will be vital that the implementing partner for ExCEL be chosen based on proven experience with similar learning packages and lessons learned during the past four years.

The expertise of a senior consultant who has had long-time engagement with this type of programmes will make a huge difference in terms on the quality and cost-efficiency of the next phase. The delivery method of the Course will need to be thought-through carefully, based on the experience and insights gained during the first four years of implementation. Expertise on various modalities (face-to-face, remote, hybrid) and deeper understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each modality and flexibility on the delivery mode will be absolutely critical to the selection process for the next LTA.  In addition, the Evaluation Office is planning to compile success stories and lessons through testimonials from ExCEL Graduates. A senior expert with direct contacts with the ExCEL Alumni network will be needed to guide Country Offices on selecting ExCEL Champions, to support contacting champions, where necessary, and requesting short video testimonials, as well as providing inputs to a script for a video on the ExCEL programme for one of the upcoming sessions of the Executive Board and other fora at regional and country level.

The consultancy will also provide advisory and quality assurance support to the Director of Evaluation, including critical review and quality control of key sections of the 2025 Annual Report of the Evaluation Function (AREF), particularly those related to Key Performance Indicators.

Scope of Work:

The Evaluation Capacity Development and Quality Assurance consultant will support the Evaluation Office to deliver the following key tasks, as agreed in advance with the Director of Evaluation.

1. ExCEL – Executive Course for Evaluation Leaders (60%)

• Provide substantial technical inputs to the draft Terms of Reference of the new Request for Proposals Services for the delivery of ExCEL, specifically regarding the technical requirements for institutions to deliver best-in-class training services, using flexible cost-efficient delivery modalities,
• Review proposed schedules, curricula and CVs of candidates for the ExCEL Training of Trainers (ToTs) to train qualified local/regional facilitators to deliver the ExCEL Curriculum, together with the selected LTA holder and regional NECD Focal Points,
• Review and provide feedback on the adaptation of the ExCEL training curricula,
• Participate in meetings with the UNICEF NECD Focal Points and the selected LTA holder.
• Submit written guidance to Regional Offices on the most suitable and cost-efficient delivery modality of ExCEL and facilitate the agreement on the design with requesting Country Offices and the selected LTA holder, including strategic advice on how to negotiate the most suitable contract arrangements.
• Present follow-up activities during the implementation of ExCEL Cohorts and announce and explain ExCEL Class Reunions and Deep-Dive Webinars as well as complementary training offerings, such as InSPIRE and IMPrESS,
• Participate in select follow-up activities and provide written inputs for UNICEF participants and NECD Focal Points to ensure consistency in quality and standards with cohorts delivered in the past 4 years.
• Conduct quality assurance of up to 5 ExCEL Workshop Reports, ensure timely dissemination of the Reports to NECD Focal Points and ExCEL Graduates to secure active communication and feedback.
• Together with the Evaluation Office Communication Team, Regional and Country Offices, compile success stories to produce Video Testimonials from ExCEL Graduates, by proposing graduates for interviewing, actively contacting ExCEL Champions and requesting short videos, providing critical inputs and commentary for a video script on the ExCEL programme to be presented at one of the upcoming meetings of the Executive Board;
• Follow up monthly with relevant NECD Focal Points on ExCEL follow-up activities; monitor timely implementation of ExCEL Class Reunions and ExCEL Deep-Dive Webinars.

2. IMPrESS – Intermediate Moderated Programme for Evaluation Systems’ Strengthening (25%)

• Provide written inputs on strategic materials to for tailoring IMPrESS to two National Schools of Government and equivalent public administration training institutions.
• Facilitate engagement of networks, partners and stakeholders involved in the delivery of the IMPrESS programme.
• Engage in planning meetings with KAC, the partner institutions, and NECD Focal points at regional and country level, supporting the coordination between UNICEF EO, implementing partner Key Aid Consulting (KAC), and UNICEF IMPrESS focal points.
• Ensure that agreements with KAC regarding IMPrESS course lead to improvement in the certification rate, by providing technical inputs to the revision of the course programme, materials and exercises, as well as feedback on reports and delivery by KAC.
• Monitor participants’ nomination lists from NECD Focal Points and provides feedback to ensure appropriate composition of cohorts.

3. InSPIRE – Independent Self-Paced Introduction to Responsive Evaluation – 5%

• Conduct a curriculum alignment review of InSPIRE against the 2023 UNICEF Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms and Standards, with written recommendations identifying gaps and proposed revisions.

4. Advisory Support to the Director of Evaluation – 10%

• Critically review the 2025 Annual Report of the Evaluation Function (AREF), including quality control on AREF 2025 sections related to Key Performance Indicators.

How can you make a difference?

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the Terms of Reference here:   ToR Evaluation Capacity Dev and Quality Assurance.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Master’s Degree in Economics, Social Science, Political Science, Education and Training.
• Work Experience:
• Minimum of 15 years of relevant working experience in evaluation, planning, or similar areas.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working on strengthening technical and soft skills of government staff in the area of national evaluation capacity development.
• Experience in engaging with high-level government officials.
• Experience in managing face-to-face and online training and events, including online courses, webinars with academic institutions delivering programmes for evaluation capacity strengthening.
• Skills:
• Strong track record of technical leadership, and proven ability to produce demonstrable results.
• Excellent inter-personal communication and teamwork skills, with a demonstrated track record of working collaboratively in a multicultural team environment to contribute positively to shared results.
• Highly organized in management of multiple tasks and production schedules.
• Ability to work independently and continue to stay calm and work under pressure.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in written and oral English is required; proficiency in another UN language, ideally French or Spanish, is required, with a third language highly desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate Care

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System):

• An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• A separate financial proposal  FINANCIAL PROPOSAL Evaluation Capacity Dev and Quality Assurance.docx

Remarks: 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.