Background

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience, and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in about 170 countries and territories, working with national counterparts on solutions to global and national development challenges.

In the programme countries, UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance and development priorities in partnership with the host governments, the United Nations system, the development partners and other partners to help the country to achieve sustainable development by eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, accelerating structural transformations for sustainable development and building resilience to crises and shock.

UNDP has worked in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development, from systems and institutional strengthening to inclusive growth and sustainable livelihoods, as well as sustainable energy, environment and resilience. UNDP’s programmes continue to fully integrate a global vision for catalytic change with India’s national priorities. With over 30 projects on the ground in almost every state, today UNDP India works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by transforming traditional models to do development differently. In a rapidly changing global environment, the work of UNDP and the broader UN family aligns with the Government of India’s new national development vision, India 2030, and builds upon the Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP India’s country programme for 2018-2022 has three major focus areas:

Inclusive growth
Environment and energy
Strengthening systems and institutions

These are supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, a pool of financial and technical resources for greater impact and scale, and South-South expertise.

You are invited to join a team of dedicated development professionals whose primary role is to support the India to achieve the 2030 Agenda.  As part of the UNDP team your focus will be to work with multiple stakeholders to find the country specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and to ensure no one is left behind – and we reach those furthest behind first.

UNDP is looking for individuals who have the communication, analytical, planning and implementation capacities that can address links, choices and connections across many issues and sectors.  We seek individuals who can apply global best practice to national contexts. We are looking for people who are enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to making a positive contribution to development in India.

Background and scope of portfolio

The Inclusive Growth portfolio is anchored in the national priority of ‘accelerated growth with inclusion and equity, employment generation, and skill India’, aligned to outcome 1 of the UNDP strategic plan. While the focus of outcome 2 is on decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) and reducing inequalities (SDG 10), the UNDP comparative advantage in the sector as a facilitator and knowledge leader is being leveraged to strengthen institutional linkages between enterprise and skills-training providers and to identify synergies between national programmes and missions to assist marginalized groups access to sustainable skills, jobs, livelihoods, and productive assets.

The focus of the portfolio has been primarily women and youth from the marginalized communities across the country. It takes into consideration that women face significant social and economic barriers in participating in India’s workforce. Under the portfolio, there are several projects being implemented, working towards increased awareness, career guidance and counselling, apprenticeships promotion (with industry clusters), micro-enterprise development, strengthening of the farm/non-farm and artisanal values chains, and developing second generations managers, enhancing employability and business skills capacity, facilitation of linkages, mentorship support and nurturing the innovation potential of youth and women of rural and urban areas.

UNDP in India is committed to support the efforts of the Government of India towards working with partners and key stakeholders to advocate for an environmentally sensitive response to COVID-19 that resets towards greener pathways for recovery. Focus is to not only to move towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient recovery, but also help to strengthen recovery by focusing on emerging and innovative green job opportunities. The COVID 19 global pandemic could potentially threaten to deepen inequalities and undo progress on the SDGs. We are already witnessing the detrimental impact of the pandemic on the economies and the populations especially poor and vulnerable populations. India is no exception to this challenge that can jeopardize India’s gains in reducing poverty, improving access to livelihoods and social protection.

Building on the experience and the partnership base of earlier projects and keeping in view the need for intense work on local livelihoods for green growth and expanding digital capacity and access to social security, PROmoting Inclusive GRowth through Enhanced Access to Local Livelihood Opportunities, Education to Work Transition and Social Protection Schemes (PROGRESS) programme has been initiated in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

The programme is being rolled out in close partnership with the Central and State Governments and aims to leverage partnerships with private sector actors, financial institutions, educational and vocational institutes, training partners, and the community to fill the gaps through innovative approaches and practices. Similarly, it will leverage flagship public schemes.

Duties and Responsibilities

The MEL Associate will report directly to the National Programme Manager, Poverty, Inclusive Growth/Poverty Unit of UNDP India.

Her/his specific responsibilities will include:

Monitoring

Support in developing and implementing the programme and project’s M&E plans from results-based management perspective along with indicators, targets, means of verification and monitoring steps at output and activity level in multi-year work plans and annual work plans, and support in developing plans and monitoring the project’s risks and issues matrices in line with UNDP guidelines
Assist in ensuring that the Inclusive Growth team has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in the annual and multi-year work plans.
Coordinate with the Inclusive Growth team, partners and field staff for data collection, analysis and evidence gathering to feed into to programme and project performance monitoring;
Support in actively monitoring programme and projects through field visits, remote monitoring tools to assess progress, support in identifying bottlenecks and potential problems, and take timely action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant colleagues in the Inclusive Growth team for timely resolution
Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme & project reviews and annual reviews, both internal and external, to assess progress and to determine required interventions to achieve the results
Support M&E system establishment, data management plans and maintain the programme database (MIS).

Evaluation

Support in developing the Terms of Reference and evaluation design of high quality in line with UNDP’s programme and project evaluation policies and guidelines
Support in preparing quality documentation, information , reports, and evidences to the evaluators
Support in monitoring and ensuring quality of the field work and data management during the implementation phase, and the quality of the analysis and ease of understanding during the report writing phase.
Support in monitoring and ensuring that a management response to the findings and recommendations of the evaluation is completed, recorded, and followed up for implementation.
Coordinate in disseminating evaluation findings and recommendations to the stakeholders.

Learnings, Reporting and Documentation

Support in preparing project progress reports, such as quarterly reports, annual report, project results pathway, donor-specific reports, inputs to corporate reporting capturing in a comprehensive analytical manner project progress against the project Results Framework; including the documentation of success stories, achievements, lessons learned, risks and issues; corporate reporting requirement
Assist in ensuring that the team has quality information to assess progress towards expected results established in annual work plans.
Assist in identifying and documenting lessons learned, best practices, and use knowledge gained to feed into the ongoing as well as future programming and for developing/managing knowledge products (knowledge management).
Assist in promoting awareness and understanding of the shared responsibility of M&E function among team members including field staff through communication, training, and learning and development activities

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 & Technical competencies

Business Management Competencies

Results-based Management: Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results.
Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.
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
Monitoring: Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results
Evaluation: Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks; Ability to anticipate client’s upcoming needs and concerns

Digital & Innovation

Data analysis: Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making
Data collection: Being skilled in Data Sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey Administration, Presentation and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g. mobile data, satellite data, sensor data).

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in social science, management or related fields is required

Experience:

Minimum 4 years of monitoring and evaluation, planning, and programming related work experience
Proven experience in conducting M&E, analyzing data and preparing high quality reports and evidence-based notes;
Demonstrated experience working on skilling, livelihoods or related projects
Experience of working with UNDP or another UN agency
Additional years of relevant professional experience

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English and Hindi

NOTE: This position is open for Indian nationals only

Remuneration starting at INR 11,68,192 (Annual) / INR 97,349 (Monthly) as per the salary scale depending on qualifications and experiences. The remuneration is excluding 8.33% pension amount paid over and above the salary.

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