National Evaluation Expert 21 views0 applications

Background

SoCha LLC is applying to serve as the prime contractor for the multi-country evaluation of UNICEF’s Building Resilience in the Sahel (BRS) Programme (2023–2027), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. The programme aims to strengthen resilience capacities of children, adolescents, women, and communities in fragile and crisis-affected settings through an integrated approach across health, nutrition, WASH, education, child protection, and social protection, with emphasis on community engagement, local governance, social cohesion, and the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus. The evaluation will focus on accountability and learning, assess performance against OECD-DAC criteria (excluding impact), and ensure strong integration of gender, equity, and human rights (GEHR) in both evaluation design and analysis.

Overview of the Position

The National Evaluation Expert will serve as the primary country-based technical resource supporting the evaluation team’s work in the assigned country. The expert will contribute to all stages of the evaluation process, including contextual analysis, stakeholder engagement, fieldwork coordination, primary data collection, and interpretation of evaluation findings in relation to the national context. The National Evaluation Expert will support the Evaluation Team Leader and international thematic experts by ensuring that evaluation processes, tools, and findings are grounded in local realities and reflect national institutional and socio-political dynamics.

***One National Evaluation Expert will be recruited per country (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger). Position is open to qualified national candidates from the respective country.

Key Responsibilities

The National Evaluation Expert will be responsible for the following:

• Support the inception phase by contributing to national contextual analysis, stakeholder mapping, and review of relevant programme documentation and secondary sources.
• Provide technical inputs to evaluation design, including refinement of evaluation questions, sampling considerations, and data collection approaches appropriate to the national context.
• Support the organization and coordination of in-country fieldwork, including logistical coordination and engagement with key stakeholders and local authorities as required.
• Conduct primary data collection with beneficiary communities and key stakeholders, including KIIs, FGDs, and participatory consultations, ensuring gender-sensitive and ethically sound approaches.
• Support training and supervision of enumerators and data collectors, including application of quality assurance protocols.
• Support triangulation and validation of findings through systematic review of evidence across methods and sources.
• Contribute to analysis and interpretation of results, ensuring findings reflect country-specific realities, sectoral dynamics, and contextual drivers of resilience and vulnerability.
• Provide written inputs to country evaluation reports, synthesis briefs, and presentations, including draft findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
• Support debriefings and validation workshops at country level, including preparation of presentation materials and participation in stakeholder discussions.
• Ensure that all assigned tasks comply with UNEG Norms and Standards, UNEG Ethical Guidelines, and UNICEF procedures on ethical standards in research, evaluation, data collection and analysis.

Deliverables

Under the direction of the Evaluation Team Leader, the National Evaluation Expert will support delivery of:

• Country-level contextual analysis and stakeholder mapping inputs for the inception report.
• Completed fieldwork documentation including interview notes, observation tools, transcripts, and supporting evidence files.
• Support to enumerator training materials and field supervision notes (as required).
• Thematic and country-level analysis inputs contributing to draft and final country evaluation reports.
• Written inputs for country synthesis briefs (1–2 pages) and dissemination products.
• Contributions to PowerPoint presentations for country debriefings and validation workshops.
• Submission of cleaned country-level qualitative and/or quantitative datasets and supporting documentation as required.

Reporting and Coordination

The National Evaluation Expert will report to the Evaluation Team Leader and coordinate closely with the Lead Thematic Expert, Key Thematic Experts, and national enumerator teams. The expert will support smooth communication with local stakeholders and facilitate effective fieldwork implementation within the assigned country.

Required Qualifications and Experience

The National Evaluation Expert should have the following profile:

• Advanced University degree in social sciences or other disciplines relevant to the object of the evaluation.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in evaluating development programmes and projects in community engagement, behavioural change and child protection.
• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in the planning, management and/or oversight of humanitarian and/or recovery interventions with focus on resilience and/or community engagement.
• Have a perfect knowledge of the health/nutrition, education, WASH, social protection sectors and the country specific context.
• Have a strong command of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
• Have experience in the use of participatory appraisal techniques in data collection, sensitive to gender issues.
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills in French and English.
• Have excellent analytical, synthesis and writing skills.
• Must have completed at least one high quality programme/humanitarian evaluation over the past 5 years.

Expected Level of Effort

Level of effort will be confirmed during inception planning. The National Evaluation Expert is expected to contribute throughout the evaluation cycle (April 2026 – January 2027), with concentrated inputs during fieldwork and reporting phases, including travel to selected evaluation sites within the assigned country.