UN Women: Project Management and Monitoring Specialist, I-PPSA-10, Home-Based with Travel to Afghanistan, International Partner Personnel Service agreement

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most complex and protracted crises. Afghan women and girls face severe restrictions on their rights and participation in public life, compounded by humanitarian and economic challenges. UN Women Afghanistan remains committed to supporting Afghan women and girls and ensuring their leadership and participation in all response efforts. The Country Office focuses on five programmatic pillars: (1) Integrated Programming and Localization; (2) Women’s Civil Society; (3) Policy and Research; (4) Economic Resilience and Empowerment; and (5) Coordination, Access and Humanitarian Response. The office operates from Kabul with sub-offices in Balkh, Bamyan, Herat, Kandahar, and Nangarhar.

The Programme Management Support Unit (PMSU) supports quality assurance, compliance, and performance monitoring across the Country Office’s programme portfolio. This includes oversight support of programme partner selection, monitoring and management; adherence to corporate policies and procedures; and capacity development support for UN Women and programme partner personnel.

Reporting to the PMSU Manager and under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representatives (Programmes and Operations), the Project Management and Monitoring Specialist will provide technical surge capacity to strengthen, standardize, and institutionalize programme partner management and monitoring processes. The role will focus on technical quality assurance and compliance oversight with UN Women policy, guidance, and procedure; Programme Appraisal Committee (PAC) process support; and structured capacity development for both UN Women personnel and programme partners on monitoring, data collection, and partner and results-based management. This position will work closely with, and mentor, a national position, to ensure sustainable knowledge transfer and institutional continuity.

The position ensures compliance with UN Women policies while strengthening partner management systems, monitoring and data reporting, and institutional capacity across the Afghanistan Country Office.

III. Scope of Work:

1. Support Capacity Development for UN Women Programme Teams

• Identify capacity development needs and design and deliver structured capacity development sessions for UN Women Programme Teams on programme partner selection and management processes and results-based management.
• Support compilation/development of standardized onboarding materials for new staff.

2. Capacity Development for Programme Partners

• Identify capacity development needs and develop and deliver orientation and compliance sessions for Programme Partners on: UN Women partner agreement requirements; monitoring and narrative reporting standards; data collection and ethics and safety procedure; beneficiary data management; and risk management expectations.
• Provide guidance to partners in developing Performance Monitoring Frameworks (PMFs) and data collection tools (e.g. baseline/endline surveys; beneficiary tracking tools; Focus-Group Discussion Guides; KOBO forms; etc.)
• Drawing on existing materials, develop partner-facing guidance materials and compliance toolkits.

3. Technical Oversight of Programme Partner Selection and Agreements

• Provide substantive technical guidance and quality assurance for programme teams on programme partner selection and agreement amendments, including review of partner performance (results) monitoring frameworks, indicators, and monitoring plans.
• Review and strengthen partner selection and partner agreement amendment documentation and compliance frameworks.
• Liaise with Regional Office and Headquarters on processes and policy interpretation, as required.

4. Strengthening Programme Partner Management and Monitoring

• Review partner agreement management documentation and develop tools to track and ensure compliance thereof with UN Women policy, procedures, and guidance.
• Provide technical support on partner risk assessments and risk mitigation measures.
• Manage the development of monitoring indicators, monitoring calendars, and field monitoring plans and quality assurance processes; ensure relevant monitoring findings are incorporated into project implementation. 

5. Manage Local Programme Appraisal Committee (LPAC) and support Regional and Global PAC Processes