Programme Health and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, Local Fund Agent

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale. 

UNOPS serves as Local Fund Agent (LFA) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in number of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Central Asia. The Global Fund does not have a country-level presence outside of its central Secretariat. Instead, it hires third party Local Fund Agents (LFAs) to oversee, verify and report on grant performance. LFAs are selected through a competitive bidding process. The Global Fund typically engages one LFA  in each country where its grant funds are disbursed. The LFA provides access to local knowledge that is relevant to grant performance.  The Global Fund adheres to the principles of performance-based funding in making disbursement decisions. The aim is to ensure that investments are made only where funding is managed and spent effectively on programs that achieve impact in fighting the relevant diseases.The LFA is an important part of the Global Fund’s system of oversight and risk management. Its principal role is to provide informed and independent professional advice about the capacity of fund/grant recipients to manage the implementation of activities funded by grant funds (including the recipient’s  capacity to oversee implementation of activities by implementing parties), to make recommendations concerning periodic disbursement of grant funds, to review grant performance when a grant is being considered for renewal, and to provide the donor on an on-going basis with relevant information on issues or risks which might affect grant performance.

The LFA is expected to have an up-to-date and comprehensive understanding of relevant diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria), how they are prevented, transmitted and treated, and their impact on a specific country. The LFA team assesses the recipients’ institutional, program management, financial management, procurement and supply management capacities and systems to ensure that those are appropriate for implementation of donor grant programs. The LFA team also determines whether the recipient has adequate infrastructure and information systems to support grant implementation, including the monitoring of performance of  implementing partners and outsourced entities in a timely and accountable manner.

The International Programmatic Health and M&E Specialist will be home based with frequent travel to Asia particularly Papua New Guinea and other countries and will report to the Team leader of LFA countries and to Head of Programmes of UNOPS Geneva Office. The Programmatic/M&E specialist  is responsible for the M&E and health programmatic services and for the quality of the respective deliverables submitted to the Global Fund.

1.      Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The incumbent is required to perform the function of technical Programme Health and M&E Specialist by carrying out the following activities:

• Report Reviews

Review progress update reports and disbursement requests submitted by the grant recipients as per following:

· Verify grant recipient and implementing partners’ primary records (supporting documents submitted) for accuracy and completeness, and for the correspondence of those, with the summary internal/external reports prepared by the grant recipients and implementing partners;

· Conduct cross-checks of various primary documents with the summary reports;

· Interview grant recipients and implementing partners’ relevant staff members, as well as program beneficiaries,including TB/HIV/malaria patients;

· Debrief grant recipient and implementing partners’ staff members on the main findings from the UNOPS verifications/reports;

· Cross verification of M&E and health/programmatic data with financial, management and procurement data/information; and

· Conduct comprehensive programmatic and M&E analysis and reflect it in the programmatic and M&E related sections of the mandatory reporting template.

• Implementation Reviews:

· Organize and lead recipient assessments, and programmatic reviews to provide informed and independent professional advice to the donor about the capacity of recipients to effectively manage and implement the donor grant funds from a programmatic perspective;

· Conduct regular and ad hoc visits to the grant recipients and implementing partners to monitor implementation of the projects (including trainings and other key events), and prepare corresponding reports;

· Carry out regular monitoring of grant recipient and implementing partner performances and verify the implementation status of the programme and the progress towards reaching set programme targets;

· Assess reasonableness of the types and quantities (forecasted needs) of TB/HIV/malaria medicines and other health products that are planned to be procured with grant funds;

· Review revised implementation planning documents during grant implementation (workplan, budget, procurement plan, M&E, others), and provide an opinion on proposed changes in programme implementation, effects these changes might have on attainment of programme objectives, proposed budget reallocations and provide recommendations to the donor;

· Undertake preliminary quality assurance of the LFA programmatic/ M&E deliverables to be submitted to the donor, to ensure that these are in line with contemporary professional standards;

· Plan, prepare and lead data verification and data quality exercises exercises including travel to monitor status of grant implementation; and

· Immediately raise all suspicious acts, transactions and activities and processes which may pose potential risks, misconduct, mismanagement, misuse and frauds by grant recipients and implementing partners to the attention of the Team Leader.

• Relations with the Global Fund:

· In conducting the above tasks, ensure that the Global Fund guidelines and policies are adhered to including the ones which are related to M&E and programmatic/health functional areas. The respective international guidelines (e.g. WHO, UNAIDS, etc) shall be also consulted and followed;

· Remain updated on donor guidelines and procedures, timeframes for completion of team activities, and the forms and templates to be used in the field of work;

· Ensure that all inputs are of high quality and completed within the timeframe, and as per guidelines set by the donor;

· Monitor and inform the Team Leader and the Global Fund of any developments within the country’s health system which may affect the performance of the grants; and

· Assist the LFA Team Leader in making recommendations to the Global Fund in the phase of grant negotiations on the status of the various work plans with specific focus on the feasibility and soundness of the proposed programme work plan;

· Assist in grant closure activities;

· Support and accompany, as needed, the Global Fund Fund Portfolio Manager while conducting country visits and meetings with PRs, SRs, and other partners; and

· Perform other duties as per the donor manual and/or as assigned/ required.

• Team player
• Health sector experience.
• Decision making.
• Ability to analyse.
• Organizing and quality orientation
• Communication skills
• Client focus

1)      Ability to interpret performance results of health programs and analyse the implications of such results in the country context;

2)      Strong understanding of public health monitoring and evaluation systems;

3)      Thorough knowledge of epidemiology and programmatic interventions related to at least one of the three diseases (HIV, TB or malaria), especially in developing counries and fragile states in Asia and Africa;

4)      Understanding of the dimensions of health service quality and familiarity with reviewing and interpreting national service delivery guidelines;

5)        Strong interpersonal skills, diplomacy and tact to effectively communicate with senior level officials, multiple stakeholders and professionals from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds;

6)      Strong professional oral communication and writing skills, including the development of reports, oral presentations, and technical/persuasive documents; and

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time (CET)
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

APPLICANTS SHOULD SUBMIT A COVER LETTER.