Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO is the leading UN agency globally and regionally, which is supporting agricultural and rural development with the mandate to reduce rural poverty and ensure food security. With 195 members - 194 countries and the European Union, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through its Strategic Framework, advancing the transformation of agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, in line with the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) is responsible for leading FAO's response to regional priorities for food security, agriculture and rural development through the identification, planning and implementation of FAO's priority activities in the region.

Regional Field Programme Support and Management Unit (FPSMU) provides management, operational and coordination support to programming, programme and project implementation, reporting, monitoring, resource mobilization, partnership management in FAO country and project offices in countries of the Europe and Central Asia region.  

Strategic planning is conducted at the regional and country level through regional work planning under the umbrella of the Regional Priority Programmes (RPPs) and country-level work planning under the umbrella of the Country Programming Frameworks (CPFs) aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UN CF).

REU supports country offices to establish and implement effective results-based programme and project monitoring. FPSMU provides backstopping support to country and project offices with projects’ compliance and results monitoring, where the latter checks achievement of project results and indicators.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will be under direct supervision of the REU Senior Field Programme Officer (SFPO) and under the technical guidance of the REU Regional Programme Leader.

Technical Focus

Through this call for expression of interest, REU aims at identifying regional specialists with experience in these functional areas of work, who will be endorsed on the roster.

The Regional Planning and Monitoring Specialist will be responsible for acting as a regional technical focal point for providing backstopping support and methodological leadership in results monitoring and strategic planning to FAO country and project offices of the Europe and Central Asia region, as well as for providing quality assurance of the project results frameworks and monitoring tools.  

Tasks and responsibilities

PROJECT DESIGN, MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING

•     Provide regional coordination support and methodological guidance for the implementation of Results-Based Management (RBM) workstream at the field level;
•     Develop administrative circulars, user guides, methodological briefs and training materials related to strengthening the SMART project design and monitoring;
•     Provide data mapping, data analysis, data reporting and advisory support on utilizing and developing customized monitoring systems and tools;
•     Review and critically assess draft project and programme documents, including the logical framework (LogFrame) matrices, ensuring alignment with FAO’s operational clearance form criteria, corporate guidelines and RBM principles; provide actionable recommendations to improve project intervention logic and LogFrames, outcome formulation, indicators, and assumptions;
•     Provide support to project formulators and Budget Holders with the quality assurance of the project proposals for the content related to the result chain, log frames, indicators, monitoring, evaluation and reporting;
•     Design institutional learning resources and provide support in building the MEL capacity in REU and its Country Offices through induction, training and coaching sessions, as well as cross-country knowledge transfer;
•     Conduct regional review and provide advisory support and methodological inputs to the development of M&E systems, M&E plans, assessments/reviews and other relevant technical documents and processes.

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND REPORTING

•     Provide technical guidance on compliance of strategic planning documents with the FAO and UNSDG corporate guidelines and perform quality assurance of the Country Programming Frameworks (CPF), UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UN CF), Country Analysis (CA), CF roadmaps and evaluation reports;
•     Support and guide the country teams in UN CF governance mechanisms and processes related to M&E, Joint Work Planning and UN INFO reporting, upon request;
•     Participate in corporate reporting exercises (including CAR, UN INFO, PIRES) from regional review and advisory perspectives;
•     Perform any other duties as may be assigned.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•     Advanced university degree recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in international development, public management, international relations, economics, development economics, or related technical areas linked to FAO mandate. Consultants with bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience.
•     5 years of relevant experience in planning, programming, monitoring and evaluation, and/or quality assurance, with the past track record of working in the UN or other international development organization, NGO or government institution being a valuable asset for this position.
•     Working knowledge of English. Knowledge of Russian or another language commonly used in the Europe and Central Asia region is considered an asset.

FAO Core Competencies

•     Results Focus
•     Teamwork
•     Communication
•     Building Effective Relationships
•     Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•     Extent and relevance of experience in the development, review and/or quality assurance of results frameworks aligned with institutional or donor-specific RBM systems, Theory of Change (ToCs), logical frameworks, M&E tools and performance measurement frameworks.
•     Extent and relevance of experience in producing key analytical inputs for country-level strategic planning frameworks, ideally in the context of UN CF cycle.
•     Extent and relevance of experience in analysing secondary and primary monitoring data from surveys, interviews and Focus Group Discussions and overseeing primary data collection conducted by external service providers.
•     Extent and relevance of experience in conducting or providing technical assistance for high‑quality and credible external evaluations, often including methodological guidance, quality assurance, and stakeholder support.
•     Ability to research and analyse information, write analytical reports in a clear and concise manner.