The Position:
 

The Programme Specialist, SRHR/MNH Strategic Information reports directly to the MNH Team Lead/MNHF Coordinator under the overall guidance of the Chief of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Branch.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead United Nations agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2026-2029 articulates the organization’s response to a complex global environment, providing a roadmap for resilience and renewal. It is designed to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This mandate is pursued through a focus on four interconnected outcomes: ending the unmet need for family planning; ending preventable maternal deaths; ending gender-based violence and harmful practices; and adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies. 
 

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA’s Start with Her Strategy for Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health and Well-Being 2025–2030 is the engine to drive the implementation of the new Strategic Plan. It prioritizes the most left-behind women and girls—including those in humanitarian settings and climate-vulnerable zones—ensuring they are the starting point for all health interventions.  The Start with Her strategy operationalizes this outcome by shifting the focus from "surviving" childbirth to "thriving" through comprehensive well-being and directly addresses the systemic barriers driving maternal mortality through a focus on four core pillars: Commit (policy and financing), Deliver (quality services), Empower (agency and community), and Leverage (data for equity, quality and accountability) across the humanitarian-development-peace continuum.  With a strong commitment to inequality, it focuses on the countries and communities farthest  left behind. 

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact and sustained results and ensure effective external relations, communications, and partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

The Programme Specialist will lead the evolution of M&E frameworks for UNFPA’s flagship MNH programmes supported by the MNH Fund (formerly MHTF) and the Safe Births Africa flagship initiative and Midwifery and Commodity Accelerator initiatives. The incumbent will ensure that SRHR and maternal and newborn health programs are evidence-based and data-driven, focusing on equity, quality of care, cost-effectiveness and value for money contributing to  resilience of health systems in the face of global megatrends.

Key Responsibilities:
 

1. Strategic M&E and Impact Tracking for MNH Fund & Safe Births Africa Initiative, and related MNH flag ship initiatives
   1. Lead the M&E Framework: Evolve and oversee the comprehensive monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks for the MNH Fund and the Safe Births Africa initiative and other key MNH UNFPA programmes, ensuring alignment with the UNFPA supplies partnership, other TTFs and 2026-2029 Strategic Plan.
   2. Outcome Measurement: Develop sophisticated impact tracking methodologies that move beyond output reporting to measure improvements in maternal and newborn survival, stillbirth reduction as well as maternal wellbeing, and the closing of equity gaps for the most marginalized.
   3. Ensure all donor reports are high quality and delivered on time. 
2. Strengthening Strategic Information, Measurement Approaches and Data Products in support of leveraging data pillar under Start with Her
   1. Provide technical leadership on designing maternal and newborn health surveys, routine health information systems, develop survey methodologies, analytical frameworks and tools implemented under the MNH fund and other flagship initiatives 
   2. Produce and provide technical review of reports, documents, presentations, and briefs based on analysis of data from multiple sources including primary and secondary data.
   3. Support the development and use of SRHR-integrated maternal and newborn health indicators ensuring alignment with internal and external measurement frameworks,
   4. Oversee the strengthening, collection and analysis of data from Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR) systems.
   5. Data Quality & Innovation: Implement rigorous data quality assurance (DQA). 
   6. Support the development of tools to systematize and track key MNH indicators and interventions across MNH fund countries for a catalytic impact across UNFPAs MNH programming.
   7. Incorporate AI and digital health solutions as appropriate to improve real-time data visualization.
   8. Financial & Performance Oversight: Collaborate with the sustainable financing workstream under the new strategic plan to ensure measurement frameworks are  inclusive of return on investments,  "Value for Money" (cost-effective, low-cost solutions) for countries and partners.
3. Technical Expertise & "Start with Her" Integration
   1. Strategic prioritization and planning: Support inter-agency efforts to roll out key strategic prioritization tools to ensure national RMNCH strategies invest in high-impact interventions.  
   2. Emerging Trends: Integrate indicators related to emerging issues such as emergency preparedness, climate resilience, urbanization, and demographic shifts into MNH monitoring frameworks to identify and prioritise interventions to address vulnerabilities of maternal health systems.
   3. Specialized Areas: Provide guidance on measuring Respectful Maternity Care (RMC), emergency obstetric and newborn care, commodity access, maternal mental health, and maternal wellbeing more generally.
4. Capacity Building & Internal and External Stakeholder Partnerships
   1. Country Office Support: Providing "on-call" technical assistance for HMIS strengthening and the integration of MNH indicators into routine systems including digital health registries.
   2. Global Normative Leadership: Represent UNFPA in global technical MNH data partnerships (e.g. EWENE measurement technical working group, MPDSR technical working group among others) to set the standards for the next generation of maternal and newborn health and wellbeing indicators.
   3. Collaborate with implementing partners to design and oversee M&E and strategic information workstreams (e.g., the design and rollout of innovative dashboards and analytics tools).\
   4. Knowledge Translation: Convert complex M&E data into high-level analysis for the UNFPA Executive Board, International Financing Institutions (IFIs) like the GFF World Bank, Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and key donors.
       

Qualifications, Experience, and Skills:
 

Education:
 

Advanced University Degree (Master’s or higher) in Epidemiology, Public Health, Biostatistics, or a related social science field with a specialization in Maternal and Newborn Health. 
 

Experience, Knowledge, and Skills:

• Minimum of 7 years of increasingly responsible professional experience in M&E and measurement related to maternal and newborn health.
• Significant number of publications related to maternal and newborn health measurement and data systems.
• Strong track record of technical leadership in M&E, and proven ability to produce demonstrable results.
• Country-level experience in data systems strengthening and quality improvement.
• Proven track record in managing large-scale M&E frameworks for multi-donor funds (e.g., MNH Fund).
• Technical Proficiency: Advanced knowledge of DHIS2, GIS mapping, and statistical software (STATA, R, or SPSS).
• Strategic Vision: Demonstrated ability to align program monitoring with global strategic plans and the SDGs.
• Safe Births Africa Context: Familiarity with the maternal health landscape in Africa and experience working with African Union/regional health bodies is a significant asset.
   

Languages:

Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of French is highly desirable to support regional portfolios.
 

Required Competencies:

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity, 
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system, 
• Embracing cultural diversity, 
• Embracing change

Core Competencies: 

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,

Functional Competencies: 

• Strategic Positioning: Ability to use data to influence global MNH policy.
• Result-Based Management: Expert-level application of RBM to MNH programming.
• Innovation: Utilizing "Big Data" and new technologies for health surveillance.

Compensation and Benefits:

This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary, health insurance and other benefits as applicable.
 

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more: https://www.unfpa.org/diversity-equity-inclusion
 

Disclaimer: 
 

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.