Senior Evaluation officer P5, Head of Impact Evaluation Team

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

WHY JOIN WFP?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The Office of Evaluation (OEV) aims to contribute to ending global hunger by generating a strong evidence base of WFP’s successes and failures which can be incorporated into future policies, programmes and decision-making. OEV is responsible for delivering and supporting the quality of all WFP impact evaluations as per its quality assurance and assessment procedures and building organizational capacity to deliver them.

There are three categories of evaluation at WFP: i) Centralized evaluations are commissioned and managed by OEV and presented to the Executive Board for consideration. ii) Decentralized evaluations are commissioned and managed by country offices and Global headquarters divisions other than OEV iii) Impact evaluations are managed by OEV at the request of country offices.

As per the 2022 WFP Evaluation policy, impact evaluations measure changes in development outcomes of interest for a target population that can be attributed to a specific WFP programme through a credible counterfactual. They are usually undertaken during programme implementation over a multi-year period. Impact evaluations are not presented to the Executive Board. Impact evaluations are commissioned by OEV in line with corporate evidence priorities through impact evaluation “windows”. These windows are portfolios of impact evaluations in specific priority evidence areas, agreed with WFP management, that will be updated over time as the organization’s evidence priorities change.

Locating this global leadership position at the Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (APARO) in Bangkok positions WFP’s impact evaluation function at a critical intersection of inter-agency collaboration and academic excellence. Bangkok serves as the regional hub for a very large number of agencies (OCHA, FAO, IOM, UNDP, UNDRR, UNEP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, World Bank, etc.) offering unparalleled opportunities to align evidence priorities and implement joint UN impact evaluation windows. Alongside this multilateral density, the region boasts a large network of world-class academic and research institutions with impact evaluation capacity. The unique combination of UN partners, regional donors (e.g. ADB, NDB, GCF, JICA, KOICA, etc.), and local research capacity makes the Bangkok office a highly strategic base.

THE ROLE

The position is based in Bangkok, Thailand and reports to the Director of Evaluation. The Senior Evaluation Officer Head of Impact Evaluation Team will provide independent impact evaluation evidence, assessing the performance and results of programmes and activities of WFP for accountability and learning to inform future direction. Reporting to the Director of Evaluation, you are expected to lead the Impact Evaluation Unit overseeing the planning and delivery of high-quality impact evaluations. You will be managing staff co-located in Rome, Regional Offices, and Country Offices (field coordinators). Your role will bridge technical and operational divisions, ensuring a unified, global approach to high-quality impact evaluation.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):

• Contribute to the development of the evaluation function including supporting policy, strategy and plans to ensure: a) timely and effective approaches to evaluating the performance and results of programmes and activities; b) application of the normative framework, quality support, assessment mechanisms and reporting on evaluation function performance.
• Contribute to OEV’s leadership, management and corporate performance by supporting management planning, staffing arrangements and budgeting, as well as the development and use of OEV’s internal systems.
• Lead the development and implementation of the impact evaluation workstream of the Office of Evaluation work-plan, provide strategic and operational leadership to a global Impact Evaluation Unit; manage and provide direct li