Monitoring & Evaluation National Consultant – Policy Development, Social Health Insurance Evaluation, and Interactive Dashboards at UNICEF

About the Job

To address these challenges, UNICEF Nigeria seeks to engage an individual consultant to support the three states in developing - State-specific M&E Policies and Frameworks aligned with national and global best practices, Interactive, digital dashboards for real-time monitoring and decision support, A robust evaluation of the SHIS across the three states and a harmonized policy document on SHIS to guide future reforms and implementation.

Your Job Description

• A. Inception Phase
  • Examine national M&E policy, state development plans, SHIS guidelines, and UNICEF programme documents.
  • Conduct inception meetings with UNICEF, State Governments, and key development partners to confirm methodology, deliverables, and timelines.
  • Develop and submit a detailed inception report outlining the work plan, methodology, data collection tools, and engagement approach.
• B. M&E Policy and Framework Review
  • Mapping and Gap Analysis:
    • Assess existing M&E structures, institutional arrangements, data flows, reporting tools, and coordination mechanisms in each state.
    • Identify bottlenecks, capacity gaps, and opportunities for harmonization.
  • Stakeholder Engagement:
    • Organize state-level workshops with multi-sectoral participation (Budget and Economic Planning, Health, Education, WASH, Social Protection, CSOs, and development partners).
    • Ensure alignment with Nigeria’s National M&E Policy, SDGs, and state development priorities.
  • Review M&E Policies and Frameworks:
    • Review the draft policy documents defining vision, principles, institutional arrangements, roles and responsibilities, data management, evaluation standards, and reporting processes.
    • Review the results-based M&E framework.
  • Validation:
    • Present draft M&E Policies and Frameworks for stakeholder review.
    • Finalize documents for state government approval and adoption.
• C. Development of Interactive Dashboards
  • Design Phase:
    • Identify priority indicators from the SDP.
    • Review data availability, sources, and existing digital tools used by state M&E units.
  • Development Phase:
    • Design and build user-friendly, interactive dashboards enabling data entry, aggregation, real-time visualization, and automated report generation.
    • Pilot dashboards in each state to test functionality.
  • Capacity Building:
    • Conduct hands-on training sessions for state M&E officers, ensuring skills transfer for dashboard operation, analysis, and maintenance.
    • Develop a user manual and sustainability plan for dashboard management.
• D. Evaluation of Social Health Insurance Schemes
  • Evaluation Framework:
    • Develop a framework with key evaluation questions, performance indicators, and mixed-methods approach (quantitative and qualitative).
  • Data Collection:
    • Review administrative data (enrollment records, financing data, claims data).
    • Conduct household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews with beneficiaries, health providers, and State Health Insurance Agencies.
  • Analysis:
    • Assess SHIS effectiveness, efficiency, equity, financial sustainability, and scalability.
    • Identify strengths, weaknesses, gaps, and recommendations for improvement.
  • Draft Evaluation Report:
    • Prepare a comprehensive evaluation report for each state, including evidence-based recommendations.
    • Facilitate validation workshops to present findings to government and partners for feedback.
• E. Development of SHIS Policy Document
  • Drafting Policy Document:
    • Based on evaluation findings, draft a comprehensive SHIS policy document aligned with national health financing strategies and global best practices.
    • Define policy objectives, guiding principles, governance arrangements, financing mechanisms, service coverage strategies, and accountability frameworks.
  • Consultation and Dialogue:
    • Conduct state-level policy dialogue sessions to refine recommendations and secure stakeholder buy-in.
    • Incorporate feedback from ministries, legislators, civil society, and development partners.
  • Finalization:
    • Produce a final SHIS policy document ready for state government approval and adoption.
    • Develop a roadmap for implementation and monitoring.

The Job Requirements

• Advanced degree in M&E, Public Policy, Statistics, or related fields is required.
• At least 8 years of experience in developing Dashboards, M&E policies and frameworks.
• Expertise in designing interactive dashboards and data visualization tools.
• Proven experience in conducting stakeholder engagement and facilitating workshops.
• Strong knowledge of Nigeria’s governance and development context, particularly Zamfara State.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and report-writing skills.
• Experiences in working for UNICEF or UN agencies.