The Institutional Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (IPME) is a team situated in the Corporate Services under the Deputy Director-General. The unit's purpose is to support IUCN's strategy and programme execution at all levels. As such, it drives greater accountability, performance, assurance and overall organisational effectiveness.

As the organisation's centre of expertise and excellence on programme, portfolio and project management, strategic planning and implementation, performance management, assurance, and risk management, the unit leads on these functions from establishing normative and operational frameworks to ensuring their optimal implementation. The unit is therefore the custodian of many IUCN policies, normative/operational frameworks and guidelines. It is responsible for ensuring their relevance to institutional needs through continuous monitoring, improvements and change management. It ensures that owned policies and frameworks are appropriately implemented by monitoring their respective level of compliance, making continuous improvements, and providing direct support and capacity building to relevant IUCN staff.

The unit takes a holistic approach by addressing staff skills, mindsets, and behaviours alongside processes, methodologies and tools through the use of business analysis, solution development and monitoring and evaluation. Through the development of performance and assurance management capability, the unit assists IUCN in achieving greater impact.

IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,300 Member organisations and the input of more than 16,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

This position can also be based out of our Bonn Office (Germany) or Cambridge (UK). If the selected candidate wishes to be based out of one of those two offices he/she will need to have the automatic right to live and work in the country they have selected.

The local compensation and benefits package will then apply. The salary range included in this advert is for a person who will be based in Switzerland.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Head – Planning, Monitoring Evaluation and Risk Unit, the Risk and Accountability Officer will coordinate the roll out of enterprise and project risk management systems and coordinate the program evaluation work to support regional and global thematic programmes of the Secretariat in the delivery of the IUCN mission and IUCN Global Programme.

Through management, coaching and capacity building, s/he will enable (a) the design and implementation of the enterprise risk management system, (b) the design and implementation of the project risk management system, (c) the design of high quality strategic reviews and program evaluations, and (d) the use of findings and recommendations.

SPECIFIC DUTIES

Manage enterprise risk
• Design, coordinate and facilitate the implementation of an Enterprise Risk Management system (ERM).
o Facilitate the identification of corporate risks.
o Develop ERM standard operating procedures meeting the requirements of ISO 3100.
o Identify and facilitate the adoption of risk-related organizational policies, procedures and processes.
o Identify and roll out ERM software solutions.
o Ensure compliance with ERM policies and procedures, and validate risk registers.
o Build capacity for risk management and support the development of an appropriate risk culture in line with IUCN’s risk appetite.
• Facilitate management decision-making with regards to risk management at corporate, programme and country levels.
o Map the portfolio of risks and track aggregate risk exposure over time.
o Support the risk review process and monitor the implementation of risk-related decisions.

Manage project risk
• Design, coordinate and facilitate the implementation of a Project Risk Management system (PRM).
o Facilitate the identification of project risks and project risk tiering.
o Integrate risk management principles into IUCN’s Project Standards and Guidelines, meeting the requirements of ISO 3100.
o Work with the Program and Projects Portals Manager to incorporate PRM tools into the Project Management Information System.
o Ensure compliance with PRM policies and procedures, and audit risk registers.
• Develop capacity of Programme staff to manage risk.
o Train Programme staff on project risk management.
o Facilitate project risk identification and risk reviews for selected program and projects.

Deliver risk management and accountability innovation
• Seek user feedback on ERM-PRM to inform system improvements and efficiencies, and capacity development needs
• Identify internal best practices, develop and maintain a ‘lessons learnt’ register to link with, and inform organizational recommended practices.
• Identify, adapt and test refinements and upgrades of modern risk management methods, technologies and tools developed by the public risk management community of practice, keeping IUCN at the forefront of the industry.

Manage strategic reviews and program evaluations
• Coordinate corporate, program and project-level reviews mandated by IUCN partners and/or the IUCN Project Guidelines and Standards.
o Working with the Head of the unit to prepare inputs and contribute to the Annual Evaluation Work Plan for all project and programme reviews and evaluations set by the Head of the unit;
o Consulting with IUCN partners and Programme staff to help them identify evaluation objectives and Terms of Reference for accountability-focused evaluations;
o Managing consultants and contracts;
o Ensuring quality control of evaluation reports, particularly in terms of accuracy and utility of reports and their findings and recommendations;
o Working with Programme staff in the preparation and tracking of management responses after the evaluation or review is complete;
• Take responsibility for communicating evaluations and their recommendations, to ensure wide use of evaluation and review reports and recommendations, including:
o Linking evaluation or review results to organisational processes and programme/project planning through mixed means which may include workshops, coaching, special thematic studies or syntheses;
o Maintaining the PM&E web-pages, ensuring that all reports and management responses are publicly available within a reasonable timeframe;
o Communicating, through presentations or other appropriate means, about relevant evaluation or review reports for internal audiences.
• Carry out other relevant tasks as may be assigned.