Global roll-out of UNICEF Third-Party Monitoring Guidance Package

Project Description

Photo credit : © UNICEF_UNI148584_Vassie

With humanitarian operating environments becoming progressively more complex and challenging, UNICEF has been expanding their use of third-party monitoring (TPM) in order to ensure and maintain systematic field monitoring. Outsourcing monitoring to third-parties, however, has come with some recognized challenges and in 2019/2020 UNICEF commissioned IRMA to explore the organization’s approach to and the quality and effectiveness of its Third Party Monitoring (TPM).

Taking forward the recommendations of the 2020 TPM research and findings, IRMA was commissioned in this second UNICEF assignment to develop a TPM Guidance Package to provide UNICEF Country Offices with a set of generic, ready-to-use tools which can be adapted by Country Offices to guide and support them through the various steps involved in third-party monitoring to ensure effective management and improve quality. Now being rolled-out globally, the tools cover the full TPM process from identifying TPM needs to quality assurance, including:

  • Deciding if to use TPM and in what form
  • Templates for Terms of Reference and TPM monitoring reports
  • Codes of Conduct for Institutions and Individual Monitors, including key considerations for ethical evidence generation and minimum standards for duty of care
  • Standard Operating Procedures to support effective TPM management
  • Capacity Development Needs Assessment for TPM institutions and individuals monitors
  • Introductory and Induction Webinars for UNICEF Staff and TPMs
  • Quality assurance tools (e.g., checklists, implementing partner feedback, key performance indicators)
  • A TPM ‘How-to’ Guide covering the full third-party monitoring process

IRMA’s team for this project is Lezlie Morinière and Hannah Vaughan-Lee.