UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child,
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, advocacy, and operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.
How can you make a difference?
UNICEF Tajikistan is seeking a qualified individual international consultant to provide timely and high-quality technical support to programme implementation through evidence generation, strengthening local capacities in effective planning and budgeting and documenting learning and advocating for child-related priorities to be better reflected at the local level.
Duration: 23 September 2024-31 August 2025 (including at least 2 times travel to Tajikistan and in-country).
Supervisor: Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Tajikistan.
The ultimate goal of this assignment is to promote evidence based local investments in the SDGs through advocacy, active participation and testing procedures for subsequent scaling up across other regions of Tajikistan.
The specific objective of the joint programme is knowledge sharing and capacity development of state and non-state local institutions on participatory local planning and budgeting processes. A participatory approach to planning and budgeting not only promotes transparency and accountability but also helps in proper allocation of resources to address local priorities and the needs of vulnerable groups. The focus of the project will be education sector in particular and other social sectors in general to draw lessons and generate good practices which can then be replicated in other sectors going forward.
The joint programme will build on learning and success of a previous joint initiative “Financing the SDGs in Tajikistan”. The previous initiative has contributed to a comprehensive analysis of the education sector, including a fiscal space assessment, gender responsive budget analysis with a focus on education sector. Thus, the current programme will enable local level planning and budgeting process to align financing to development priorities in the education sector with a gender focus.
The proposed assignment provides contribution to implementation of the joint programme outputs and pursues the following objectives:
1. Evidence generation to inform advocacy and design of tools and process for local gender responsive planning and budgeting.
2. Strengthening institutional capacities and participation and awareness raising
3. Development of guidance on SDGs localisation for wider geographic and (other) sectoral coverage
The activities under this consultancy will learn from and also contribute to a recently launched project on inclusive pre-primary education implemented in 20 districts of the country implemented by UNICEF. One of the pre-primary education project’s components is to improve planning and budgeting process and develop financial modelling for scaling up of inclusive pre-primary education at the local level.
Scope and anticipated activities of the assignment:
Under the supervision of the Social Policy Specialist, the International Consultant will complete the assignment in the following phases:
Phase 0. Inception, consultations and finalisation of the methodology.
During this project inception phase, the Consultant will review current context and the situation with regard to planning, budgeting and financing at the local level and will develop a methodology, including workplan and timeline for the entire assignment. The methodology should be described in the inception report together with other specific and important aspects to be taken into consideration during implementation. Multi-stakeholder dialogue/consultations (mainly online/remote) should be conducted to reflect local feedback in the methodology.
The inception report must include a data collection framework to better understand the planning, budgeting and flow of funds at the local level. The consultant needs to apply the inclusion, gender, localization and equity lenses throughout the analysis.
Deliverable:
Deliverable:
Work Assignment | |||||
№ | Tasks/Milestone: | Deliverables/Outputs: | Anticipated Timeline | Number of days | Payment schedule |
1 | Draft Inception report with detailed work plan |
|
07 Oct.24 | 5 | 20% in December 2024 |
2 | Conduct baseline assessment/ situation analysis of planning, budgeting, and financing SDGs at the local level with the lens of inclusion “leave no one behind.” |
|
28 Oct.24
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16 Dec.24
|
15 | |
3 | Formulate and disseminate recommendations for addressing gaps pertaining to the inclusive planning, budgeting, and financing of SDGs at the local level. | 5 | |||
3 | Develop advocacy tools, guidance notes, and checklists for local governments to facilitate improved and inclusive planning and budgeting. |
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24 Feb.25 | 10 | 60 % in June 2025 |
4 | Develop communication materials for inclusive financing at the local level and a communication plan for local actors, communities, and other stakeholders, aimed at promoting active participation in the local planning and budgeting processes. |
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07 Apr.25 | 10 | |
5 | Organize capacity-building sessions for 60 government staff across two districts, focusing on enhancing the process of local planning, budgeting, and financing for SDGs. |
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May-June 25 | 15 | |
6 | Organize a national-level and 2 roundtable discussion at the local level focused on the lessons learned and best practices derived from the implementation of the joint project. |
|
July 2025 | 10 | 20% in August 2025 |
Total
|
70 days | 100% |
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Qualified candidates are requested to submit:
Applications must be received in the system by 1 September 2024 on UNICEF website.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.