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, support.

In the Pacific we work in Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu: These 14 Pacific island countries are home to 2.3 million people, including 1.2 million children and youth, living on more than 660 islands and atolls stretching across 17.2 million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, an area comparable to the combined size of the United States of America and Canada. Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu are classified as Fragile States according to World Bank/OECD criteria.

All 14 Pacific Island countries and territories have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but only a third are on track with reporting obligations. Explore the different areas of our work in the link provided here www.unicef.org/pacificislands.

Background of Assignment:

The UNICEF Pacific Multi-Country Office is providing technical and financial support to several Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) to conduct Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). MICS is an international household survey programme developed and supported by UNICEF. MICS is designed to collect estimates of key indicators that are used to assess the situation of children and women and has become a key source of data on Education and learning (school attendance, educational attainment, foundational reading and math skills, parental involvement in education, adult literacy); Child protection (birth registration, child labour, child discipline, harmful practices including child marriage, domestic violence in some surveys); health (maternal and newborn health, child health, child nutrition, anthropometry, fertility and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, sexual behaviour, tobacco and alcohol use, child and maternal mortality); early childhood development; child and adult functioning/disability; WASH (access to water and sanitation, handwashing, water quality testing); Social transfers; Mass media use and ICT skills; Victimization, Discrimination and Safety; and Subjective well-being. MICS is also the largest single provider of household-survey based indicators for the SDGs, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

In order to continue invest in data collection and promote sustained investment in MICS in the PICTs, the UNICEF PMCO has changed it’s strategy for MICS in-country implementation costs resource mobilization. With the new strategy, Government will take lead in the resource mobilization with UNICEF as technical partner.

To this end, UNICEF Pacific MCO will hire a consultant to rewrite or tweak the already developed full-fledged multi-country funding proposal for MICS into series of country-specific proposals to make them read more government-driven rather than UNICEF driven.

How can you make a difference? 

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Social Policy and direct supervision of the Statistics & Monitoring Specialist, the consultant will from a full-fledged multi country funding proposal for MICS re-write and produce a series of country-specific proposals to potential donors with UNICEF as the technical partner. The country-specific proposals will be for the following countries: Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, and the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI).

Each of the country-specific proposals must have more or less the same structure as the full-fledged multi country funding proposal but should include the following:

• Summary of the proposal

• Background (Country context/situation analysis) and justification

• Purpose/objectives of the survey

• Governance structure

• Scope of work/Tasks (key stages of the survey process from planning to dissemination of results)

• Survey schedule (Annex 1 – Survey Timetable)

• Budget (in-country implementation costs and Technical support costs) – Annex 2 – detailed budget

• Major challenges envisaged.

The consultant will perform the entire assessment remotely or will be working from home instead of in an office environment.

Please refer to the (TOR – MICS Funding Proposal Development Consultant.pdf) for further information on the deliverables and the timelines

GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS

Please submit a separate financial offer along with your application. The financial proposal should be a lump sum amount for all the deliverables and should show a break down for the following:

• Monthly / Daily fees– based on the deliverables in the Terms of Reference above.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

EDUCATION

• Advanced University degree in International Development, Public Policy, Development Program Evaluation, or any related social science discipline with extensive experience with and knowledge of fundraising, and applied research methods, and monitoring and evaluation.

EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES

• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in funding proposal writing.
• Knowledge of data demand and gaps in the Pacific Region will be an asset.
• Ability to synthesize information succinctly and accurately and a track record of producing high quality evidence products.
• Experience working with UNICEF is an advantage.
• Excellent oral and written communication is required.

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

Remarks:  

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.

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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.