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Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: ECD Financing Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: ECD Unit, NYHQ

Duration: 24 June 2024 – 21 April 2025

Home/ office Based: REMOTE

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection, and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations, and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of the Assignment:

Early childhood development (ECD) as an outcome encompasses the physical, cognitive, motor, language, social and emotional development of children in the early years. The Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) describes five interrelated and indivisible components of nurturing care – good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, opportunities for early learning, and safety and security – that children require for optimal development.

The ECD Unit and Social Policy Section at UNICEF HQ in collaboration with WHO and Hilton Foundation are seeking the services of an individual consultant to assess the level of integration of child development interventions in Primary Health Care (PHC) strategies/plans, financing packages and government budgets. The first part of the assignment will build global consensus on a minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD within PHC, to be included in this exercise. This will be achieved with support from a global multisectoral reference group composed of ECD and child health experts, and practitioners from governments, networks, academia, UN agencies, CSOs and international financial institutions. UNICEF and WHO will co-chair the group with secretarial services supported by the consultant.

The second part will assess the extent to which the agreed minimum package of interventions is reflected and financed in PHC strategies, Essential Health packages, other relevant government plans and budgets guided by the NCF. This will generate insights on how best to measure, monitor, and report on nurturing care for ECD investments within PHC. Results of this assignment will inform the establishment of a global benchmark of ECD spending in PHC.

Contractual obligations will be managed by UNICEF HQ with technical oversight by UNICEF and WHO. The consultant will work remotely and does not need to be based in New York.

Scope of Work:

The assignment has two components:

1. Build consensus on a minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD within PHC to meet the needs of children from pregnancy to 5 years.

This component will build consensus among ECD practitioners, governments, donors, and other stakeholders on a minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD within PHC. For this assignment, PHC encompasses essential health services that are typically accessible to all individuals within the communities they live in and usually at low cost. These services promote health, prevent illness and provide treatment for common health problems through general practitioners, nurses, nutritionists, CHWs and other cadres. The identification, prioritization and final listing of the minimum package will take into consideration the diversity of country economic, humanitarian contexts etc. The assignment will draw on existing and previous research under the NCF, and undertaken by the G20, World Bank, Brookings Institute, Research for Development and the Lancet Commission.

2. Assessment of the extent to which the agreed minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD is reflected in PHC strategies/ plans, other relevant sector plans and government budgets.

This component will start with a comprehensive review of national PHC strategies, Essential Health packages, and related financing plans, health sector plans, and any other national plans in 30 to 40 countries from different regions followed by interviews with key informants. The aim is to assess which of the listed interventions in the package are incorporated in those strategies/plans. From this, a commentary on the extent to which the minimum package is reflected in PHC strategies/plans will be produced. Research questions are:

• Has the country developed a specific PHC strategy/plan or is PHC covered in other frameworks such as health sector plans?
• For the identified strategies/plans, which of the agreed list of interventions supporting nurturing care are explicitly mentioned and how so?
• Which interventions that support nurturing care for ECD are not included?
• What are the emerging patterns regarding the integration of the minimum package within PHC across different countries?

The second part of this component will involve a review of national budget documents – mainly medium-term expenditure frameworks and annual budget estimates focusing on budget lines that fall within PHC programmatic parameters and not the totality of interventions supporting nurturing care for ECD across sectors. Only visible budget lines will be considered, and no apportionment will be done for aggregate budget lines. The research questions are:

• Is PHC a defined policy area or a budgeted program?
• If yes, are there any clear sub-programs or budget lines that match the list of interventions under the minimum package supporting nurturing care for ECD?
• If yes, how much is allocated to those specific sub-programs/ interventions and what are the trends over time (2-4 years)?
• What is the size of spending for each intervention and as a package in per capita terms and as a percentage of total PHC allocations?

• • What is the level of integration of interventions that are in PHC plans in government budgets (the degree of variation)?
  • Are there any variations in the coverage of the minimum package by country and component of nurturing care?
  • Are there any national mechanisms for the regular monitoring, estimating and reporting of ECD inflows and expenditures including those within PHC?
  • What are the good practices that can be used as a reference on nurturing care for ECD investments within PHC by other countries?

The final part assesses the extent to which the minimum package is reflected in global and regional expenditure databases including the WHO Expenditure Database and OECD DAC Statistics on health spending.

The above information will be used to produce a policy report (max 50 pages) outlining the minimum package, level of integration of these interventions in PHC plans and budgets, and recommendations on reforms and other measures to strengthen the measuring, monitoring, and reporting of nurturing care for ECD investments within PHC by governments and global actors.

Terms of Reference/Key Deliverables:

• Organize at least 3 reference group meetings and produce minutes by 16 September 2024.
• Inception report produced by 30 September 2024.
• Minimum package of interventions supporting nurturing care for ECD within PHC developed by 31 October 2024.
• Draft report by 31 January 2024.
• Final report by 21 April 2025.

Qualifications

Education:

Masters degree (minimum) from an accredited institution in health economics, public finance/economics, development policy or any other relevant social science.

Experience:

At least 10 years of experience undertaking relevant policy research, financing studies, ECD budget analyses, PHC costing and similar exercises in health or other related sectors.

Competencies/Knowledge:

• Strong writing skills with demonstrable track record in producing policy reports from budget analyses and costing exercises (Examples should be provided).
• Experience with UN/ international organisations an added advantage.
• Demonstrable experience in working on PHC and ECD financing in low and middle-income countries.
• Proficiency in English (verbal and written) is required.

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and

• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include/ reflect:
  • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability.
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

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

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

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: 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.