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For every child, Education

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF Eswatini Country Office (CO) is seeking to hire an international consultant to support the initial steps that will contribute to the development of the 2026-2030 Country Programme Document (CPD). Country Programme development is a process that begins by an evidence synthesis of critical deprivations faced by children and young people in the country. The synthesis will be based on the Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents (SITAN) including children with disabilities that was conducted in 2023, wide array of available updated information from surveys, studies, research, assessments and management information systems. The evidence synthesis will also include taking into consideration recommendations from treaty bodies such as Universal Periodic Review (UPR), observations on State Parties’ reports issued by the CRC, CRPD and CEDAW Committees. The information will be utilized to reflect on existing and emerging evidence to identify critical deprivations and bottlenecks hampering the realization of children’s rights. The identified deprivations and bottlenecks will inform the prioritization efforts of UNICEF Eswatini and thereafter to the formulation of theories of change, results and resources plan and finally documenting the programme rationale and logic in the explanatory notes.

The international consultant will support the CO in the CPD development process prior to the drafting of the CPD document. For each step of the country programme planning, the consultant will begin with Rights and Results Based Management (RRBM) concepts and principles. The training will engage program staff to utilize available information to discuss children and adolescent issues as a basis for designing the new country programme.

The consultant will support Eswatini CO with a participatory and inclusive engagement of stakeholders including meaningful engagement of children and adolescents (rights holders) especially those more at risk of marginalization, such as children with disabilities. The consultant will further support the CO to envision the desired change to be achieved for children and identify the main cross-sectoral bottlenecks that hinders progress. This serves to define the overarching purpose of the new country programme, which articulates the prioritized child rights deprivations and bottleneck and be documented in a concise and straightforward manner.

Scope of Work:

UNICEF Eswatini is seeking to engage an individual international consultant to support the initial steps of the 2026-2030 CPD development process, by facilitating a RRBM orientation, and the production of several planning documents such as evidence synthesis, prioritization of child deprivations and bottlenecks, theories of change, rights and resource plans, and explanatory notes. Under the overall leadership of the Deputy Representative, the consultant will facilitate RRBM and lead discussions informing the development of the CPD by producing key planning documents that result in the formulation of the explanatory notes that articulates the strategic intent of the new country programme. The consultant will work closely with Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (PME), Section Chiefs and other CO colleagues involved in the CPD development process.

The intended assignment includes conducting a two-stage visioning exercise, first with internal UNICEF CO and Regional office (RO) team to rationalize the identified key priorities. The consultant will further coordinate an external consultation with stakeholders and partners to agree on the final prioritized child rights deprivations and bottlenecks to be addressed by UNICEF based on capacity, urgency and alignment with the national development plan and cooperation framework.

Specific Tasks of the assignment include:

Evidence Synthesis of available data

• Facilitate RRBM training for program staff, providing guidance in undertaking analysis of data on children and adolescents situation utilizing a structure approach as per UNICEF Country Programme Planning and Design Guidance.

• Provide a brief overview of deprivations, narrating the backdrop against which these deprivations and bottlenecks take place.

Internal and external consultations to outline the priorities

• Facilitate and document CO/RO internal visioning exercise to identify child’s rights prioritization and bottlenecks. The visioning exercise will entail discussions and rationale supporting prioritization of programming areas for the new CPD with the aim of attaining an internal consensus on the new CPD priorities and structure. Prioritization will consider elements such as criticality, alignment, leveraging, capacity and lessons learnt as per the CPP guidelines.

Drafting and finalizing the Explanatory Notes

• Lead ToC and RRP discussions with CO, providing solid RRBM concepts and standards for developing ToC, RRP and Explanatory notes (EN) and quality assurance for the results structure, with particular focus on alignment to ToC.

• Facilitate the drafting and finalization of the EN in consultation with the Country Management Team and regional office.

Supervision of the consultancy:

The overall supervision of the consultancy will be provided by the Deputy Representative. The consultant is expected to work closely with the PME Specialist as well as programme section chiefs in their respective areas of competence. The PME Specialist will be the contract manager and a focal point responsible for coordinating the performance of the tasks, providing necessary documents, arranging consultations and other steps necessary to complete planned deliverables.

NOTE: The above timeline is tentative, with some flexibility for potential fluctuations preserved for negotiations with the selected consultant. The final timeframe is to be discussed and finalized in consultation with the consultant based on the deadlines identified by UNICEF Regional Office and HQ. Within the development of these strategic programmatic documents 2-3 missions to Eswatini are planned for the consultant over the period of the contract’s

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

Minimum Qualifications required:

Higher education (at least master’s degree)in social science or related field

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Experience in designing country programs in particular UNICEF CPD.
• Strong track record in results-based management practice specifically in programme design (prioritization, theory of change, results framework formulation and results-based budgeting.
• Familiarity with UNICEF latest Country Program Planning guidelines and practices.
• Familiarity with working in UN environment in the area of Country Programme Documentation.

Competency:

• Strong track record of facilitation including developing or contributing to guidance, face-to-face training packages and/or tools
• Strong analytical capacity and ability to manage coordination/convening/leveraging with government partners.
• Fluency in English, knowledge of Russian is an asset
*Listed requirements will be used for technical evaluation in the competitive process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

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 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.