Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

H (no hardship)

Family

CONS Local

2025-02-17

January 23, 2025

I. PROJECT DETAILS

Requesting office (hiring office): Regional Bureau for Europe

Title of project:
Development of a database and policy brief on social protection of refugees and stateless persons in Europe

Purpose of project (summary):
Raise awareness, enhance understanding and increase data available on forcibly displaced and stateless persons’ access to social protection and social services across Europe through data optimization and production of a social protection policy brief.

II. ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

1. Contract type: Individual Consultant
(An expert who is a recognized authority or specialist in a specific field area engaged by UNHCR under an individual contract in an advisory or consultative capacity)

3. Engagement type

Lump-Sum (all-inclusive)
(Contractor works on a well-defined product against an agreed lump-sum price)

Lump-Sum amount and currency: USD 20,000

Proposed instalment schedule: 50% payment upon successful delivery of products 1 and 2, 50% payment upon successful delivery of products 3, 4 and 5.

5. Assignment and/or Mission travel : Not Applicable

7. Duration and dates of the contract:

From: 17/02/2025 To: 30/05/2025

8. Position Location (duty station):
Is the assignment home-based? Yes

If yes, specify location, duration and other relevant factors: location dependent on the candidate to be selected, as home-based and TOR to be published widely.

II. DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT, DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ENGAGED INDIVIDUAL CONTRACT HOLDER

9. General Background of Project or Assignment, Operational Context:

Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.

With a Regional Bureau in Geneva, Switzerland, and office presence in 36 European countries, UNHCR is covering 49 States, including 27 EU Member States, and one territory in the Europe region.

By the end of 2023, Europe, including Türkiye, hosted about one-third (some 30 per cent) of all refugees globally. 12.4 million refugees are currently hosted in countries across Europe, among which over 6.25 million are Ukrainians displaced by the war. There are also 493 000 stateless people and people of undetermined nationality in Europe.

UNHCR in Europe acts primarily as catalyst, convenor, and facilitator to support states to identify and provide protection and solutions for forcibly displaced and stateless individuals. It aims to align national and regional frameworks and practices on refugee protection and statelessness with international standards through advocacy with and technical support to all stakeholders including regional organizations, governments, local authorities, civil society, organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people, private and development actors, and donors.

UNHCR in Europe also coordinates the Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) for the Ukraine Situation. The RRP outlines the multi-sector response strategy of more than 300 partners supporting the host governments of Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in providing assistance and protection to refugees from Ukraine.

Promoting the inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless persons in national systems is one of the strategic priorities of the Regional Bureau for Europe (RBE), encompassing among others social protection and economic inclusion. Enhancing socio-economic data and inclusion in national statistics are fundamental elements to monitor effective inclusion, identify and address barriers and needs.

In 2021, UNHCR conducted a detailed mapping and published a policy brief, to raise awareness on existing challenges refugees face in accessing social protection, which featured a series of good practices and recommendations to strengthen inclusion. Considering the change in social protection policies over the past years and the new legal status due to the activation of the temporary protection directive, the policy brief requires updating.
The role of the consultant will be to directly support this initiative. While UNHCR has already conducted a new mapping with its country operations in Europe in recent months and developed a preliminary dashboard to visualize the results, support is required to undertake data cleaning and analysis, present the final results and draft a new policy brief.

10. Occupational Safety and Health Considerations
To view occupational safety and health considerations for specific duty stations, please visit this link: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel
Specific Occupational Safety and Health Considerations to this assignment (if applicable): N.A.

11. Purpose and Scope of Assignment:

The consultant will be expected to carry out two primary tasks:

i. Support the development of a comprehensive, accurate and user-friendly internal database/dashboard on social protection across 45 European countries. The dashboard should facilitate identification of and comparison between legal frameworks, policies, existing practices, barriers and promising examples.

ii. Draft a social protection policy brief, based on findings of the social protection mapping, complemented by research on good practices and actionable policy recommendations.
The consultant will carry out consultations with UNHCR’s country operations in Europe, its regional bureau and relevant divisions throughout the different phases of the consultancy as detailed in the below table:

1. Data Clean-Up and Correction

• Review and verify the completeness and accuracy of data submitted by country operations.
• Cross-check data inconsistencies or gaps and follow up with operations to address missing or incorrect information, complemented by desk review (allow minimum of 5 working days for feedback).
• Prepare a clean and standardized dataset for analysis.
–> approx. 10 working days

2. Data Analysis and Refinement of internal Power BI Dashboard
• Conduct a detailed analysis of the cleaned data to identify patterns, trends, and gaps in social protection systems and FDP access.
• Categorize findings by key themes (e.g., types of social protection, barriers to access, levels of inclusion for different target groups), in coordination with RBE.
• Work with the Data, Identity Management and Analysis (DIMA) team to refine the Power BI dashboard to visualize key data points, making it user-friendly and accessible for internal stakeholders.
• Make recommendations regarding an external Power Bi Dashboard to accompany the policy brief, in coordination with the DIMA team.
–> approx. 13 working days
–> 50% of payment upon successful delivery of products 1 and 2.

3. Initial Presentation of Findings and Regional Feedback Collection
• Prepare a comprehensive presentation of initial findings, highlighting good practices, lessons learned, gaps, and opportunities.
• Differentiate between data to be shared externally as part of the policy brief and data for internal use.
• Organize and facilitate a regional consultation (virtual) with UNHCR (multi-)country operations to present findings and collect feedback. Alternatively, feedback could also be shared in writing (allow minimum of 5 working days after presentation for feedback).
• Incorporate regional input to validate findings and identify areas requiring additional analysis or refinement.
–> approx. 5 working days

4. Draft of Second UNHCR Social Protection Policy Brief
• Develop a detailed draft of the Social Protection Policy Brief based on the analysed data and feedback from the regional consultation.
• Ensure the brief includes the findings, good practices, actionable recommendations for different stakeholders, and visual aids (e.g., infographics) to support advocacy and programming efforts.
• Circulate the draft for feedback from RBE, DRS and operations and incorporate comments into the final document (2 rounds of feedback with a minimum deadline of 5 working days for feedback each).
–> approx. 10 working days

5. Recommendations for future surveys on Social Protection, Finalization and Handover
• Review the content and methodology of applying the survey and make recommendations on simplifying it for any future iteration, through improving the data collection methodology and reducing potential redundant / less relevant questions through a written document, including overall recommendations and the revised survey.
• Ensure all deliverables (e.g., cleaned data, refined Power BI dashboard, graphics used in the policy brief, recommendations on simplifying the survey) are ready for dissemination and accessible to UNHCR colleagues.
• Prepare a handover note (three days before the handover session) with links to all materials produced as part of the consultancy.
• Provide a handover session to ensure continuity and usability of the outputs for UNHCR teams.
• Incorporate any clarification requests in the handover note.
–> approx. 2 working days
–> 50% of payment upon successful delivery of products 3, 4 and 5.

III. CANDIDATE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS, SELECTION CRITERIA

12. Required qualifications, language(s) and work experience:
Degree:

Required Specify: Advanced degree in Development
Law, or related field. studies, Economics,

Required/mandatory:
• Solid knowledge of social protection sector, demonstrated by at least 8 years of experience working with and leading dialogue with relevant institutions and agencies to develop and implement social protection and economic inclusion strategies, policies, reforms and programmes for underserved populations.
• A thorough understanding of the social protection needs and barriers of forcibly displaced and stateless persons in Europe.
• Strong research, analytical and writing skills and previous publications on social protection of refugees or other vulnerable groups, including policy briefs, guidance and tools.
• Track record in collection, cleaning and analysis of socio-economic data.
• Experience with Power Bi or other data visualization platforms/tools to present complex findings in a compelling manner.
• Effective communication and public presentation skills.

Desirable:

• Experience in working with UNHCR, other UN agencies or development banks on social protection.
• Experience working with regional, national and local governments and public institutions in Europe on social protection or socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced and stateless persons.

13. Minimum years of work experience (NOTE: candidates with less years of experience cannot be short-listed or recommended):

Language: Required: English Desirable: n.a.

Standard Job Description

Required Languages

,

,

Desired Languages

,

,

Additional Qualifications

Skills

Education

Certifications

Other information

This position doesn’t require a functional clearance

Home-Based

No

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements