Consultancy: Regional Household Survey for UNICEF West & Central Africa, WCARO, Dakar, Senegal, Remote/home-based) 8 months (168 days

Contract

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UNICEF is a UN organization mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. In Regional Office, UNICEF is working with its partners to support the Governments to realize children’s rights on survival, development, protection and participation.

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 fulfil their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

For every child, hope

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Many surveys are carried out by government organizations, with the support and technical assistance of UNICEF. When countries adhere to the UNICEF protocols and recommendations and make use of the tools provided, the survey process goes very smoothly. However, in many countries, the provision of survey tools alone has not been sufficient without the additional support of experienced personnel providing technical assistance to the survey implementing partners.

UNICEF will continue to strengthen its survey technical support mechanism at the regional level so that country offices can receive the required level of technical assistance at critical stages of the survey and are in a better position to support the implementing partner.

Planning, preparation and fieldwork for new surveys – such as the BMZ endline/baseline surveys, or MICS – will be initiated in the region of West and Central Africa (WCA). UNICEF WCARO will, therefore, hire an experienced Household Survey Consultant to provide necessary technical assistance to country offices and their partners at critical survey stages in a timely manner.

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys) in the Planning Monitoring and Research Section of UNICEF WCARO, the Household Survey Consultant will work on supporting the preparation, design, implementation, data processing and completion of different surveys conducted in the region of West and Central Africa (WCA), e.g. BMZ endline/baseline survey, MICS, etc.

Scope of Work:

1. Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys), the Household Survey Consultant will be responsible to: Support the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys) in providing technical assistance and oversight for different surveys in WCA Region,
2. Provide support to Regional and Local survey Workshops, if necessary,
   • Regional Survey Design Workshop: facilitate selected sessions and work bilaterally with different countries on questionnaires, survey plans and budgets
   • Regional Data Processing Workshop: when necessary, participate (in person or online) and work bilaterally with different countries on datasets, data quality, tabulation plans and final report contents
   • Local Data Dissemination and Further Analysis Workshop: facilitate selected sessions and work bilaterally with countries on the interpretation of their survey data and on the development of dissemination plans
3. From a distance and in coordination and collaboration with the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys), review and provide feedback to COs on the following documents for compliance with UNICEF standards,
   • Survey plans (including budget and training plans for pre-test and main fieldworker training)
   • Questionnaires and Manuals, including the translated versions
   • Sample design (in collaboration with the Regional Sampling Consultant)
   • Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), programmes (in collaboration with the Data Processing Expert)
   • Pre-test report
   • Field monitoring digital reports
   • Design of Tabulation plans
   • Finalisation of Datasets (in collaboration with the Data Processing Expert),
   • SPSS syntaxes, SPSS tables (weighted and unweighted) and final tables (in collaboration with Data Processing Expert) with the data quality review done
   • Summary findings and final reports (writing, compilation, verification and finalization)
4. Support countries remotely or through in-county visits in carrying out the following survey activities:
   • Survey planning and questionnaire design
   • Pre-test (Training, data collect, report writing and implementation of recommendations)
   • Fieldwork training and fieldwork monitoring
   • Data analysis
   • Survey Finding Report writing
5. As needed, take part in missions carried out by the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys) to support COs in negotiating, promoting and presenting specific surveys to governments and other partners,
6. Provide support to countries on survey finding report writing remotely or during regional workshops. Review the survey’s summary findings and final reports produced by countries,
7. As needed, support countries in data archiving,
8. In collaboration with the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys), provide country and regional status survey updates to RO and HQ,
9. When necessary, facilitate communication between the HQ GIS expert and Census/NSO GIS experts, obtaining access to cluster geocodes and boundary shapefiles for the survey, and training activities (if GPS data collection is necessary),
10. When necessary, support planning and customisation of other surveys initiatives (e.g. MICS Plus, MICS Link) in collaboration with the relevant experts of these initiatives.

Administrative Requirements:

1.The consultant is expected to travel in the designated countries for the surveys. Travel costs will be reimbursed based on the most direct and economy fare.

2.The consultant will work from his/her own office, provide their own equipment (stationary, hardware and software) and organize all aspects of field logistics themselves. During country visits, UNICEF CO or the implementing partner will provide working space for the consultant.

3.Payment will only be made for work satisfactorily completed and accepted by UNICEF and submission of an activity log and invoice.

4.If the final reports and documents are not submitted according to the deliverables stated in this TOR, the payments will be withheld.

5.The Regional Household Survey Consultant must respect the confidentiality of the survey data as well as any country specific survey documents that will be produced throughout the survey process. The Regional Household Survey Consultant can use the documents and the datasets only for the tasks related to these terms of reference.

Type of Supervision Required and Cooperation with Other Consultants:

1.The Planning, Monitoring and Research section from the WCAR Office will provide quality assurance and oversight for the consultant’s work with substantial feedback on the quality of the work.

2.For each assigned survey country, the consultant will work in close collaboration with the UNICEF Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys), the National Consultant and other UNICEF Regional Consultants. Working closely with the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys) and the Regional Sampling and Data Processing Consultants, the Regional Household Survey Consultant will carry out technical reviews and advise COs and implementing agencies at key moments in the survey process. The Regional Household Survey Consultant will also, often together with the Regional Monitoring Specialist (MICS and Other Surveys) and / or the Regional Sampling Consultant and / or the Regional Data Processing Consultant, carry out a series of country visits, in order to monitor progress and be present at critical stages of survey implementation.

How can you make a difference?

Work Assignment Overview:

Work Assignments OverviewDeliverables/OutputsDelivery deadlineEstimated BudgetBMZ - Planning

&

BMZ - Fieldwork

a. Documented review of pre-test report including documented adaptation for every change in the final questionnaire with recommendations – within 3 days after the submission by the country. b. Support for the final versions of CAPI programs and syntaxes (with the Data Processing Expert Consultant), c. Final versions of the instruction manuals, household listing, supervisor’s cluster control sheet, etc. – within 3 days after the submission by the country. d. Final versions of the tabulation plans – within 3 days after the submission by the country.

e. Documented review of the fieldwork training and data collection activity with clear recommendations - within 3 days after the end of the training and 3 days after a monitoring visit. f. Support for the final versions of the sampling weights (with the Sampling Expert Consultant) g. Documented review of the data processing activities with clear recommendations.

h. Feedback on fieldwork monitoring reports (including data collection and analyses of field check tables) through e-mail – every week during the data collection process. i. Country visit reports (including presentations and training materials) for each country visited – within 3 days after the visit.

September –November 2023USD 20,000 50%BMZ - Dataset, Syntaxes & Tablesj. Support the final version of the datasets (including weight and wealth index) and SPSS syntaxes (with the Data Processing Expert Consultant). k. Final version of the SPSS tables (weighted and unweighted) and final tables filled up including the data quality review done.

December 2023USD 10,000 25%BMZ - Reportingl. Comments and feedback on summary findings and final report reviewed using the standard review template – within 7 days after the submission by the country.January 2024USD 8,800 22%BMZ - Otherm. Other tasksSeptember 2023 – January 2024USD 1,200 3%To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced University degree (master’s or higher) Demography, Statistics or Epidemiology, or other related technical field with significant measurement or analysis component is required.
• At least 5 years of experience in the coordination and/or management of quantitative household surveys. Prior MICS/DHS coordination/management experience is highly desirable
• Expertise in statistical analyses (familiarity with data processing and data analysis software, SPSS highly desirable)
• Experience in survey report preparation
• Fluency in English or French is required.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills,
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently to the countries where the surveys are.

Other competencies

• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective relationships with national partners,
• Demonstrated leadership, managerial and supervisory ability.
• Demonstrated exceptional organizational skills and consistent quality delivery.

Requirements

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system /P11/ Resume
• Academic credentials/certificates
• Consultancy proposal
• Financial proposal that will include
• Costs for each deliverable and total all-inclusive (lump sum) fees for the whole assignment
• Travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TO
• Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
• Previously relevant consultancy products & final evaluations (if available)
• Indicate your availability.
• 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.

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.

UNICEF and other UN Agencies will be moving to the new United Nations House, presently under construction in Diamniadio, 30 kilometers from downtown Dakar. The name of the duty station for this position will remain Dakar, Senegal.