Consultancy: Social Protection and Cash Transfers, UNICEF Iraq (International consultancy)

Contract

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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, protection

Purpose of Activity/Assignment: UNICEF works in Iraq to save children's lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential by supporting the Government of Iraq in realizing the rights of all Iraq's children to survival, development, protection, and participation, and the creation of an enabling environment to ensure strengthened accountabilities for children with an equity approach.

The UNICEF Iraq Country Programme, 2020-2024, is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goals. The vision of this country programme is that "by 2024, children, adolescents, and women in Iraq are better protected and have more equitable and inclusive access to quality basic services." To address the long-term impact of conflict and exposure to violence, the UNICEF Social Inclusion and Policy programme will work to strengthen national statistical, public financial management, and social protection systems and coverage, in addition to building decentralized capacities for the effective, equitable and integrated provision of services, especially in geographic areas with pockets of higher vulnerability and more significant disparities. Therefore, to ensure evidence-based planning, implementation, and improvement of social services delivery, UNICEF Iraq is looking for an international consultant to provide technical support and assistance in social policy programming and related advocacy, from strategic planning and formulation to delivery of concrete, inclusive and sustainable results. Specifically, UNICEF in partnership with the EU, WFP and ILO expects that by 2024, the vulnerable and the poor, including children, youth, women, elderly, PwD and IDPs in Iraq benefit from equitable access to an integrated social protection system that is inclusive, child and age sensitive, food security and nutrition-sensitive as well as gender and shock responsive.

Under the general guidance and direction of the Chief Social Policy, the consultant will work in an advisory role to support the Social Protection Programme to achieve its specific objectives: 1) Social protection reform is evidence-based and supported by policy coherence, effective coordination and enhanced institutional capacities to address growing social exclusion and equity gaps including during shocks; 2) By 2024, pregnant women, under-5 and school age children from poor households benefit from equitable access to integrated social protection programs and services; 3) By 2024, young people, workers and their families – including those in the informal economy – have enhanced access to comprehensive employment-based social protection schemes and active labour market programs; and the income security of older persons and persons with disabilities is improved; 4) By 2024, vulnerable people will benefit from coordinated management of information systems and strengthened capacities of national and subnational institutions for improved design and targeting of social protection interventions.

Tasks/Milestone and Deliverables/Outputs: Provide technical support to the team members and partners to work constructively together, keeping in mind the wider vision and the interests of government partners and donors Deliverable 1 - Technical support provided in areas of development and review of National technical papers and presentations on social protection and cash transfer. March 2023 (8 working days)

- Support the Chief of Social Policy in analysing and providing technical lens in reviewing project documents produced by suppliers. - Provide input into internal and external reports and other relevant documents - Support the production of high-quality study and assessment terms of reference and reports that align with the project objectives and can advance the wider vision of the country program Deliverable 2 - Relevant section documents, TORs and studies revised to meet high quality standard. - Relevant section documents and studies produced with quality inputs. - Coordination and connectivity is adequately supported for the different components in the cash pilots being developed. May 2023 (9 working days)

- Quality control, technical support and coordination follow up and content development for the Mapping assessment and the roll out of the social protection strategy - Provide technical assistance in the design, planning and coordination of cash plus pilot initiatives - Effectively support conversations with the government, the World Bank and other relevant parties . Deliverable 3 - Assurance for the social protection strategy and implementation plans is timely provided . - Cash Plus pilot in KRI programme design finalized with critical technical inputs and quality assurance provided. - Support to ToRs development for the pilots in Basra and Sadr city is delivered - Technical agreements reached through consultations with all critical stakeholders and governments. July 2023 (7 working days)

Duration: 24 working days spread over a time span of 6 months. Remote consultancy without travel required.

Recruitment qualifications: - An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics and/ or Finance, Public Finance, Policy, Social Sciences, International Development, Political Science, or another relevant technical field. - A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in relevant professional work experience is required. - Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with humanitarian response and emergency is considered an asset. - Previous work with UNICEF would be an asset as it would be previous work on Small Area Estimates and Child Poverty. - Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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.

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed 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. Candidates must submit an all-inclusive fee for the assignment. UNICEF will provide travel for the assignment and in-country travel if required.

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.