Consultancy: Technical surge support to ESAR COs: social protection in emergencies, ESARO, Nairobi, Kenya

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Provide technical support to UNICEF COs in emergencies.

You have:

• Advanced university degree in Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, Operations Management, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional work experience in the field of shock responsive social protection, social protection in emergencies and/or humanitarian cash transfers is required.
• Extensive programmatic/operational experience designing, implementing and managing cash transfer programmes in emergencies and humanitarian contexts is required, with preference given to experience in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Clearly demonstrated ability to conceptualize complex humanitarian-development issues and produce high quality technical documents, analytical materials and/or guidelines is preferred.
• Proven ability to communicate and work in a multi-cultural environment and provide remote organizational support is desired.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language is an asset.

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, a future

How can you make a difference?

The consultant will provide targeted technical support to UNICEF COs focusing on shock responsive social protection systems and humanitarian cash transfers. At the regional level, the consultant will support in tracking emergency responses, resource mobilization efforts, as well as collaboration and coordination other partners including regional emergency colleagues and UNICEF HQ support.

Background and Justification

The East and Southern Africa Region is currently facing a myriad of humanitarian emergencies, most prevalent the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa which is affecting up to 20 million people in 5 drought-affected countries across the region. Populations in these drought-affected countries were already experiencing extreme levels of poverty and vulnerability before the emergence of the drought. Their economies were hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, other shocks including locust invasions, flooding, protracted conflict, insecurity and social unrest. More families are falling into poverty at an alarming rate and those already in poverty are being pushed further into deprivation. To survive, households are adopting coping strategies that have dangerous and often irreversible consequences for children, which range from reduced food intake and withdrawing children from school (to save money on school fees or to send children to work) to selling off productive assets (livestock, household items or land), sending children out to work and marrying girls early and migration.

In response to these crises, UNICEF Country Offices are supporting families through provision of social protection in emergencies. This includes both support to national governments to vertically and horizontally expand their national social cash transfer programmes as well as administration of humanitarian cash transfers (HCT) in areas that cannot be reached by national programmes, including internally displaced persons and those affected by conflict. In addition to the immediate emergency response, UNICEF continues to work with governments and partners to strengthen the national social protection system in an effort to enable expansion of coverage, support recovery of populations post-shock, strengthening of household resilience, and to improve capacity of the system to respond to future shocks.

The Social Policy team in the East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), based in Nairobi, provides technical support to social protection and emergency staff in UNICEF Country Offices as well as in-country surge support in emergencies. This support includes advising on scale up of national systems, design and implementation of HCTs, resource mobilization and coordination, as well as in-country support when requested by COs. Given the scale and protracted nature of the current crisis, ESARO is seeking an expert in social protection in emergencies to provide surge support to UNICEF COs affected by emergencies, both in-country as well as remote technical advice and guidance as needed.

Scope of Work

1. *Goal and Objective*****: Under the direct supervision of the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Regional Office (ESARO) Social Policy Specialist (Social Protection), the consultant will provide technical support (both surge and remote) to the Regional Office and Country Offices currently managing social protection responses to emergencies (SPiE).

   The consultant will provide targeted technical support to UNICEF COs focusing on shock responsive social protection systems and humanitarian cash transfers. At the regional level, the consultant will support in tracking emergency responses, resource mobilization efforts, as well as collaboration and coordination other partners including regional emergency colleagues and UNICEF HQ support.

2. AWP areas covered: The assignment will contribute to the Social Policy section’s Output 2: ESAR Country Offices have enhanced capacity to design, implement, monitor and evaluate child poverty, public finance and social protection interventions.

3. Tasks and Deliverables:

The consultant, working with the SP Specialist in ESARO, will support the following:

1. Country Office implementation of Social Protection in Emergencies (SPiE)

• Provide support and technical assistance to COs at all stages of implementation in COs - from planning and design to in-country implementation support, undertaking of risk assessments, monitoring, coordination with national social protection and cash working groups, documentation and revision of processes (SOPs and/or operational guidance)
• Conduct operational analysis of the SPiE/HCT programmes, identifying areas for improvement, resolution of implementation bottlenecks, provide quality assurance and identify solutions such as design improvements, additional trainings and technical support
• Ensure Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) is streamlined across the programme implementation cycle with attention to information sharing to beneficiaries, community inclusion in programme implementation, complaints and response mechanism and continuous learning, and propose innovative solutions for not-accessible communities
• Support country level resource mobilization efforts including contributing to and review of programme proposals and reports
• Undertake in-country surge assignments as requested by COs to support implementation of SPiE (with priority focus on HoA countries)

2. Support regional oversight and coordination

• Review and provide inputs into regional emergency appeals, CO HAC and SitReps, tracking and reporting of response progress ensuring that SPiE is adequately reflected in all CO response plans and reports
• Produce knowledge management products for SPiE responses which may include compilation of lessons learned, specific operational guidance notes, summary reports for HQ and summary snapshots of UNICEF responses in the region with a focus on integrating HCT approaches into SRSP systems strengthening
• Support development and implementation of country level cash strategies for COs, working specifically with social protection, emergency and other sectoral colleagues to ensure coordination of all cash responses at country level

The consultant will commit 60 working days to this contract, allocation of time will vary dependent upon Country Office needs (both in-country and remote). Planning of specific days will be agreed between the supervisor and the consultant on the onset of the contract, however given the changing situation this plan will be updated on a monthly basis over the duration of the assignment.

4. Work relationships: The consultant will report to the Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF ESARO and will work in close collaboration with Social Protection Specialists in Country Offices as well as UNICEF emergency colleagues at regional and country office level.
5. Outputs/deliverables: The consultant is expected to produce a monthly summary report and be paid according to the table below:

Deliverables

Payment

Deadline

Monthly progress report which includes details on:

• technical support provided to ESAR COs
• trip report for in-country surge support (if relevant)
• number of days worked over the period

Monthly payment based on agreed daily fee and agreed number of days for each CO support

31/08/22

Monthly progress report which includes details on:

• technical support provided to ESAR COs
• trip report for in-country surge support (if relevant)
• number of days worked over the period

Monthly payment based on agreed daily fee and agreed number of days for each CO support

30/09/22

Monthly progress report which includes details on:

• technical support provided to ESAR COs
• trip report for in-country surge support (if relevant)
• number of days worked over the period

Monthly payment based on agreed daily fee and agreed number of days for each CO support

31/10/22

Monthly progress report which includes details on:

• technical support provided to ESAR COs
• trip report for in-country surge support (if relevant)
• number of days worked over the period

Monthly payment based on agreed daily fee and agreed number of days for each CO support

30/11/2022

Expected outputs to be produced include:

1. Monthly summary updates of SPiE responses in the region

2. At least two lessons learned documents showcasing specific approaches taken in COs and how integrated into the national SP system (if relevant)

   Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on a monthly basis at agreed daily rate, upon submission of a short monthly summary report and invoice at the end of each month. Specific outputs will be provided as an annex to this report, in the estimated timeframe provided above. Payments will be made against the monthly invoice only after approval of deliverables by the contract manager.

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

• Advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Economics, Public Policy, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Science, Operations Management, or another relevant field.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional work experience in the field of shock responsive social protection, social protection in emergencies and/or humanitarian cash transfers is required.
• Extensive programmatic/operational experience designing, implementing and managing cash transfer programmes in emergencies and humanitarian contexts is required, with preference given to experience in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Clearly demonstrated ability to conceptualize complex humanitarian-development issues and produce high quality technical documents, analytical materials and/or guidelines is preferred.
• Proven ability to communicate and work in a multi-cultural environment and provide remote organizational support is desired.
• Familiarity with UNICEF’s programmes in emergency contexts is preferred.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or 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.

• Builds and Maintains Partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org