Consultancy Title: Remote- Consultancy for the preparation of a discussion paper on “The state of children and adolescents in MENA: challenges, opportunities and foresight” – MENARO, Amman

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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, Happiness In the last quarter of 2023-early 2024, the UNICEF MENARO will conduct the Mid-Term Review of its Management Plan (2022-25) with the aim to review the relevance and the performance of the Regional Office actions along with the complexity of the contexts of such a diverse region and with reference to the contribution to Global UNICEF Strategic Plan. In the fourth quarter of 2023 and early 2024, the UNICEF Regional Office for MENA is scheduled to conduct the Mid-Term Review of its Management Plan (2022-2025). The primary objective of this review is to strategically assess the relevance and performance of the Regional Office Management Plan, in a rapidly and increasingly challenging regional context, and review the regional contribution towards the global goals of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025. The Mid-Term review will be informed by a series of consultative processes and background documents and analyses. Among the latter, UNICEF MENARO envisaged the preparation of a discussion paper reviewing the main trends in child and adolescent well-being and rights indicators, identifying key challenges and opportunities and outlining factors and trends that are likely to have an important impact on the situation of children, adolescents and young people in the coming decade.

How can you make a difference? The objective of this consultancy is to prepare an authoritative paper (25-30 pages, without annexes) which – with reference to the key areas of child well-being and child rights along which the UNICEF Strategic Plan is articulated – summarizes the key trends on the situation of children in the different socio-economic and security contexts of the MENA region, highlighting key sub-national disparities and vulnerabilities, identifying the major persisting challenges and the emerging opportunities to advance in the realization of children’s rights. A specific and more detailed focus will be for a sub-set of child outcome indicators which have been prioritized by UNICEF in MENA (as part of the 6 UNICEF regional programme accelerators-and based on specific material shared by UNICEF) in order to address if these indicators are on track to reach the SDG 2030 targets. The consultant – mostly based on the analysis of a dataset of key child-related indicators provided by UNICEF – will elaborate on what are the main challenges affecting progress in child well-being and rights (possibly clustering countries, facing common challenges), also reflecting on what are the implications for children in MENA regions of the findings of recent foresight/perspective analysis, like the ‘Prospects for Children 2023: a global outlook’ and ‘Prospects for Children in 2021-2025’ produced by UNICEF Global Office of Research and Foresight (ie the impacts of global economic, social, political, technological and environmental factors). To note: the paper does not aim at having a detailed description of the indicators and disparities, but rather providing a strategic analytical and foreword-looking overview to inform the strategic discussion of UNICEF MENARO and the regional and global technical debate on children and adolescents in MENA.

Work Assignments Overview

Work Assignment: Preparation of a framework for the analysis detailed workplan – elaborating the TORs and reflecting on initial material shared by UNICEF – for discussion and agreement with UNICEF MENARO Deliverables/Outputs: Inception note (4-5 pages) with the framework for the analysis and the detailed workplan Tentative Timeline: 1.5 working day- 30 August 2023

Work Assignment: Review by UNICEF MENARO Programme, Planning, Monitoring and Research Section Deliverables/Outputs: UNICEF Review Tentative Timeline: By 4 September

Work Assignment: Preparation of the 1st draft of the Discussion Paper [UNICEF MENARO will provide a comprehensive set of tables and some reference material, to be integrated by the consultant] – meetings with the UNICEF Regional Office experts as per consultant requests Deliverables/Outputs: Draft discussion paper (around 25-30 pages, not counting annexes and references – data annexes provided by UNICEF) Tentative Timeline: 12 working days-30 September 2023

Work Assignment: Review by UNICEF MENARO Deliverables/Outputs: UNICEF Review Tentative Timeline: By 10 October

Work Assignment: Preparation of the semi-final draft of the Discussion Paper Deliverables/Outputs: Semi-final draft of the Discussion Paper Including: - Abstract (half page) - Introduction and scope (1 page) - Situation of children and adolescents in MENA key challenges and opportunities (organized according to the Goal Areas of UNICEF Strategic Plan) (20 pages) -Foresight – the challenges ahead (5 pages) Annexes - Data annexes (provided by UNICEF) - Reference list

Tentative Timeline: 8 working days 25 October

Work Assignment: UNICEF Final review Deliverables/Outputs: UNICEF Final review Tentative Timeline: By 30 October

Work Assignment: Finalization of the paper Deliverables/Outputs: Final paper Tentative Timeline: 1.5 Day-By 7 November

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… • An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the social sciences (Economics, Political Sciences, Demography, Sociology, Development, Strategic Studies, Education etc), Humanities or Journalism, PhD is desirable • 10 years of solid/documented experience in socio-economic analysis and writing analytical papers/reports • Experience with analysis on child related issues and child rights) is desirable • 10 years’ experience in conducting analysis on middle-income and low-income countries • Experience in analytical work in the MENA region is desirable • Excellent writing skills • Fluency in English, Fluency in French and/or Arabic) is an asset

Desirable: • Previous experience of working with UNICEF and the United Nations • Experience with foresight analysis

Please provide any sample of analytical work conducted or to which the candidate contributed. - Selection based on CV and cover letter (briefly outlining the relevance of the academic and professional background of the candidate and elaborating on the interest for the consultancy)

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. Applicants are invited to: Include a cover letter of interest, CV, your approach to the assignment, technical proposal fee (daily in US$) to undertake the above TOR. Applications submitted without a proposed fee will not be accepted. 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.