Consultant (Member: Education Cannot Wait External Review Panel), Education Cannot Wait Secretariat, NYHQ

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, education . . .

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the first global movement and fund dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crises. It was established in 2016 during the World Humanitarian Summit by international humanitarian and development aid organisations, along with public and private donors, to help reposition education as a priority on the humanitarian agenda, usher in a more collaborative approach among actors on the ground and foster additional funding to ensure that every crisis-affected child and young person is in school and learning.

Based on the recognition that continuous access to quality learning is a priority for children and families affected by conflicts, natural disasters and displacement and that no programme nor organisation can do it alone, ECW comes as a ground-breaking initiative bringing together public and private partners eager to work together differently and mobilize the funding required to deploy immediate and sustainable solutions.

ECW’s mandate is articulated around five core functions:

1. Inspire political commitment, so that education is viewed by both governments and funders as a top priority during crises.
2. Plan and respond collaboratively, with emphasis on enabling humanitarian and development actors to work together on shared objectives.
3. Generate and disburse additional funding to close the $8.5 billion funding gap needed to reach 75 million children and youth.
4. Strengthen capacity to respond to crises, nationally and globally, including the ability to coordinate emergency support.
5. Improve accountability by developing and sharing knowledge, including collection of more robust data to make better-informed investment decisions, and knowledge of what works and does not.

Education Cannot Wait is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

How can you make a difference?

The External Review Panel (ERP) supports the decision making of the Executive Committee and High-Level Steering Group (HLSG) by conducting independent, technical reviews of proposals and making recommendations on funding. The independent nature of the Panel helps to mitigate potential conflicts of interest in the grant-making process. The Panel reviews applications for Acceleration Facility (AF) grants exceeding US$500,000 and all applications for the Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) grants.

Composition

The ERP roster consists of 10-12 members. A member of the ECW Secretariat will serve as the Secretariat of the panel. The Secretariat will select a minimum of two reviewers from the roster to review a given panel. Meetings of the panel will be electronically unless specified otherwise. The selection will be made based on expertise requirements stipulated by the Secretariat.

All members serve in a personal capacity and do not represent their employers or governments.

ERP members will individually and collectively have the relevant expertise to make technically sound funding recommendations and will encompass a range of backgrounds to reflect the diversity of ECW's funding priorities. This ensures that the Panel is capable of making funding recommendations with a broad perspective and minimal bias. The Panel's membership will include, but will not be limited to:

• A wide range of relevant expertise (operational and programmatic) applicable to the types of programmes, countries and organizations supported by ECW, as well as the various windows of the Fund;
• Geographically diverse experiences, including individuals with field experience in emergency contexts;
• Experts from both the humanitarian and development sectors;
• A balance of expertise in relevant areas, such as education, different emergency contexts (such as conflicts, natural disasters and disease outbreaks), human rights, gender, refugees, and migration;
• Ethnic and gender diversity;
• At least two to three members who are fluent in French and one member who is fluent in Spanish.

The reviewers will not be current or former members of the HLSG or Executive Committee; or be current members of the Secretariat, Task Teams, or delegates from HLSG or Executive Committee meetings.

Selection of members

The recruitment process for the ERP roster will be open and transparent, with publicly available selection criteria. The Secretariat and Director are responsible for conducting the recruitment process.

Members are appointed for one-year term. Towards the end of the term the members can re-apply for an additional term for a maximum of six consecutive years. Upon reaching the end of a six-year term, members are ineligible to serve on the Panel for the next three years.

Conflict of interest

All members must disclose any potential conflicts of interest prior to their appointment onto the panel. In addition, ERP members are required to inform the ECW Secretariat immediately upon learning of any actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest during their term and resolve such issues before participating in any ERP activities or reviews.

Expected results****: (measurable results)

High assessment of ECW funding proposals:

• Review proposals for Acceleration Facility grants exceeding US$500,000 and Multi-Year Programme grants (following the Secretariat's review for completeness and compliance with agreed guidelines);
• Make recommendations to the Executive Committee or HLSG on funding of proposals based on technical soundness.
• Liaising with ECW secretariat.
• Travel to attend in-person meetings of the Panel, ECW Executive Committee meetings, trainings or other events as and when required.

• Keep abreast of developments in Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises (EiEPC), humanitarian financing, the humanitarian-development and peacebuilding nexus and other areas of relevance to ECW.

  Duty Station

Home-based. The consultants will work remotely.

Timeframe

Start date: 5 October 2020 End date: 4 October 2021

Deliverables

Duration

(Estimated # of Days)

Deadline

Review Multi-Year Programme proposals as per request

90

4 October 2021

Review Acceleration Facility proposals as per request

45

4 October 2021

TOTAL

135 DAYS

4 October 2021

The estimated number of days is the total for all members of the ERP.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in international education, human rights, social sciences, public administration, or related fields is required. A doctoral degree will be considered an additional asset.
• A minimum of eight years of professional experience in education in emergencies and protracted crisis, including programme planning, management, and/or research in education at the international level is required, of which at least five years of field experience in crisis-affected contexts is required.
• Prior experience in working with multi-donor trust funds as well as with diverse stakeholder groups or multi-stakeholder partnerships is highly desirable.
• Prior experience in assessing funding proposals is highly desirable.
• Experience in incorporating gender dimensions into education programming is desirable.
• Experience in programming for resilience is desirable.

• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required. Knowledge of an additional UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is an asset.

  How to Apply

Applicants are requested to send their submissions to (link is to be provided by PSU once the TOR is posted)

by Friday, 2 October 2020, 11:55pm EST.

Applications must include:

• Cover letter,
• CV, and
• P-11 form[1]
• In some cases, it may also be advisable to request a sample of work from potential consultants/individual contractors or require potential consultants/individual contractors to present their strategy, approach, or methodology. RO should be explicit in communicating this specific request
• Indicate where you heard about this advertisement

Please indicate your ability, daily rates and availability to undertake the terms of reference above.

NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit

[1] P 11 form can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/Personal_History_P11.doc

Insurance information:

Consultants and individual contractors are fully responsible for arranging, at their own expense, all insurance, such as life, health and other forms of insurance, covering the period of their services as they consider appropriate. They are required to certify that they are covered by medical/health insurance. Location: All staff are required to work virtually until the re-opening of New York Headquarters, which will be under the guidance of Management. Consultants and individual contractors, that are required to work on-site and were recruited internationally, are fully responsible for arranging, at their own expense, travel to duty station.

U.S. Visa information:

All consultants and individual contractors and any family members, who are not United States citizens, regardless of their nationality, must qualify for and obtain a G-4 non-immigrant visa prior to their arrival in New York.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results

View our competency framework at:

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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 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.