Consultant: Understanding the Financing of Child Protection in Social Development Budgets, Pretoria, South Africa (3 months, remote)

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, SOCIAL PROTECTION

As part of the public finance portfolio in social policy, annually, a series of budget briefs is done to probe the extent to which budgets affect the financing and outcome for children’s programmes. This is used in year-long advocacy and forms the foundation for the Country Office’s submissions on the budget (via the media, roundtables, and through National Parliament).

How can you make a difference?

a) Track relevant child protection indicators in the social development sector over the period 2016-2021 and draw methodologically sound conclusions about the extent of progress in meeting these goals. Particular attention should be paid to official government indicators, and if possible, SDG indicators for the sector.

• The final set of indicators to be tracked over time will be discussed with the Social Policy Manager and colleagues in the Child Protection Programme of UNICEF South Africa. Indicators must include both non-financial and financial indicators.

b) Develop and explain the scope of the “child protection” sector, including describing its key budgetary dimensions and any legal mandates that obtain from statutes and relevant Court orders.

• It is expected that the Consultant will be able to highlight specific public finance challenges such as tracking of relevant budget data; the extent to which the Children’s Act provisions are covered through the public budget; and the extent to which the child protection sector has dealt with/accommodated legal challenges. Reference must also be made to the existing Medium-Term Strategic Framework 2019-2024. Finally, consider the UN Conclusion Observations and what recommendations were made about child protection, and assess the state of compliance with these observations using the latest available data.

c) Summarise and interpret the government’s response to child protection in its broadest sense (inclusive of social welfare and social grants) and indicate where relevant policy and funding gaps are.

• What are some of the key emerging issues that government must respond to? Please refer to both policy and public finance related issues.
• Are there proposed changes in the service delivery for children modalities? What are these and can they be assessed?

d) Based on the emerging and established evidence, suggest a workable path/agenda to address effective and efficient child protection policies in the social development sector and suggested funding strategies, given the present squeeze of funding in the social sector.

• Both budgetary and policy interventions should be included in the final set of recommendations for a responsive and outcomes-driven child protection agenda and system.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Public Policy, or any relevant and comparable Social Science qualification
• Substantial policy and empirical work done in the social development sector in South Africa
• At least eight years of experience in handing publications of this nature, especially work with the international development community
• Excellent understanding and command of written English
• Sufficient understanding of the public finance context in South Africa and consolidated national and provincial social development’s place in that overall system
• Public finance
• Social sector budgeting
• Extensive knowledge of the social development and social protection sector in South Africa
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Basic quantitative data analysis

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.