Education Systems Strengthening Data Consultant; Individual Consultancy; 230 days; Beirut, Lebanon

This opening expired 1 year ago. Do not try to apply for this job.

UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

Open positions at UNICEF
Logo of UNICEF

Application deadline 1 year ago: Friday 20 Jan 2023 at 21:55 UTC

Open application form

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, education

UNICEF started to work in Lebanon in 1948 and established its office in 1950. For more than 70 years we’ve been working closely with the Government of Lebanon, other UN agencies, international and local NGOs, universities, and more than 100 partners to meet the needs of disadvantaged children in Lebanon. Responding to lifesaving needs and ensuring equal access to quality public services, the impact of our work is felt in every aspect and every sphere of society. To learn more about our work, please refer to: https://www.unicef.org/lebanon/what-we-do

How can you make a difference?

Lebanon has experienced one of the worst crises in the Middle East and North Africa region and is enduring a severe and prolonged economic depression. These multiple crises – high refugee caseload, socio-economic collapse, political turmoil, COVID-19 outbreak and the Beirut explosion – combined with continuous policy inaction and the absence of a fully functioning executive authority have reduced the state’s ability to deliver education and other basic social services both for the local and refugee population. Considering how these conditions has had a detrimental effect on the government’s capacity to manage the cash flow of donor contributions to schools, teachers and other beneficiaries as per the Lebanese legislation. As an exceptional modality of support, UNICEF has committed to execute payments directly to beneficiaries (schools and teachers) through Financial Service Providers. Moreover, in order to ensure equitable access to Education, UNICEF has committed to provide cash support to selected vulnerable students, in line with the program eligibility criteria.

These payments require clearing lists of beneficiaries that are presented in the templates required by the Financial Service Providers, verification and analysis of attendance data, monitor the rate of cash withdrawal and follow-up on complaints reported regarding these payments. To conduct the process UNICEF relies on the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to provide beneficiaries’ data and on UNICEF’s Cash Management Information System (MIS; internally developed in 2016) to keep track and monitor the payments. The MIS has been central to UNICEF Lebanon’s cash transfer programmes, managing beneficiaries throughout the operational cycle (including registration and tracking, analyzing, and reporting on key performance indicators in various cash transfer programmes). During the initial phase of the implementation of these payments, while the necessary data is uploaded to MIS and procedures are systematized, UNICEF Education section is reviewing the raw data from MEHE for internal consistency, redundancies and overlaps with previous payments, as well as managing the resolutions of complaints. The Education section is in need of support since the bulk of these tasks is increasing in terms of number of payments, types of targeted populations and dates of payment cycles.

Purpose of the consultancy: The overall objective of this consultancy is to support, under the supervision of the IM Officer and in collaboration with relevant programme officers, the management of the data needed to process payments requested by MEHE and cash for education payments, maintain the education-related modules of the cash management information system (teachers payments and cash for education), the follow-up on complaints and the management of grievance and support in data analysis and knowledge management.

Work assignment expected results:

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

1. Datasets received from the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders (related to teachers’ payments or cash for education) are reviewed and cleaned

12 reports on datasets received and processed in the last moth (i.e., reviewed, cleaned, and validated). These reports must include the data sets that were received for processing and the clean set. It must be specified whether they contain teacher data (datasets to be reviewed, cleaned and validates) and/or student data (either enrollment, registration into programmes, monthly transfers prepared and issued and/or monthly attendance).

85 days

2. Support in data analysis, information management and knowledge management

Monthly data analysis reports or updates to previous analyses (charts, datasheets and visuals), extractions of data and trends from relevant publications, and updated archiving of analysis and visualizations. If no update is necessary for a particular month a written communication will be sent in lieu of the report in which the review that was conducted is described and the conclusion that no update is necessary is explained.

10 days

3. Teacher’s payment module of UNICEF’s Cash management Information System (Cash MIS) is up to date and functional and all education-related payment data including dashboards are updated

A brief is presented annexed to the monthly data set reports of the months of March, June and September (see deliverable 1) where updates made to the teachers’ payment module of the Cash MIS are described and the updates to dashboard functionality are listed.

50 days

4. Cash for Education module of the Cash MIS is updated with the latest students and attendance data

Monthly written communication to the activity supervisor on updates, modifications or improvements applied to the Cash for Education module of the Cash MIS, including on the functionality of the dashboards. On months where no changes have been necessary, written communication stating so must be sent to the activity supervisor. The written communication can be an e- mail or a 2-pager.

25 days

5. Develop data collection forms (such as a surveys) using data collection tools

Monthly report on data collections forms that have been developed, amended or improved, including an annex with the revised versions. If no work was conducted on a given month, a simple written communication (e.g., e-mail) indicating no work was required can be presented.

10 days

6. Manage complaints received from beneficiaries included in the Education Section’s cash programmes

12 reports on a monthly interval on the complaints that were extracted, discussed with the relevant programme officers and then closed on the system once solved. This report should be a table listing the instances a brief description of the follow-up and solution.

25 days

7. Inform beneficiaries about payments

Quarterly (March, June, September) synoptic tables and SMS delivery report of SMS sent to beneficiaries in response to programme officers’ request. (Note: These SMS should be deployed in close coordination with programme officer based OMT distribution plan).

5 days

8. Provide technical assistance to relevant Education Section staff on the use of the cash MIS

12 synoptic tables: The first one with attendance of a remote training event of colleagues and subsequent tables with cumulative presentation of the type and frequency of support provided on the use of the MIS.

20 days

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

Education: University degree in one or more of the following areas: Information Technology, Information Systems, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or related field.

Experience: Minimum three years professional work experience in data management, information management or related field. Familiarity with UNICEF’s mission and mandate is an asset.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Arabic is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is an asset.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

  • Advanced Microsoft Excel proficiency including writing formulas
  • Ability to design data collection / survey tools (using ODK or Kobo,…)
  • A high level of organizational skills and attention to detail
  • Skills in complex problem solving and critical thinking
  • Ability to gather, review, and analyse data for trends
  • Ability to present information in understandable tables, charts and graphs. Excellent academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records
  • A high level of individual responsibility, commitment and initiative
  • Other: Data storage and file management expertise Knowledge of Visual Basic/macros a plus Knowledge of Python a plus

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.

A detailed financial proposal based on the above deliverables should be attached to your application.

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.

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