Expert to Support the Regional Working Group on Education Financing, Panama City, Panama/Education Section, 4months (Home-Based)

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy

Overview

Support the Regional Working Group on Education Financing and generate a comprehensive report.

You have:

• A Bachelor/master’s degree in education, social sciences, economy, or related fields.
• At least 10 years of experience in skills development, education, public finance.
• Fluency in Spanish and English (reading, speaking, and writing).
• Extensive experience in skills development, education.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to synthesize and simplify complex information.
• Understanding of education systems, budgetary analysis, and public finance.
• Familiarity with the Public-Private ecosystem involved in education finance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, excellent technical communication with peers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Innovative and creative.

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

The UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office is based in in Panama, operating in 36 territories, including 24 country offices.

UNICEF works to put the rights and well-being of the most disadvantaged children at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children.

For more information about UNICEF and its work. (www.unicef.org/lac)..)

UNICEF actively participates in the Regional Working Group on Education Financing led by ECLAC, with the participation of the World Bank, CAF, UNESCO, and other institutions. This group meets monthly to generate a framework for education financing. UNICEF has identified the opportunity to collaborate by providing relevant inputs that will have an impact on this framework.

In addition, the UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has deemed it pertinent to generate a significant regional study on education financing.

How can you make a difference?

Generate a report titled: Financial sustainability in education as an enabling requirement for the reactivation, recovery and transformation of education in Latin America and the Caribbean

With the following indicative outline:

• Executive summary (1 page)
• Introduction
• I. Agreements and commitments adopted (2 pages)
• II. What to do: New approaches to invest more, and more efficiently and equitably (7 pages)
• III. How to do it: Proposals to strengthen financial sustainability in education (4 pages)
• IV. Final considerations (1 page)

Specific Tasks

• Review of global and regional agreements on educational investment, and key documents on educational financing issues. Agreements and bibliography to be reviewed will be previously identified by the counterpart.
• Participation (virtually) in 4-5 meetings of the Working Group on financing convened within the framework of the Ministerial of Education - Santiago 2024 between the period of September to December 2024.
• Incorporation of comments and observations in the intermediate draft and final document.

Expected Results

• The main expected result for this consultancy is the provision of a critical input for the design of a comprehensive framework for education financing. The final version and specially the previous stages of the document presented at the periodic meetings will orient the discussions of the regional group strengthening the stakeholder engagement and collaborative aim of this initiative. Finally, it will also play a catalytic role in capacity building and knowledge transfer process related to this topic.

* Preliminary list of agreements/declarations to be reviewed:

• Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 4
• Transforming Education Summit (TES)
• Meetings of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean
• HLSC Sherpa Group Meeting

** Preliminary list of documents to be reviewed:

• UNICEF’s Engagements in Influencing Domestic Public Finance for Children: A Global Programme Framework https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/UNICEF_Public_Finance_for_Children.pdf
• FINANCING AN INCLUSIVE RECOVERY FOR CHILDREN A CALL TO ACTION https://www.unicef.org/media/103276/file/UNICEF-Financing-An-Inclusive-Recovery-For-Children-Call-To-Action.pdf
• The UNICEF Public Finance Toolkit https://www.unicef.org/documents/public-finance-toolkit
• How to Engage in Budget Cycles and Processes to Leverage Government Budgets for Children

• https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/Engaging_in_Budget_Cycles_and_Processes_FINAL.pdf

• Guidelines for the monitoring of national education budgets https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidelines-monitoring-national-education-budgets

• Huepe, M. (2024), “El desafío de la sostenibilidad financiera de la educación en América Latina y el Caribe”, Documentos de Proyectos (LC/TS.2024/1), Santiago, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL)/Banco Mundial/Fundación Ford/Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO).

• Documento/agenda gasto inteligente en educación (BID)
• González, J. (2024), “Marco de Transformación Educativa” (Capitulo financiamiento), SUMMA.
• CLADE/LATINDADD/Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe (2023), “Justicia fiscal para el derecho humano a la educación: una mirada regional desde América Latina”.

Deliverables

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

• A Bachelor/master’s degree in education, social sciences, economy, or related fields advanced university degree.
• At least 10 years of experience in skills development, education, public finance.
• Fluency in Spanish and English (reading, speaking, and writing).
• Extensive experience in skills development, education,
• Strong analytical skills and ability to synthesize and simplify complex information.
• Understanding of education systems, budgetary analysis, and public finance.
• Familiarity with the Public-Private ecosystem involved in the education finance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, excellent technical communication with peers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Innovative and creative.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS)

UNICEF competencies: building 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 and works collaboratively with others.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

Administrative details

Supervision: The consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of the UNICEF LACRO Education Advisor.

Workplace: The consultancy is home-based. Travel may be involved. International/national travel may be required, discussed and agreed with the consultant (a separate travel line will be included in the contract).

Duration: Estimated start date is September 2 - December 27, 2024 (aprox. 4 months).

How to Apply: Application should be submitted online and should include: TMS application form duly completed, Cover Letter, Study certificates and financial proposal (Daily fee or deliverable fee).

Qualified candidates are requested to indicate an all-inclusive (lump sum) fees for the services to be including all associated administrative and travel costs.

Consultants must have their own equipment, tools and materials needed to perform their services. They will use their own laptops/computers, any application or system needed to complete the assignment. They need to provide the full service without using UNICEF resources. The access to UNICEF email and system is restricted to UNICEF staff therefore consultants should not be granted access unless it is imperative to complete the assignment.

Travel

Travel is not foreseen for this consultancy. Should travel is requested, it will be covered by UNICEF as per policy.

• Travel costs will be estimated and added to the contract once they are determined based on UNICEF Financial Rules and Regulations. • For agreed country visits, the contractor/consultant will be responsible in administering their own travel. UNICEF will reimburse travel related expenses based on actual costs or on the below Travel criteria whichever is lower and upon presentation of receipts. • Any travel involved should be budgeted according to UN Travel Standards as a ceiling. • UN Secretariat Administrative Instruction on Official Travel, STLA1L2013L3: Sect. 4, para. 4.2, numerals (d) and (e) • For information on Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA), can be found on the International Civil Service Commission website (all countries and destinations can be found by navigating on the map).

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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.

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.

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Potential interview questions

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