Home-based Consultancy: Data Consolidation and Analysis of UNICEF Evidence (20 working days between Nov 2023 and Mar 2024) - Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

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, hope.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

UNICEF is seeking an individual consultant to conduct a descriptive analysis of UNICEF evidence from different internal platforms and documentation. This phase of evaluation consists of mapping the UNICEF data and setting up an architecture for data gathering and enabling/supporting the analysis. Data analysis will be done using python or R. Databricks (hosted in UNICEF server) may be considered as a data environment or similar ecosystem to ensure data protection, effective data harvesting and curation.

Background

Country Programme Evaluations (CPEs) in UNICEF play a key role in identifying lessons which can inform the design of the next Country Programme or adjustments to the current Programme and identify opportunities to improve UNICEF’s performance. The CPEs assess (i) the contribution of the Programme of Cooperation to national development results; (ii) UNICEF’s contribution to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSCDF) results; and (iii) UNICEF’s strategic positioning in relation to its child rights mandate.

In 2024, Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Regional evaluation section will manage CPEs for (9) country programmes: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, Türkiye, and, Turkmenistan, which are currently starting a new planning cycle and preparing for their country programme document.

A key input to the conduct of CPE will be data from its administrative information systems, including communication data, that are used for planning, monitoring, reporting and performance management. These can be used to map and analyse achievement of results, implementation of activities, budget allocation and expenditures, partnerships, and gender integration. These data can be particularly valuable to map out and analyse partnerships across the programme period and programmes. Gender marking and tagging of outputs, activities and expenditure is also happening, which can help address the gender evaluation questions. To support this process and handle the significant amount of internal data (including CPD, VISION data, HR databases, Insight, RAM, COARS, GAP, etc.), an individual is sought to be contracted to build the data architecture for synthesizing data for evaluation use.

Assignment Objective: Providing a descriptive analysis of the internally-gathered data will contribute to one of the main objectives of the CPE, specifically to: Provide an independent assessment of the strategies adopted by the country programme with regards to outcome areas, and how well these have contributed to the achievement of CP expected results. The CPEs will be conducted and written by a separate, independent team of evaluators.

Expected Result: The expected result of this exercise will be two-fold: (i) a data set with selected variables for the CPE period and will respond to each of the evaluation questions; and (ii) an online-based descriptive analysis of data collected with interactive graphs and tables, as required. This will be a critical input to the conduct and analysis of Country Programme Evaluations.

Scope of Work

The internal UNICEF evidence might come from different structured or unstructured forms. Some documentation review may also need to happen using natural language processing (NLP). This exercise also might include data scraping from UNICEF websites and corporate social media accounts. Data curation will be supported by respective UNICEF teams.

The primary data analysis will include

• Country programme documents (CPD)
• Country programme management plans (CPMP)
• Programme Effectiveness Reviews
• Workplans
• Other planning documents
• Partnership agreements
• Evaluations
• Analyses
• Internal databases: HR systems, VISION, Insight
• Communication stories and press releases
• Country social media listening reports
• Research and studies
• Gender action plans (GAP)
• Situation analyses (SITAN), as needed
• Common Country Assessments (CCA), as needed

Additional data sources might be identified during implementation. It may include administrative data, and additional qualitative information. Data will be stored in an appropriate internal data warehouse, accessible through UNICEF server with appropriate security protocols established by the organization. Separate accounts will be created for the evaluation team and evaluation managers in line with the ethical requirements. UNICEF will cover costs and maintenance of the server.

A database with identified variables (selection will be done in consultation with the ECARO evaluation team) will be produced for the period that the country programme evaluation covers. An interactive analysis supported with graphs and tables will be produced at the end of the analysis.

The descriptive analysis with figures will be related to the evaluation questions. Whenever information is of good quality and sufficient, a combination of different variables will be used for specific evaluation questions.

Work Assignment Overview

The consultant will work under the supervision of the UNICEF RO Evaluation team, and in collaboration with the UNICEF COs. Regular meetings will be at all stages of the project to monitor its progress.

The quality of the process and deliverables will be assessed and facilitated by UNICEF ECARO Evaluation Section. The consultant is responsible for ensuring the recommendations for the quality improvements are fully addressed.

The individual will be responsible for executing below tasks:

• Developing a realistic workplan
• Executing the analysis to answer the questions posed in the CPE ToR
• Generate evaluation products and deliverables listed
• Provide regular updates to the evaluation managers

Tasks / Milestone******Deliverables / Outputs******Timeline / DeadlineDescriptive analysis of UNICEF evidence from different internal platforms and documentationDesk review, Data mapping, frequency and flows2 working days;

By November 2023

Data harvesting, and data curation, natural language processing (NLP) when required4 working days;

By December 2023

Structured data Set with selected variables4 working days;

By January 2024

Online-based descriptive analysis10 working days;

By February 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

20 working days (between November 2023 and March 2024)

Consultant's Work Place and Official Travel

The assignment will be remote/home-based, no travel is foreseen.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a financial proposal (in USD) in your application based on 20 working days to undertake this assignment. Please do not include travel fees as this will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

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

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or relevant field for the assignment.
• Minimum three (3) years of relevant work experience. Proven experience in the analysis of data from different sources, qualitative and quantitative data using R and Python.
• A first degree in a relevant field combined with five (5) years of relevant professional experience will be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University degree.
• Expert in data science, data mining and big data analysis including the use of artificial intelligence for analysis of different sources of publicly available data.
• Proven experience in design and implementation of methods of text analysis.
• Working with different sets of data from structured and unstructured sources.
• Experience with social media listening analysis.
• Excellent ability to communicate and write in English.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most marginalized children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family 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:

Please include a full CV in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered. 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.