Individual Consultancy: Conduct budget analyses of the 2021 State Budget and 2022 Budget Proposal and produce Social Action Budget Brief and Social Sectors Brief (Budget Memo)

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, Hope

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE.

The SPEAR section aims to hire a consultant to conduct budget analyses and produce analytical and advocacy products to be used by the office to advance equitable investments for children, at different moments of the budget cycle. The analyses will have to result in two key products: (i) Social Action Budget Brief; and (ii) Budget Memo. The Social Protection Budget Brief should be based on the 2021 Enacted Budget and the Budget Memo on the 2022 Budget Proposal and then be revised once the 2022 Budget is approved by the Parliament. Other documents to be considered as key references for the analyses include the 2021 Annual Government Plan – PES; Government 5Year Plan 2020-2024; Budget Execution Reports from the past 10 years; Medium Term Expenditures Review from the period of 2011-2021; Social Protection Strategies; Children National Action Plan; Census data (2017); Budget Household Survey (2014-2015); Poverty and Wellbeing Reports; CRC Concluding Observations and SDG Voluntary Report and other relevant statistical and scientific reports.

The Social Protection Budget Brief aim to:

• To catalyse the discussion with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action, Social Protection partners, Ministry of Economy and Finance, International Finance Institutions and Members of the Parliament on the need to scale up social protection and to better finance social protection schemes in order to respond to the socioeconomic multiple crises (COVID-19 pandemic, military conflict and natural disasters). The analysis should provide an overview of the social protection situation context – providing a clear picture of the impact of the these multiple crises to the sector through macroeconomic lens; allocation and execution tendencies from past decade; and a verbatim landscape of the Social Protection composition in Mozambique, highlighting the different schemes, the coverage of each scheme, the bottlenecks, the challenges. Looking to the programmatic and implementation mechanisms.
• Examine means to improve efficiency gains through better management of resources, including monitoring, reporting and accountability mechanisms. Examine the strategic SP objectives and assess the progress so far to meet the sector goals and expenditure rates. Inform on the achievements of the sector on the major goals and objectives highlighted in the sector strategies and other national strategies. Provide evidence on the equity approach and per capita in the allocation of resources to the different provinces, with clear demonstrations.
• Discuss the capacity of the Government to mobilize resources to finance Social Protection programs and the cost of social protection in Mozambique. Ultimately discuss the coordination mechanisms, capacity to deliver, reporting and accountability mechanisms.

The Budget Memo aim to:

• To inform UNICEF, parliament, Civil Society, academia, development partners and the public on the situation of Social Sectors in general in regard to PFM issues. The Budget Memo will primarily discuss on macroeconomic issues of the 2022 budget proposal, including the fiscal policy, economic projections and the criteria for budget allocation to sectors and to provinces. Secondly the Memo will provide a snapshot of each of the four social sectors, which includes: Education, Health, Social Action and Water and Sanitation. The snap shot will include the trends of sectors allocation, the weight of each sector in the Budget proposal and in the GDP; the source of the resources and major goals of objectives for the fiscal year.

METHODOLOGY AND TECHNICAL APPROACH.

The methodology to be applied will be desk review and consultations with key stakeholders. The consultant will have to read the key relevant PFM instruments available in Mozambique, which include legal instruments, policies, strategies, operational plans and budget documents. Part of the desk review will be based on previous year’s UNICEF budget briefs.

Consultations through phone, skype or face to face meetings with key stakeholders to be involved, which include UNICEF programme staff, partners from CSOs, Government and donor community will inform the analyses.

ACTIVITIES AND TASKS.

Social Action 2021 Budget Brief:

• Conduct analyses of the 2021 State Budget and produce the Social Protection budget brief;
• Results should be presented in word version with illustrative figures- graphs, tables, maps and diagrams. A separate excel sheet with all the data file, and a power-point summarizing the key points to highlight should be included as part of the deliverables;
• Produce in-depth analysis of the Social Action sector. Please see details of the analytical work required in the outline in annex A.
• Do data quality control of the text and all the graphs, tables, maps and diagrams in the Social Protection brief during the layout and designing phase. Layout and design will be under UNICEF responsibility.

Develop a 2-pager of main messages.

Budget Memo of the 2022 Budget:

• Produce an analysis of key facts of macroeconomic framework and the social sectors (Education, Health, Water and Sanitation and Social Action), with content and format based on previous year’s UNICEF’s Budget Memo 2021-2018 as per the outline in annex B;
• Revise the Budget Memo 2022 - once the Budget is approved to reflect any changes that may have occurred;
• Deliver all products in word, accompanied by excel sheet with all data file as well as the PowerPoint.

DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENTS.

Payments will be processed upon acceptance of the corresponding deliverable and against an invoice that will refer to the contract reference and deliverable number. Payments will be approved by the contract supervisor.

Deliverable 1:

Delivery timeframe (specify weeks, months or working days): End March 2021

Deliverable/product(s): Social Protection budget brief preliminary version

Payment (indicate amount or %): USD 0

Deliverable 2:

Delivery timeframe (specify weeks, months or working days): End May 2021

Deliverable/product(s): Social Action budget brief – final version and a 2-pager

Payment (indicate amount or %): USD 8,000

Deliverable 3:

Delivery timeframe (specify weeks, months or working days): 30th June 2021

Deliverable/product(s): Quality assurance (data and text) of designed Budget Briefs 2021

Payment (indicate amount or %): USD 500

Deliverable 3:

Delivery timeframe (specify weeks, months or working days): Mid-October 2021

Deliverable/product(s): Budget Memo based on the 2022 Budget Proposal.

Payment (indicate amount or %): USD 8,000

Deliverable 4:

Delivery timeframe (specify weeks, months or working days): End January 2022

Deliverable/product(s): Revised Budget Memo based on 2022 Enacted Budget

Payment (indicate amount or %): USD 2,400

All products must be delivered in English or Portuguese.

MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION.

Orientation and supervision will under the Social Policy Officer, with a close collaboration with the Social Policy Specialist and other members of the team. The consultancy will commence in the beginning of March 2021 and terminate in the end of February 2022.

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

• Advanced degree in Economics, Finance, Development Studies, Public Policies and other Governance areas.

  Work experience. At least 4 years of relevant work experience in doing similar analysis.

  Experience in doing budget analysis for UNICEF highly preferred.

  Specific knowledge, competencies, and skills required.

  • A solid knowledge of Mozambique PFM ecosystem and its instruments, and proven experience on similar analyses of the State Budget with focus on social sectors;
  • Strong analytical and writing skills, and the ability to present the results in a simple language, making use of interesting visual aid (maps, graphs and other visual tools);
  • Consolidated knowledge and foundation on crosscutting themes such as equity and sectoral decentralization;
  • Ability to conduct benefit incidence analysis using Household Survey data and budgetary and population data.

  Language skills.

  • High proficiency in written English and Portuguese: Working knowledge of Portuguese is a must as most of the relevant national information and data are in Portuguese, and of English is also important as many documents and data for regional and global comparison are in English
  • High capacity to digest financial statements and strategy documents and to present them in an appealing manner.

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.

Annex 3 - template - Terms of Reference 2021 Budget Analysis SPEaR.docx

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.