Individual Contractor - Child-Focused Sub-National Level Budget Analysis, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Conduct thorough child-focused budget analysis for Mongolia.

You have:

• An advanced University Degree in Finance, Economics, Public Policy, Governance or other relevant areas
• Knowledge and understanding about on-going reforms in PFM and budgeting and planning processes in the country
• A solid knowledge of PFM instruments and proven experience (at least 8 years) with government social sector budget analysis
• Experience with working with complex financial data sets
• Good analytical and writing skills, and the ability to present the results making use of visual aids (maps, graphs and other visual tools)
• High proficiency in both English and Mongolian (both oral and written)
• Previous work with the UN and UNICEF will be considered an asset

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, results.

Sub-national governments, along with other local stakeholders, play a key role in ensuring all children’s rights are protected - including the right to be healthy, to have a safe living environment, to be able to access basic services, and to development and participation. The decisions governments make about how they budget and spend on social services are critical to children and to equitable development overall. If allocations are insufficient, concentrated on better-off groups, or used poorly, all children - and especially the most disadvantaged - risk losing access to services and programmes that enable them to survive and thrive, learn, be free from violence and exploitation, live in a safe and clean environment, and have an equitable chance in life.

UNICEF Mongolia works with the Ministry of Finance to increase investment for children; to improve equity, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending in the social sectors; and to improve access to and quality of social services for children of Mongolia. At the sub-national level, UNICEF’s Child friendly communities (CFC) strategy supports local governments in realization of child rights, and materialization of the United Nation’s Convention on Child Rights and the SDGs objectives by strengthening their capacities.

UNICEF’s technical support to local governments in GFAs also aims to strengthen their capacities on planning, budgeting, and execution processes - and improve the child focus during the various stages of local development planning and budgeting cycles.

In the current Country programme, UNICEF has been working in 3 provinces (Bayankhongor, Gobi-Altai and Zavkhan) and 1 district of Ulaanbaatar capital (Bayanzurkh) since 2017. Omnogobi province was added into GFAs in 2020 based on the mid-term review’s recommendation, and will also be covered in the planned child focused budget analysis. Compared to other provinces in the country, Omnogobi is a unique province. It has the largest mining deposit of the country, finances itself and contributes significant revenue to the state budget. However, mining has also brought many challenges for children and families which requires sustainable solutions and resources. The province has a huge potential to allocate more resources for children to address the challenges.

To further strengthen local planning and budgeting for children, UNICEF Mongolia plans to undertake a child focused budget analysis at the local level in above mentioned GFAs to generate evidence on budget planning and spending patterns, and the budget allocation and expenditure for children, over the period from 2017-2020. This is necessary because no city or province can determine how well it is fulfilling its obligation for children without undertaking a thorough budget analysis, including a framework for examining how expenditures impact children.

In order to further stimulate advocacy and lobbying on advancing fiscal decentralization progress, there is also a need to generate credible evidence to influence the national government to improve budget allocation decisions for children at local levels, increase local government’s fiscal capacity, and provide necessary support to local governments to improve their budget planning and execution capacities for greater and more equitable results for children.

Hence, UNICEF Mongolia plans to engage with a local consultant who will conduct a thorough a child focused budget analysis at the sub-national level in 5 GFAs (4 provinces and UB city). This analysis will be carried out with a particular focus on analyzing local budgeting and planning trends on children; assessing the effectiveness of expenditure between allocated and actual expenditure; assessing the budgeting and planning processes, identifying main bottlenecks of local government in budgeting and a fiscal space for children; and proposing clear recommendations for national and local government to increase effectiveness and efficiency of budget spending, and increase investment for children at the sub-national level.

How can you make a difference

The main objective of the assignment is to conduct a thorough child focused analysis of local budget in GFAs, assess efficiency and equity, alignment of planning and budgeting at the local level with the focus on children, analyze the trends of child related budget and expenditure. It also aims to map scope of service service (functional) responsibilities affecting children that are assigned to sub-national governments and to provide recommendations to both local and national government on improving the local budget planning and spending for children.

• Analyze the trends in child related local budget and expenditure in local governments' entire budgets (local investment, local development fund, and provincial governors’ reserves fund, local revenues etc.) from 2017 to 2020 for Bayankhongor, Gobi-Altai, Zavkhan and Omnogobi provinces and UB city; assess allocated versus actual expenditure for children in those fiscal years;
• Assess the budget allocations against the national and local level programmes and plans for children to identify: the extent to which planning and budgeting are aligned; the extent to which programmes are affecting children at the local level and a priority of local governments; and whether the size, pattern of allocations, and actual expenditures meet the objective of promoting the rights of children;
• Analyze the allocations of special purpose transfers to health and education sectors that are important for children in above mentioned GFAs; and assess the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and adequacy of the budget to the extent possible;
• Identify fiscal space for children at sub-national level by assessing how local governments can create fiscal space to finance local child related services and programmes from local revenues and etc;
• Analyze the budget planning and decision making processes, including the child and citizen participation, at the local level and identify the related bottlenecks (legal environment, capacity, commitment etc) and provide recommendations to improve the processes, to make the local budget planning inclusive and equitable;
• Develop clear and actionable recommendations for local governments to improve planning and budgeting processes and expenditure for children;
• Propose clear and actionable recommendations for the national government to: improve budget allocation decisions on sub-national level budgeting; increase local government’s accountability and measures to improve budget execution performance and increase investment for children.

Contract duration: 17 August 2020- 30 October 2020

Working Conditions: The Contractor will be home based with a regular contact with the contract supervisor. Should official travel be required outside Ulaanbaatar city, UNICEF will cover the costs for travel and travel related costs in line with organizational policies and procedures.

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

• An advanced University Degree in Finance, Economics, Public Policy, Governance or other relevant areas;
• Knowledge and understanding about on-going reforms in PFM and budgeting and planning processes in the country;
• A solid knowledge of PFM instruments and proven experience (at least 8 years) with government social sector budget analysis;
• Experience with working with complex financial data sets;
• Good analytical and writing skills, and the ability to present the results making use of visual aids (maps, graphs and other visual tools);
• High proficiency in both English and Mongolian (both oral and written);
• Previous work with the UN and UNICEF will be considered an asset.

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.

The functional competencies required for this post are...

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF 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:

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org