Individual Contractor to Provide Technical Support to Public Finance for Children (PF4C)Development

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, Care

The overall purpose of UNICEF China’s Social Policy programming is to ensure that fewer children in China are subject to multidimensional poverty, through being better able to access affordable social protection mechanisms and quality social services. This will allow children’s rights to be protected – particularly the most vulnerable and those lagging behind - to better achieve their educational potential, be guaranteed of improved health outcomes, and assume their role as productive members of their society, community and family in the rapidly transforming environment in China.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF has been long working with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) to build national capacity to uphold child rights in the delivery and uptake of the essential social services. In line with the 14th Five-Year Social and Economic Development Plan (FYP) and by 2025, UNICEF specifically aims to ensure:

• National and selected subnational authorities have enhanced capacities to provide essential social services for children to enable them to grow up in a child-friendly environment;

• National and selected subnational authorities have enhanced capacities to increase quality outcomes for children, particularly by using evidence related to public financial investment.

To achieve these outputs above, UNICEF will continue to strengthen its partnership with the government counterparts and other partners on:

• Generating evidence on the equity and efficiency of public spending on essential social services;

• Developing fully costed, comprehensive service delivery models, and funding models of essential social service provision across the regions and rural and urban areas that are both sustainable and compatible with China’s highly decentralized governance;

• Consolidating the evidence generated and convene the international and national dialogues on the equity implications of fiscal and macroeconomic policies.

All the work above requires considerable technical support through working with national, provincial and city experts, especially, which is beyond the capacity of our current staffing. The Social Policy Section therefore requires a consultant with the related technical expertise and experiences, who can provide technical support to the national and subnational policy making and advocacy activities for the public finance for children (PF4C) development.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

Purpose of Assignment:

1) To provide technical inputs and coordination for the projects related to PF4C development, including:

• Public Financial Management Equity Assessment

• Scoping Study of Non-basic Public Services Development

• Study on Financing Mechanism Related to the Chinese Children's Healthcare Development

• Study on Employability of Out-of-School Adolescents

• Deep-dive Study on Public Finance for Childcare Service Development (e.g. how to improve the

related public financial investment and implementation at local level)

• Exploratory Study on National Demographic Development and Shifts

(2) To prepare memos/drafts/briefs for the UNICEF/GoC reporting;

(3) To support the stakeholder engagement activities for the related policy advocacy including but not limited to organization of meetings with GoC and other partners, analytic work related to the project objectives, and etc;

(4) To provide technical support for the regular macroeconomic, social policy monitoring and analytics.

During the period of the renovation ( from October 2021 to July 2022) of UNICEF China Office and due to the limited available space, the individual contractor is required to work from home about 50% days and 50% days in the Office as need. S/he should work on-site after the completion of the Office renovation. The individual contractor may be requested to conduct field trips for technical support to project sites, training and other tasks as appropriate.

The individual contractor will be paid monthly, based on the agreed monthly workplan, deliverables and a monthly progress report. The final payment will be made upon approval by the supervisor of the final consultancy report.

Complete submission of deliverables as per expected standard and quality as assessed by the supervisor is a prerequisite for payment of the fee. UNICEF reserves the right to adjust or withhold payments for late deliverables or for deliverables not meeting expected quality.

To learn more details about this assignment, pls visit TOR - TOR of Individual Contractor - PF4C.pdf

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

• Minimum Academic Qualifications required and disciplines:

  • At least master degree is required in economics, public policy, development studies, governance or a related field

  - Knowledge/Experience/Expertise/Skills required:

  • At least two years' relevant work experiences, preferably at the international or national level in the areas of public policy analysis and advocacy, development of capacity building activities and materials and implementation and monitoring of development projects;.

  • Good knowledge of key issues in international development and child rights, in relation to one or all of the following: public sector governance, public financial management, child rights, and government policies and programmes related to public services and/or child rights in China;

  • Excellent track record of engagement experiences with government partners, civil society and/or think tanks;

  • Fluency in written and spoken English and Chinese;

  • Previous experience in/with the UN, including knowledge of UN/UNICEF programmes and operations, policies and procedures is an asset; and

  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office software

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 UNICEF competencies required for this post are..

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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

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:

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.