International Consultant to support aligning local financing for SDGs, 70 w/ds, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Consultant Programme & Policy

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,

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, advocacy, and operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The Government of Tajikistan has made notable progress in mainstreaming the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in national policies and development planning systems. This has included adapting and using SDG targets for benchmarking national development, alignment of national priorities with the SDGs and establishing the National Development Council (NDC) under the President of Tajikistan. NDC serves as the platform for coordination and oversight of SDGs and the national development strategy. UN Agencies have also helped in strengthening national financing architecture. An integrated national financing framework (INFF) rollout has improved financing planning, the general costing of priorities, and coordination at the national level.

Despite the impressive gains in the last decade, it is likely that with the current trend, Tajikistan will not achieve 70% of SDG targets by 2030 (Voluntary National Review 2023). There are widespread disparities in the state of development by geography, population segments, and gender. The access to and quality of public services in the regions is relatively poor. In some regions of Tajikistan, girls and women are unable to have the same opportunities as boys and men. Unequal access to health care, education, and economic opportunities are key barriers to advancing the SDGs at the local level.

Around 60% of the 169 SDG targets require action at the sub-national level. However, Tajikistan faces multiple challenges in localizing SDGs, such as local capacities, limited awareness, and weak systems and procedures for mainstreaming SDGs in the local planning and budgeting processes. Although the current system of public administration is centralized, the local governments are increasingly responsible for the provision of services and play a key role in the allocation of funding for social services. Almost 90% of funding for the education sector is channeled through sub-national governments.

To accelerate the implementation of SDG targets at the local level, UN in Tajikistan has launched a programme titled “SDG localization” implemented jointly by UNICEF and UN Women. The programme is funded by Joint SDG Fund and will help the to strengthen local financial planning and budgeting in selected districts, making local policymaking and resource allocation more inclusive and aligned with SDG objectives and targets, with a focus on the education sector.

The programme will be implemented in partnership and close coordination with the government stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Ministry of Education and Science, local governments and civil society organisations.

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Tajikistan is seeking a qualified individual international consultant to provide timely and high-quality technical support to programme implementation through evidence generation, strengthening local capacities in effective planning and budgeting and documenting learning and advocating for child-related priorities to be better reflected at the local level.

Duration: 23 September 2024-31 August 2025 (including at least 2 times travel to Tajikistan and in-country).

Supervisor: Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Tajikistan.

The ultimate goal of this assignment is to promote evidence based local investments in the SDGs through advocacy, active participation and testing procedures for subsequent scaling up across other regions of Tajikistan.

The specific objective of the joint programme is knowledge sharing and capacity development of state and non-state local institutions on participatory local planning and budgeting processes. A participatory approach to planning and budgeting not only promotes transparency and accountability but also helps in proper allocation of resources to address local priorities and the needs of vulnerable groups. The focus of the project will be education sector in particular and other social sectors in general to draw lessons and generate good practices which can then be replicated in other sectors going forward.

The joint programme will build on learning and success of a previous joint initiative “Financing the SDGs in Tajikistan”. The previous initiative has contributed to a comprehensive analysis of the education sector, including a fiscal space assessment, gender responsive budget analysis with a focus on education sector. Thus, the current programme will enable local level planning and budgeting process to align financing to development priorities in the education sector with a gender focus.

The proposed assignment provides contribution to implementation of the joint programme outputs and pursues the following objectives: 1. Evidence generation to inform advocacy and design of tools and process for local gender responsive planning and budgeting. 2. Strengthening institutional capacities and participation and awareness raising 3. Development of guidance on SDGs localisation for wider geographic and (other) sectoral coverage The activities under this consultancy will learn from and also contribute to a recently launched project on inclusive pre-primary education implemented in 20 districts of the country implemented by UNICEF. One of the pre-primary education project’s components is to improve planning and budgeting process and develop financial modelling for scaling up of inclusive pre-primary education at the local level.

Scope and anticipated activities of the assignment:

Under the supervision of the Social Policy Specialist, the International Consultant will complete the assignment in the following phases: Phase 0. Inception, consultations and finalisation of the methodology.

During this project inception phase, the Consultant will review current context and the situation with regard to planning, budgeting and financing at the local level and will develop a methodology, including workplan and timeline for the entire assignment. The methodology should be described in the inception report together with other specific and important aspects to be taken into consideration during implementation. Multi-stakeholder dialogue/consultations (mainly online/remote) should be conducted to reflect local feedback in the methodology.

The inception report must include a data collection framework to better understand the planning, budgeting and flow of funds at the local level. The consultant needs to apply the inclusion, gender, localization and equity lenses throughout the analysis.

Deliverable:

• Inception report with the methodology and workplan for the entire assignment Phase 1. Evidence generation to inform advocacy and design of tools and processes for local gender-responsive planning and budgeting Phase 1 will aim to undertake a baseline assessment to identify knowledge gaps, financing challenges and the current state of planning and budgeting in general and in the pilot districts. The assessment will also help to find entry points on how best the joint project can contribute to planning and budgeting in the education sector that benefits vulnerable groups and can be replicated in other sectors and geographic areas beyond this project. The assessment will examine the situation of vulnerable populations (women, children, youth, persons with disabilities) who are at risk of being left behind. This is expected to be done through a thorough analysis of available data disaggregated by gender, age, and disability and, where possible, collection of data on local planning and budgeting, including information on gender-responsive and child-friendly planning and budgeting and the status of existing district development plans. The assessment will help narrow down key problems in local planning and budgeting and analyse political economy issues, including participation and decision-making processes. The assignment will be based on desk review of existing studies, documents and data including in education sector to understand education system, practice and performance related to planning and budgeting, and identify which information and data are not available and thus need to be collected additionally by local experts/consultants.

Deliverable:

• Baseline assessment covering situation analysis and policy recommendations Phase 2. Strengthening institutional capacities for active participation in local planning and budgeting process Based on the results of the assessment, evidence-based advocacy tools and capacity development will be developed to raise awareness of local authorities, civil society and other stakeholders about public participation in local planning and budgeting. The aim is to develop a system for meaningful public engagement in the budgetary process and promote actions that are guided by evidence, are inclusive, and measure the impact on progress towards the SDGs.

The consultant is expected to develop the tools and activities for capacity building and awareness raising activities to support child and gender responsive planning and budgeting in general and for education sector in particular. This will include but not limited to the following: tools and activities will cover capacity strengthening and public information activities on public participation in the planning, budget process and public budget hearings, targeted communication materials and content for social media and community events.

The expected results of the capacity building of key stakeholders and awareness raising activities are better participation of local actors including communities, women, and young people in decisions impacting their development. Awareness-raising sessions will also serve as an opportunity to brainstorm on key policy priorities and plans and collect local inputs to accelerate the SDGs, particularly SDG-4 and SDG-5.

Based on capacity mapping exercise, the consultant will develop capacity development plan and will focus on social planning, budgeting and financing, gender and child-responsive budgeting, policy coherence, and greater use of development indicators.

Deliverable:

• Evidence based advocacy tools and capacity development plan
• Tools and plan for awareness raising activities
• Co-lead a series of trainings/learning sessions on selected topics based on capacity mapping exercise

Phase 3. Development of guidance on SDG localization to roll out in other sectors and additional districts

During the phase 3, the consultant will document the learning, best practices, challenges and ways to rapidly scale up local budgeting, child and gender-responsive budgeting and financing for the SDGs. The consultant will present the best practices and lessons learned in the final round table discussions at the national and sub-national levels at the end of the project implementation.

Deliverable:

• Lessons learnt and best practices of the joint programme documented and presented during the final events at the national and sub-national levels.
• Final report compiling achievements, challenges and recommendations as a result of joint programme

Work Assignment

№

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Anticipated Timeline

Number of days

Payment schedule

1

Draft Inception report with detailed work plan

• Detailed Work Plan with set of activities and timeline

07 Oct.24

5

20% in December 2024

2

Conduct baseline assessment/ situation analysis of planning, budgeting, and financing SDGs at the local level with the lens of inclusion "leave no one behind."

• Inception report with the methodology for the entire assignment

• Baseline assessment covering situation analysis and policy recommendations

28 Oct.24

16 Dec.24

15

3

Formulate and disseminate recommendations for addressing gaps pertaining to the inclusive planning, budgeting, and financing of SDGs at the local level.

5

3

Develop advocacy tools, guidance notes, and checklists for local governments to facilitate improved and inclusive planning and budgeting.

• Evidence based advocacy tools and capacity development plan

24 Feb.25

10

60 % in June 2025

4

Develop communication materials for inclusive financing at the local level and a communication plan for local actors, communities, and other stakeholders, aimed at promoting active participation in the local planning and budgeting processes.

• Communication plan, tools and activities for awareness raising activities to actively engage local actors

07 Apr.25

10

5

Organize capacity-building sessions for 60 government staff across two districts, focusing on enhancing the process of local planning, budgeting, and financing for SDGs.

• A series of trainings/learning sessions on selected topics based on capacity mapping exercise

May-June 25

15

6

Organize a national-level and 2 roundtable discussion at the local level focused on the lessons learned and best practices derived from the implementation of the joint project.

• Lessons learnt, best practices and recommendations report
• Round tables at national and local levels organized to present best practices
• Project Completion/Final Report

July 2025

10

20% in August 2025

Total

70 days

100%

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

• Education: Advanced University Degree (Master's) in Economics, Public Finance, Public Policy and Administration or other relevant field
• Work experience: A minimum of 7 years’ experience in the area of public finance management, local government or related fields.
• Knowledge of the Tajikistan budget cycle, key budget documents and key actors is desirable.
• Experience in budget analysis, costing and developing investment cases in key sectors for children such as health, education, water and sanitation, social protection, nutrition is an asset.
• Experience in child and gender responsive budgeting will be an asset.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the legal and regulatory frameworks for local governance. Demonstrated understanding of local governance structure, government policies, guidelines, legislation, and strategies.
• Excellent report writing and analytical skills.
• Languages: Proficient in academic writing and presentation in English and Russian.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

• CV and cover letter
• Technical proposal with proposed methodology/approach to managing the project, showing understanding of tasks and work plan (no price information should be contained in the technical proposal).
• Financial proposal (separate package) specifying consultancy fee, per day of work, requested for the tasks described in the Terms of Reference in USD at the following link
• Short sample or links to related work previously conducted by the consultant.
• List of referees
• Applications without technical and financial proposals will not be considered.

Applications must be received in the system by 1 September 2024 on UNICEF website.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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.

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.

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.

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Added 2 days ago - Updated 5 hours ago - Source: unicef.org