National Consultancy - Public Finance for Children and Local Governance Consultant, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 11.5 months (Hybrid) - for Sierra Leonean Nationals Only

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, a future

Please access UNICEF Sierra Leone information here

How can you make a difference?

Background

In 2019, the Government of Sierra Leone and UNICEF estimated that 66 percent of children in Sierra Leone are deprived of one or more essential services such as education, health, nutrition, protection and shelter. Inadequate, and sometimes ineffective, inefficient, and inequitable public spending on sectors and programmes supporting children is one of the reasons for multiple and overlapping deprivations amongst children in Sierra Leone. This realization prompted UNICEF to bolster its work on Public Finance for Children (PF4C), since 2021. Specifically, UNICEF aims to further strengthen evidence building and analysis of trends to identify challenges and opportunities for increasing and improving the quality of public spending on social sectors in a transparent and accountable manner at all levels of government.

The key question of concern to UNICEF is the extent to which public budgets and related fiscal policies are responsive to children’s rights and whether public resources at all levels are used for intended purposes (transparency and accountability), benefiting the most marginalized. With very limited fiscal space to increase social sector spending, the focus should be on improving efficiency and effectiveness of expenditures by understanding the public financial management system at the central and local level, fiscal decentralization and devolution, and government capacity at all levels to ensure value for money in social spending.

Local government, along with other local stakeholders, play a key role in ensuring access to goods and basic services, including for the most marginalized communities, and the well-being of children and adolescents is frequently determined by decisions made by local governments. Further efforts are needed to strengthen and coordinate activities under this programme area, creating synergies between ongoing sectoral activities at local level, mapping capacity gaps and implementing capacity building activities for sustainable strengthening of local governance. Specifically, UNICEF is keen to support the government of Sierra Leone to develop a framework for local governance to:

• Action Area 1: Support local government and other stakeholders in the generation and analysis of geographically disaggregated data and evidence.
• Action Area 2: Strengthen local planning and budgeting processes and support local government resource mobilization.
• Action Area 3: Empower communities and provide them with the tools and mechanisms to influence local decision making and monitor local service provision.
• Action Area 4: Support local government in the implementation, coordination and oversight of local service delivery arrangements.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The purpose of this assignment is to further strengthen UNICEF Sierra Leone’s capacity to undertake timely and robust analysis of government budget allocation and spending and to strengthen the evidence base for meaningful engagement with UNICEF staff, policy and budget makers (including Parliament) at both national and sub-national level on PF4C. UNICEF’s ultimate objective is to see public spending in Sierra Leone become increasingly child responsive, equitable, efficient and effective.

Secondly, the assignment is intended to strengthen UNICEF’s engagement on local governance for children, ensuring synergies between sectoral activities and levels of government, and strengthening child participation in local governance.

Scope of Work

The Consultant will take the lead in coordinating and further developing the programme and work plan on local governance and PF4C. This will include initiating and maintaining networks with key stakeholders in the sector, both government, development partners and civil society. The consultant will work in close collaboration with the EPSP section chief, chiefs of field offices and programme sections with the technical support of the West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO).

More specifically the Consultant will be responsible for:

• Supporting programme sections (health, education, nutrition, WASH, etc.) in undertaking PF4C activities including PERs, investment cases, fiscal space analyses, etc. to identify trends.
• Mapping of the social sector spending processes to identify challenges in planning, budgeting, and execution to improve efficiency, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of social spending to achieve value for money.
• PF4C macroeconomic scanning (periodic analysis of macro-economic trends including resource mobilization).
• Coordination of capacity gap assessment and plan for capacity building activities for local government officials.
• Coordinate and implement capacity building activities for local government officials with a specific focus on strengthening district development plans.
• Provide technical assistance and input to reviews of policy and legal framework for decentralization and local governance as applicable.
• District Development Coordination Committees (DDCCs).
• Child participation in local governance.
• Developing and coordinating national partnerships for budget analysis and improved budget transparency and social accountability.

Management, Organization and Timeframe:

The position will be managed and supervised by the UNICEF Sierra Leone Chief of Evidence, Policy and Social Protection and the incumbent will provide regular updates on the activities implemented and deliverables achieved.

The duration of the consultancy is 175 working days over a period of 11.5 months.

Please find attached the full ToR for this consultancy: TOR PF4C Local Governance National Consultant _17032023.pdf

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

Education

An advanced university degree in economics, business studies, development studies, public administration and any other related social sciences.

Experience and Skills Required

• A minimum of 8 years’ experience in the field of macroeconomic analysis, public finance management, local government or related fields.
• Knowledge of public finance concepts including value for money in social sectors, budget cycle and processes, and costing methods
• Good analytical skills, especially applied to economics and public finance
• Advanced quantitative analysis and capacity to synthesize large data sets and information in a clear and user-friendly manner.
• Knowledge of the Sierra Leonean budget cycle, key budget documents and key actors is required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the legal and regulatory frameworks for local governance in Sierra Leone.
• Demonstrated understanding of local governance structure, government policies, guidelines, legislation, and strategies in Sierra Leone.
• Strong experience in providing technical assistance to national and local government, including through participatory approaches.
• Excellent computer skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office Package, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Excellent communication and advocacy skills as well as excellent written and spoken English and Krio.

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.