National Individual Consultant: Development of the Ministry of Social Development Strategy (MOSD) 2024-2027- UNICEF State of Palestine

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, Development

UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access services and protection, from early childhood through to adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential. We are working for every child and young person in the State of Palestine.

In line with the 2024-2029 strategic planning development, the Palestinian government has instituted a six-year planning cycle, and currently, the main strategic planning document is the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2023. The NDP is built on the sector and cross-sector strategies. As the current NDP and sector strategies end by December 2023 and a new six-year planning cycle will begin in 2023 for the period 2024-2029, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is launching a new national planning cycle upon a cabinet decision on 28th November 2022 endorsing the new “Strategic Planning Approach in the State of Palestin, SOP.

The purpose of this assignment is to develop the MoSD Strategy (2024-2029) and MoSD Action Plan (2024-2026), which require a senior consultant with specific expertise in programming, including “Theory of Change” and “Results Frameworks”, and in social development/social protection who will be dedicated full time to the process of drafting and facilitating strategy development including discussions/consultations at the highest level. These consultations will include high-level officials from key line ministries, development and humanitarian international partners, and civil society representatives. These consultations are important as many social protection assistance and services are delivered not only by MoSD, but also by MoSD national and international partners. The consultations should also be held at the local level in different regions of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip and include representatives from the Planning and Community Partnership Councils (PCPCs), local government units, local civil society organizations (CSOs) in addition to representatives of vulnerable groups including poor, children, persons with disabilities, women, children, youth, and old persons.

How can you make a difference?

The specific objectives of the consultancy are:

1. Support MoSD to develop its Strategy (2024-2029) through a desk review of all available data, reports, assessments, sub-strategies, and cross-sectoral strategies, and through a participatory approach including a wide consultation process with key national and international stakeholders/partners.
2. Support MoSD to develop its Action Plan 2024-2026 in line with the planning and budgeting systems in the SoP, including the budget programmes.

Key assignments of this consultancy include:

1. Desk review for the SDSS (2021-2023) and its action plan, (and for other strategies developed by MoSD and other relative strategies, studies, assessments, data, draft laws, and reports developed by other stakeholders).
2. Conduct a sector review to better understand the MoSD strategy development context and recommendations.
3. Build consensus around the development process of the MoSD strategy with MoSD and other relevant partners (national, civil, private, and international/ development and humanitarian).
4. Coach and inform MoSD’s different departments and technical teams on the strategy development process including content, structure, and architecture.
5. Support the MoSD to draft the strategy and action plan.
6. Ensure that the MoSD strategy is developed through a fully participatory approach to include all main stakeholders, in line with the MoSD’s directives and “Strategic Planning Methodology in the State of Palestine” and the “Planning Guidelines” that the PMO developed to assist line ministries in developing their strategies.
7. Ensure the MoSD strategy to be in line with the enhancement of the social protection system including the national social registry and the national case management system.
8. Ensure mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues that should be determined at the beginning of the planning process and should include the integration of relevant priorities from the four cross-sectoral strategies (Gender, Public Finance, Environment and Youth) in addition to cross-cutting areas that the MoSD strategy should include, mainly multidimensional poverty alleviation strategy, economic empowerment, disability, early childhood development, combating gender-based violence, combating violence against children, and any other areas MoSD or its partners find appropriate.
9. In the process of the development of the MoSD strategy, the development of a) an action plan for the strategy implementation and b) a costing exercise for the strategy implementation to inform the budgeting process and in line with the MoSD budget programmes.
10. Ensure that the strategy development process, informative workshops, consultation meetings and field visits are carried out with relevant parties and stakeholders (line ministries and public institutions, international, private sector, humanitarian cash actors and CSOs).

11. The main working language of developing the MoSD Strategy 2024-2029 and the MoSD Action Plan 2024-2026 will be Arabic. To ensure active participation of international partners, it is expected from the consultant to develop some materials in English for consultation purposes and to review the translated versions of both documents as the completed versions will be submitted in both Arabic and English.

    Methodology and Implementation Phases. To view the TOR click MoSD Strategy 2024-2029 Developmnt - ToR- 9 Feb 2023.pdf

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

• A Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Social Policy/Social Protection, Planning, Economics, International Development, or other relevant disciplines. A Bachelor's degree with demonstrable professional experience in the areas of social policy/social protection can be considered.
• At least 10 years of experience of work in development work, including social policy/social protection.
• Previous experience in work related to national development planning, including the National Development Plan and the Social Protection Sector Strategy preferred.
• Knowledge of the Palestinian socio-economic context, including social protection issues in SoP.
• Fluency in Arabic and English. Strong Arabic and English report writing skills.
• Strong analytical and conceptual thinking, with a drive for results.
• Good facilitation and negotiation skills.
• Previous experience in facilitating and working with a large group of stakeholders
• Committed and motivated to achieve results in a given time frame

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.