New Consultancy: Technical support for the design of an emergency supplies financing structure for UNICEF, 12 months - Hybrid Location

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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, Support...

UNICEF responds to emergencies on an almost daily basis: from earthquakes to droughts, and conflict-induced humanitarian crises. Providing relevant supplies like drugs, vaccines, shelters, and education kits is a key part of emergency response: in 2021, UNICEF procured almost $690m in emergency supplies for 139 countries and areas, excluding the COVID-19 response .

UNICEF has always recognized that emergencies, including Public Health Emergencies (PHEs), are inherently unpredictable – so being fully prepared means a risk of having products that are not needed, or expire. However, the concept of ‘No regrets’ buying or ‘no regrets moves’ has risen dramatically in prominence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic . The scale of the emergency, and the fierceness of competition for PPE and vaccines really highlighted the need to move quickly even if demand was uncertain.

UNICEF is seeking technical support to advise on the design of financing structures to facilitate better preparedness for, and responses to, a range of emergencies by allowing UNICEF Supply Division to make more products available in a timely and equitable manner including through use of ‘no regrets’ approaches.

How can you make a difference?

Working with relevant stakeholders and teams within UNICEF Supply Division, this consultant will lead the design of a financing structure or group of financing structures (hereafter referred to as a ‘Facility’). This includes:

1. Conceptual design – landscape analysis

• What tools and partnerships does UNICEF use today for at-risk procurement and procurement on a ‘no regrets’ basis? What kinds of purchasing do they allow?
• What types of products would UNICEF ideally be able to procure at-risk, in support of its overarching strategy on PHEs and wider emergencies?
• What types of supply-side use cases might this new Facility have; e.g., pre-positioning, stockpiling, buying at risk in the face of uncertain demand, incenting maintenance of ‘ever-warm’ manufacturing capacity, incenting new products/innovations?
• What are the limitations of the tools and partnerships today? What (desired) procurement is not feasible with these tools?
• What gaps could a new Facility fill? At a conceptual level, what impacts might this have on supply for emergencies – timeliness of response, scale of response, breadth of response?
• Engender management support for this phase of the conceptual design through the creation and use of an internal reference group.

2. Internal engagement and securing support for the Facility throughout project

• Constitute an Internal Reference Group (IRG) of relevant internal UNICEF stakeholders to inform the design of the Facility, support management approval for it and support external engagement around it, including fundraising.
• Hold monthly meetings of this Group to secure approval for the design choices at relevant stages

3. Conceptual design – prioritization.

• Lead a prioritization exercise to select from the potential gaps that the Facility could fill. Define the prioritization variables (e.g., impact on children and their communities, additionality,...), and stakeholders to be consulted (internal, external – donors, delivery partners, others).
• Hold a prioritization workshop, or use other approach (e.g., series of bilateral meetings) to inform prioritization.
• Define the scope of the Facility in terms of products to be procured, use cases, and emergencies.
• Engender management support through the above-mentioned IRG.

4. Financial modelling for the Facility.

• Oversee internal and external specialist who conduct the financial modelling to determine the optimal Facility structure: i. ‘Front end’ – what sort of products/tools can the Facility provide? E.g., guarantees, loans, grants. How much procurement will they support? How will risk be managed within the selection of tools? ii. ‘Back end’ – what kind of capital structure is needed to support the Facility. E.g., What ratio of grants/equity, vs debt.
• Engender management support for the Facility financial structure through the above-mentioned IRG.

5. Fundraising for the Facility.

• Contribute to fundraising for the Facility by providing the Supply Division Director and other relevant stakeholders with briefing notes, pitch decks and other relevant collateral for conversations with donors
• Be available to join donor conversations and fundraising efforts to answer technical questions on the Facility design.

6. Legal and governance analysis if needed

• Oversee internal and external specialist who i. provide legal and governance advice on the set up of the Facility, e.g., what legal structures are needed? What kind of Board is needed? Where should the Facility be housed? What sort of policies are needed? ii. Draft key legal agreements and policies

7. Launch preparedness a. Support the preparations for launch of the Facility, developing relevant materials for internal and external communication

8. Miscellaneous tasks as requested by the Director, Supply Division

Deliverables under this contract

The following deliverables are expected under this contract. The exact content of each deliverable is indicative: as the Facility design work progresses there will need to be increasing flexibility on timelines, which can become very uncertain for things like securing an anchor funder. The Internal Reference Group will be responsible for holding the consultant to account for timelines/progress.

1. ToR for the IRG.
2. Project plan for the design of the Facility.
3. Update on progress with the landscape analysis.
4. Completed landscape analysis as part of the conceptual design (Task 1).
5. Completed prioritization exercise for the Facility products, use cases and emergencies (Task 3).
6. Selection and contracting of the service provider for the financial modelling.
7. Update on the financial modelling, and first draft collateral for fundraising.
8. Finalized financial model and finalized collateral for fundraising (Task 4).
9. Update on progress with fundraising (Task 5).
10. Progress report on project (e.g., with focus on legal and governance analyses).
11. Progress report on project (e.g., with focus on preparations for launch).
12. Progress report on project (e.g., with focus on draft external communication materials).
13. Final report on project (e.g., final slide deck summarizing outputs for Tasks 1-7).

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

• The following skills, experience and qualifications are required for this consultancy:
• Demonstrable experience and understanding of supply for emergencies, including supplies for public health emergencies.
• Demonstrable experience with and understanding of UN or international organizations’ procurement processes as they relate to emergencies. Ideally understanding of UNICEF procurement, but comparable organizations’ (e.g., UNOPS, WHO, WFP) procurement would suffice.
• Experience of market shaping for a range of products relevant to emergencies. Understanding of how UNICEF and other buyers can shape markets to make products more timely, more available, and/or more affordable in emergency contexts. Knowledge of tools like advance purchase agreements, advance market commitments, push funding, technology transfer, volume guarantees, and stockpiles. Understanding of the nuances of market shaping for emergency-relevant products as compared to products whose primary use is for ‘routine’ programs.
• Experience with financing facility design and structuring including familiarity with a range of financial tools (grants, debt, guarantees etc.), and experience with the spectrum of Facility conceptual design to capital structures. Ability to scrutinize a financial model of a Facility developed by third parties, as well to assess to what extent the financial tools modelled will meet the use cases required from UNICEF’s procurement centres.
• Proven track record with project management. Ability to run a complicated projected, with diverse internal and external stakeholders. Ability to run a complicated project to time, with a small core team and concentric rings of wider stakeholders.
• Experience with running committees/Boards/Advisory Groups, and using them to support internal and external engagement around an idea.
• 8+ years of supply or market shaping experience, with at least some experience in supply for emergencies. This could be for a large UN buyer such as UNICEF, a financier like Gavi/the Global Fund, a funder like the Gates Foundation/sovereign donors, an intermediary like Clinton Health Access Initiative, or a global health strategy consultancy. Operational and strategic experience is particularly desired.
• 10+ years of experience in global health, international development and/or global emergency preparedness and response. (Overlapping with the market shaping experience, not sequential). This could be in an international organization like UNICEF, in a relevant government department, as part of a pharmaceutical company, or as an advisor to any of these organizations.
• Experience working in international contexts, with diverse colleagues

• Capability in Microsoft Office including Excel.

• Advanced degree in one of the fields health/global health, economics or a science, technology, engineering, or math discipline is required.

• MBA or financial qualification, e.g., MFA, ACCA desired
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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.