UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for an individual consultant to develop an Operational Manual for UNICEF Managed Development Funds ( Health, Education and Child protection)

Contract

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UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to hire an innovative and enthusiastic individual consultant to develop an Operational Manual for UNICEF's Fund Administrator role for the UNICEF Managed Development Funds (Health Resilience Fund, Education Development Fund and Child Protection Fund). The Operational Manual will cover the general details of roles and responsibilities of each of the functions UNICEF and actors play, and then for each DF to spell out the functions, tasks, and metrics of success apparatus in detail.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The goal of the Consultancy is to develop an Operational Manual for UNICEF's Fund Administrator role to the UNICEF Managed Development Funds (Health Resilience Fund, Education Development Fund and Child Protection Fund). The Operational Manual will cover the general details of roles and responsibilities of each of the functions UNICEF and actors play, and then for each DF to spell out in detail the functions, tasks, and metrics of success apparatus.

BACKGROUND

The Health, Education and Child Protection Development Funds – established for a 5-year period – are entering a new programming phase. The Development Funds have played an important role in allowing bilateral donors to contribute to the work of the sector, in supporting systems strengthening in key programmatic areas. Functioning as a sort of pooled fund mechanism, UNICEF has played an essential role in the Development Funds as Fund Administrator, ensuring overall accountability for results and financial reporting, as well as convener and implementing partner. To date, the Fund Administrator role has entailed responsibility for fund management and release of funds to first-tier implementing partners based on evidence-informed allocation as determined by Donors. This role will be continued to be performed by UNICEF. Within UNICEF, the primary role of receiving funds from donors and disbursing to other UN agencies rests with three UNICEF Headquarters’ Divisions, namely the Division of Financial and Administrative Management, (DFAM), the Global Shared Services Center (GSSC), and Public Partnership Division (PPD), with guiding instructions from UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office based on Steering Committee minutes/deliberations. Certified Financial Statements signed by the Comptroller are generated by UNICEF Headquarters. UNICEF submits reports and updates as per the Fund Administrator contract.

With the new phase of the development funds starting, as per lessons from the audit, the Health Development Fund

Evaluation and donor feedback, there is a need to refine the governance modalities, including demarcating roles and responsibilities for UNICEF as a technical partner, fund administrator and fund coordinator. As such, there is a need for an Operational Manual to detail the specific roles and responsibilities each Development Fund, and specifically to outline for each fund the roles of the governance mechanisms.

ASSIGNMENTS:

The assignment will entail developing an Operational Manual for UNICEF's Fund Administrator role to the Development Funds.

1. Inception phase:

1. Conduct initial light desk review and 2-3 interviews with UNICEF staff to understand the background and key issues facing each of the development funds.
2. Outline the process and timing in a draft concept note, including outlining personnel for key informant interviews, documentation for further review and developing the draft manual structure
3. Incorporate comments and feedback into the concept note and finalize

2. Drafting Phase

1. Conduct a desk review of available documentation, including the 2022 audit report, HDF evaluation, DF meeting minutes and synthesise the issues and findings
2. Conduct Key Informant Interviews: consultation with key Government, UN, donor and UNICEF stakeholders to understand the issues and solutions

3. Draft the report

4. Finalization phase:

5. present the draft of UNICEF and stakeholders to obtain feedback; incorporate comments from the presentation and written comments

6. Finalize the document

   Major tasks and deliverables:

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Inception phase

• Produce a short concept outlining the project, including the key issues, key deliverables, operational manual structure and timeframes etc.

3 days

Draft phase

• Literature review of key documents, including the 2022 Audit report, meeting notes etc.
• Conduct stakeholder consultations of donors, UNICEF, Government to collect views and inputs
• Draft the operational manual and share

15 days

Final phase

• Incorporate comments and feedback
• Share final manual

2 days

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

Education:

• Advanced degree in Social Sciences, development studies, or related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 8 years of professional work experience one or more of the following areas is required: development planning and management; monitoring and evaluation; development of key organizational guidance.
• Experience in working with the Government, UN, and civil society organisations
• Excellent knowledge of Donors' requirements in Zimbabwe

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of the main local languages (Shona and Ndebele) is an asset.

The detailed consultancy terms of reference is downloadable via this link ToR Individual Consultant - Operational Manual DFs TMS.pdf

If interested and available to undertake the individual consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical proposal and an all-inclusive financial proposal incorporating an approximate number of travel days for field (local) travel.

Technical proposal: The Technical Proposal should articulate an understanding of the TOR and include the proposed Tasks/Milestones, Deliverables/Outputs, Timeline and level of effort by deliverable. The similar table provided in the TOR is indicative. Applicants may use the indicative table as a guide or deviate as per the proposed approach. The proposal should also cost-effectively propose the local travel proposed by the applicant to undertake the assignment.

Financial proposal: The Financial Proposal should include the costs (providing a daily rate as justification) for each task, including consultant fee, proposed travel costs and perdiem, communications costs and any other proposed cost.

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.