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Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
Background

A multidimensional, protracted crisis in the Sahel: The Sahel suffers from a unique combination of interlinked factors leading to major crises. Among the multiple, mutually compounding vulnerabilities facing individuals, communities and systems in the Sahel are the recurrent food insecurity; Persistent high burden of acute child malnutrition; Environmental degradation and climate shocks; Conflict and fragility; Economic shocks and high food prices. Children and women bear the heaviest brunt of risks and vulnerabilities. The growing young population represents both a challenge and an opportunity for resilience building, social cohesion, gender equality, and civic engagement.

The Building Resilience in the Sahel (BRS) Programme (2023-2027): In 2019-2023, BMZ-funded resilience approaches developed by UNICEF and partners have contributed to build resilience capacities of over 3 million people (and over 2.7 million children). Building on the results of the first generation of German-funded resilience programmes, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), UNICEF, GIZ and WFP aim to form in 2023-2027, a new strategic alliance for resilience strengthening in the Sahel, to contribute to resilience building at scale. UNICEF will target > 250 municipalities across 30 or more regions in five Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania) and will specifically contribute towards three outcomes:

1. Girls and boys, women and men use sustainably accessible, equitable, and risk and conflict sensitive social services for their survival, development, protection, and transformation
2. Enhanced local governance, strengthened culture of inclusive social dialogue, and reinforced community ownership and engagement in local social development processes and humanitarian response
3. Adolescent girls and boys have increased opportunities to exercise collective and individual capabilities to cope with shocks and meaningfully participate in decisions affecting their lives

Resilience programming will also involve Coastal countries affected by the Spill over of the Central Sahel crisis, such Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

A robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework: is required to measure the progress of resilience building interventions on the ground, evaluate the related impact(s) and understand the factors and processes that best contributed to the achievements of the planned targets. This framework should also allow to confirm whether and to what extent the interventions implemented as part of the BRS programme are transforming the Sahel towards improved resilience and sustainable development. The framework will include:

• UNICEF Standard Monitoring systems and tools: In UNICEF’s vision, resilience is not measured as a stand-alone goal, but as a means for realizing and preserving child rights and achieving the SDGs and countries’ national development objectives despite shocks and stresses. Monitoring of the BRS programme is therefore primarily conducted via existing governments and country offices monitoring systems and tools to measure programme results. However, these will need to be complemented by other programme specific MEAL activities.
• Baseline/Endline studies: UNICEF will conduct a study during the first year and the last year of the programme's implementation, to inform the outcome indicators. This study will include a household survey as well as additional modules targeting community-based organisations. UNICEF however acknowledges that a baseline-endline data comparison conducted alone may be misleading, since resilience-building interventions take place in changing environments subject to evolving risks. This is why the surveys will be part of a broader evaluation of outcomes, which will leverage the baseline/endline surveys, combined with risks and conflicts analysis, and various qualitative research, to make sense of UNICEF’s contribution to resilience building.
• Risks and conflicts analysis: Conflict and risk analysis will be conducted during the inception phase of the programme in targeted areas to deepen contextual understanding of conflict and risk factors, building a common understanding of these factors among stakeholders, and ensure a solid common ground for design and implementation of interventions. Light updates of the analysis will be conducted every year.
• A research agenda: will aim to i. support adaptive programming throughout the five years of implementation, and ii. foster collaborative learning and maximize synergies between UNICEF, government stakeholders, BMZ, WFP, GIZ, as well as other relevant in-country and regional stakeholders. A strong focus will be set on strengthening learning with communities themselves, and partnerships with Sahelian universities to contribute to setting and undertaking research priorities and to drive the use of evidence in programmes and policies on resilience building across the region. The consultant will mainly contribute to this area, by documenting significant changes at individual/family/community/system level via light primary data collection in implementing countries and literature review of secondary data, leading to the production of case studies.
• BRS Programme Outcome Evaluation: will assist UNICEF and partners in measuring the programme impact on children against a certain number of impact and process variables, both at the individual, community and systems levels (e.g. prevalence of wasting and stunting ; social cohesion; community engagement in risk mitigation in school; impact of cash transfer & households' resilience to cyclical shocks; etc.).

Synergies with WFP and GIZ, two organizations implementing complementary resilience programmes in the same geographical areas, will also be considered in the various MEAL activities, in order to:
Provide ‘comparable’ data on participating community members,

• Integrate monitoring formats, and harmonize monitoring processes e.g. joint monitoring missions,
• Develop joint research questions, which may be pursued jointly or in a complementary fashion,
• Conduct blended evaluations.

Country-specific Monitoring, Evaluation, Research activities may also be conducted under Country Offices leadership and will complement the Programme overall MEAL structure.

Objectives
UNICEF WCARO is recruiting a KM (Qualitative research) expert to contribute towards two main objectives:

1. Supporting the overall analysis or macro analysis of BRS Programme results, using complementary information sources (baseline and endline; output monitoring; operational research key findings…), in collaboration with the BRS Programme MEAL Taskforce, Country Offices focal points and other key stakeholders.
2. Documenting changes attributable to the programme among individuals, families, communities, municipalities, social systems, with particular attention to gender transformation, social cohesion, climate resilience, using adapted forms of the ‘most significant changes’ and the ‘contribution analysis ’approaches.

How can you make a difference? 

Scope of Work:

The proposed 36-month contract will allow the expert to accompany the BRS Programme MEAL Taskforce from the inception phase and throughout implementation.

Under the first Objective, the expert will be invited to contribute jointly with UNICEF colleagues (MEAL Taskforce, Country Offices PME teams, other BRS Programme stakeholders (such as WFP and GIZ) to key moments of reflections on the various MEAL activities, including :

1. The review and strengthening of the MEAL framework at regional and country level,
2. The cross-reference analysis of BRS Programme results using different information sources,
3. The review of the Theory of Change and validation of programme hypotheses for integrated packages of resilience building interventions at systems/communities/individuals levels.

Under the second Objective, the expert will be personally responsible to document some of the most significant changes at individual/family/community/system level via light primary data collection in implementing countries and literature review of secondary data, leading to the production of case studies.

Some of the case studies may be conducted jointly with WFP and GIZ, whenever the topic covered involves an inter-agency collaboration on the ground (e.g. food security and nutrition, resilient education services, social cohesion and natural resources management, social protection, etc.)

The case studies will then serve as the evidence based to facilitate “real time evaluation” moments or strategic learning conversations with key stakeholders (internal and external).

Reporting Requirements and Key Responsibilities

The consultant will directly report to the Emergency Specialist (Sahel) and will work very closely with the Resilience programme Coordinator and the MEAL Task Force established for the BRS Programme.

He/She will also work in close collaboration with the PME and Resilience focal points each country offices involved in the BRS Programme (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger) and focal points of Coastal countries (starting with Benin) involved in resilience initiatives.

During the field phase, the consultant will be required to organize their own logistics and work independently, in collaboration with partners and beneficiaries. UNICEF field offices will provide guidance and introduction letters to partners and communities to announce the consultant’s visit but may not always be able to join them and assist them in the field. In some cases (i.e Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso), the consultant may need to sub-contract part of the data collection work to national consultants, in hard to reach communities where there is constrained access, while the international consultant will collect data at national level.

Tasks

• Literature review on resilience metrics and measurement tools adapted to multisectoral results, on methodologies for most significant changes, etc. (home based)
• Develop data collection tools and case study format to be used, in collaboration with the Resilience programme Coordinator and MEAL Task Force, and in close alignment with the available UNICEF tools and platforms (home based)
• Interviews with UNICEF staff in Dakar (WCARO) and Country Offices (including field offices) to determine scope of each case study, and identify communities/facilities that will be included in the case studies; also liaise with KM focal points in target countries to ensure close alignment with their strategies (home based)
• Conduct field work in selected communities with programme and partner staff. This will include focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, observations, questionnaires, and possible visits to beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. Photos including captions should also be taken to accompany the case studies (field based)
• Write 18 case studies (progressively, in 3 years) according to the format agreed upon (home based)

NB: While the below deliverables are proposed as part of the Building Resilience in the Sahel Programme, these should contribute to inform the six countries programmes documents (CPDs) and strategies and should therefore be aligned with country offices monitoring and evaluation needs (e.g. situation/risks analysis, annual reviews, etc.) This will be an important consideration when the granual details of each deliverable are confirmed between country offices and the consultant.

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

• Master’s degree in at least one of the following sociology, anthropology, communication, research, economics, or a technical field targeted by some of the case studies themes (e.g. Health, Nutrition, WASH, Education, Protection...)
• At least eight years’ experience in conducting research (including primary qualitative data collection) and documenting the work of development or humanitarian organizations.
• High sense of journalistic ethics and in-depth understanding of human rights issues.
• Good knowledge of UNICEF programmes required; knowledge of the Sahel region and good understanding of resilience are assets.
• Fluent in English and French (spoken and written) with excellent writing and editing skills in both languages.
• Interpersonal skills with experience in facilitating group discussions with local communities.

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.