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UNICEF and Brazil’s Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family, and Fight against Hunger (MDS) have a long-standing cooperation to strengthen social protection for children and families. Within this collaboration, UNICEF has supported evidence generation on the financing of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) to inform public debate and improve resource allocation.

In 2024, in partnership with the National Social Assistance Fund (FNAS), UNICEF commissioned a first-round study on the costs of Basic Social Protection using nationally reported financial data from municipalities, states and the national level. Managers and frontline workers received the report well because it offered actionable insights for planning and budgeting. However, the available data at that time were too aggregated and showed collection inconsistencies, which limited the precision of unit-cost estimates.

The current moment is particularly propitious for a new assessment. From the 2024 fiscal year onward, a renewed financial reporting arrangement is being used for SUAS accounts at the municipal, state, and federal levels, generating more disaggregated, higher-quality, and more up-to-date information on key cost items. Building on lessons learned, this assignment aims to produce robust cost estimates for SUAS at the municipal, state and national levels. It also seeks to generate evidence that can support improvements in federal co-financing arrangements and managerial benchmarks, ultimately contributing to better, more equitable service provision.

The primary purpose will be to provide a consolidated, methodologically transparent, and policy-relevant set of unit cost benchmarks and spending profiles for SUAS using the new FNAS reporting, and to translate these findings into practical recommendations for budgeting, pactuation/transfer criteria, and performance monitoring.

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Estimate the costs of SUAS using the new FNAS financial reporting for fiscal year 2024, complemented by administrative sources, to produce unit-cost benchmarks, analyze spending patterns and financing arrangements, and inform improvements in federal transfer criteria.

Key research questions should include:

• What are the average and median unit costs by funding block/service/equipment type and by municipality/state, and how do cost items distribute across human resources, facilities, utilities, general costs, supplies and materials, transportation, and ICT/maintenance?
• How do federal, state, and municipal resources compose total spending by funding block, cost item and service type? Are there systematic differences in spending patterns by region, municipal size class, urban/rural profile, or other relevant characteristics?
• What are the execution rates of federal transfers across regions and municipal size classes? Are there identifiable regional patterns or bottlenecks?
• Which indicators (e.g., number of active services, referenced families, municipal size, demand proxies) best correlate with observed costs and would be fit-for-purpose as parameters for pactuation/federal transfers?
• How sensitive are unit-cost estimates to data cleaning choices and to outliers? What thresholds and validation rules ensure reproducibility?

Data sources include FNAS financial reporting (2024 fiscal year) at the municipal and state level, with

itemized expenditures and financing source breakdowns. Censo SUAS, Registro Mensal de Atendimento (Monthly Service Delivery Record - RMA), and CadSUAS to define denominators (services, teams/equipment, capacity, referenced families) and to characterize supply and demand. Where applicable, complementary public datasets (e.g., IBGE population and municipal size classes) are used for stratification.

In terms of methodology and analytical steps, FNAS will provide databases and accompanying metadata, assist in mapping the variables and cost-item taxonomy, and produce a data dictionary. The work involves applying validation rules (completeness, consistency between subtotals/totals, duplicates, negative values, implausible ratios). Define and justify winsorization/outlier treatment. If systemic inconsistencies arise, it can be necessary to design a stratified verification sample (by region and municipal size) to cross-check entries with a small set of municipalities/states and propose correction factors or exclusion criteria.

The work should also include:

• Construction of indicators: unit-costs per funding block/service/equipment type (e.g., CRAS/PAIF; SCFV; abordagem social - Specialized Social Assistance Street Outreach Service), by municipality/state and aggregated by region/size class.
• Spending composition by cost item and financing source.
• Execution rate indicators for federal resources.
• Statistical analysis: descriptive statistics and comparative profiling (region, municipal size, urban/rural); robustness checks; optional multivariate associations between cost levels and plausible drivers (scale, coverage, service mix).
• Policy translation: develop criteria options for pactuation/federal transfers (e.g., service-based, population/referenced families, composite indices), showing pros/cons and distributional effects using 2024 data.
• Validation with counterparts: present preliminary results to MDS/FNAS/UNICEF for technical feedback; incorporate inputs and finalize.

DELIVERABLES

              1. Workplan

1.1. Deliverables/Outputs: detailed work plan of the consultancy, with a detailed timetable, methods to be further explored, list of necessary data, validation rules and feasibility analysis.

1.2. Deadline: 15 days from contract beginning.

1.3. Estimate Budget: 5%

2. Initial research report

2.1. Deliverables/Outputs: Research report with the exploratory results, including data quality analysis, and a finalized dataset and a final review of the proposal for the study.

2.2. Deadline: 55 days from contract beginning.

2.3. Estimate Budget: 15%

4. Intermediate research report

4.1. Deliverables/Outputs: Intermediate research report of the Federal Transfers, state and municipal spending and proposed parameters to estimate unit costs.

4.2. Deadline: 95 days from contract beginning.

4.3. Estimate Budget: 20%

4. Final research report

4.1. Deliverables/Outputs: final research report.

4.2. Deadline: 180 days from contract beginning.

4.3. Estimate Budget: 50%

5. Executive Summary and complementary content

5.1. Deliverables/Outputs: Report’s Executive summary, presentation material, databases and codes developed and annotated, next steps.

5.2. Deadline: 210 days from contract beginning.

5.3. Estimate Budget: 10%

DURATION OF CONTRACT: Seven (7) Months.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENT

• Advanced degree in data science, economics, statistics, social sciences, or other related fields.
• At least five (5) years of proven experience in data analysis, especially related to costing/budgeting social services, social protection in Brazil. Extra years of experience are considered an asset.
• Fluency in computer languages used for statistical analysis (such as R, Python and Stata).

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: Fluency in Portuguese

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL: A financial proposal including the fee for the assignment based on the deliverables and number of days must be submitted. Consultants are asked to stipulate all-inclusive fees, including lump sum, administrative cost, travel cost and subsistence costs, as applicable.

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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 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:  

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.

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