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If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Consultancy: Public Finance Training Consultancy

Duty Station: UNICEF Hosted Funds, Education Outcomes Fund

Duration: 01 December 2025 – 30 January 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) is currently developing and implementing a number of innovative outcomes-based programmes in the education sector across Africa. Our programmes involve delivery of interventions by non-state actors working in partnership with the public education system to improve learning outcomes, and they are designed and implemented in partnership with partner governments as an integrated part of the country’s broader education sector goals. 

A key principle and design feature of EOF’s approach is financial commitment from the partner government to co-finance the outcomes fund alongside other donors or other external funders.  This commitment is normally secured early in the concept development phase of the design process.

From the experience of our initial programmes – in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Rwanda – we are learning that the process of translating those clear financial commitment into available funding can be complex.  EOF programme teams in-country and at the centre have had to spend significant amounts of time engaging with counterparts in ministries of education and finance to secure the necessary approvals and administrative steps to enable the required financial transfer mechanisms to be put in place. 

Navigating these processes, from both an administrative and a political perspective has been made more difficult given the limited experience and understanding that most EOF programme staff have in working with public financial management processes and institutions.  To strengthen our in-house capability to better understand and manage these processes, we wish to identify an experienced provider who can offer training in the ‘theory and (messy) practice’ of public financial management and budgetary processes.

The purpose of the assignment is for EOF Programme staff to have gained insights, knowledge and understanding on public financial management and budgetary processes that are typical in resource constrained African countries; as well as skills in thinking and working politically for engaging with government institutions and actors on resource allocation questions.

Scope of Work:

‘Standard’ introductory courses to public financial management (such as those offered by ACCA) cover the fundamentals of a government budgetary cycle, including planning and execution, reporting, audit and accountability but don’t tend to be tailored to the realities of how these processes play out in practice in resource-constrained contexts that are typical across Africa. So while we are keen for our staff to understand the basics of the PFM ‘theory’, we are looking for a provider who can also provide insights into the political economy of the budgetary process and offer practical ‘thinking and working politically’ tools that can be deployed by our teams as they successfully navigate decision-making an approval processes in their interactions with partner governments.

We envisage a training curriculum which combines three elements:

1. Basic understanding of public financial management (PFM) processes and the budget cycle
2. An introduction to ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ approaches and tools
3. Bringing it all together: successful strategies for navigating PFM decision-making on EOF’s education programmes

We wish to identify an individual who can design a short tailor-made training programme for between 10 and 20 EOF staff.  The course will be delivered online over between 1.5 and 3 working days.  The course could be in one go or split out over a short series of ‘modules’ with possible pre-reads or assignments between sessions for participants to engage with.  Our preference would be for 3 half day sessions online, either delivered within one week or possibly over 2-3 weeks.

The training should be delivered in English using learner-centred and interactive online methodologies, mixing content with practical exercises, group discussion and/or case studies.

We expect the course to be designed in close consultation with EOF to help ensure the approach and material is tailored to the audience and our clear professional development objectives for this assignment

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

 1.  Design training content in close consultation with EOF’s program team

- Training content for a 1.5 day -3-day online training event

20 Dec 2025

2. Deliver training content online to a group of EOF’s programme staff (estimated 20 attendees)

-  Training delivery over a 1.5 day-3-day period

30 Jan 2026

3. Produce a summary report evaluating the success of the training, incorporating feedback from trainees, and providing recommended follow-up actions for the program team.

-  Summary report of estimate 3-5 pages total

30 Jan 2026

Qualifications

Education:

A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant subject such as Education, International Public Policy, International Development, Political Science, or Economics, is preferred but not required

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• A minimum of 10 years’ experience in a relevant area such as international development, public policy or the global education sector.
• Subject-matter expertise in public financial management systems and practice in Africa.
• Strong practical experience of working in or with public financial management reform initiatives on the African continent acquired over many years.
• Solid expertise in deploying ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ approaches to supporting government reform, including expertise in political economy analysis.
• A demonstrable track record of successful delivery of interactive training programmes, including online, aimed at non-PFM specialist audiences.

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

• • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

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:  

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.