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Child poverty entails more than the lack of monetary means. Although measures such as household income are important, they provide only a partial view of the plight of children living in poverty. Multidimensional poverty differs from the traditional understanding of monetary poverty. It is the result of the interrelationship among deprivations, exclusions and different vulnerabilities to which girls and boys are exposed. Therefore, to understand the full extent of childhood poverty, one must look beyond monetary poverty and consider children’s access to health, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, and housing services.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, poverty in childhood and adolescence, in its multiple dimensions, had affected almost two-thirds of the population aged up to 17 in Brazil, according to a UNICEF study based on the National Household Sample Survey Contínua (Pnad Contínua) 2023. In absolute numbers, there were around 29 million children and adolescents in situations of deprivation in the country. To get an idea of the magnitude of this number, it corresponds to little more than the sum of the total number of inhabitants of the seven most populous cities in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

In recent years, Brazil has faced several challenges in ensuring the rights of children and adolescents. A 2024 UNICEF study found that among the eight indicators that make up multidimensional poverty, three — food, education, and income — had significantly worsened between 2020 and 2022. In all dimensions, racial and regional inequalities persisted in worrying ways. As with other indicators, the most impacted groups are, in general, black and indigenous people and populations from the North and Northeast regions.

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SCOPE OF WORK:

By measuring Multidimensional Child Poverty, UNICEF aims to support governments and decision-makers at all levels, not only in understanding and diagnosing multiple deprivations affecting children and adolescents, but also in tackling them. Based on the last Multidimensional Child Poverty study published by UNICEF, the contracted consultancy should update the study's main indicators using data from the Continuous PNAD 2025 and align them with the dimensions outlined in the methodology. Moreover, the study should explore ways to link data from the Continuous PNAD and the 2022 Demographic Census conducted by IBGE, in order to identify viable approaches for municipal-level analyses of multidimensional child poverty. Other methods for extrapolating Continuous PNAD data to small geographic areas using the 2022 Census may also be explored and proposed, provided they allow for the estimation of multidimensional child poverty—both in overall terms and by specific dimensions—at the municipal level.

Constant reevaluation is necessary to monitor data evolution and identify trends, supplementing public discussion of the multiple deprivations suffered by children and adolescents in Brazil. It will be important for the study to explore the data to identify the indicator’s behavior patterns across all its dimensions and territories, examining the drivers of each variation and the key elements and sub-indicators that underpin them. Any stylized facts identified should be analyzed in light of the most up-to-date Brazilian policy context and recent dynamics, such as: lagged effects of the pandemic—for example, on education indicators; and the impacts of the expansion, contraction, or recent changes in public policies, with particular attention to the effects of the expansion of the Bolsa Família Program on the income dimension over the time series. The analysis should emphasize differences across groups of children and adolescents — for example, black and white children; girls and boys; those living in rural versus urban areas or other relevant municipal characteristics — among other relevant disaggregation to be explored.

The study will be undertaken using a preexisting quantitative methodology and data from the most recent Brazilian household survey (PNAD Continuous, 2017 to 2024). The analysis will build upon a previous UNICEF study on multiple child deprivations in Brazil, which was first carried out in 2018 under the title Well Being and Multiple Deprivations in Childhood and Adolescence in Brazil[1], then in 2023, based on a study on the Continuous PNAD, with all dimensions from 2017 to 2019[2], and later the same year, with the update of 2022[3]. And more recently, under the production of Multidimensional Child Poverty and adolescence in Brazil – 2017 to 2023 [4].

Under the supervision of the Chief of Social Policy of UNICEF Brazil, the selected consultant will be responsible for updating the analysis of Multidimensional Child Poverty in Brazil and exploring municipal-level estimates. The consultant will work in line with UNICEF’s Multidimensional Child Poverty studies from 2018 to 2024.

The development of the methodology and the analysis will be closely accompanied and reviewed by UNICEF.

DELIVERABLES

1)      Deliverable 1:

1.1) First preliminary report containing the updated and adjusted methodology and a Multidimensional Brazilian Child Poverty index and analysis for 2024 (along with all the time series, since 2017, as per the above), considering different levels of disaggregation defined with UNICEF, municipal estimates, alongside the code used for all indexes, graphs and tables;

1.2) Deadline: 35 days from the start of the consultancy

1.3) Estimated Budget: 30% of the fee

2)      Deliverable 2:

2.1) Final report reviewed, containing Multidimensional Child Poverty Index and Analysis for 2025, considering different levels of disaggregation defined with UNICEF, alongside the code used for all indexes, graphs and tables. All code developed for the analysis, including tables and graphs, should be in R, Stata or Python, properly commented and open-sourced with the publication of the final report. All code developed for the reports will be reviewed alongside the reports (for each deliverable).

2.2) Deadline: 45 days from the start of the consultancy

2.3) Estimated Budget: 40% of the fee 

3)      Deliverable 3:

3.1) Presentation of findings with key messages and recommendations for policy-makers, with additional maps and analysis developed.

3.2) Deadline: 60 days from the start of the consultancy

3.3) Estimated Budget: 30% of the fee

DURATION OF CONTRACT: 60 days

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENT

Required:

• Advanced degree in social sciences, statistics, economics, demography or related fields.
• 5 years or more of experience with data analysis, production of statistics and indicators, quantitative methods of research and similar.
• Experience with analysis of microdata from Continuous PNAD.
• Experience with data analysis/statistical software and programming languages such as STATA, Python or R.

It will be considered an asset:

• Previous work writing studies, assessments, or evaluation reports for UN agencies.
• Previous work with governmental research institutes.
• Previous work related to Poverty and Multidimensional Poverty

LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

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 costs 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.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.