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Consultancy Title: Consultant, Fiscal Space Analysis and WASH Finance Strategy Development to Support Resource Mobilization for Climate Resilient WASH in Madagascar - Req.#
Section/Division/Duty Station: Wash Section - Programme Division, NYHQ
Duration: July , 2025 to September 12, 2025
Home/ Office Based: NYHQ / Remote with trips to Madagascar
About UNICEF
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 over 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 for developing 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.
BACKGROUND
Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:
Madagascar is the world’s fifth-largest island, situated in the Indian Ocean off the coast of southern Africa. The country is endowed with considerable natural resources and unparalleled biodiversity. However, its population, estimated at 30.3 million in 2023, faces the challenge of a persistently high poverty rate. Poverty is especially high in the south and the southeast, where it exceeds 91.2%, due to climate shocks (droughts, cyclones, and floods).
Madagascar faces significant challenges in accessing clean water. The government faces challenges with attracting financial resources required for implementation of the SDG 6. It is estimated that the country will require 11 times and 26 times faster progress to achieve 100% safely managed water and sanitation respectively by 2030. Poor WASH is a grave concern as it is directly linked to diarrhea and chronic malnutrition which affects children under 5 years (UNICEF Madagascar, 2018). According to government projections, investment to reach the SDG6 2030 targets in Madagascar requires around $ 2.6 billion. However, current allocations for WASH barely reach 0.01% of GDP, with the government unable to increase allocations due to limited domestic funding and the country's economic situation.
To guide with planning, the WASH sector has finalized a National WASH policy that aims for universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030, that is pending final government approval. Additionally, several analytical documents related to climate change have also been developed, which provide more visibility on climate risks and opportunities for climate financing in Madagascar, as well as the coherence between national climate strategies and WASH.
There is need to develop strategies to close the funding gap in the sector. Assessing the fiscal space to explore options to reduce the WASH financing gap is an important element of further policy planning and programme implementation in Madagascar. Additionally, the WASH sector can benefit from moving towards a strategic financing approach to achieve its targets to increase resource mobilization as well as define a strategy to leverage and blend the three sources of WASH sector financing: Taxes (government expenditure), Tariffs (public investment) and Transfers (ODA) as well as leverage on innovative financing mechanisms.
2.0 Purpose of the assignment
The ultimate goal of this assignment is to generate evidence to provide policy recommendations to support planning on financing for increased access to WASH in Madagascar. Specifically, the purpose of this assignment is to:
(i) Assess the fiscal space of the government budget, leading to the formulation of policy measures to substantively improve efficiency in the use of public resources as well as identify avenues for additional financial leveraging.
(ii) Develop a high-level WASH Financing Strategy that will set out approaches on how the WASH sector will finance its overall programmatic and operations to meet the sector’s medium-to-the-medium-to long term objectives.
This will entail the below sub-objectives:
A. Fiscal space analysis:
- Undertake a fiscal space assessment of (i) the general government budget at central and sub-national levels; (ii) WASH sector at central and sub-national levels
- Develop recommendations for financing options for WASH including recommendations for improved efficiency.
B. WASH Finance strategy:
- Set out approaches on how the WASH sector will finance its overall programming and operations to meet the sector’s objectives in the medium-term (up to 2030) and long term (15 years planning horizon or as guided by the sector)
- Highlight financial targets and the climate sensitive and strategic policy actions to be taken by the Government and other sector stakeholders to increase resources allocated to the WASH sector and maximize efficiency and effective use of public and private investments while also assessing the optimal funding mix.
Scope of Work:
A. Fiscal space analysis
As concluded by IMF , fiscal space is a multi-dimensional concept reflecting whether a government can raise spending or lower taxes without endangering market access and debt sustainability. Assessment of fiscal space requires a comprehensive approach considering, among other things, initial economic and structural conditions, market access, the level and trajectory of public debt, present and future financing needs, and dynamic analysis of the liquidity and solvency of the fiscal position under alternative policies. Balancing these considerations involves careful analysis and judgment.
i. General fiscal space assessment at central and sub-national levels:
This will entail fiscal space analysis of the government budget at both central and local levels, which will ultimately lead to the formulation of policy measures to substantively improve efficiency in the use of public resources and open up more fiscal space to deliver on the SDG6 commitments, with less reliance on overseas development assistance or external debt. A supplementary fiscal space assessment at local level will help understand the budgetary room at the sub-national level and the opportunities, which will contribute to the improvement of policy coordination at central and sub-national government levels. The assessment can be informed by similar previous country assessments. The scope of the assessment can cover a pre-agreed list of target provinces and districts to limit the scope to a few geographical territories of the country.
ii. Fiscal space assessment of WASH sector at central and sub-national levels:
Based on the outcome of the general fiscal space assessment, an in-depth fiscal space assessment of the WASH sector will be developed. This sector assessment and the sectoral budgetary recommendations will be aligned closely with SDG targets, the priorities of the National WASH sector policies and plans. The assessment will be informed by any previously prepared analytical documents in WASH sector (e.g., the budget briefs). Assess a mapping of financial flows of WASH sector when dealing with subnational level.
The sector budgeting assessment and policy recommendations will consider elaborating possible funding avenues as well as related capacity improvement measures.
B. WASH Finance strategy
i. Understanding the WASH sector financing landscape: The assignment will consider an analysis of the WASH sector financing landscape on the period from 2020 to 2024 to appraise the adequacy or inadequacy of WASH budget invested through different sectors, to evaluate the cost of needed services to achieve ambitious SDGS and national targets, as well as to determine strategic financing approaches to cover the gaps. The consultant, based on review of relevant literature, will map the overall current public including donor support and private expenditures thoroughly, to understand current levels of investments. The analysis shall consider all government resources expended on WASH including through other government agencies and budget lines. The assessment will also consider an analysis by exploring the trends in WASH sector expenditure by financing source: domestic resources, grants, loans and households’ expenditures through tariffs.
ii. Costing of current and desired services: Economic and/or financial modelling to cost the required WASH investments will be applied in order to estimate the cost of sustainable (climate resilient), water and sanitation services by using the UNICEF-WHO JMP level of Service1 (Safely managed, Basic, and Limited) and modeling by OPEX, CAPEX, and CAPMANEX. The consultant will also factor in the cost of climate change around WASH services.
iii. Calculate gaps: By analysing the current expenditures and costing analysis, the financing gap toward the achievement of sector targets will be determined taking refence to the past years and with focus on ensuring service reliability and affordability to ensure no one is left behind.
iv. Assess the challenge and opportunities to mobilize resources for WASH: Conduct a thorough analysis of challenges faced by WASH sector to attract attention of private investor and development partners with reference to the current sector strategic documents. Also consider the linkages between the WASH sector with other sectors for joint resource mobilization.
v. Determine strategies and develop a strategic financing plan: Building a clear evidence-based understanding of the expenditures, costing and gaps; a WASH financing strategy will be developed. The strategic financing plan will be developed to serve as a roadmap to leverage more resources for the sector priorities. The plan will also consider other innovative financing options, including public private partnerships (PPP), blended financing, guarantees and climate financing for WASH services. Consultation forums will be conducted to review and validate the financing strategy.
Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:
- Inception report: including final approach, work plan, timeframe, methodology for each deliverable.
- WASH sector fiscal space assessment report includes the outcome of general fiscal space assessment and WASH sector fiscal space assessments at central and sub-national levels.
- WASH sector expenditure analysis report & Gap Analysis report that includes a mapping of overall current expenditures, costing of current and desired services, calculation on the financing gap toward the achievement of sector targets.
- Draft WASH financing strategy and plan: highlighting an assessment of the challenges and opportunities to mobilise financing for climate resilient WASH
- Final WASH Finance strategy and plan: finalised following stakeholder comments
Qualifications
Education:
Advanced university degree (Masters) in Investment, Finance, Economics, Business Administration or related field
Work experience:
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in development of analytical reports and policy documents related to development finance or public finance, preferably experience with preparation of financing assessment and strategy
• Experience in analysis of WASH sector development, financial and economic modelling
• Experience working in development contexts (UN, MDBs, government or NGO entity)
• Fluency in French (ability to communicate in English would be an added advantage)
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent analytical and management skills
• Ability to multi-task in a dynamic environment.
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.
U.S. Visa information:
With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process
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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.