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Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

 Consultancy Title: Consultant to prepare the Quality review of 2024 Country Programme Planning processes (CPPs) and Country Programme Documents (CPDs)

Section/Division/Duty Station: Division of Analysis Planning and Monitoring , NYHQ

Duration: 1 November  2024 to 31 May  2025

Home/ Office Based: NYHQ / Remote

 About UNICEF – DO NOT EDIT

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 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:

UNICEF’s annual Quality Review of Country Programme Planning processes (CPPs) and Documents (CPDs) provides the organisation with a robust external assessment of the quality of the design processes and of the final documents that best articulate the goals, results, and logic of Country Programmes (CPs). Each year, the exercise assesses all CPDs submitted to the Executive Board, using a standard approach. 

Scope of Work:

The main objective of the Quality Review is to provide an evidence base on the quality of the CPDs submitted in 2024 and to determine the extent to which they:

• Convey UNICEF’s commitment to foundational norms and programming principles.
• Adhere to the relevant guidance or guidelines.
• Are results-based, coherent and convincing: conveying UNICEF’s relevance, strategic positioning, comparative advantage or value-added in the country

The main objective of the review of the Country Programme Planning is to determine the extent to which the Country Offices:

• Adhered to the new CPP guidance.
• Promoted the reflection and conceptualization of systemic changes necessary to contribute to outcome-level results in the lives of children.
• Have designed country programmes for scale and impact, that effectively leverage partnerships towards the realization of higher results for children.
• Have benefitted from the strategic intentions of the new CPP methodology aimed at:
  • Strengthening the evidence base and linking evidence better to programme interventions
  • Better reflecting on government and partners' contributions and commitment in line with National Development Plans
  • Clearly laying out the systemic changes that need to occur for Outcomes to be achieved
  • Better combining emergency and development interventions towards these systemic changes
  • Providing clear “visibility” of the private sector in our work (if applicable)

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview Tasks/Milestone:, Deliverables/Outputs:, Timeline

 Phase 1: Inception (October – November 2024)

1. Orientation and planning

• Orientation with the DAPM senior management, DAPM hiring manager and PG team
• Desk review of applicable guidance and previous Quality Review documentation
• Development of the general approach to the 2023 Review process and scheduling milestones
• Elaboration of a risk management strategy

Inception Report, including a chronogram of key dates and working arrangements for the contract and the risk management strategy.  – By 1 Nov 2024

2. Content and tools development, pilot testing

• Development of a quality review methodology and Review Framework of CPP processes based on the CPP guidance.
• Leading the process of updating the CPD Review Framework and rubrics for scoring individual quality criteria, in consultation with SMEs and DAPM ensuring that updates are evaluable, objective, and non-duplicative.
• Determining the approach to “Content Tracking”.
• Updating and potentially redesigning the Excel data entry/data management system tool.
• Testing and finalizing the CPP and CPD Review Framework and rubrics for scoring individual quality criteria

Updated CPD Review Framework with scoring criteria, comparing changes between 2022 and 2024 CPP Process Review Framework, tools and methods – By 22 December 2024

• Develop the Methodology paper (no more than 10 pages)
• Upload on Sharepoint all the CPP documents

Methodology Paper (including the results of pilot testing the framework) drafted concisely and acting as an Annex to the final report.

Sharepoint repository of all the CPP documents – By 22 December 2024

Phase 2: CPD and CPP Review (23 November 2024 – 26 January 2025)

• Reviewing all CPDs and relevant CPPs, using the Review Frameworks, applying individual quality criteria
• Entering both scores and comments into the database for each CPD and CPP
• Taking note of any good practices, to be used later for the Compendium of Good Practices

Database with completed CPD/country sheets and preliminary analysis tabs – By  26 Jan 2025

• Preparing a summary of preliminary findings and recommendations in the form of a presentation (potentially using charts, tables, and infographics to summarize the results)
• Discussing the preliminary results with DAPM

Presentation of preliminary results for discussion with DAPM. – By 26 Jan 2025

Phase 3: Elaboration of the Synthesis Report and Annexes (29 January – 29 March 2025)

• Develop the Synthesis Report Compendium of Good Practices, finalize the project database, and share the draft report package for review by DAPM, HQ content owners and ROs.

The Compendium takes notes of where CPDs and CPPs met and/or exceeded quality criteria.

Synthesis Report, no more than 35 pages (including recommendations and an analysis of key findings by quality component (QC) and quality review category (QRC)).

Annexes:

Compendium of Good Practices Database  Methodology Paper

Phase 4: Presentation of Results and Finalisation (April 2024)

Webinars to present the findings (Following the first review of the Synthesis Report, the Consultant will prepare to present the findings in two global webinars). The webinars will be approximately 2 hours each and will include a 35-minute presentation given by the Consultant.

After the final validation exercise, all documents should be finalized and shared in an archive for upload to UNICEF SharePoint

Presentation Deck, summarizing the key findings of the quality reviews

One-page recommendations to DAPM for the 2024 Quality Review  - By 1 April 2025

After the final validation exercise, all documents should be finalized and shared in an archive for upload to UNICEF SharePoint.

Final project archive of finalized reports and annexes.  – By 15 April 2025

 Qualifications

Education:

Master’s degree in the social sciences or a relevant field

 Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

At least 10 years of professional experience with a specific track record of conducting evaluations, assessments and/or reviews for international organizations or major development actors

Record of excellence facilitating cross-sectional processes

Familiarity with the organization’s commitment to results-based management and its approach to strategic planning and preparation of new country programmes is mandatory

Prior work experience with UNICEF* or the United Nations is an asset but familiarity with UNICEF’s child rights mandate, foundational norms and programming principles is essential

• Data tooling/science capabilities to develop project database up to professional standards including, potentially, producing the data in Tableau
• Ability to work effectively in a team and ability to produce quality work under minimal guidance and supervision.
• Good communication and people skills; ability to express ideas and concepts concisely and clearly in written and oral form
• Language proficiency: Fluency in English is required

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

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.