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For every child, the right to support

In Lao PDR, UNICEF works in partnership with the Government of Lao PDR and partners to promote and protect the rights of children and women in Lao PDR. With over 50 years of service, we are one of the longest-serving international organisations in the country.

Visit unicef.org/Laos to learn more about what we do at UNICEF in Lao PDR.

How can you make a difference? 

UNICEF in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for an Individual National Consultancy for Public Finance for Nutrition. The duration of this assignment is 12 months, starting as soon as possible and the consultant shall be home based.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

The consultant will work and collaborate with Social Policy Specialist and Public Finance for Children (PF4C) international consultant team (will be recruited separately). Furthermore, the consultant will coordinate with Government officials mainly from the Planning and Finance Departments, including the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE), Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (MLSW) and other relevant Ministries. The Consultant will require occasionally travel and deliver works at the provincial level, expecting around maximum 5 days per trip around 4 trips per year. The Consultant will focus on the following key areas:

Public Finance for Nutrition (PFN) 

• Support the assessment of institutional capacity for budget and expenditure tracking across relevant government agencies.
• Support the development of a capacity building roadmap for nutrition budget and expenditure tracking for both the short and long term and monitor its implementation.
• Support the development of capacity building training modules, including public finance for children, public finance for nutrition, and nutrition budget tracking.
• Provide technical inputs to the design of a nutrition financial dashboard and coordinate with partners to ensure it includes essential data for long‑term nutrition financial planning.
• Provide technical inputs to develop the annual Nutrition Financial Performance Report in consultation with development partners, line ministries, and other stakeholders.
• Develop monitoring and reporting tools to track government participation, results, and outcomes of CNF related activities.
• Support the MoF to roll out the nutrition budget tagging system to line ministries at central and subnational levels.
• Support MoF to integrate nutrition budgets into the Medium‑Term Performance Framework (MTPF) and explore alternative financing options for nutrition

Capacity Building and coaching for Nutrition budget and expenditure Tracking

• Support the development and delivery of training modules, refresher training, and workshops for technical financial working groups at national and subnational levels, including contextualization, facilitation, and coordination.
• Provide support to the Nutrition Financial Technical Working Group to compile nutrition budget and expenditure data for 2023–2025, plan for 2026–2027, and project these data in the nutrition financial dashboard.
• Provide technical assistance and ongoing coaching to line ministries to analyze and prepare the annual Financial Performance Report, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and sustainability in data production.

 

 Provide Lao PFM and Institutional Contextualization 

• Advise on Lao PFM systems, sectoral budgeting processes, institutional structures, and political economy considerations.
• Review and contextualize tools, manuals, and training packages developed by international experts to ensure suitability for the Lao context.
• Ensure alignment with the national budget cycle, MoF directives, and multisector nutrition coordination mechanisms.

 

Government Engagement & Stakeholder Facilitation 

• Organize and facilitate meetings, consultations, field visits, and validation workshops. 
• Support ministries to prepare data, documents, and inputs required for assessments, pre- and post-training sessions, and follow-ups action points. 
• Maintain communication with focal points in MoF, MOH, MAF, MOES, MLSW, and subnational levels. 

 

Advocacy & High-Level Engagement 

• Support advocacy events promoting nutrition investment, including Pre-Ordinary Sessions with National Assembly members.
• Prepare technical discussion paper for the high-level dialogues with government officials 
• Ensuring nutrition priorities (including wasting prevention and treatment) are reflected in discussions 
• Assist in advocacy efforts promoting equity and investment for children across various platforms, including technical workshops and seminars and high-level policy dialogues 

 

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete TOR here:  Terms of Reference for Individual Consultants- PF Nutrition-CNF for VA.pdf

 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education:

• At least a Bachelor or Advanced degree in finance, economics, business administration and related fields.
• Demonstrated professional experience collaborating with government institutions, development partners and non-governmental organizations
• Prior experience budget tagging, tracking and capacity building of cross-cutting issues such as nutrition, climate or gender etc.
• Experience working with government in particular Ministry of Finance will be an additional asset.

 

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience in public finance management in social sectors either Finance, Health, Education and Agriculture fields.
• Good written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to work in a team and diverse work.
• Experience in national nutrition-related programs and planning process, including planning, budgeting and reporting
• Familiarity with the Lao public budget process and financial procedures.

 

Submission of applications:

Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply and upload the following documents:

• Letter of Interest (cover letter)
• CV or Resume
• Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including medical insurance with medivac, travel and accommodation cost for this assignment as per work assignment

 

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:  

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.