Consultants at UNICEF Kenya (United Nations Children Fund)

Background

In Eastern and Southern Africa in recent years, development partners have increasingly focused attention on both emergency response delivered via humanitarian cash transfer programming, and support to develop shock-responsive or adaptive social protection systems. This is driven by a confluence of factors, including the growth of coverage and effectiveness of national social protection systems in the region, the reinforcing roles of poverty and exposure to shocks, and growing evidence of the cost-efficiencies of investment in preparedness and prevention through social protection and resilience programming, as well as commitments made in the World Humanitarian Summit and the Grand Bargain.

As development partners and humanitarian actors have attempted to both build and align these two streams of work, there has been a considerable increase in guidance documents and case studies that point to the importance of preparedness and system reforms to enable rapid, effective, and cost-efficient expansion of national social protection programmes. In general, these guidance notes recommend a series of actions to allow for either vertical expansion, horizontal expansion, shadow alignment, or piggybacking. However, guidance on how to use national systems for delivering humanitarian cash responses in practice is still limited.

Recent analysis[1] suggests that single registries and other forms of integrated social protection management information systems, which are used to collect and store information on whole populations or subsets thereof, regardless of whether they are beneficiaries of a particular social protection programme, have the potential to be used for rapid and accurate targeting of populations impacted by humanitarian crises. However, this is not the default. Effective use of a single registry for humanitarian targeting requires that the registry has sufficient coverage in terms of geography or key populations, is accurate and up-to-date, and incorporates data that is relevant for humanitarian targeting. Furthermore, humanitarian actors must have access to, and confidence in, the data.

As UNICEF’s Social Policy teams in Eastern and Southern Africa continue to support governments to increase the effectiveness and shock responsiveness of national social protection systems, there is an increasing need for specific and practical guidance on how single registries can be designed or modified in a way that allows for use for humanitarian response. This consultancy is intended to help to provide this guidance.

Scope of Work

Goal and Objective: Under the supervision of the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) Social Protection Specialist, the consultant will produce clear and practical guidance for UNICEF country offices on how to design or modify national single registries to allow for their use for the delivery of humanitarian cash responses.

Tasks and Deliverables:

The consultant’s work shall be divided into the following phases, each with specific tasks to be accomplished, and related deliverables to be produced, as indicated below:

Key tasks

Deliverable

• Timeframe (indicative)
  • Desk Review and analysis of key studies.
  • Thorough review of key documentation. This should include documents that analyse the barriers to, or good examples of, use of single registries for humanitarian response.
  • Assessment of the most common information/needs assessment tools used for humanitarian targeting in slow- and rapid-onset climate shocks in ESAR.
• Work plan and Inception report.
• Desk review with summary/table of common data captured in single registries in ESAR, and types of data for humanitarian targeting.
• 15 days
• Conduct stakeholder consultations.
• Key informant interviews with government officials in the ESA region, humanitarian partners, and development partners to identify:
  • barriers to, or concerns about, the use of single registries for humanitarian targeting, and suggestions to overcome them;
  • practical experience in building single registries from a starting point of humanitarian databases;
  • a minimum practical list of variables and specifications that would need to be incorporated into a single registry for effective targeting;
  • an assessment of the feasibility of meeting these specifications, including from a cost perspective; and
  • analysis of two case studies of single registries/other forms of social protection registries within the region.
• Stakeholder consultation report, and summary of preliminary findings.
• 10 days
  • Draft operational guidance on how to design or modify national single registries to allow for humanitarian targeting.
  • Note: this is not intended as a how-to note on designing single registries more broadly. Rather, it should be written in a form accessible to policymakers and social protection experts, and should clearly specify the key considerations, steps, variables, etc., that should be taken into account.
  • Draft operational guidance shared with UNICEF for comments.
• 20 days
  • Finalization and validation.
  • Finalize the guidance, incorporating UNICEF comments.
  • Final guidance submitted and approved by UNICEF.
• 5 days
  • The Consultant will work 50 days in total from 15 July 2018 to 15 October 2018 to develop the guidance.

Work relationships:

The Consultant will report to the Social Protection Specialist, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, with additional guidance provided by UNICEF country, regional, and headquarters Social Protection and Emergency teams.

Performance will be regularly reviewed throughout the assignment, with formal evaluation being conducted at the end of the Contract.

Outputs/Deliverables: Work plan and Inception report. Desk review. Stakeholder consultation report and summary of initial findings. Draft operational guidance. Final operational guidance.

Payment Schedule

Terms of payment: Scheduled payments payment upon completion of the tasks/activities (deliverables) in the agreed work plan, as following.

• Submission of the work plan, inception report, and desk review (25%).
• Completion of stakeholder consultations and submission of preliminary findings (20%).
• Submission of the draft operational guidance (30%). Submission by the consultant, and approval by UNICEF, of final operational guidance (25%).

Desired Qualification, competencies, technical background and experience

The Consultant should have the following profile:

Qualification:

Advanced university degree (Masters or PhD) from an accredited academic institution, in a discipline related to social protection, economics, or public policy.

Experience and competencies:

A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in the field of social protection, including at least five years of social protection research, operational support, or technical assistance to governments and development partners. Demonstrated experience providing operational guidance on social protection, including specific experience on developing or using single registries for social protection programming. Demonstrated understanding and expertise in the area of shock-responsive/adaptive social protection. Previous work experience and a strong understanding of the social protection and humanitarian risk environment in eastern and southern Africa. Proven ability to communicate and work in a multi-cultural environment. Excellent writing and oral skills in English (fluency required) and ability to synthetize complex information.

Candidates for this position should submit a short technical proposal (no more than 5 pages), CV, and a cost proposal. The ratio among technical and financial evaluation will be 75/25, within the budget ceiling for the assignment. Shortlisted candidates may be contacted for an interview or to provide additional information.

Administrative issues

The consultant will work remotely, though s/he may propose travel to the region for key informant interviews if deemed necessary to the assignment. (Costs associated with this travel should be clearly indicated in the financial proposal.)

The Consultant is expected to provide his/her own computer and administrative support.

Conditions

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary”.

The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.