Consultant (Partnerships Analysis), Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), UNICEF Hosted Fund, 12 Months, REMOTE, Req: 569454

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, EDUCATION 

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) is dedicated to improving education and employment outcomes for children and youth globally. Our team is working at the cutting edge of development finance, leveraging our platform at the UN and our innovative, results-focused approach to change the way education is financed to support the next generation of youth.   
 
There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission (chaired by Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education) and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen) came together with our founding CEO (Her Excellency Dr.) Amel Karboul to create EOF. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes of 10 million children and youth, by supporting governments to utilize outcomes funds and other results-based financing (RBF) instruments. EOF is backed by a range of world leaders who support us to shape our approach and achieve our ambitious aims, as well as leaders in education and impact investing.

EOF supports improvements in the quality of education and skills programs, with a special focus on girls and underserved populations, including those in the hardest to reach rural areas. It measures (and pays for) what matters – both core skills like literacy and numeracy, but also critical 21st Century skills such as socio-emotional skills, ICT skills, and other broader fundamentals of a quality education. It helps close the persistent gap between the skills needed by employers and those attained by today’s youth.

For all the above, EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education, focusing attention and realigning systems on the most challenging but most important measure of a program’s performance: whether it is improving lives.

Together with our supporters, we believe this is the early stages of a much larger movement, with huge potential to increase learning outcomes for children and youth around the world, though improved aid effectiveness and government spending.

Since our inception in 2018, EOF has:

• Partnered with governments in Ghana and Sierra Leone to establish the two largest outcomes funds to date in developing countries, mobilising ~$50M for these programs.
• Established itself as a leading global player in RBF, and the only dedicated center of expertise for RBF in education and skills.
• Become the first outcomes fund hosted by the United Nations within UNICEF, as a scalable platform to partner with governments around the world.
• Established a major partnership with the LEGO Foundation, to develop a scale portfolio of RBF programs in early childhood across a diverse range of countries, as well as to amplify the movement and ecosystem of partners around this approach.
• Had our innovative approach featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FT, Economist, Brookings, and more.

How can you make a difference?

RATIONALE FOR THE CONSULTANCY

We are seeking to recruit an exceptional consultant to provide support for a period of 12 months to support the implementation of EOF’s partnerships and fundraising strategy. This assignment can be completed remotely.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

As Consultant (Partnerships Analysis ), you will support EOF’s Chief of Operations to implement EOF’s partnerships and fundraising strategy through high quality research and analysis. The consultant will report directly to EOF’s Chief of Operations..

DELIVERABLES

Deliverable	Description	Estimated number of working days	Deadline/ timeline
Deliverable 1: Review at least 10 new funding prospects per month, drafting a 1-page summary per prospect for the partnerships team summarizing the key elements that make the prospect viable for EOF or not.	Lead weekly qualification and intelligence gathering to keep the team up to date with our highest priority private sector funding prospects, and current partners, updating EOF’s partnership development Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, and writing a summary for the partnerships team.	60 days (5 days per month)	By the end of each month April 2024 – April 2025
Deliverable 2: Technical contributions to new funding proposals (estimated six 8-page proposals per quarter).	Contribute to the team submitting funding proposals each month by writing technical contributions as requested by the Chief of Operations to EOF funding proposals.	36 days (3 days per month)	Quarterly: June 2024, September 2024, December 2024 and March 2025
Deliverable 3: Support EOF’s partnership-building by participating in select partner meetings and producing a meeting report within 24 hours of the meeting.	Support partnerships team efforts to establish and strengthen relationships with new and existing partners by participating in select partner meetings (an estimated 6 meetings per month, 45- minute meetings, 1 page contact reports).	12 days (1 day per month)	Monthly April 2024 – April 2025
Deliverable 4: Produce detailed briefing documents on potential funders for EOF’s leadership and partnerships team prepared at least 1 week in advance of high-level meetings with funders.	Support partnerships team efforts to establish and strengthen relationships with new and existing partners by producing high-quality briefing documents ahead of meetings with funders (an estimated 8 briefs per month, 1-page briefs).	24 days (2 days per month)	Monthly April 2024 – April 2025
Deliverable 5: Record and report on partner engagement activities on HubSpot, our partner engagement Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).	Support partner engagement tracking across the EOF fundraising cycle from prospecting and engagement to stewardship of committed partners. These activities are to be reported on via the HubSpot CRM every week (we expect to spend at least 90 minutes a week on partner engagement tracking).	9 days (1.5 days every second month)	Bi-monthly: 2024 – May, July, September, November 2025 – January, March
Deliverable 6: Co-develop, alongside EOF’s partnerships team, engagement plans for new funding prospects and existing partners.	Support partnerships team efforts to establish and strengthen relationships with new and existing partners by developing (alongside the wider partnerships team) engagement plans (estimated 12 plans at each bi-annual review point, 2 pages in length).	24 days	Bi-annually: June and December 2024
Deliverable 7: Technical contributions to donor reports (estimated two 10-page reports per month).	Contribute to the team submitting donor reports each month by writing technical contributions as requested by the Chief of Operations to EOF funding proposals.	24 days (2 days per month)	Monthly April 2024 – April 2025
Total estimated working days – 189

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

• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant subject is required, such as Education, Economics, International Development, Communications, Politics, or a related subject.
• A master’s degree is preferred but not required.
• A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in fundraising or partnerships.
• Partnership-building skills and the ability to cultivate relationships with current and prospective partners.
• Experience conducting research in a fast-paced, results driven environment.
• Experience with relationship management work with corporate donors/sponsors, foundations, or philanthropists.
• Experience or an interest in international development, the global education sector, and international aid.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

 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/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:  

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.