ECD Financing Consultant

Scope of Work:

The assignment has two components:  

Build consensus on a minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD within PHC to meet the needs of children from pregnancy to 5 years. 

• This component will build consensus among ECD practitioners, governments, donors, and other stakeholders on a minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD within PHC. For this assignment, PHC encompasses essential health services that are typically accessible to all individuals within the communities they live in and usually at low cost. These services promote health, prevent illness and provide treatment for common health problems through general practitioners, nurses, nutritionists, CHWs and other cadres. The identification, prioritization and final listing of the minimum package will take into consideration the diversity of country economic, humanitarian contexts etc. The assignment will draw on existing and previous research under the NCF, and undertaken by the G20, World Bank, Brookings Institute, Research for Development and the Lancet Commission.

Assessment of the extent to which the agreed minimum package of interventions that support nurturing care for ECD is reflected in PHC strategies/ plans, other relevant sector plans and government budgets. 

This component will start with a comprehensive review of national PHC strategies, Essential Health packages, and related financing plans, health sector plans, and any other national plans in 30 to 40 countries from different regions followed by interviews with key informants. The aim is to assess which of the listed interventions in the package are incorporated in those strategies/plans. From this, a commentary on the extent to which the minimum package is reflected in PHC strategies/plans will be produced. Research questions are: 

Has the country developed a specific PHC strategy/plan or is PHC covered in other frameworks such as health sector plans? 

• For the identified strategies/plans, which of the agreed list of interventions supporting nurturing care are explicitly mentioned and how so?
• Which interventions that support nurturing care for ECD are not included?
• What are the emerging patterns regarding the integration of the minimum package within PHC across different countries?
• The second part of this component will involve a review of national budget documents – mainly medium-term expenditure frameworks and annual budget estimates focusing on budget lines that fall within PHC programmatic parameters and not the totality of interventions supporting nurturing care for ECD across sectors. Only visible budget lines will be considered, and no apportionment will be done for aggregate budget lines. The research questions are:

Is PHC a defined policy area or a budgeted program? 

• If yes, are there any clear sub-programs or budget lines that match the list of interventions under the minimum package supporting nurturing care for ECD?
• If yes, how much is allocated to those specific sub-programs/ interventions and what are the trends over time (2-4 years)?
• What is the size of spending for each intervention and as a package in per capita terms and as a percentage of total PHC allocations?
• What is the level of integration of interventions that are in PHC plans in government budgets (the degree of variation)?
• Are there any variations in the coverage of the minimum package by country and component of nurturing care?
• Are there any national mechanisms for the regular monitoring, estimating and reporting of ECD inflows and expenditures including those within PHC?
• What are the good practices that can be used as a reference on nurturing care for ECD investments within PHC by other countries?
• The final part assesses the extent to which the minimum package is reflected in global and regional expenditure databases including the WHO Expenditure Database and OECD DAC Statistics on health spending.

The above information will be used to produce a policy report (max 50 pages) outlining the minimum package, level of integration of these interventions in PHC plans and budgets, and recommendations on reforms and other measures to strengthen the measuring, monitoring, and reporting of nurturing care for ECD investments within PHC by governments and global actors.

Terms of Reference/Key Deliverables:

• Organize at least 3 reference group meetings and produce minutes by 16 September 2024.
• Inception report produced by 30 September 2024.
• Minimum package of interventions supporting nurturing care for ECD within PHC developed by 31 October 2024.
• Draft report by 31 January 2024.
• Final report by 21 April 2025.

Qualifications

Education:

• Masters degree (minimum) from an accredited institution in health economics, public finance/economics, development policy or any other relevant social science.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience undertaking relevant policy research, financing studies, ECD budget analyses, PHC costing and similar exercises in health or other related sectors.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/572761