Individual consultancy on supporting the development of Social Policies and Public Finance Management

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, care

National policy reforms have paved the way for Moldova to achieve SDGs. Many reforms still need to be further developed and implemented to support Moldova’s inclusive growth. Moldova’s social policies are grappling with several challenges, including coverage gaps that leaves the most deprived groups without support, fragmented programs that hinder effective service delivery, and ineffectiveness of social spending that prevent resources from reaching those who need them the most.

The Government launched transformative reforms of its Social Protection and Education systems to enhance governance, quality and access. With technical assistance provided by UNICEF, both Ministry of Labour and Social Protection (MLSP) and the Ministry of Education and Research developed strategy documents on the development of social assistance and education, both of which were called RESTART reforms. Within this, the Ministries intend to improve access to social protection and education services and strengthen financial sustainability. Technical interventions provided by UNICEF aim to strengthen the local line offices and ensure better coordination between the central and local levels.  UNICEF also seeks to support the mobilization, allocation, and utilization of domestic public financial resources to enhance social outcomes and reduce poverty and inequality.

For this purpose, technical assistance on governance and management, structural reforms, public finance, administration of the delivery chain, and capacity building are provided. The responsibility for the overall social protection and public finance technical assistance of the work lies with the UNICEF Social Policy Section, whereas education streamlines lies with UNICEF Education section.

How can you make a difference? 

The consultant will support UNICEF and key partners in implementing current activities on social policy, carry out costing assessments of various interventions with main focus on education and social protection, administration based on need and delivery of key programmes and strengthen the capacity of key partners at national and local levels.

1. Objectives of the Consultancy

The two primary objectives of the consultancy are as follows:

• Support the provision of UNICEF’s technical assistance in social policy reforms. The consultant will support the UNICEF Social Policy team, collaborate with other UN agencies, social sector ministries, government entities, CSOs, and other stakeholders. This will involve supporting, reviewing, and refining the activities and outputs, as well as drafting concept notes on good practices, administration and delivery chain, and public finance management for social protection and education, including refugee integration (e.g. costings, programme adjustments). The consultant will participate in coordination meetings with UN agencies, MLSP, MER and other stakeholders.
• The consultant will play an important role in sharing knowledge and capacity building, including management, legal framework, administration, digitalization, shock-responsive, public finance (costings and funding formulas) and other modules. Working closely with Social Policy Team and collaborating with national and local authorities, including the technical teams, and policy specialists, the consultant will deliver capacity-building and knowledge sharing activities to government staff (at national and local levels).

The consultant is also expected to be responsive to additional tasks related to her/his area of expertise and within the scope of this TOR, as requested by the UNICEF Social Policy Specialist. The consultant should be ready to perform related tasks in support of the country office objectives related to administration system strengthening, and capacity-building goals and objectives as part of technical assistance in the area of Social Policy.

2. Details of how the work should be delivered.

The consultancy requires a part-time engagement and aims to provide technical, coordination and advocacy support to UNICEF in child-sensitive policies, public finance management (with focus on social protection and education) and capacity-building. The consultant will participate in weekly meetings with the Social Policy Team and UNICEF team to update the work progress, challenges, and implementation of work. The consultant will develop a detailed working plan under the guidance of UNICEF’s Social Policy Specialist and in coordination with the Education Specialist.

3. Deliverables and delivery dates

Tasks	Deliverables	Timeline*
Activity 1:   Review relevant documents, publications, data and reports, including the Project Document on Digitalization of Social Protection, RESTART reform strategy document, Public Finance Management documents, Capacity Building Modules, Education policy documents (including but not limited to Strategy “Education 2030”, Inclusive Education Development Program in the Republic of Moldova, 2024-2027), and other relevant documents. Consult with UNICEF and develop a work plan for the consultancy.   Provide technical assistance in integrating refugees from Ukraine into national social protection and education, carry out analysis, identify good practices and cost estimates, and elaborate various variables and scenarios, as well as policy and legal implications on the extension of coverage.	Consultancy working plan for 2024 and 2025             A policy brief on the integration of refugees into national social protection programmes	10 working days
Activity 2:   Contribute to designing a ‘Cash Plus’ model to scale up and sustain effective and inclusive social policies for children, especially during emergencies and humanitarian settings.   Provide technical assistance on public finance management, focusing on costing and financing gap estimates and fiscal analysis of social policy-related sectors (education and social protection) and contribute to fiscal space analysis	Cash plus framework Concept note on Shock-Responsive social protection   A fiscal space analysis is reviewed and finalized Costing estimations for integration of refugees into national social protection and education systems	22 working days
Activity 3 Provide technical assistance on social spending on social protection, support and contribute to budget brief and estimations, including analysis of social expenditure.   Provide technical assistance on public finance for education, analysis of education spending, including its efficiency and effectiveness, and develop a new financing formula for inclusive education and monitoring tool for implementing the new funding formula for preschool education kindergartens.	Contribute to budget brief on social protection (10-15 pages)     New financing formula for inclusive education New monitoring tool for implementation of the new funding formula for kindergartens	18 working days
Activity 4   Contribute to the cross-sectoral development of the European Child Guarantee Framework and implementation of EU Social Rights Pillar recommendations.   Contribute to development of e-learning platform/modules on social protection, define the interventions and associated capacity and technology requirements.	European Child Guarantee is reviewed and finalized     Concept note on e-learning platform	16 working days
Activity 5 Provide technical assistance on governance and network reorganization of education departments, support and contribute to policy dialogue, and impact analysis of expenditure.     Contribute to capacity building on effective administration, legal framework, administration, digitalization, shock-responsive social protection and public finance.	Concept note on network reorganization of education departments (10 – 20 pages)   Deliver at least 3 workshops at national and local levels	20 working days
Activity 6 Provide technical support to the UNICEF Social Policy team, supporting them with developing and reviewing technical reports, preparing brief analyses, and costing interventions for social policy-related sectors.	At least 6 technical reports reviewed. Cost universal childcare benefits Final report on deliverables (10 pages)	20 working days

* Exact deadlines will be mutually agreed upon contract signature.

4. Definition of supervisory arrangements

The consultant will work under the oversight of Social Policy Specialist of UNICEF Moldova. Payments will be rendered upon successful completion of each task, as per the schedule outlined above.

5. Work location and official travel involved

The work will require in-country missions, in order to conduct in-person visits and interviews with the different government officials. The consultancy work envisages 10 missions up to 33 working days in Chisinau, Moldova.

The consultant is expected to cover costs, arrange and schedule such visits, including transportation. The UNICEF office will facilitate introductions to key informants.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have 

• Advanced university degree (Masters, or PhD) in political and social sciences, economics, social sciences, public policy or international development policy.
• Ten years of professional experience in social policy and/or public policy is required.
• Extensive experience in qualitative analysis and quantitative work is required.
• Knowledge of social policy system of Moldova, or Eastern European countries is advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear, succinct analytical policy briefs is required.
• Previous research experience on social policy related sectors, such as child protection, education, or health is strong asset.
• Demonstrated relevant working experience with government officials and local authorities, and UN agencies is a strong advantage.
• Proficiency in written and oral communication skills in English is required. Knowledge of Romanian and Russian is a strong advantage.

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. 

For more details on the consultancy assignment and requirements, please refer to attached Terms of reference (ToR) 

 2024 TOR_Indiv Consultancy_Support Develop Social Policies & PFM_VA.docx

HOW TO APPLY: Your online application should contain the Technical and Financial Offers (templates below). Please secure the Financial Proposal *.pdf document with a password on document view; the password will be requested only from technically qualified candidates. 

 Technical Offer_Support SP & PFM.docx

 Financial Offer_Support SP & PFM.xlsx

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.