Pre-Qualified Consultants’ Roster of Experts on Social Protection, Cash Transfers, Public Finance for Children, Child Poverty, and Local Governance in MENA

UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO) invites qualified subject matter experts and individual consultants to express their interest in being included in the Regional Roster. There are four key areas that UNICEF is looking for experts in:
1. Social Protection.
2. Cash-based Transfers.
3. Public Finance for Children.
4. Child Poverty.
5. Local governance including child friendly cities, and urbanization.

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, Hope

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias, or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic, and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

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.

Every child in the MENA region has the right to equitable and adequate social protection and basic services, such as health, education, nutrition, WASH, and child protection.  The Social Policy team in MENA focuses on four key areas – social protection, cash transfers, public finance and general financing for children, child poverty, and local governance. In these 5 priority areas, UNICEF country offices provide different levels of technical assistance and support to national counterparts ranging from system strengthening, capacity building, policy analysis and evidence generation, and advocacy with particular focus on social protection systems, large-scale cash-based transfers (both humanitarian and non-humanitarian), and public finance management. 

How can you make a difference? 

UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO) invites qualified subject matter experts and individual consultants to express their interest in being included in the Regional Roster. There are four key areas that UNICEF is looking for experts in:

1. Social Protection
2. Cash-based Transfers
3. Public Finance for Children
4. Child Poverty
5. Local governance including child friendly cities, and urbanization.

The purpose of setting up the Consultant’s Roster of Experts is to provide UNICEF Regional and Country Offices with pre-qualified consultants who can be contracted quickly to provide a range of technical advisory and strategic support services on social policy and social protection. The range of tasks for the consultants may include research and assessments, diagnostic missions, provision of strategic and operational guidance, programme design and implementation strategies, training and capacity building, development of policy papers, monitoring and evaluation, and others as required. The list of detailed tasks, outputs, reporting, and working relationships will be specified at the time of contracting for any assignment.

The roster will serve as a stand-by consultants’ repository from which the Regional Office or Country Offices can draw upon to meet their programmatic requirements. The roster would be broken down by thematic categories and areas of expertise followed up by tiers (based on years of experience). The roster will serve as a human resources repository from which the MENARO and Country Offices can draw pre-vetted, well-qualified experts quickly and efficiently for assignments. Note that experts may specialize in more than one of the desired fields. The languages for the consultancies can be English, Arabic, and French.

Applicants are requested to self-identify their field(s), priority areas of expertise (they are numbered in the TORs so candidate should specify which sub-area applies), and tier(s) of expertise, along with their language proficiencies. All candidates are required to mention these details in the Mandatory Social Policy Questionnaire. Cover letters are not required for this application.   

Tier(s) Classification based on years of experience.

• Tier 1: Minimum 15 years of relevant professional experience for tier one experts.
• Tier 2: Minimum 8 years of relevant professional experience for tier two experts.
• Tier 3: Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience for tier three experts.

To access the summary of functions and requirements for each field of expertise, see the following document for the Terms of References:  Vacancy Announcement – Roster of Experts.pdf

How to apply?

Please ensure to submit the two below documents in your applications:

• Questionnaire:  MENARO Social Policy Roster Questionnaire 2024_draft.docx
• Financial Proposal:  Financial Proposal – MENA Social Policy roster_draft.docx

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.