Social Protection Advisor

Social protection plays a vital role in strengthening the resilience of children, families and communities, achieving greater equity, and supporting national human and economic development. Its relevance is heightened in the face of persistent inequalities and recent trends. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ghana Living Standard Survey report indicated that 2.4 million Ghanaians were extremely poor. According to the 7th Ghana Economic Update by the World Bank (June 2023), Inflation in 2022 is estimated to have pushed 850,000 individuals into poverty, while contributing to putting nearly a quarter of all household at stressed levels of food insecurity and roughly 823,000 people at crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity. These Ghanaians have little ability to withstand temporary economic losses. It is likely that households will have to respond with a reduction in their food consumption, which will have significant impacts on children’s nutrition. There is therefore the need to expand the LEAP coverage to cater for the increasing number of households moving into extreme poverty.

The consultancy is generally home based with a requirement to travel to Ghana for a week to facilitate engagement with key stakeholders (Government, DPs).

Deliverables 

• Final inception report after engagement with UNICEF GCO
• Report on secondary analysis conducted on poverty and vulnerability calibrating with the GSS data to guide engagement on LEAP reassessment and determination of eligibility
• Meetings on LEAP targeting, reassessment, PMT review (draw backs and areas for adaptations) and financing plan with the government and DPs.

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

• Post graduate degree in social sciences, especially economics, demography, public finance, public policy, or other related fields.
• 15 years of experience in conducting impact evaluations on large scale cash transfer programmes and other assessments relating to social protection, poverty, social exclusion, and vulnerability.
• Extensive experience in the use of quantitative methods of research and excellent analysis and report writing skills.
• Extensive experience conducting simulations for programme projections and analysis.
• Experience working in a country with similar socio-economic context in assessing national policies and social protection interventions.
• Experience in facilitating engagement with high level policy makers for advocacy on policy changes and social protection programme adaptions.
• Excellent knowledge management and people skills

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/570751