UNICEF recruits 01 Consultant / Analysing financing trends in the national and provincial education budgets 2019/20

Consultant – Analysing financing trends in the national and provincial education budgets 2019/20 (For South African Nationals ONLY

Job Number: 521070 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: South Africa

Work Type : Consultancy

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Background and Justification

Budget Briefs are seen as providing a good entry point for country-level budget analysis and advocacy. In the context of South Africa, work on budget awareness and advocacy has been deemed to be timely, given the present economic climate in the country and the many competing demands placed on budgets in an increasingly tight fiscal situation. Furthermore, in a middle-income country context, UNIEF services are pitched at the policy and advocacy level, thus necessitating a focus on well government spends resources in producing outcomes for children.

Budget Briefs are seen, therefore, as a valuable advocacy tool to enhance the focus on children-specific spending programmes and to ensure that the limited resources are spent in the best possible way. The Budget Brief series explores the issue of effectiveness, quality, and the efficiency of spending. A careful analysis is done to determine whether any sector budget has positive (or negative) implications for the survival, growth and development of children.

In a situation where resources are at a premium, it is important to understand how well the government does in utilizing scarce resources for the basic education sector. This should allow for a comparison among the nine provincial education budgets, but there should also be a comparison between South Africa and its spending on basic education and whether it compares well to its regional neighbors and/or comparator countries.

At its core, the Country Office wants to be able to say something meaningful about the assumptions that govern basic education budgets, whether these budgets are credible (does planned spending correspond well to actual spending), and whether resources are effectively targeted at the most vulnerable children in South Africa.

Scope of Work

Goal and Objective:  Under the supervision of the Social Policy Manager in the Social Policy and Child Protection unit, the consultant will analyze financing trends in the national and provincial education budgets 2019/20.  Specifically, the Consultant will:

Conduct a trend analysis of basic education as a share of national and provincial spending;

Conduct a trend analysis of provincial education budgets and the national education budget to determine whether allocations have kept pace with inflation;

The trend analysis should cover both a programme analysis and an analysis by the type of expenditure (economic classification);

Undertake a careful analysis of actual spending on Basic Education programmes at the national and provincial education level;

Perform a through programme analysis of key service delivery programmes at the provincial education level;

Calculate the unit costs pertaining to different service delivery programmes at the provincial education level and compare such unit costs across provincial education departments;

Compare South African spending on basic education with its regional neighbors and a select number of comparator countries in terms of schooling inputs, outputs and outcomes;

Highlight and assess any salient policy issues that are not yet properly funded; and

Provide a view on the readiness of the sector to embrace new policy proposals (such as the migration of ECD from the Department of Social Development to the basic education sector).

Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: This work relates directly to achieving output 4.1 in the Annual Work Plan of the Social Policy and Child Protection programme, which involves undertaking annual budget analysis: publish five budget briefs on education, health, social development including public finance at national and subnational levels.

Activities and Tasks:  the list of activities and task include

Submit an Inception Report detailing Consultant’s understanding of the task at hand, proposed methodology and sources of data to be used in assignment;

Draft, refine and finalize « Basic Education Budget Brief » that focuses on the Goal and Objectives set out in Section 1 of this TOR;

In the draft Education Budget Brief mentioned above, detailing the key results and what implications these have for the well-being and development of children (and poor children in particular); and

Present draft final findings to the Social Policy Manager, the Chiefs of Education and Social Policy and members of the broader UNICEF team via Skype or in-person (if that is feasible for the Consultant).

Work relationships:  The Social Policy Manager is responsible for co-coordinating and managing the work of the Consultant. This involves regular communication via email, telephonic conversations and where possible, in-person meetings. The Social Policy Manager will inform and update the Chiefs of the Education and Social Policy programmes of progress in the work and expected completion dates of this important output. The Consultant will provide regular updates of progress and inform the Social Policy Manager of any unintended findings that are relevant to this output. The Programme Assistant will support the Social Policy Manager in ensuring that the requisite administrative processes are adhered to and for the timely submission of project-related paper work.

Outputs/Deliverables:

The process for completing the assignment is critically dependent on the submission of a realistic and achievable work plan as well as a methodological approach that will ensure that the key questions are addressed in the research. Furthermore, the Consultant will have tight time-frames to execute this work, which requires a deep familiarity and expertise in the areas of applied budget analysis. Payment is dependent on the successful completion of each of the three deliverables, which is in line with the expectations of the Social Policy and Education programme teams.

Deliverables	Duration (Estimated # of days or months)	Timeline/Deadline	Schedule of payment
Submit inception report detailing methodology, approach and the data sources that will be utilized.	3 days	Friday 19 April 2019	20%
Submission of a draft Basic Education Budget Brief	13 days	Monday 27 May 2019	50%
Finalization and Submission of the Final Basic Education Budget Brief	4 days	Friday 17 June 2019	30%

Reporting guidelines: Budget Brief templates have been developed by the Regional Office and these same templates/formats are applicable to the production of the Basic Education Budget Brief. These guidelines should be considered for both the draft and final basic Education Budget Brief. The draft and final Basic Education Budget Briefs must be submitted to the Social Policy Manager.

Required Travel:  Not Applicable

Payment Schedule

The schedule of payments is indicated as per the table in the preceding section.

Payment to the Consultant will only be done upon satisfactory completion of deliverables as agreed in the work plan. Payment is staggered as per the approved work plan of the Consultant and per the payment schedule listed in the table above.

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

Education:  An appropriate Master’s degree qualification in economics, statistics, development studies or an advanced social science qualification.

The Consultant will have done applied budget analyses of the social sectors in South Africa; will have technical skills in the analysis of national survey data; and conducted resource tracking studies at the national or sub-national level of government in South Africa.

A minimum of eight years of technical consultancy in the applied budget field and survey research is required.

Competencies: Excellent data analytical ability, exceptional writing skills, knowledge of the South African social services sector, knowledge of sub-national financing arrangements, and knowledge of targeting policies in the basic education sectors in South Africa.

The Consultant should have an excellent understanding and competence in written and spoken English.

Administrative issues

The Consultant reports to the Social Policy Manager in the Social Policy and Child Protection unit. Most of the scheduled meetings and progress updates will be done via email and telephonic conversations. A formal presentation of results (via Skype or in-person) when the draft basic education budget is delivered to solicit feedback for further refinement and finalization of the project.

Conditions

The Consultant

Will carry out the bulk of the assignment in his/her private space and no arrangements are in place to use the UNICEF office in Pretoria;

Should the assignment require additional travel, the Consultant will be reimbursed for any additional travelling costs. If air travel is undertaken, the Consultant will be reimbursed for an economy return flight.

All entitlements and conditions of service are governed by UNICEF policies.

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary

The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.

Risks

It is anticipated that there are relative few direct risks in the execution of the assignment. The key mitigating factor is the availability of national and provincial budget data, which form the bedrock of the analyses.  These data sets are publicly available and access to these resource is not considered a challenge. By the time the assignment commences, all provincial governments would have introduced their proposals in their respective legislatures and the budgets can also be accessed online. The Consultant is encouraged to consult other relevant documents such as Annual Reports for execution data, survey data that have a direct bearing on issues addressed in the Budget Brief, and any other trusted and reputable source that can enhance the overall quality of the Budget Brief.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit their application to the following link:
https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=521070 by 16 April 2019.

This notice will also appear on  http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/, http://www.unicef.org/southafrica , UN Job List, UN Jobs.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in ZAR) to undertake the terms of reference above (including admin cost if applicable).

Applications submitted without a fee rate will not be considered.

We invite you to watch a short video on the system on how to apply:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePgDIQ9RVYs&feature=youtu.be

If you have not been contacted within 1.5 month of the closing date please accept that your application was unsuccessful. Regret emails will be sent only to shortlisted/contacted candidates.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from South African nationals, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation

« UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks. »

Closing Date Tue Apr 16 2019 15:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)