TOR – Consultant for UNSDCF consultancy

Job Number: 528587 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: South Africa

Work Type : Consultancy

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, a future

1. Background

In August 2012, the Government of South Africa released the National Development Plan (NDP). At the occasion of the launch of the NDP, the National Planning Commission positioned the Plan as offering the country a long-term perspective on national development. At the heart of it, it sought to define a desired destination and identify the role that different sectors of society need to play in reaching that goal. The core priorities of the plan were identified as the elimination of poverty and reduction of inequality by 2030. According to the plan, South Africa can realize these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society.

The introduction of the NDP in 2012 created an overarching framework for national development and a clear entry point for the various development actors (national and international) in the country to support national developmental efforts. To this end, in 2013 the United Nations in South Africa and the Government of South Africa signed a four year Strategic Cooperation Framework (SCF) guided by the priorities identified in the National Development Plan. The 2013 – 2017 SCF has subsequently been extended to March 2020.

The National Development Plan and the current Strategic Cooperation Framework, launched and signed in 2012 and 2013 respectively, predate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were adopted by UN Member states at the General Assembly in 2015. The direct implication of this has been that both the NDP and the SCF have not directly taken into account the SDG framework and alignment with the global agenda could be articulated much clearer.

The Government of South Africa has developed its second NDP implementation plan that will guide Government priorities and action for the period 2019 – 2024 and an accompanying Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). The development of the new cooperation framework between the UN and the Government offers the UN in South Africa the opportunity to frame its work in the country firmly on the SDGs.

As part of the unfolding global reform of the UN Development System, the UN has released new guidelines ( Annex I) to support the development of the next generation of the SCF, which is now called Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (SDCF), and the process of developing the new SDCF between the Government of South Africa and the UN in South Africa will have to be guided by these new guidelines. In preparation for the UNSDCF, the UN completed a Common Country Assessment, and the joint government and UN Strategic Prioritization Retreat agreed the broad contours of the UNSDCF, aligned with the NDP/MTSF on 2-3 December 2019.

2. Elements of the UNSDCF

The SDCF is the core instrument for articulating, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the United Nation’s role in achieving collectively-owned development results under 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As the most important UN planning and implementation instrument at the country level, it governs all programming efforts of the UN Country Team (UNCT).

The SDCF is prepared and finalized in full consultation with national partners including: Government, civil society, private sector and other development partners. It seeks to fully integrate the perspectives of these sectors into a coherent articulation of what could constitute the UN’s contribution to national development based on its comparative advantages as a system. The SDCF fundamentally builds on the logic that the UN is present in a country to support national development efforts that have been articulated by the people of the country, in the form of a national development plan or similar instrument. Therefore, the SDCF should be aligned with a country’s national development planning cycle and focuses substantively on contributing in areas critical to the realization of national SDG targets in the country.

The UNCT in South Africa has moved to align the SDCF period to the terms of government and most importantly to the implementation cycles of the National Development Plan. In this regard the period of the next SDCF in South Africa will be from July 2020 – June 2025, which allows for joint evaluation of results by both the UN and the Government of South Africa.

3. The guiding principles of the SDCF

« Leave No One behind » is the core unifying principle underlying the partnerships that the UN enables.  It is underpinned also by three other principles: 1) human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment; 2) sustainability and resilience; and 3) accountability.

3-1) Leave No One Behind:  Leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first is the central promise of the 2030 Agenda. It represents the commitment of Member States to address the multidimensional causes of poverty, inequalities and discrimination, and reduce the vulnerabilities of the most marginalized people, including women, refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, minorities, indigenous peoples, stateless persons, and populations affected by conflict and natural disasters through: eliminating inequalities and discrimination; addressing the root causes of multidimensional poverty and building capacities for resilience; and strengthening national systems and processes of accountability to monitor progress and provide remedies. To this end, UNCT must actively work to anchor their work on this principle.

3-2) Human Rights and Gender Equality and Empowerment of All Women and Girls:  The 2030 Agenda commits to « realize the human rights of all and…gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. » This requires:

Explicit alignment of development efforts with international standards on human rights and gender equality, and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse especially within the context of implementation of the SDCF;

A focus on addressing inequalities and discrimination towards leaving no one behind;

Active and meaningful participation by all stakeholders in all aspects of the development process;

Due diligence, including provision of effective remedies where rights are violated; and

The establishment of measures to pursue reduction of gender inequalities and empowerment of all women and girls both through dedicated programmes and policies to these ends and through attention to gender equality in all development efforts.

3-3) Sustainability and resilience:  The SDCF supports national efforts to: increase the resilience of societies and ecosystems to man-made and natural hazards, shocks and stresses; promote multisectoral, integrated approaches that harness the potential, assets and capacities of institutions and communities to enhance human well-being, and reduce risks and vulnerabilities associated with natural hazards, climate change, violence, conflict, political and social instability, or economic volatility; and manage the change and uncertainty of long-term trends. This requires:

Reflecting interconnections and a balanced approach among the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development;

Integrating economic, environmental and social sustainability and risk management into programming, and strengthening national capacities to address these issues;

Identifying risks and their complex interrelationships, identify measures to lower the risks, and apply a prevention and conflict sensitivity lens to guide implementation of actions;

Applying social and environmental safe guards and standards to prevent adverse impacts on people, including the poor, and the environment; managing risks when impacts cannot be avoided and building resilience;

Supporting the full integration of environmental issues and social protection in national policies that deal with key development sectors, and ensuring links with emergency, crisis and humanitarian systems;

Addressing the sustainability and resilience dimensions of development problems, and the interconnections among issues related to the environment, human rights, conflict and vulnerability; and

Ensuring consistency between SCF outcomes and objectives and priorities stated in national development policies, budgets and strategies.

3-4) Accountability:  The 2030 Agenda includes commitments to greater accountability at global, regional and national levels, and to corresponding mechanisms for implementation and follow-up. These require:

Alignment of development efforts with national accountability mechanisms, as well as the provision of priority support to the expansion or further development of those mechanisms to ensure that they include all population groups;

Strengthening national and local mechanisms, institutions and processes to monitor and report on the progress of SDG implementation for all parts of society, and linking these with international mechanisms, including UN human rights mechanisms;

Measures to build upon and extend greater transparency, and improved measurement and reporting on results, including through joint assessments with target populations;

Practicing what the UN advocates by recognizing the UN system’s accountability to the general public of the countries in which it works;

Enabling active local community engagement and participation in planning and decision-making -”particularly of those whom are left behind or are at risk of being left behind -”whether more broadly in national policy development, implementation, or monitoring and evaluation, or specifically in the SDCF process; and

Supporting the development and use of transparent and robust data and information for policy formulation, programme design and implementation to manage risks and deliver results through more effective decision-making, both in national policy processes and the work of the UN at the country level.

4. Instruments of developing the SDCF

The Common Country Assessment (CCA) is a required and essential element of every SDCF development process. It is the UN system’s independent and mandate-based articulation of the country context, opportunities and challenges, encompassing sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, peace and security, and humanitarian perspectives. It is underpinned by the promise of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind, and the other three programming principles.

The CCA is an objective, impartial assessment (a description of what is happening) and an analysis (a description of why it is happening) of the country situation. It strategically positions the UN system in the country and serves primarily as a programming tool. It also represents a powerful source of information to help the UN system engage with national stakeholders, including to advocate for policy changes and to support the drafting of the national development plan. The CCA provides the essential evidence base from which the SDCF theory of change is drawn, and offers grounding and direction for a strategic SDCF. It drives the identification of needed and achievable changes. While identifying sources for the indicators, targets and baselines of the SDCF results framework, it also pinpoints gaps in data availability and national statistical capacity.

CCAs help to identify areas for enhanced policy coherence, reflecting the interdependence of the SDGs and issues the country should address. Rather than addressing each issue in an individual way, within its own silo, CCAs combine multiple perspectives in a complementary and coherent manner. They identify national capacity gaps (e.g., analytical, institutional and/ or statistical) that can be addressed by coordinated UN support, towards enhanced policy coherence.

Within the CCA, comparative advantage analysis informs the strategic positioning of the UN system’s programmes in a country. It allows the identification of specific strengths that members of the UNCT bring individually and collectively in relation to other partners. The analysis considers capacity at the country, regional and headquarters levels.

The UN in South Africa has commissioned a CCA in 2016 which was updated in 2019, and a final draft now is available to guide the UNSDCF.

Scope of Work

Under the guidance and supervision of the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) and UNCT and in close collaboration with the Programme Management Team (PMT), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Team, UNSDCF Core Groups and Resident Coordinator’s Office, the consultant will assist in the development of the next UNSDCF (July 2020 – June 2025), which would entail supporting the following tasks:

Draft the final version of the UNSDCF document, building on the Strategic Prioritization Retreat (SPR) outcomes, in line with the UNSDCF guidelines and with feedback from UNCT fully incorporated

Develop an accompanying presentation to the UNSDCF and ensure the accompanying annexes are edited and complete

Ensure that the UNICEF country programme document and programme strategy notes are edited and complete

Deliverables	Timeline/Deadline	Schedule of payment
UNSDCF first draft document (total of 5000 words) in line with the guidance	Three weeks from the commencement	20%
Cooperation framework Results Matrix	Three weeks from the commencement	5%
Final draft of the UNSDCF, incorporating feedback from the UNCT	Six weeks from the commencement	30%
An executive summary of the UNSDCF	Six weeks from the commencement	5%
Edited annexes (Common Country Analyses; UNCT Configuration Review; UNSDCF road Map)	Seven weeks from the commencement	10%
PowerPoint presentation on the UNSDCF	Seven weeks from the commencement	10%
Edited UNICEF Country Programme Document and Programme Strategy Notes	Two weeks from the commencement	20%

 Required Travel*: 

Sr. No.	Purpose	Location	# of days at Location

 * This is to be determined after the consultant is recruited

 Payment Schedule

 Payment will be against deliverables as identified in the table above

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: social sciences, international relations, government and public relations, public or social policy, sociology, social or community development, or another relevant technical field.

A minimum of ten years of professional development experience that combines technical and managerial leadership in development cooperation at the international level, some of which served in developing countries is required. Relevant professional experience in any UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

Strong leadership and teamwork skills, Supervisory and managerial skills, Analytical, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills, Strong writing and communication skills and the aptitude to handle competing messages and priorities with multiple audiences;

Languages: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

Administrative issues

UNICEF is responsible for the monitoring of the implementation of this assignment and shall execute this in a professional and consultative manner throughout the term of the contract.

Conditions

The consultant will use their own computer. Desk and workplace will be provided by UNICEF when the consultant comes to the office. In case of travel, the consultant will be responsible for all travel arrangement, and all applicable DSA will be paid for duty travels. All travel is by most economical fare and reimbursement as per UNICEF policy.

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 contract.

Risks

Key risk is a potential delay in finalization of the government MTSF, but the deliverables outlined above are achievable regardless of changes in external circumstances.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit their application to the following link:
https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=528587 by 23 December 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 organization

« 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 Mon Dec 23 2019 16:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)