Consultant (Rwanda), Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) at United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 30 March 2025)

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, EDUCATION

There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment came together with our founding CEO Amel Karboul to create the Education Outcomes Fund (EOF).

EOF is a UNICEF-hosted fund with a mandate to champion Outcomes-Based Financing (OBF) for education at all levels. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes for children and youth, by bringing together governments, public and private funders, implementing partners, and impact investors to achieve tangible, verified outcomes. We are backed by a range of world leaders who support us to shape our approach and achieve our ambitious aims.

Since its inception in 2018, EOF has established itself as a leading global player in OBF and the only dedicated centre of expertise for OBF in education and skills. With successful programs already underway in Basic Education in Ghana and Sierra Leone, EOF is now preparing to launch programs in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone, and a Skills for Employment program in Tunisia.

Since our inception in 2018, EOF has:

• Become the first outcomes fund hosted by the United Nations within UNICEF, as a scalable platform to partner with governments around the world.
• Partnered with governments in Ghana and Sierra Leone to establish large-scale outcomes funds in Quality Basic Education, mobilising ~USD 50M for these programmes from partners such as FCDO, KOICA, Bank of America and Hempel Foundation.
• Established a USD 47 million partnership with the LEGO Foundation, to develop a portfolio of OBF programmes in early childhood care and education across a diverse range of countries, as well as to amplify the movement and ecosystem of partners around this approach.
• In partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and Bank of America, EOF is launching our first Skills for Employment programme in Tunisia, focusing on end-to-end youth support from training to job placement and retention.
• Championed a new way for private impact investors to contribute to our programmes, assuming the financial risk and supporting implementing partners to achieve results. Our first programmes attracted 2-3x of the required impact investment, suggesting that the model is appealing to the private sector.
• Had our innovative approach featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FT, Economist, Brookings, and more.
• Established a Learning & Engagement team which focuses on community building efforts, including the launch of the Collective Learning Initiative, bringing together actors in the OBF and early childhood care and education spaces to jointly surface learnings.
• Already started to change minds: from governments changing their sectorial strategy to embrace OBF and co-financing programme budgets, to international NGOs becoming more data-driven and focused on impact.

How can you make a difference?

The Consultant (Rwanda) will provide strategic and technical guidance to EOF on the management of EOF’s early childhood programme in Rwanda. The Consultant (Rwanda) will report to EOF’s Programme Manager and work closely with EOF’s central team. An estimated 12 mission travels are required within Rwanda to visit sites of the programs’ implementation. This will be an estimated 4 travels per year of the assignment. Each mission travel will be for an estimated 5 working days.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT

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

• An advanced degree in political science, economics, finance, business, education, international development, international public policy, project management, social sciences, communications, or a related field, is required.
• A minimum of 8 years’ experience in managing strategic development programmes with the Government of Rwanda, ideally in the education sector.
• Direct experience of working with the Government of Rwanda, ideally in the education sector.
• Experience leading a team and managing multiple stakeholders across complicated projects.
• Fluency in English and Kinyarwanda is required.

DESIRED REQUIREMENTS

• Experience working in the Rwandan education sector is strongly preferred.
• Prior experience working with international organisations in development and donors in Rwanda is preferred.
• Experience in innovative finance, particularly Outcomes Based Funds, is strongly preferred.

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.

Interested candidates are required to fully complete their application profile, upload a cover letter and their financial proposal that outlines the daily fee rate in USD and anticipated travel costs, as the consultancy assignment requires travel within Rwanda.

Applications with incomplete profile and without a financial proposal will not be considered.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.