Senior Consultant to provide technical Assistance to the Parliament supporting Policy and Budget Analysis on Nutrition, ECD and Child Rights Promotion and Protection, Kigali, 6 months at UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund: (Deadline 12 June 2023)

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, Advocacy

To learn more about UNICEF work in Rwanda, please visit the country website https://unicef.sharepoint.com/sites/RWA/ or watch this video about UNICEF work in Rwanda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7B91m5Yzoc

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Background:

Rwanda has made tremendous progress in inclusive socio-economic development. Over the past two decades, Rwanda has been among the top ten best performers in economic growth across Africa, with the annual growth between 2000 and 2019 averaging 7.5 percent and the country being widely recognized for its inclusive and pro-poor growth policies and strategies. Despite the recently recorded high inflation, Rwanda is among the few countries that have demonstrated a fast recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the annual growth expected to average 7.6 percent between 2021 and 2025 (MINECOFIN Budget Framework Paper-2022/23-2024/25).

Despite impressive achievements over the past two decades, Rwanda is still confronted with a number of social development challenges, which include (i) a high rate of stunting, (ii) low coverage of Early Child Development (ECD) and Early Childhood Education (ECE) services, (iii) limited access to child protection services, including case management and referral mechanisms, and most importantly, (iv) a narrowing fiscal space that constrains adequate budget allocations to social sectors (priority sector for children).

The sixth Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2019/20) shows that the stunting rate stands at 33 percent among children under 5 years, down from 38 percent in 2024/15. However, the stunting rate differs significantly between rural and urban populations, by the gender of children, by the income levels of households, and by mothers’ education levels.

Through the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1, 2027-2024), the Government of Rwanda has set ambitious goals to eradicate malnutrition and significantly reduce stunting levels among children under five years by up to 19%. The strategy also outlines key strategies for achieving that goal, including the implementation of multisectoral coordination and ensuring/sustaining food security for all households.

Regarding Early Childhood Development, the Government of Rwanda envisages ensuring access to pre-primary education so as to increase pre-primary net enrolment rates to 45% by 2024 up from 25.9% (2020/21). This will be achieved by providing standardized Early Childhood Education schools in all villages through partnerships with the private sector, communities and by putting in place public-private partnership models for ECE and ECD to enhance cost-effective rollout.

The role of Parliament is paramount to ensuring adequate budget allocation to critical sectors and a stronger oversight mechanism to eliminate malnutrition and enhance multisectoral programming for ECD promotion, child rights protection, and community ownership through the participation of parents in the efforts to uplift the rights of their children.

It is against the above background that UNICEF and the Parliament of Rwanda are recruiting a national consultant to support the Parliament (Chamber of Deputies through the Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum/FFRP) to strengthen the capacity of Members of Parliament and their advisors to conduct a multisectoral policy and budget analysis, tagging evidence for budget allocation for nutrition, and Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Child Rights Promotion and Protection.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The main purpose of the consultancy is to strengthen the Parliament’s (Chamber of Deputies) capacity in policy and budget analysis for Nutrition, Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Child Rights Promotion and Protection.

Key Tasks:

• Perform a detailed analysis of the approved Budget law for FY 2023/24 and budget execution report of 2022/23, to produce summarized information that will guide the parliamentarian engagements with concerned Ministries, Agencies and Districts during budget oversight activities and in mid-year budget revisions.
• Draft budget analysis guidelines to be used by Members of Parliament during budget hearings and budget scrutiny.
• Ensure quality and timely publication on the Parliament website of the findings from budget analyses, including recommendations to the Government, mainly the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN).
• Provide technical and backstopping support to the FFRP secretariat and the Parliament at large on costing the FFRP Strategic Plan 2022-2026.
• Conducts capacity gap analysis in planning and budget analysis and suggests the optimal strategy to fill the gap, including leading the development of a capacity building plan.
• Support FFRP and the Parliament at large to facilitate capacity building sessions with the Members of Parliament from both chambers (Deputies and Senators) and technical staff on Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms, including Performance-Based Budgeting, with a primary focus on Nutrition, ECD and Child Protection interventions.
• Identify knowledge sharing opportunities in Parliament in collaboration with UNICEF and other stakeholders mainly the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) and NCDA.

Regularly participate in external meetings organized by MIGEPROF-NCDA and social sector meetings as may be delegated by the Clerk of the Chamber of Deputies.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

1. Support the Parliament to analyze the 2023/24 Finance Law with a particular focus on ECD, Nutrition, Child Protection.
2. Strengthen Parliament capacity through initiating and facilitating development building sessions linked with financing of Nutrition, ECD, and Child protection financing.

 Deliverables/Outputs:

Payment 1: 16%

• A detailed analysis of the approved Budget law for FY 2023/24 and budget execution report of 2022/23 conducted and a summarized information is available to guide the parliamentarian engagements with concerned Ministries, Agencies and Districts during budget oversight activities and in mid-year budget revisions.

Payment 2: 16%

• Draft budget analysis guidelines to be used by the Members of Parliament during budget hearings and budget scrutiny is available.

Payment 3: 16%

• Parliamentary budget analysis on integrated budgeting for Nutrition, ECD, and Child Rights promotion and protection finalized and ready for publication on Website of the Parliament.

Payment 4: 16%

• Capacity gap analysis in planning and budget analysis for Nutrition, ECD, and Child Rights Promotion and Protection conducted and initiated the development of a capacity building plan.

Payment 5: 16%

• Facilitated capacity building sessions of Parliamentarians from both chambers on Public Financial Management (PFM), Performance Based Budgeting and other related emerging topics of financing.
• Assist the Secretariat of the FFRP in fine turning and costing its Strategic Plan.

Payment 6: 20%

• Identified and facilitated knowledge sharing opportunities for collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, NCDA and UNICEF and other national and international institutions.

Duration and Duty Location

This  consultancy will be for 6 months, and the Consultant must be available to work in-person with the parliament. The consultant will work under the supervision of the Clerk of Chamber of Deputies, on a day-to-day basis in collaboration with Chief Social Policy.

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Finance, Development Finance, Public Policy, Public Administration, or other related fields.
• At least 8 years of proven experience in national development planning or budgeting, public sector engagement, financial analysis, or development financing.
• Demonstrable ability in developing concise and user-friendly analytical reports/briefs to be used by high level politicians with diverse background.
• Experience in working with senior officials from Government and non-government sector.
• Familiar with the public sector operations/programmes preferably in social sectors including Nutrition, Early Childhood Development (ECD), or Child Rights promotion and protection.
• Advanced capacity to research and synthesize information from a diverse stakeholders and sources.
• Good knowledge of parliament functions and processes.
• Experience with Rwanda’s financing architecture is considered as an asset.
• Fluency and excellent writing skills in English and Kinyarwanda is required. French is an asset.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines.

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 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: 

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.

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