Long Term Agreement (LTA) for Engagement of Individual Consultants as Data Management and Analysis Experts, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Remote-based, REQ#568950

Title: Long Term Agreement (LTA) for Engagement of Individual Consultants as Data Management and Analysis Experts

Duration of LTA: Three years

Duty Station: Home-based consultancy contracts

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND / RATIONALE

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the global multilateral fund dedicated to supporting education for children and adolescents in countries affected by wars, disasters, and crises. It was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 by a broad coalition of international aid agencies and public and private donors to usher in faster and more sustainable education responses in crises settings. ECW inspires political commitment to financing education in humanitarian contexts, catalyzes financial resources, facilitates joint programming between humanitarian and development actors, empowers local partners and seeks to strengthen quality and accountability.

ECW is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure that provides strategic guidance and oversight to its investments. ECW’s day-to-day activities are carried out by a Secretariat under the direction of the ECW Director.

ECW’s Monitoring and Evaluation Team oversees the production of several reports on an annual basis that leverage large quantitative datasets. These include ECW’s flagship Annual Results Report, which aggregates and summarizes monitoring data from all of ECW’s grantees to highlight progress on ECW’s Strategic Plan objectives and expected results. In addition, ECW will establish a Finance Observatory to better track and analyse the flows of foreign assistance for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crisis (EIEPC). Under this new Finance Observatory number of additional analytical reports will be produced that analyse EIEPC finance data from relevant secondary datasets, such as the Financial Tracking Service (FTS) and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). Finally, building on ECW’s global studies tracking the number of crisis-affected children in need of educational support, over the next three years, ECW plans to update and produce similar additional analytical reports using secondary data sources.

ECW is establishing a roster of monitoring and finance data management and analysis consultants through a Long-Term Agreement (LTA). The LTA responds to ECW’s recurrent need for data management and analysis expertise to produce several analytical reports. Under the guidance of the Chief of Monitoring and Evaluation, and the direct supervision of the Monitoring Manager and Evaluation Manager, the consultant(s) will provide technical support to the ECW Secretariat in managing and strengthening quantitative data systems and conducting analysis to ensure high quality reporting.

PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT

To ensure the quality of the data and analytical reports planned over the next three years, ECW requires the expertise of (a) consultant(s), experienced in developing and managing data infrastructures and processing and analysing quantitative data. The consultant will work closely with the Monitoring and Evaluation Team and the Finance and Operations Team to develop and execute data workflows for specific analytical reports and related tasks. ECW uses SharePoint and Excel to manage, store and share data, and the statistical software, STATA, to automate aspects of data processing and analysis. Further technical expertise from (a) consultant(s) will enhance these existing systems to improve the efficiency and accuracy of analysis and overall quality of reports produced.

PROGRAMME AREA AND SPECIFIC PROJECT AREA

Education; Data Management; Monitoring and Evaluation.

OBJECTIVE(S)

The overall objective of the LTA is to facilitate and expedite the process by which ECW can consult experts to provide targeted, time-bound capacity support in data management and analysis to produce high-quality analytical reports and related products. The consultant(s) will contribute to strengthening existing data management and processing systems and capacities while delivering tools and analytical outputs for the planned reports.

MAJOR TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

Consultant(s) will contribute to the production of high-quality analytical products. Tasks will include, but are not limited to:

1. Undertake data quality checks and preparation (e.g. cleaning, organizing, recording, merging) of ECW grants’ results monitoring and budget/expenditure data.
2. Analyze grants monitoring and budget/expenditure data.
3. Produce tables, graphs, charts, and short narrative summaries, as required, for Annual Results Reports.
4. Document all data processing work in clear and reproducible STATA do. and Excel files.
5. Build and manage a database of EIEPC finance data by merging relevant available finance data, including from the Financial Tracking Service (FTS), OECD development finance data, and the International Aid Transparency Imitative (IATI).
6. Analyze EIEPC finance data and develop data outputs (i.e., statistics, tables, short narrative summaries graphs, etc.) for reports produced by ECW’s Finance Observatory.
7. Update and improve upon the Annual Results Report data processing workflow and systems to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of results reporting
8. Train and review the data management and analysis work of interns on the Monitoring and Evaluation team
9. Produce updated tip sheets, SOPs and other guidance on ECW’s data management and processing systems as it relates to the production of the Annual Results reports, and reports under the Finance Observatory.
10. Develop recommendations for improving data management and processing systems for the Annual Results reports and Finance Observatory reports
11. Build, update and manage a database of EIEPC global needs data by merging relevant secondary datasets.
12. Develop analytical approaches and methodologies for global EIEPC global needs studies.
13. Analyze EIEPC global needs data and develop data outputs (i.e., statistics, tables, short narrative summaries graphs, etc.) for analytical reports.
14. Draft analytical reports for global EIEPC needs studies.

Responsibilities of the Consultant:

1. The consultant will use their own equipment; laptops, microphones, and other accessories that may be required for the tasks
2. The consultant will not give the content/material or any part thereof, to any third party without the written permission of ECW. All outputs will be the property of ECW, and the consultant will not share the same with anyone else.
3. The consultant will not put their own name or logo/emblem on the content / final product, unless otherwise specified. The only organization branding will be ECW, if required.

Responsibilities of ECW:

1. ECW will provide all details pertaining to the activity and the requirements
2. ECW will grant access to the consultant of relevant internal systems and databases.
3. ECW will provide access to software required for the tasks (e.g. STATA and Microsoft Office).

DELIVERABLES

The following deliverables are envisioned annually over the next three years. Applicants should estimate the costs for all deliverables by category across the entire duration of the LTA. However, ECW reserves the right to contract for only some of the deliverables, or for a limited duration of time.

*This is an indicative estimate of the number of days for deliverables. Candidates may propose alternative number of days to complete tasks, based on experience.

ESTIMATED DURATION OF LTA

The Long-Term Agreement will be for a duration of three years.

QUALIFICATIONS / SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE / EXPERIENCE/ LANGUAGE SKILLS REQUIRED 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in education, economics, international or development studies, statistics, finance, or related field (required); PhD in relevant field preferred.
• A minimum of five years of professional experience in Monitoring, Evaluation, Statistics and/or Research (required), preferably in the education sector at the international level.
• Proven experience in managing and analyzing large datasets (required), preferably with a focus on education programmes or education aid financing data.
• Proven experience in developing data workflows and strengthening data infrastructures within implementing organizations.
• Strong competence with Excel and STATA (required); competence with other quantitative and qualitative data analysis software is considered an asset.
• Fluency in written and spoken English (required); fluency in written and spoken French or Spanish is considered an asset.

TECHNICAL EVALUATION PROCESS AND CRITERIA

The selection of consultants for the LTA will be based on technical evaluation and financial offers in the ratio of 80:20. The criteria for technical evaluation will be as follows:

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL:

Include your financial proposal separately in the Financial Proposal template, indicating your professional fee per day. In the financial proposal, indicate your estimate of the maximum number of days to deliver each category of deliverables. Include estimates for proposed number of days per category of deliverable. All costs should be estimated in United States Dollars (USD).

HOW TO APPLY:

The application to be submitted through the online portal in which applicants are requested to outline all their relevant work experiences. The application should further contain three separate attachments:

1. A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining how the qualifications and skillset of the candidate and how you would approach the work described in the TOR (to be uploaded online)
2. Three Work Samples – This includes three previous reports that you have developed independently or contributed to (for those contributed to, a clear description of your role and activities in the project is required). It is critical to submit work samples as you will observe from the advertisement that marks have been assigned to these criteria for arriving at the most suitable candidate
3. A financial proposal indicating professional fee as per the  LTA Financial Proposal Template.doc. Please do not forget to specify your name in the file while saving. (To be uploaded under other supporting documents).

Important Note: Please do not indicate financials anywhere else in the online application form, please mark “n/a or 00”, under the fee related questions in the online application form.  

Without all the above three documents your application will be considered incomplete and invalid and will not be considered further.

• Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.
• Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
• Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.
• Female candidates meeting the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.

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. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors 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.