National Consultant – Economic Research Assistant, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal, 40 working days (Home-based)

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, hope

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works to protect the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and those hardest to reach. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive, and fulfil their potential. We provide and advocate for education, health, and nutrition services. Protect children from violence and abuse. Bring clean water and sanitation to those in need. And keep them safe from climate change and disease.

The EU and UNICEF launched a partnership to establish the Public Finance Facility (PFF) in South and Southeast Asia to support the best possible use of public social sectors’ budgets. Government budgets are the most important public policy instruments for the realization of the rights and well-being of children, as stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The decisions governments make about how to fund social services are critical to the equitable development of children. Public finance analysis is important to help identify where gaps or vulnerabilities in social spending coverage exist.

Underpinning this analysis, it is essential to have timely and accurate budget and expenditure data for social sectors – and to ensure that internal and external stakeholders can readily access it. UNICEF ROSA and EAPRO have thus undertaken a data collection process, utilizing publicly available government sources, and are in the process of developing a public finance dashboard. This will allow internal and external stakeholders to readily access and analyze public financial data. Furthermore, the standardization of data collection has facilitated the automatic generation of charts and tables which display budget analysis metrics.

It is essential that the underlying data is quality assured to ensure its accuracy. References have been provided by UNICEF teams as they collected the data. The primary purpose of the consultancy will be to review, and quality assure the data that has been collected, to collect additional data for Pakistan (with the support of the UNICEF office), and to migrate this data to a new simplified template.

How can you make a difference? 

The purpose of this assignment is to validate the data collection undertaken by the office, to collect additional data for the country of Pakistan (with support of the UNICEF team), and to migrate the collected data to a new simplified data collection template.

This will require careful attention to detail, and previous experience of having worked with government public financial data.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Social Policy Specialist in UNICEF ROSA, the consultant will complete the following deliverables, in line with the timeline set out later in this document.

• Deliverable 1.  Collection of budget and expenditure data for Pakistan.
• Deliverable 2.  Validation of public finance and macroeconomic data collected across South Asia and East Asia and Pacific, ensuring that all data points are accurately reflected and referenced.
• Deliverable 3. Migrate the validated data to the new budget and expenditure data collection template and develop metadata for each series.

Work Assignments Overview

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

• A master’s degree in economics, public finance, or related field.
• Minimum of three years of relevant professional experience, with outstanding academic record and demonstrated experience of collecting and analyzing economic and public financial data.
• Microsoft Excel skills and experience are necessary.
• Economic research experience is necessary.   
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

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 committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility jobs-near-me.org UNICEF.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

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.