Location: Yerevan, Armenia
Category:
Type: Consultancy
Deadline: 10-Sep-18 00:00:00
Salary:
Description
Purpose and Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a budget analysis of the size and composition of budget allocations for 2018-2019 for social and child protection, in line with ongoing reforms, as well as offer insights into the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and adequacy of past and future spending.
Specific Objectives:
- Analyze and monitor budget allocations to social and child protection, with focus on areas of direct concern to children, in the current and next fiscal year;
- Assess the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and adequacy of past spending to the extent possible, showing trend data (3-5 years);
- Inform advocacy, through key messages for policy and financing changes, especially in the context of ongoing social protection and child care reforms and programme budget submissions;
- Increase knowledge of key stakeholders on budget issues that are linked to social and child protection results.
Supervisor:
The contractor will be supervised and report to the UNICEF Social Protection Officer with regular debriefing with UNICEF Deputy Representative and child protection and education sections. The contractor will work on a daily basis with UNICEF Social Protection team through e-mail correspondence, phone, face-to-face briefings and consultations, as well as provide support whenever needed. The contractor will also have regular meetings with the UNICEF team to ensure deliverables' adherence to UNICEF Budget brief development guidelines.
Responsibilities
Major tasks to be accomplished:
- Prepare a rapid budget analysis for 2019, summarizing allocations to key social and child protection reforms;
- Develop an impact strategy for the budget brief together with UNICEF, which includes: (a) partners, (b) roles, responsibilities and timeline, (c) expected results, (d) target audience and (e) actions.
- Review budget policies and public finance statistics through available tools (e.g. Budget Law(s) and execution reports, MTEF, national statistics, World Bank Boost database, etc.)
- Review respective national and sectoral strategies and policies, with a focus on areas of direct concern to children, in social and child protection;
- Meetings and discussions with relevant line ministry's officials, as well as Ministry of Finance, to identify sector specific financial data;
- Analysis of data and preparation of the Social and Child Protection budget brief as per UNICEF's guidelines;
- Revision and validation of the draft budget brief with key national and international stakeholders;
- Finalization and presentation of the budget brief, including advocacy in line with the initial impact strategy.
Deliverables:
The contractor is expected to produce:
- Rapid budget analysis for 2019, 1-2 pages, September-October 2018;
- Presentation of a structure for the budget brief, in line with UNICEF budget brief guidelines upon review of budget policies and public finance statistics, as well as sector strategies and policies, October 2018;
- Meetings and discussions with line ministries and MoF, as well as other international and national partners, October 2018;
- Preparation of the first draft of the social and child protection budget brief, 8-10 pages in total, October-November 2018;
- Validation of the budget brief with stakeholders, revision and preparation of the final budget brief, November-December 2018;
- Presentation of the budget brief and use for advocacy – review of the impact strategy, if needed, November-December 2018.
The brief should ideally contain the following information:
- Introduction: description of the government's definition of social and child protection, an overview of key policy and/ or strategy documents and recent sector performance;
- Social and child protection spending trends: present social and child protection spending trends over time, understand the overall priorities of the social and child protection sector within the national budget, and compare against national and international targets and similar countries (if possible);
- Composition of spending: describe the composition of social and child protection spending, including by ministries and institutions, by programmes and by the type of spending (recurrent and capital);
- Budget credibility and execution: evaluate the credibility of the social and child protection budget (i.e. the relationship between budget allocations and actual expenditures) and the capacity of the sectors to spend available funds;
- Decentralization and social spending (depending on availability of data): understand the impact of decentralization on the sector and how it contributes to spending disparities across regions (particularly within the context of establishment of community-based services in the context of the child care reform);
- Equity of spending: understand whether social and child protection spending (e.g. family benefits, services, etc.) is prioritizing the most disadvantaged persons, particularly boys and girls, and achieving results for all persons, specifically children;
- Financing of social and child protection: understand key sources of financing for the social and child protection sector, financing agreements between the government and donors, and options to increase public investments;
- Key policy issues and changes: highlight key policy issues and changes that impact the budget for social and child protection;
- Key messages and recommendations: provide a series of bullet points of the main findings, key asks and recommendations in regards to current and future spending on social and child protection.
UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/ outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines (fees reduced due to late submission: 20 days-10%; 1 month-20%; 2 months-50%; more 2 months–payment withhold). All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and that UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. This ToR is an integral part of the contract (SSA) signed with the consultant.
RequiredQualifications
- At least Master's degree or its equivalent level of Public Finance, Social Protection, Economics or related field;
- At least 7 years of experience in public sector policies and reforms, including public finance management;
- Proven knowledge of public finance statistics, management and budgeting process in Armenia;
- Proven knowledge of the national legislation and policy framework on social and child protection in Armenia;
- Record of work with the government on public administration and finance and/ or programme based budgeting;
- Familiarity with the child rights agenda and ability to embed the children's agenda into PFM is a distinct advantage;
- Demonstrated awareness on gender equality, human rights and equity principles;
- Fluency in Armenian and English languages.
Benefits
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