Background and Justification
UNICEF Kenya Country office is currently carrying out various interventions to support enhanced and effective public expenditure in essential services key to child rights. In furtherance to this objective, the country office seeks to work in conjunction with governmental and non- governmental players to ensure that public revenue allocations are alive to child needs and that such allocations are responsive to children especially the most vulnerable and marginalised.
The constitution of Kenya 2010 created forty seven counties that exercise fiscal, administrative and political mandates. On the fiscal perspective, the sub regional governments receive fiscal transfers from the national governments to support certain key services. Additionally, the counties have mandate to mobilise local resources. Budgeting in Kenya is done at the two levels- nationally and at the sub national level. Currently, the Social Policy section of the UNICEF Kenya Country Office is working in six counties of Kakamega, Garissa, Turkana, Kilifi, Kwale and Tana River. These counties among a few others have been historically marginalised and have very poor levels of public services.
The constitution in appreciation of the need to ensure public revenue is properly allocated and utilised in the two levels of government created the Office of Controller of Budget under Article 228. The function of the office is to oversee the implementation of the budget at the two levels of government.
Arising from the central role constitutionally bestowed on the Controller of Budget’s office and the need to support the national and sub national governments to effectively deliver for children, UNICEF has entered into a partnership with the Controller of Budget office. The partnership will seek to enhance capacities of relevant offices and organs at the national and county level to strengthen the visibility of child focused investments in social services. The specific purposes of the partnership is to-
- Improve the understanding of decision-makers, partners and all other stakeholders of the current status of children’s rights in the country with respect to budgets and expenditures and the causes of budget shortfalls as the basis for recommending actions;
- Support national and sub national planning and development processes including influencing policies, strategies, budgets and national laws to contribute towards an enabling environment for children that adheres to human rights principles and gender equality, particularly in regard to universality, non-discrimination, participation and accountability;
- Strengthen national and sub-national capacities to monitor the budgets and expenditures on child sensitive interventions, principally regarding vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and how their specific rights are being met;
- Contribute to national evidence on disadvantaged and marginalized children and leverage UNICEF’s convening power to foster and support knowledge generation with government, civil society and private sector stakeholders.
- Strengthen the knowledge base (budget trends/levels/ expenditures etc on social sectors to enable assessment of the contribution of development partners, including UNICEF and the UN, in support of national and county development goals.Scope of Work
The consultancy involves working in conjunction the Controller of Budget to review of the current budgeting and reporting modalities with a view to identify areas of improvement in the interest of ensuring public spending reflects needs and rights of children and that such remain visible and prominent.
Under the supervision of the Social Policy and Economics Specialist, the consultant will specifically,
- Review legal, regulatory and administrative procedures and requirements that may hinder the budgeting and reporting on child focused public expenditure and recommend necessary responses.
- Working closely with COB, Ministry of Finance and relevant players at the county level, develop and test a framework and methodology for identifying and tracking priority child focused expenditures in both the national and county budgets, linked to the key children’s rights in the Constitution and key government programmes[1]
- Propose recommendations for the structure of budgeting and financial reporting for national and county governments to explicitly capture child focused expenditure ideally to include identification of codes within the PBB; consideration of IFMIS categories) to improve ease of collection of information as counties adopt PBB
- Train County Budget Coordinators, Fiscal Analysts and report writing specialist and other relevant staff at the Office of Controller of Budget on formulation and reporting of child focussed budget.
- Facilitate training on county government staff on formulation and reporting of child focused budget and expenditure. The staff will include members of county assembly, relevant county executive members and key budget holders. There will be two trainings per county targeting the executive and the legislative arms.
The consultancy contributes to Outcome 2, Output 2 (social budgeting) of the Country Programme. It also supports realisation of output 3 on production of regular reports on social expenditure.
[1] Seek assistance and guidance from ESARO – there is a framework under development at regional level
Consultancy Period: 105 days between 25 August, 2015 and 22 January 2016
Estimated Duration (person days): 2
Deadline:21st October 2015
1. Outputs/deliverables:
Activity-Organise and oversee piloting of the framework in the six counties
Deliverable- Report on issues arising from the pilot process and recommended responses.
Estimated Duration (person days): 20
Deadline:18th November 2015
2. Outputs/deliverables:
Activity-Hold one training in Nairobi for relevant Controller of Budget office staff on the applicability of the framework developed in ensuring child focussed budget allocations and tracking
Deliverable-Workshop report on the training
Estimated Duration (person days): 5
Deadline:25th November 2015
3. Outputs/deliverables:
Activity-Facilitate a total of five trainings for a select county government staff (Kilifi, Kwale Garissa, Turkana and Kakamega) on the use of the framework
Deliverable-Workshop report on the trainings
Estimated Duration (person days): 14
Deadline:15th December 2015
4. Outputs/deliverables:
Activity-Formulate a training manual on the framework to be used for roll out in other counties
Deliverable-Training manual
Estimated Duration (person days): 10
Deadline:8th January 2016
5. Outputs/deliverables:
Activity-Formulation of final narrative report to be reviewed by UNIFEF and Controller of Budget
Deliverable-Final project report
Estimated Duration (person days): 10
Deadline:22nd January 2016
As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary
The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts
Risks
All reasonable and likely risks should be identified and a relevant risk response and possible mitigating action defined.
The assignment greatly hinges on the amount and quality of support granted to UNICEF by the Office of the Controller of Budget. Such may pose a risk if the partnership is not well grounded. To forestall the risk, UNICEF KCO has formulated a draft MOU with the said institution to guide the partnership.
HOW TO APPLY:
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV, and signed P11 form (which can be downloaded athttp://www.unicef.org/kenya). Application indicating ability, availability and an all-inclusive fee range should be addressed to and indicate: KCO/SSA/SP/2015-024.
The Human Resources Manager
UNICEF Kenya Country Office
Email address:kenhrvacanciesC@unicef.org
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.
