1.BACKGROUND
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 60 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.
2.JUSTIFICATION
The Lesotho social protection sector has made significant progress in the last 5 years towards a systemic and inclusive system. The legal framework comes from the National Strategic Development Plan 2012-2017 (NSDP) where Government indicated its commitment to promote social protection as a key priority to fight poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion.
Social protection spending in Lesotho has been growing in recent years. The country spends about 9.6 percent of GDP on transfer programs, well above the 1-2 percent spent by most developing countries. However, despite the high spending on transfer programmes, only a small share of the benefits goes to the poorest households and consequently the expansion of public spending has not improved Lesotho’s social outcomes by much.
The Lesotho Child Grants Programme initially funded by European Union and taken over by Government of Lesotho in 2013 is the first cash transfer to be targeted to the poor and ultra-poor of Lesotho. The unconditional cash transfer aims at improving health and education standards of children. A recent impact evaluation showed that the CGP has a significant impact on household’s expenditure on children, particularly on nutritious food and school supplies. While the CGP had an effect retaining older children in school, there was no noticeable increase in general school enrolment. Likewise, while morbidity of children aged 0-5 decreased, there was no increased attendance to health centres.
Thus, in an effort to reach the full potential of the CGP to create lasting impact, the Ministry of Social Development – with support from UNICEF and the European Union – has decided to explore options to link the cash transfer to human development more firmly.
The main objective of the CCT pilot is to encourage participation and expand the use of health and educational services by poor segments of the population yet to benefit from the advances made by the CGP. In terms of outcomes, the specific objectives of this programme are to tackle the following indicators:
a. Education:
- Improve timely entry into Grade 1;
- Decrease drop-out rates;
- Increase regular attendance and retention in higher grades;
- Strengthen primary completion.
b. Health: Increase number of visits of under 5 year olds to health centres in order to facilitate the following:
- Increase immunization rates for under five year olds;
- Tackle childhood illnesses through regular monitoring.
In addition, the CCT pilot’s secondary objective is to build capacity in the Ministry of Social Development through testing operational mechanisms and various institutional arrangements that will also allow easy scaling up of the pilot by having identified the required instruments and institutional arrangements.
3.Objectives
Under the general supervision of the Chief of Social Policy and the Social Protection Manager at the Lesotho Ministry of Social Development, contribute to the implementation of a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) pilot. The CCT pilot seeks to explore the feasibility and effects of attaching co-responsibilities to the transfers received by beneficiaries of the Lesotho Child Grants Programme in order to increase usage of health and education services for increased human capital.
The CCT design has been completed and the Ministry of Social Development has begun the preparatory activities for its implementation over a period of two years. The purpose of the consultancy is to provide technical assistance for the implementation phase. The technical assistance is requested to ensure the quality of processes and adherence to international good practices, as well as to support on-the-job training of government staff.
4.Specific Tasks
- Work closely with the CCT Manager at the Social Protection Unit and provide on-the-job training to central-level staff.
- Support the full project cycle implementation.
- Support in the logistical planning of field activities, including guidance and on-the-job training of budget planning and monitoring of spending.
- Perform quality assurance for timely and effective implementation of field activities.
- Monitoring of daily activities and results.
- Record challenges encountered and lessons learned regarding both operational and administrative matters and make the appropriate recommendations to improve the current design.
- Supervise the provision of weekly updates to the Technical Working Group.
- Finalize the development of an outputs log frame for the duration of the pilot.
- Support the development of the process evaluation for the lifetime of the project, including the development of TORs and instruments, and implementation timeframe and training.
- Supervise trainings on CCT processes as necessary, including the adjustment/development of relevant materials.
- Advise and supervise the production of communication for development materials.
- Support any other relevant activity as necessary.
5.EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
As the main analytical outputs, the consultant will produce:
- Inception report: review the design and status of implementation of the CCT pilot, including a proposed work plan for the duration of the consultancy.
- Technical manuals and training guidelines of the CCT project cycle reviewed, updated and finalized.
- Pilot’s outputs log frame finalized, according to treatment groups.
- Monthly progress reports outlining key achievements, challenges and recommendations to move forward.
- Training materials as necessary.
- TORs for a process and impact evaluation.
- Policy briefs and documentation report for dissemination of progress and results.
6.SUPERVISION AND PLACE OF WORK
Under the overall supervision of UNICEF Chief Social policy, the consultant will directly report to the Head of Social Assistance unit at the MOSD. Hence until the appointment of the Director Social Assistance, the Consultant will report directly to the Social Protection Manager at the Ministry of Social Development and work closely with the CCT and SSN coordinator.
7.PAYMENT SCHEDULE
- Monthly payment will be issued based on the approval of the monthly implementation report by the Ministry and UNICEF. The monthly implementation report will summarize progress on the implementation of planned activities during the month. It should also highlight challenges, recommendations and suggest the work plan for the next month.
- The final payment will be linked to a full implementation report of the 9 months of consultancy. This report will document key progress and achievements, challenges and recommendation for the way forward.
8.DESIRED BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE
Qualifications
- Advanced university degree in the social sciences, such as economics, development studies or other related field.
- Minimum 5 years professional experience in social protection and/or programming with a focus on cash-based interventions and targeting of assistance and services.
- Demonstrated work experience in conditional cash transfers.
- Previous experience with cash-based programming in Sub-Saharan Africa is an asset.
- Excellent written and spoken English is required.
Competencies
· Highly structured and organised.
- Lateral thinker able to translate field experience into guidance and good practices
- Excellent analytical skills and ability to identify problems and propose solutions.
- Efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.
- Strong inter-personal skills.
- Ability to build trust and develop and maintain effective work relationships with sensitivity and respect for diversity and inclusive participation.
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
- Proven team work and self-management competencies.
9.GENERAL CONDITIONS: PROCEDURES AND LOGISTICS
The consultant will be based in the CGP Unit at the Ministry of Social Development. According to the field visit plan, Travel Authorizations will be processed by UNICEF as well as DSA.
10.POLICY BOTH PARTIES SHOULD BE AWARE OF:
- Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 21 working days, and fees are prorated accordingly. Consultants are not paid for weekends or public holidays.
- Consultants are not entitled to payment of overtime. All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.
- No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant or Contractor.
- For international consultants outside the duty station, signed contracts must be sent by fax or email.
- Signed contract copy or written agreement must be received by the office before Travel Authorization is issued.
- No consultant may travel without a signed Travel Authorization prior to the commencement of the journey to the duty station.
- Unless authorised, UNICEF will buy the tickets of the consultant. In exceptional cases, the consultant may be authorised to buy their travel tickets and shall be reimbursed at the “most economical and direct route” but this must be agreed to beforehand.
- Consultants will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.
- Consultant will be required to sign the Health Statement for Consultants/Individual Contractors prior to taking up the assignment, and to document that they have appropriate health insurance, including Medical Evacuation.
- The Form 'Designation, change or revocation of beneficiary' must be completed by the consultant upon arrival, at the HR Section
