Consultancy: Consultant, Resource Mobilization Specialist Early Childhood Development – ECD, PG, NYHQ/Remote – Req # 544977

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.

 

Consultancy Title:  Resource Mobilization Specialist Early Childhood Development

Section/Division/Duty Station: Early Childhood Development/Programme Group (Remote)

Duration: 4 months (approx. 30 days)

 

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

Bearing in mind that over 250 million of the world most disadvantaged children under 5 years of age are at risk of not achieving their developmental potential, UNICEF is working towards ensuring access to early childhood development and quality care programmes for all children. Early Childhood Development (ECD), as a multi-sectoral area, addresses the youngest children and their caregivers, to give them the best start in life. ECD features as a transformative factor in the global agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), and UNICEF is recognized at global, regional and country levels as the reference agency for key goals and indicators relevant to ECD.

In the past years, the importance of ECD has gained tremendous attention both within UNICEF and in regard to achieving the SDGs. There has been progress in advancing the ECD agenda both in development and humanitarian contexts. Notwithstanding, challenges remain, and new ones have arisen due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis, compounded with one of care and learning, has highlighted the need to prioritize ECD, even in emergency, to address increased demand for parenting support to sustain caregivers’ own well-being and ability to provide nurturing care for children. Despite the needs and evidence highlighting the importance of investing in the early years, mobilizing sustainable funds for this cross-sectoral agenda has proven to be challenging.

Under the guidance of the Principal Adviser, the ECD Section is seeking to hire a resource mobilization expert to develop a strategy that will help us achieve global results in alignment with the new UNICEF Strategic Plan (2022-2025).  The strategy should take into account the following:

• Lessons from past and current resource mobilization efforts
• A changing donor landscape for ECD, including in emergencies
• The focus on Agenda 2030 and SDGs
• A desire and need to diversify funding sources beyond the limited number of traditional donors
• Opportunities arising from non-traditional sources of funding, including blended finance/public private partnerships and innovative financing.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

The aim of this consultancy is to develop a Resource Mobilization Strategy 2022-2025 to support the ECD Section at HQ to mobilize the resources required to achieve results at scale. The strategy will also be an operational tool that speaks directly to the unfunded programme areas, as well as to emerging priorities, such as embedding ECD in sectoral platforms and making services more ‘nurturing’, strengthening public financing and measurement of ECD, elevating integrated parenting support programmes (including caregiver’s mental health), and elevating ECD in humanitarian contexts. In light of the current international aid landscape and perceptions by partners on the strategic priories and the comparative advantage of UNICEF, the strategy will provide an assessment of how much can realistically be mobilized, what sources should be pursued, and how to mobilize resources in collaboration with other programme areas/Divisions.

The Strategy should be developed through rigorous consultations with the ECD team, technical sector teams delivering results for the early years (Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, Education, Mental Health Psychological Support (MHPSS), Child Protection) and support Divisions – Public Partnerships Division (PPD) and Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP) – and National Committees.
Its formulation will include six key steps:

1.      Define realistic funding gap – the amount of resources the ECD Section needs to mobilize for the period 2022-2025.

2.      Analyze external environment – map potential and existing partners (local, regional and global levels) as well as their priority development areas and recommend possible sources for accessing resources at different levels – Traditional OECD/DAC donors; Emerging donors, e.g. BRICS or MINT6; Global United Nations pooled funding mechanisms; Global and regional non-United Nations funds, including regional development banks; Philanthropic foundations and major individual donors; Public-private partnerships; and Innovative sources of funding including private capital investments.

3.      Match potential financing sources to unfunded outcomes – Link partners’ priorities to ECD interventions providing foundation and focus for cooperation between donors and regional networks at global, regional and country levels.

4.      Prioritize potential partners – identify/prioritize potential partners based on a wide range of criteria: financial/technical resources; working relationship; common areas of work; etc.

5.      Develop the resource mobilization strategy – document may consist of the sections listed below.

• Background covering key priorities and analysis of resource trends;
• Resource requirements and funding gap for each strategic outcome and output area;
• Possible financing partners and mechanisms at the global, regional and country levels for each outcome and output areas;
• Analysis of UNICEF’s comparative advantages in resource mobilization, including recommended approaches for engagement with key donors (past, present, future);
• Resource mobilization approaches to be used for each partner/outcome/output recommending practices to be applied;
• Outline of immediate steps/initial short-term action plan for the strategy implementation.

6.       Elaborate communication materials to showcase programmes as a complement of the strategy. Create evocative storytelling content that helps to engage donors and makes the emotional case for why partners and donors should support ECD programmes at UNICEF.

Deliverables include the following:

1. Concept note based on a desk review of the available information shared, including an analysis of the global funding landscape for ECD and a mapping of current and potential donors and partners, making recommendations for high-value targets.

2. A final resource mobilization strategy in close consultation with ECD HQ team, related sectors (Health, Child Protection, Disability, Gender, Mental Health Psychological Support (MHPSS), Nutrition, Education, Social Policy) and divisions (Public Partnership Division – PPD, Private Fundraising and Partnership Division – PFP) and ECD Global Technical Team.  The content should focus on the ECD multi-sectoral context, including emergency contexts, and emerging areas of collaboration with other sectors, ensuring full alignment with the new Strategic Plan.

3. High-quality targeted communication materials – PowerPoints and General Case for Support as well as brief thematic cases for support – in coordination with Department for Global Communication and Advocacy, PPD, PFP, in preparation for presentation to partners and potential donors.

Qualifications

(1) Education

• Holder of a master’s degree in social sciences, economics, or development studies.
• Demonstrated technical knowledge of ECD in development and emergency contexts is a strong asset.

2) Work experience

• At least 10 years’ experience in the development sector in fundraising, resource mobilization or partnership building is required.
• Strong knowledge of UNICEF mission/goals, programmes, and policies is desirable.
• Previous fundraising, experience with UNICEF (including financial analysis) is a strong asset.
• Advanced knowledge of partnership development in private and public sectors is an advantage.

3) Competencies

• Fluency in spoken and written English is essential
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills;

Requirements:

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.