Consultancy Title: Remote- Child Poverty Analysis Consultant – MENARO, Amman 20Aug,23 – 30Apr,2023.

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, [Care]

In 2023, ESCWA, the League of Arab States, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and OPHI released the 2nd Arab Poverty Report[1] as a contribution to monitoring the progress towards the SDG 1.2.2 in the Arab Region, and to mobilize national commitment for reducing poverty of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions. This report includes a section on Child Multidimensional Poverty, whose preparation was led by UNICEF MENARO. For child multidimensional poverty, the study covered 7 middle-income Arab countries with available survey microdata for the 2010s, and found that around a quarter of children in six middle-income countries were living in multidimensional poverty, being deprived in more than one essential dimension of wellbeing.

The second Arab poverty report featured disaggregated analysis of child multidimensional poverty by residence (urban, rural), socio-economic status (wealth quintile), household composition (sex of household head, number of children) and by child age group (0-4, 5-17). The report did not examine in detail the gender aspects of multidimensional poverty or differences between children with and without disabilities. Further conceptual work is needed to devise and agree on a recommended approach for gender analysis of child multidimensional poverty, with adjustments to the framework expected to incorporate gender-sensitive (individual-level) indicators, or at least to complement the analysis with a series of gender-sensitive indicators to present along with the standard poverty analysis using the Arab-MODA framework. As for the disaggregation between children with and without functioning difficulties, the child functioning module introduced in MICS 6 (and available for 4 MENA countries) will allow the analysis of child poverty through the disability lens. [2]

In addition, new household surveys are available or expected to be available by early 2024 for at least 3 countries in MENA. This consultancy will apply the MODA framework (and its extension for gender and disability) to these new surveys in addition to baseline surveys for these countries as applicable.

How can you make a difference?

The objective of the consultancy is to produce evidence on child poverty from existing datasets, to complement the analysis on child poverty of the 2nd Arab Poverty Report, by including analysis on the gender aspects of child poverty, on child poverty and disabilities, and produce analysis on child multidimensional poverty on newly released datasets (surveys conducted in 2021-2023). This new evidence will contribute to a paper on Child Multidimensional Poverty in MENA region.

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Regional Advisor on Monitoring Child Rights (in cooperation with the Regional Advisor on Social Policy and the regional Monitoring and Research specialist), the Consultant has the responsibility of:

• Preparing a methodology note on gender and multidimensional poverty, articulating the limitations of disaggregation of the existing framework, the considerations when adjusting the framework to include additional gender indicators and proposing a recommended approach for MENA.
• Performing Child Multidimensional Poverty gender and disability analysis for the surveys included in the Arab poverty report (7 countries for gender, 4 countries for disability)
• Performing Child Multidimensional Poverty analysis based on MODA approach adopted for the 2023 Arab Poverty Studies for 3 countries with datasets released in 2023 and not yet analyzed by UNICEF (Tunisia, Yemen, and another country – tbc)

Main Tasks:

1. Review the MODA methodology used for the child poverty analysis included in the 2023 Arab Poverty Report, produced by UNICEF, ESCWA and LAS (to be provided by UNICEF MENARO, along with all the datasets and analysis scripts in Stata)
2. Prepare a methodology for the gender analysis of child multidimensional poverty by reviewing relevant literature and in consultation with regional and global experts
3. Produce tabulations with the results of the MODA gender and disability analysis for the 6 countries included in the 2023 Arab Poverty Report. Include country level estimates, regional cluster level estimates, regional estimates of deprivation in each dimension, overlapping deprivations, and child multidimensional poverty.
4. Perform the Arab region’s MODA analysis and extended gender and disability analysis on 3-4 newly released datasets in 2022-2023 and baseline surveys around the year 2010 as applicable.
5. Prepare a presentation with the key findings from the analysis.

Key deliverables

1. An inception note, with an analysis plan, work plan and timeline of deliverables
2. A methodological note on gender and multidimensional poverty
3. A note and tables in excel with the results of the MODA gender and disability analysis for 7 countries + syntaxes used for the analysis
4. A note and tables in excel with the results of the MODA analysis for additional 3-4 countries with new surveys in 2022-2023
5. Presentation with the results of the MODA gender and disability analysis
6. Technical papers for external publication

Work Assignment :

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Economics, Demography, Statistics, Social Policy, or other related technical field with significant measurement, analysis or quantitative research background is required.
• At least 5 years of solid/documented experience in child multidimensional poverty analysis, using MICS, DHS and similar data sources
• Experience of analytical work related to the MENA region is highly desirable
• Experience with SPSS, Stata
• Fluency in English
• Good writing skills

Desirable:

– Experience of working with UNICEF on child poverty

– Experience of working on issues related to gender and poverty

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 here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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

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.

Original Article