Location: JobParser.Models.LocationModel
Category:
Type: Full Time
Deadline: 04-Jun-18 00:00:00
Salary:
Description
UNICEF is looking for 2 Consultants to Support Social Line Ministries in Programme-based Budgeting. The tasks and deliverables will be divided between 2 Consultants, supporting 2 lines Ministries each.
Background and Context:
Guaranteeing the rights of children is not only a legal and moral responsibility; it also has implications for economic and social policies and, consequently, for the allocation of a country's financial resources. Prioritizing the rights of all children, for today and for future generations, calls for adequate resources devoted to implementing relevant legislation and for ensuring the functionality and capacity of institutions that work to fulfil these rights. Fulfilling obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has clear financial implications. While the need to extend care, assistance and protection to children is enshrined in national laws and international agreements, the process of translating these commitments into strong programmes with corresponding budgets so that children may enjoy their rights can be difficult in settings with severe resource constraints. Making the case for children is also important because children usually do not have a voice in policy and budgeting processes. The decisions governments make about how to fund social policies and services are critical to children and to equitable development overall. Many of the obstacles to improving child outcomes, including child poverty reduction, can be directly traced to public financial management (PFM) challenges. Public financial management refers to the way (budget process) governments manage public resources (revenue and expenditure) and the impact of such resources on the economy or society. Budget processes commonly refer to the annual budget cycle, medium term budget planning and expenditure framework (MTEF), and/or budget reforms such as fiscal decentralization and programme-based budgeting.
As part of the efforts of Governments to strengthen the accountability toward their commitments to children, there has been an increasing demand for initiatives aiming to assess spending for children, raising the visibility of child-specific issues in public budgeting and improving financial accountability. This commitment has been re-emphasized in the General comment No. 19 (2016) to CRC on public budgeting for the realization of children's rights (art. 4), which aims to "improve understanding of the obligations under the Convention in relation to budgeting for children's rights so as to strengthen the realization of those rights, and to promote real change in the way budgets are planned, enacted, executed and followed up in order to advance implementation of the Convention and its Optional Protocols". In line with these commitments, in a number of countries UNICEF has been an active supporter of Child-focused Public Expenditure Measurement (C-PEM), modelling and piloting initiatives in regards to better management of public funds, as well as introduction of principles of programme based budgeting for children.
The Government of the Republic of Armenia has continuously undertaken various public sector reforms including those of decentralization and consolidation/clustering of communities, as well as public finance management. Thus, a substantial progress has been made in public finance management in recent years. Programme based budgeting reforms were logical part of the second-generation fiscal reforms launched in 2000s and followed by a series of reforms, supported by such actors as the Department for International Development of the UK, GIZ, the World Bank and others. Amongst the key results achieved so far were the adoption of the Amendments to the Law on Budgetary System prescribing the key elements of the programme budgeting system by legislation. Besides the legislative changes, the core emphasis in the support of Ministry of Finance has been the development of the relevant structural reformations of the line ministries, possibilities of smooth transition to a multi-year budgeting, budget programme and revision of the indicator system and etc. In 2015, the final Programme-budgeting Strategy and Implementation Plan were approved by the Government of Armenia, envisaging that the state budget, including sectoral budgets for 2019 will be developed, approved, executed and reported in a PB format. Currently, as also stated in the Government Strategy 2017-2022. A new PB methodological guideline was developed by the Ministry of Finance for programme preparation by line Ministries, which will have an implication on the way child-related programmes are framed and budgeted for.
The 2013 CRC Concluding Observations for Armenia made reference to the way the resources are allocated and managed for children in the country and recommended to a) establish a budgeting process, which includes child rights perspective and specifies clear allocations to children in the relevant sectors and agencies, including specific indicators and a tracking system; and b) establish mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the adequacy, efficacy and equitability of the distribution of resources allocated to the implementation of the Convention. Considering Armenia's State party reporting on the CRC in early 2019, as well as the ongoing programme-based budgeting reform, there is a need for capacity development of key line Ministries on programme-based budgeting, with specific focus on child-related programmes. This is also in line with the sustainable development agenda, particularly in the context of SDG 16 (16.6.1).
Some child-specific PFM interventions have been supported by UNICEF Armenia. In 2009, UNICEF in Armenia had commissioned a study on the "Impact of the Public Finance Management on Children in Armenia", which guided some of the PFM work of the country office. For example, UNICEF has provided technical support in programme based budgeting or preparation of quality MTEF submissions in child related areas to the Ministries of Education and Science and Labour and Social Affairs. At the same time, a dedicated Toolkit for Family Budgeting on Young Child Feeding was developed in cooperation with the NSS in 2015. Finally, UNICEF worked on Child-focused public expenditure measurement (C-PEM), defining a specific methodology for the analysis, which provides a comprehensive assessment of the PFM framework in achieving child-sensitive objectives. C-PEM helps identify gaps and bottlenecks in the public finance system and strengthen links between policy/program planning and budgeting, particularly in the context of child poverty measurement. This can be effectively linked to the Programme-based Budgeting process being currently implemented in the country.
Purpose and Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is to support the four ministries in Armenia, namely the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health (tbd) in transitioning to Programme-based budgeting, in the context of existing governmental policies in the country, maximizing the contribution of budgets to achieving child-specific objectives.
Specific objectives:
- Development of advanced skills to prepare MTEF submissions;
- Development of capacities to use the child focused approach in the budget process;
- Improved knowledge on programme-based budgeting and the new methodology;
- Developed child-specific programmes in adherence to the methodology;
- Provide on job coaching to the line ministries for preparing sectoral PBs.
Supervisor:
The contractors will be supervised and report to the UNICEF Social Protection Officer with regular de-briefing with UNICEF programmatic sections, UNICEF Deputy Representative and UNICEF Representative about the progress of the consultancy.
The contractors will work on a daily basis with UNICEF Social Protection through e-mail correspondence, phone, face-to-face briefings and consultations, as well as provide support whenever needed. The contractors will also have regular meetings with the UNICEF team to ensure linkages between PFM and child poverty measurement work.
Time-Frame:
The consultancy is expected to take place during the period of 07 June 2018 –14 August 2018, 20-25 days per person/ Consultant. The exact schedule of the activities will be agreed with the contractors based on the consultancy implementation progress.
Responsibilities
The tasks to be divided between two Consultants:
a) Capacity development trainings for the respective staff of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health (tbd) in improvement of Programme budgeting, with focus on children, and in cooperation with international partners (such as GIZ);
b) Coaching and on-job support to the Programme Management and Budgeting divisions' staff in development, revision and adjustment of budget programmes in accordance with the new methodology on PB (considering child-specific outcomes), including:
- Support in review of MTEF submissions;
- Support in the development of child-related budgetary programmes/ sub-programmes (2 per Ministry).
Deliverables:
The Contractors are expected to produce:
a) Programme-based budgeting training module/ package for the staff of targeted ministries on new methodology on PB (and in cooperation with international partners, such as GIZ) – 3-day trainings in June 2018;
b) Reviewed MTEF submissions in child-specific areas (may be post-submission with recommendations for improvement) – June 2018;
c) Developed, adjusted 2 budget programmes/ sub-programmes per Ministry in accordance with the new methodology and through coaching and on-the-job advice – June-August 2018.
RequiredQualifications
- At least master degree or its equivalent level of Public Finance, Economics or a related field;
- At least 7 years of experience in public sector policies and reforms;
- Relevant experience in institutional capacity development, conducting programme based budget and public finance trainings, preferably in public administration field;
- Proven knowledge of public finance management, budgeting and child related public expenditure measurement in Armenia could be considered as an asset;
- Familiarity with the national legislation on public finance management, social sectors and budgeting;
- 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 Public Finance Management (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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