National Consultant on Nutrition Budget Tagging and Tracking, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The objective is to support the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, to design the Nutrition Budget Tagging and Tracking (NBTT) system to report nutrition-related budget allocations and expenditures more accurately by embedding effective budget tagging and tracking systems and capabilities into the government public financial system. These systems and capabilities will enable the Government of Ethiopia to 1) quantify financing gap for nutrition interventions; 2) report more accurately to development partners supporting nutrition activities; 3) catalyze increased nutrition financing assistance by demonstrating domestic budget commitments; 4) reinforce nutrition as domestic political priorities by rooting them in national budgets; and 5) improve the accuracy of monitoring and reporting of the effectiveness of investment on nutrition by tracking budget allocations and expenditures

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,

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

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How can you make a difference? 

The Individual consultant is expected to Lead Nutrition Budget & Expenditure Tagging and Tracking System in Ethiopia at the onset of the assignment.

All these documents should be finalized after incorporating comments and suggestions received from Government of Ethiopia and UNICEF staff.

The task requires active and regular engagement with relevant sector experts in determining the Nutrition Budget and Expenditure Tagging and Tracking system.

• Prepare a methodological assessment report appropriate for the Ethiopian Tagging exercise.
• Prepare business systems requirements for integrated Nutrition tagging and tracking into the IFMIS system.
• Work on systems development for nutrition budget tagging linked to Integrated Financial Information Management System (IFMIS).
• Prepare guidelines for tagging and tracking nutrition budget and expenditure using the IFMIS at Federal levels.
• Produce guidance and directives for integrating nutrition into program-based budgeting and budget submission process.
• Provision of training to Food and Nutrition Strategy signatory Ministries’ staff on nutrition budget tagging
• Supporting the Fiscal Policy to include Nutrition in Budget speech, budget document and flagship reports.
• Supporting awareness creation of Parliamentary standing committees.
• Preparation of final report.

Work Assignments Overview: Prepare Methodological assessment report appropriate for the Ethiopian Tagging exercise. Deliverables/Outputs: Report of Methodology. Deliverable deadline: 27 April 2024 (25 days) 

Work Assignments Overview: Prepare Business systems requirements for integrated Nutrition tagging and tracking into the IFMIS system. Deliverables/Outputs: Report on the Business system requirement for IFMIS integration. Delivery deadline: 10 May 2024 (15 days)

Work Assignments Overview: Systems in place for nutrition budget tagging linked to Integrated Financial Information Management System (IFMIS). Deliverables/Outputs: Report on Budget tagging system in place and integrated to IFMIS. Deliverable deadline: 5 June 2024 (25 days)

Work Assignments Overview: Prepare Guidelines for tagging and tracking nutrition budget and expenditure using the IFMIS at Federal levels. Deliverables/Outputs: Guideline on Nutrition tagging and tracking. Delivery deadline: 30 June 2024 (25 days)

Work Assignment Overview: Prepare guideline and directive to guide for integrating nutrition into program-based budgeting and budget submission process. Deliverables/Outputs: Guideline on Integrating Nutrition in program-based budgeting and budget submission process. Delivery deadline: 30 July 2024 (30 days)

Work Assignment Overview: Provision of training to FNS signatory Ministries’ staff on nutrition budget tagging and follow up of the tagging process. Deliverables/Outputs: Training and tagging report. Delivery deadline: 30 August 2024 (30 days)

Work Assignment Overview: Supporting the Fiscal Policy to include Nutrition in Budget speech, budget document and flagship reports. Deliverables/Outputs: Budget speeches, Budget document and Flagship report.  Deliverable deadline: 30 September 2024 (30 days).

Work Assignment Overview: Supporting awareness creation of Parliamentary standing committees. Deliverables/Outputs: Proceeding of Parliamentary Standing committee. Deliverable deadline: 15 October 2024 (15 days). Deliverable deadline: 30 October 2024 (15 days).

Notice for consultancy advert:-

Please note that applications submitted without a fee rate will note be considered.

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

• Master’s degree in public policy, economics, health economics or developmental studies. 
• Minimum 10 [Ten] years of experience working on public finance, budget preparation, fiscal policy, or other relevant fields.
• Prior experience in budget tagging of cross-cutting issues such as climate and disaster budget tagging, gender responsive budget tagging etc.
• Substantive experience in national nutrition-related programs and planning process, nutrition-related policies, and monitoring, evaluation and reporting of program budgeting.
• Substantive experience in working with governments, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, or other relevant ministries.
• Experience in conducting studies related to health, health sector expenditure value for money analysis, data monitoring and evaluation as well as data management.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's core values: 

• Care
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability
• Sustainability

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. Female qualified candidates who meet the requirement of the post are highly encouraged to apply. 

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.