National consultancy -Social Protection Research Assistant

National consultancy - Social Protection Research Assistant

I. Background

In 2018-2019 UNICEF Georgia’s Social Policy team is implementing several bigger scale research projects. These include:

• The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) – one of the largest, internationally comparable, household surveys in the world generating over 180 indicators including 48% of household related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators. With over 14,000 households as a sample size, MICS Georgia will provide regionally representative results in a wide range of fields from child and maternal health, education, and disability, to multidimensional poverty, water quality and household energy use;
• A Blood Lead Level (BLL) Survey – to be integrated into the MICS. The survey aims to collect venous blood from children and determine the prevalence of lead as well as geometric mean using the cutting-edge method of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. The survey will be piloted in Georgia and will, beyond lead, generate data on other toxicants such as mercury, cadmium, etc. The survey will help the Government of Georgia to design interventions to prevent lead exposure in the country and bring environmental health on the public policy agenda;
• The Impact Assessment of Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) programme – a quasi-experimental research/evaluation aiming to evaluate the impact of Georgia’s largest conditional cash transfer programme for the poor. The assessment will be implemented using the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) approach. It will be the first impact assessment of the TSA after its reform in 2013-2015;
• An Analyses of Poverty and Modelling of Poverty Reduction Interventions – a study based on the data of UNCIEF Georgia’s biennial panel data study, the Welfare Monitoring Survey (WMS);
• Technical Assistance to the Ministry of IDPs, Labour, Health and Social Affairs in developing its Social Protection Strategy, Communication Strategy and Capacity Building for the Ministry’s Analytical Unit.

At the same time, UNICEF’s Social Policy team also oversees quality assurance and ethics on all research, studies and evaluation projects undertaken in the office, as well as all databases and data related work.

II. Key functions:

• • Supports planning and implementation of research, studies and evaluations of UNICEF Georgia’s Social Policy Section;
  • Supports quality assurance and ethic reviews of research, studies and evaluation projects undertaken by other sections of UNICEF Georgia;
  • Supports maintenance and update of related UNICEF databases
• Assists in other organizational/programmatic matters as requested.

III. Deliverables:

Efficient and effective technical, administrative and operational support to projects and work described in section I and II.

 IV. Qualifications:

• A university degree in Management, Economics, Social Sciences or other relevant disciplines;
• Minimum of 12 month of relevant professional experience;
• Fluency in written and spoken Georgian and English.
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V. Duration of Consultancy and Logistics:

The consultancy is for 4 months: September – December 2018. Subject to availability of funding and organizational need, the contract might be extended.

The consultant is required to be in the UNICEF office full-time during working hours.

VI. Supervision and Reporting Responsibility

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Social Policy Specialist (Head of Social Policy). The consultant will provide monthly activity reports based on the agreed tasks and deliverables. The consultant's performance will be evaluated against the following criteria: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, and quality of the products delivered.

VII. Payment Terms and Rates

The monthly remuneration of the consultant will be negotiated between the selected candidate and UNICEF Georgia, based on an initial proposal of the candidate. Applicants are therefore requested to submit a monthly gross remuneration proposal in GEL.

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or failed to meet deadlines.

VIII. Termination of contract

The contract may be terminated by either party before its expiry date by giving a 15 days’ notice in writing to the other party.  However, in the event of termination on the ground of misconduct, UNICEF will be entitled to terminate the contract immediately, without earlier notice. In case of early termination of the contract, the Contractor will be compensated on a pro-rata basis for no more than the actual amount of work completed to the satisfaction of UNICEF.

IX. Application deadline and documents

The deadline for the submission of applications is 29 August 2018. Applications should include:

• CV (with at least two contacts for professional reference);
• Cover letter;
• Proposed monthly gross remuneration in GEL.

Shortlisted Candidates will be invited to an interview at the end of August/beginning of September.

A short test or submission of work sample might be requested from candidates to verify their suitability for this consultancy.