Early Childhood Education Consultant, Gulf Area Office, Riyadh, for 6 Months

The UNICEF Gulf Area Office (UNICEF GAO) is unique in its mandate. It is accountable for providing programmatic support to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. In addition, it identifies, cultivates and sustains partnerships with Gulf-based partners to generate resources for the organization globally. UNICEF has a role to play in ensuring rapid development in the Gulf is child sensitive and child focused and that children remain at the heart of the national development dialogue.

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The UNICEF Gulf Area Office (UNICEF GAO) covers Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. Its Area Programme Document (APD) was approved by the Executive Board in September 2018 and covers the period 2019-2023.  The APD lists four result areas that respond to the national priorities of the Gulf countries and respond to the region's aspirations to play a more pronounced role in regional and global affairs. The priorities are: (a) support for programmes and policies that address early childhood development, with a focus on the critical first 1000 days, (b) addressing violence against children through child protection systems strengthening, (c) improving the quality and utility of data for children in the context of the SDGs, and (d) strengthening partnerships to leverage greater commitments and resources for children in the region and around the world. This Terms of Reference responds to the fourth result area on identifying and cultivating partnerships to advance child rights in the Gulf and globally.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will assume the presidency of the G-20 Summit (officially called the ''Summit on Financial Markets and World Economy'' which focuses on enhancing economic growth but also addressing global issues contributing to sustainable development. Membership consists of the leaders of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Republic of South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America as well as the European Union. Collectively, they represent 80% of the world's GDP.  The G-20 has two main work streams: the ''finance track'' which focuses on themes related to the global financial architecture, and a ''Sherpa track'' which facilitates working groups on development, trade, and other topical issues. Informing these streams is the contribution of engagement groups such civil society, business, women, youth, think tanks, and others.

Given the presidency will focus on education, UNICEF GAO is looking for an early childhood education consultant who will assist with issue papers and preparatory meetings for the education working group. This individual will work under the overall guidance of UNICEF as an organization  including advisors at regional and HQ level.

The purpose of this Assignment is to support the G-20 Secretariat and Ministry of Education in shaping the content and agenda for the Education Working Group, with a focus on early childhood education.

The consultant will be expected to :

• Provide technical guidance to the Ministry of Education and the G-20 Secretariat to advance the policy landscape for early education. It is expected that the consultant would have a good understanding of the latest thinking and policy developments in early education. As needed, this person would confer with regional and HQ colleagues to ensure UNICEF contributions are in line with best practice.
• Also provide direction where possible to the development of the other priority areas of the introduced by the G-20 Secretariat around innovation and on advancing education and learning across borders.
• Provide technical guidance on possible interventions and implementation packages that would underpin policies under consideration. The consultant should be aware of evidence-based interventions particularly in early education that are suitable to a range of contexts from low income and emergencies to high income. As necessary, the consultant would consult with HQ teams to identify and synthesize country programme examples as relevant.
• Provide technical inputs for position papers, briefing papers and content for working meetings related to the education working group.
• Identify and cultivate opportunities for providing this content where appropriate to other work streams such as the work of the finance track and the engagement groups to amplify advocacy opportunities and support efforts by KSA presidency to strengthen integrated action across work streams of the G-20, particularly when leveraging multiple platforms (ie. engagement group + finance track).
• Assist and support UNICEF GAO with potential side events related to UNICEF's engagement in the Education Working Group and the G-20 more broadly.
• Support with other tasks in relation to UNICEF's G-20 engagement as requested by UNICEF GAO.

In summary deliverables will be as follows:

• Develop and maintain a Roadmap of key activities for the next 3-12 months requiring UNICEF engagement, including the working group meetings.
• Inputs provided to key documents such as position papers, briefing papers, and workshop preparations;
• Weekly log of technical assistance provided to the G-20 Secretariat and Ministry of Education
• Other assignments as identified by UNICEF GAO in consultation with UNICEF HQ.

Reporting:

The Consultant will report to the UNICEF Gulf Area Office Deputy Representative.

Payment Schedule:

Monthly upon submission of monthly report itemizing support provided and annexing all inputs to papers as well as related workshops and other such effort.

Consultancy Fees: The consultant is expected to quote a monthly lump sum fee that includes all fees to carry out this assignment.

UNICEF will assist with the securing a visa for the selected consultant.

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

- In-depth understanding of the overall global education and development context;

- Strong education policy and sector analysis capacity and demonstrated results with education sector policy dialogue;

- strong understanding of early childhood education desired, either through in-country work or academic experience, experience with ECE policy analysis and planning;

-  Strong partnerships and advocacy experience;

- Advanced university degree in Education, International Development, Early Childhood Education/Development, Psychology, Social Sciences or a related technical field;

-Minimum of 10 years progressively responsible relevant work experience in education programme planning, management or research;

-  English fluency required

For every Child, you demonstrate¦

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, 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.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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