Country: Belarus
Closing date: 21 Aug 2018
TYPE OF CONTRACTS: National or international consultancy
DURATION: August – November 2018
Background and rationale
Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides for the obligation of States to invest appropriate resources to guarantee the rights safeguarded by the convention “to the maximum extent of their available resources.” In order to fulfill the rights of children according to the principle of “progressive realization of rights”, states should perform different levels of policy implementation, based on specific level of development and economic realities.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has issued General Comment No. 19 (July 2016) to offer more detailed guidance on reporting practices under Article of 4 of the CRC. In the periodic CRC reports child-focused spending is frequently substituted with the budgets of central government ministries of education, health, and social protection.
General Comment No. 20 (December 2016) observes that the potential of adolescents is widely compromised because States parties do not recognize or invest in the measures needed for them to enjoy their rights. Data disaggregated by age, sex and disability are not available in most countries to identify gaps, support the allocation of appropriate resources and inform policy. Policies and programmes often fail to address diverse adolescent needs and are inadequate to guarantee comprehensive child rights. The costs of inaction and failures are high: the foundations laid down during adolescence in terms of emotional security, health, sexuality, education, skills, resilience and understanding of rights will have profound implications on individual development, in addition to present and future social and economic development.
Evidence has shown that investing in children and adolescents is not only important due to child rights, but it also has considerable economic and social returns. Investing in the most marginalized may have even greater benefits. UNICEF’s 2010 study, showed that designing programmes and policies to reach the most disadvantaged children first had two key advantages: faster progress toward key targets and greater cost-effectiveness in comparison to focusing on the easiest to reach children. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), developed on the eve of the SDG era, also recognizes the link between child- and youth-focused investments and growth by treating children and youth as active agents of inclusive development.
Countries are also encouraged to introduce “nationally appropriate spending targets for quality investments in essential public services for all, including health, education, energy, water and sanitation, consistent with national sustainable development strategies” and to “provide fiscally sustainable and nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, with a focus on those furthest below the poverty line and vulnerable groups, including children” (AAAA, para 12).
Many adolescents and youth also continue to face significant obstacles with regards to core life transitions from childhood to adulthood such as school to employment, financial independence, lack of opportunities for meaningful civic and political participation, and marriage and family formation.
Research suggests that even in high-income countries gender gaps in adolescent health are wide-spread and have increased in 10 of the 34 countries in 2002-2014. Research also indicates the importance of the relative resilience of child-focused spending during the financial crisis and stressed that increase in spending was not sufficient to mitigate the crisis impacts on child poverty.
Equity is a central focus throughout UNICEF’s 2018-21 Strategic Plan. Goal 5 in particular seeks to address the inequities so that all children can have an equitable chance in life. UNICEF’s continued focus on equity recognizes the pernicious inequitable social and economic conditions in which many children live and that UNICEF is duty bound to work with governments to explicitly address multi-dimensional and monetary child poverty in comprehensive national plans as well as the equitable allocation of resources to implement them.
Belarus Country Context:
Belarus is among the first countries in the world which has volunteered to present national SDG follow-up and review reports at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF). This provides an opportunity for UNICEF to work with government counterparts and other partners to strengthen reporting on the situation of children and adolescents in the context of Agenda 2030.
The economic considerations highlighted above are even more important to Belarus, given that the economy experienced a recession with declining disposable incomes and employment in 2014-2016. The growing debt crisis puts a strain on the state budget and funding of social programmes approved in 2016 saw relative squeezing for 2017-2020. There is added vulnerability as the main funding for means-tested social programmes comes from local budgets which are less stable than republican budget.
There is some indication that social assistance programmes can better target the most vulnerable children. Poverty among families with many children is growing faster than the national poverty: the share of households with 3 children and more have been growing since mid-2014 and achieved 30 % in the fourth quarter of 2017. This occurs despite the substantial increase in childcare allowances (from 0.7% of GDP in 2012 to over 1.2% in 2016-2017), which took place even when the GDP was declining. The increase in share of families with children among poor households since 2013 potentially indicates poor targeting and inadequate services of child-related social assistance programmes.
Even if the state will be able to deliver to children on its current promises in conditions of economic downturn, this delivery will not necessarily be improving equity and able to support disadvantaged children and adolescents experiencing multiple deprivations. Analysis of household level data has shown that the presence of both the most and the less well-off quantile among recipients of child allowances decreased both in terms of their share in beneficiaries and in benefits. As Belarus has not collected any other data related to targeting of social assistance apart from household level data, additional studies employing benefit incidence analysis (BIA) are needed to provide timely technical assistance to the government to reinforce realization of the rights of the most vulnerable children and adolescents.
In line with UNICEF’s country program priority to benefit adolescents and young people by improved social policies and systems to reduce risks affecting their health and development, the present research aims to verify the conclusions of the situation analysis and provide timely technical assistance to the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and line ministries in assuring higher return on investment in human capital through improved monitoring and targeting of social programmes. The major rationale of the activity is to reinforce realization of the rights of the most vulnerable adolescents through improving monitoring and reporting as a basis for higher transparency, accountability and incentives to improve resources allocation in the context of Agenda 2030.
Purpose and scope
The purpose of the research is to inform public policy decisions through generating evidence on the current allocation of resources within existing public policies and programmes that have direct and indirect impacts on child and adolescent well-being with particular focus on the most vulnerable children and adolescents. The intended impact is improved targeting and accountability of child-related public investments, which allow timely response to reduce equity gaps and deprivations of the most vulnerable children and adolescents.
The main research question we want answered is whether the current distribution of public investments in first and second decades of children’s lives prioritizes the realization of rights of the most vulnerable. The key hypothesis we want to test is that the state can improve efficiency of public spending through re-designing of public programmes, especially in social assistance, by ensuring higher priority and focus on equitable development of most disadvantaged children and adolescents.
The research will allow to inform improvement of monitoring of resources allocated on children and adolescents through the key social programmes (education, health and social protection) necessary to meet State party commitments under the SDG; facilitate accountability, transparency and understanding of needed adjustments in sectoral policies and programmes aimed at reducing equity gaps; assist State party reporting on resource allocation for implementation of the rights of the child under the CRC.
The results of the research will be measured by the utilization of the following outputs: reliable analysis of disaggregated data is provided to the line ministries and key stakeholders and inform the on-going CRC report preparation and Public Expenditure Review; key government and independent experts are involved in consultations to sensitize stakeholders of their views on improving equity and targeting accuracy of public investments; developed recommendations for further improvements of resource allocation on the most vulnerable children and adolescents.
The national counterparts potentially interested in results of the study, besides the Ministry of Economy, include the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Budget and Finance, local administrations, NGOs.
Methods and Major tasks to be accomplished
The research should employ a mixed-method approach, which allows secondary analysis of statistical data on public expenditures with a particular focus on education, health and social protection and econometric analysis of household-level data employing Commitment to Equity for Children (CEQ4C) methodology.
The Commitment to Equity for Children (CEQ4C) analysis integrates three analytical frameworks, namely, public finance, fiscal incidence analysis, and multidimensional child poverty analysis. The main objective of the analysis is to understand the distributional impact of taxes and public spending on children in Belarus. The analysis will seek to answer, subject to data availability, the following questions:
The CEQ4C provides a systematic approach that consists of following steps: identifying a child-relevant budget; linking budget spending to individual benefits; measuring multidimensional child poverty (subject to data availability); fiscal incidence analysis with a child lens; policy simulations and cost-benefit analysis of simulated policies.
To equip the CO with analytical results from an equity angle to engage effectively in policy dialogue and advocacy to promote equitable outcomes for children a delivery of the following products is envisaged: a budget brief; a rapid assessment of trends and gaps regarding key child rights, providing evidence for developing further programme strategies and inputs to programme review processs; an overview of key findings and recommendations from UNICEF Belarus studies. In addition to helping the CO to align its programme directions to the new strategic plan (2018-2021) and country’s active implementation of the SDGs the above will help to improve use of data and generated knowledge through better packaging of evidence products.
The specific tasks are as follows:
Use micro-data of household budget surveys (HBS data for 2012-2016 will be provided by UNICEF) and apply the CEQ4C analysis to get the breakdown of allocation of various social spending (benefits, privileges, subsidies on utilities and transportation, expenditures on education and health) to the households with children. Using this information, analyze the distributional effects and comparisons of fiscal effects for households with children of different ages, in different regions or income groups. Make conclusions on the distributional efficiency of the social spending towards the families with focus on the most disadvantaged to find whether they are being targeted (disaggregated by first and second decades).
Using study’s findings develop recommendations on policies and programmes on underinvested vulnerable groups on improving targeting, monitoring and reporting on resource allocation, among other directions, on new child- and adolescent focused SDG priorities. Based on the estimates of the targeting accuracy of the social protection programmes, provide recommendations for improving policy and develop MICS6 Social Transfers module.
KEY TASKS, TIMEFRAME AND DELIVERABLES
The consultancy is expected to take place during the period of 15 August 2018 – 30 November 2018. The exact schedule of the activities will be agreed with the contractor based on the consultancy implementation progress. The final date for the submission of final deliverables should be 30 November, 2018.
TASKS
DELIVERABLES
DEADLINE
# OF DAYS
PHASE 1 Preparation of budget brief and development a protocol on the research of public investments in children and adolescents – 15 days
Budget brief reflecting the structure and dynamics of budget expenditures in the context of achieving SDGs for children and adolescents
25 August, 2018
6 days
A protocol on the research of public investments in children and adolescents using CEQ4C approach. The protocol is approved by UNICEF, sent for an external quality assurance review and revised afterwards
31 August, 2018
9 days
PHASE 2 Research – 45 days
Summary of Key findings and recommendations with a focus on achieving SDGs from UNICEF Belarus studies with Annex on key investments in data, including SDG indicators and presentation for programme review
1 October, 2018
15 days
Rapid assessment of trends and gaps regarding key child rights, providing evidence for developing further programme strategies and inputs to programme review (SMR) documents or process
15 October, 2018
15 days
An interim report including an CEQ4C analysis of public investments in children and adolescents with recommendations on measuring multidimensional child poverty and improving targeting of social protection programmes
10 November, 2018
15 days
PHASE 3 Report preparation, validation and presentation of results – 10 days
Final report on CEQ4C analysis of public investments in children and adolescents. The report is approved by UNICEF, sent for an external quality assurance review and revised afterwards
30 November, 2018
7 days
Presentation of results, summary of results validation
30 November, 2018
3 days
TOTAL
70
Duty station
Minsk, Belarus
SUPERVISION, WORK RELATIONS & OVERSIGHT
The contractor will be supervised and report directly to the UNICEF M&E Specialist with de-briefing with UNICEF Deputy Representative about the progress of the consultancy.
UNICEF staff members, consultants, contractors and partners will follow the GUIDANCE ON EXTERNAL ACADEMIC PUBLISHING (January 2017) when engaging in external academic publishing, whether in print or digital form, of the final Research Study Report.
The Consultant must respect the complete confidentiality of the data as well as any specific survey documents that will be produced. The Consultant can use the documents and the datasets only for the tasks related to these Terms of Reference.
Payments
Payments to the consultant will be conducted based on the submitted invoices with the number of consultancy days in line with actually reported deliverables.
Unsatisfactory performance
UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are uncompleted, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.
Qualifications or specialized knowledge/experience required
The experts from the selected company are required to have:
All consultants are required to know the principles and requirements of theUNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluations and Data Collection and Analysis (UPES), confirmed by submission of a completion certificate for an online course called “Introduction to Ethics in Evidence Generation” (https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=2173)
PROCESS FOR APPLICATION
Proposal from candidates should include:
Criteria for the selection of proposals:
Selection of the consultant will be on competitive basis.
Applicants should submit their applications in English by closing date 21 August 2018 to be eligible for consideration.
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.
Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
How to apply:
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization. To apply, click on the following link http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=515428