1. Overview
The purpose of this call for CVs is to select a consultant for 11 months (starting November 1, 2011) to carry out analyses of child-related surveys such as DHS and MICS to assist UNICEF in i) better identifying the most deprived and most vulnerable children and ii) better measuring inequity through the lens of a child who faces overlapping multi-dimensional deprivations.
2. Background
Reaching the most deprived and most vulnerable children has always been UNICEF’s central mission. A focus on equity for children is not only a moral imperative—the Convention on the Rights of the Child is founded on the principles of universality, non-discrimination and accountability—but also a necessary condition for ensuring a country’s long-term growth prospect, which hinges on the wellbeing of children today.
The equity focus is motivated by evidence of a growing inequity in a wide range of countries. Despite positive economic growth and progress in child-related MDGs, recent analyses (UNICEF 2011) find that a wide gap exists in that deprivations of children’s rights are disproportionately concentrated among the poorest and most marginalized populations within countries.
To assist the operationalization of the equity refocus agenda, UNICEF Policy and Practice, in close collaboration with UNICEF’s Office of Research, aims to provide tools and techniques that facilitate the identification of the most deprived and most vulnerable children. Specifically, this consultancy aims to contribute to the equity agenda by presenting ways to i) identify the most deprived and most vulnerable children from a multi-dimensional perspective; and ii) to measure inequity beyond using wealth quintiles.
Presently these children tend to be identified one deprivation at a time (i.e. in health, nutrition, education etc.). However, from UNICEF’s Global Study on Child Poverty and Deprivations we know that the children who simultaneously experience multi-deprivations may be concentrated in places and situations that are different from those children who experience single dimensional deprivations. This has programmatic implications for two reasons. First, to the extent that there are common barriers and bottlenecks behind multiple deprivations, interventions may be designed to address them simultaneously, improving cost effectiveness. Second, because there are feedback loops among the different deprivations, integrated intervention is needed to ensure effectiveness.
In addition, presently inequity is measured at UNICEF one deprivation at a time and in relation to wealth quintiles. This makes it difficult to summarize and track inequity from the lens of a child who often faces multiple deprivations. For example, what can we tell about the inequity situation when the gap for children who only experience one deprivation has narrowed based on some wealth correlates, but the gap for children who simultaneously experience at least four deprivations has widened? Moreover, while wealth maybe a good marker in some cases for the situation of inequity in a country, it masks the other potentially more relevant markers for alienating the inequity situation in many other cases.
3. Expected output
Under the guidance of the Chief of Social Policy and Economic Analyses, PAKM, DPP at UNICEF New York, the consultant is expected to analyse the DHS surveys and MICS surveys for selected countries for which data is available from 2005 and forward. In doing so, the consultant will carry out routine data processing and management, statistical analysis through programs such as STATA, producing output tables and results, and drafting of technical papers on the findings.
Deliverables:
4. Competency and skills required
Interested persons are invited to submit their CV and a cover letter summarizing relevant experience to jchai@unicef.org and sengilbertsdottir@unicef.org NO later than September 28 2011. Please indicate daily rate of remuneration in the submission.