International Consultant for Programme Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Reporting at UNICEF

How can you make a Difference?
Background and Purpose of the Assignment:

• Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with approximately 213 million people, with a half of the population is below 18 years of age, in 2021.
• The country has strived to provide quality inclusive education for all children under the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) and increased access to education and closed gender gaps particularly in primary education. However, the country falls short of the goal.
• Nigeria accounts for the largest global share of out of school children (15 per cent). 10.2 million children at primary school age and 8.1 million children at junior secondary school age are still out of school, although the basic education is compulsory in the country.
• This implies that approximately one in three children at basic education level are out of school. Equally concerning is children do not learn even if they attend school due to poor quality of education. For instance, about 70 per cent of students in grade 5 do not acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills in 2021. Importantly, the educational challenges are not equally distributed across the country, with children from poor families, rural areas, and northern areas with a higher security risk more excluded from education and learning.
• The lack of access to quality education has a significant impact on the future of children and the country. Children who do not complete basic education and acquire foundational skills are less likely to find a job in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, which in part contributes to the low employment at 37 per cent in Nigeria. These children are also less likely to increase their wellbeing, to be actively engaged citizens, and to nurture healthy and prosperous families.
• This in turn limits the opportunities for the country to drive economy and reduce poverty and build more inclusive, democratic societies.

Scope of Work:

• Under the supervision of the Education Manager, the Education Officer will provide technical support to programme planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting, particularly financial aspects, to facilitate the achievement of education programme results and therein to improve children’s education and learning.
• The post is responsible for ensuring the effective and efficient implementation of education pogrammes and funds in both development and humanitarian contexts. She/He will provide dedicated support to manage a large portfolio of grants in the section across 7 Field Offices, including supporting the development of costed workplans, monitoring funds utilization, and assuring the quality of donor reports, as well as engaging in communications with donors.
• The post will also support fundraising through identifying funding gaps and drafting donor proposals and contribute to programme advocacy through developing knowledge products.

Programme Budget Development, Planning and Review:

• Lead in the preparation of a fund allocation plan for the education programme based on the resource envelope and donor conditionality and ensure timely allocation of funds.
• Ensure sufficient funds from the appropriate sources are allocated in line with donor conditions to ensure proper and timely implementation of programmatic activities.
• Provide technical budget management support (project budgets and costed implementation plans) throughout all stages of programming processes to ensure achievement of results.
• Support the coordination of section’s mid-year review process and meetings and consolidate and quality assure programme mid-year reports (RAM, PMS, CSI, COAR).

Donor Proposals and Reports and Maintaining donor relations:

• Liaise with Planning Monitoring and Reporting (PMR) Unit to clarify and confirm donor reporting protocols and plan and monitor donor reporting schedule for the education programme.
• Coordinate with education and other programme and operation sections to compile quality donor reports and ensure timely submission to donors.
• Liaise with PMR to identify funding priorities and coordinate with education and other sections to draft and quality assure new funding proposals, concept notes and reprogramming and extension proposals and ensure timely submission to donors.
• Liaise with PMR to support the coordination and planning of donor meetings, visits and events and develop briefing packs and presentations.

Grant Management, Monitoring and Reporting:

• Monitor financial execution of resources allocated to the education programme, with analysis by funding source, cost center and results structure component presented at weekly and monthly section meetings.
• Coordinate with PMR on incoming funds, grants, extension, and adjustments as well as reallocations, with close monitoring of grant conditionality and deviations.
• Coordinate with education staff and PMR to prepare and finalize financial reporting for donor project reports.
• Allocate and reallocate funding within education programme to maximize the efficiency of the programme fund utilization towards results and alert colleagues on low utilization and recommend budget reallocation based on the trend analysis

Evidence Generation and Knowledge sharing for Programme Advocacy:

• Develop programme advocacy and knowledge products including briefing notes, videos, human interest stories, handouts, factsheets and infographics to support fundraising for education programme to deliver sustainable results
• Support the conduct and dissemination of research, studies and evaluations to promote evidence generation
• Facilitate conferences, events, seminars, webinars and workshops to strengthen programme advocacy and demonstrate programme results
• Build capacity of colleagues on financial budgeting, monitoring and reporting skills to improve work efficiency and effectiveness

To Qualify as an Advocate for every child you will have

• An Advanced University Degree (Master's or higher) in  Education, Accounting, Budgeting, Administration, Auditing, Economics, Statistics, Psychology, Sociology or a related field.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in education planning, budgeting, reporting and monitoring.
• Solid experience in donor report, proposal, concept notes and brief writing
• Proficiency in conducting grants/funds management and financial analysis for projects/programmes
• Computer literacy and the ability to effectively use standard office software tools (Word, Excel, PPT, Teams, SharePoint) and other office technologies including MS Teams and Zoom.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written).

Desired expertise/experiences:

• Experience working for UNICEF or other UN organizations.
• Experience working in emergency/crisis or high-risk settings.
• Strong information management and data analytical skills to summarize trends and findings and transform complex information into crisp visual presentations.
• Ability to work productively, independently and to handle requests or issues as they arise.
• Fluency in French

For every Child, you demonstrate:

• UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).