Ukraine: Technical Assistance for Costing Better Care (Nationals only)

Location: Ukraine

Duration: 1 May to 31 July, 2023

Number of days: 36 Days

This consultancy is only open to consultants who currently live in Ukraine.

Background: 

Maestral International (http://maestral.org/), is working with UNICEF Ukraine, its partners and the Government of Ukraine to advance Better Care - an initiative to strengthen the child protection system so that all Ukrainian children have safe and nurturing family care.

Through Better Care, Maestral is working to design, implement and prepare to scale-up evidence-based interventions to strengthen the child protection system, ultimately with the aim of children being in the care of Ukrainian families, not residential institutions. Project objectives include:

1. Provide technical leadership to UNICEF and the Government of Ukraine to design, implement, and sustain Better Care building off global best practices and historical lessons learned in Ukraine;
2. Provide capacity strengthening support to UNICEF and its partners to implement priority Better Care interventions, standards, guidance, and tools;
3. Support UNICEF to advocate for political leadership and public and private funding to scale-up Better Care, including through developing a framework for identifying and securing the resources needed for the initiative; and
4. Develop a long-term approach, with priority activities to advance Better Care.

Scope of the Consultancy: 

Better Care will require a combination of external financing, local budgetary allocations (as social services are generally decentralized in Ukraine), development partner and private sector funding to support its implementation.

Maestral is seeking a Ukrainian Costing and Public Finance Expert for this project. The consultant must be based in Ukraine for this assignment and will work with an International Costing Expert and Maestral’s team to assist participating Oblasts and Municipalities to:

1. develop a template for costing Better Care’s three-year recurrent and investment/capital costs, designed to be consistent with Ukraine’s public budget guidelines, and prepared in Microsoft Excel format; and
2. prepare a Guidance Note for completing the costing exercise covering how to identify activities to be costed, the unit costs of those activities, the budgeted costs per year, the share of those costs as a percent of total government expenditure, and potential sources of funding.

The Guidance Note will include recommendations on capacity building and downstream advocacy to Ukrainian budget authorities, development partners, and donors. To prepare the Guidance Note, the consultant will travel to the participating Oblasts and municipalities, meet with key stakeholders to assess the current public expenditure situation and potential ways forward for working with the authorities, and to develop a plan of action for downstream costing.

This assignment does not involve the actual costing process itself. Substantial external support and oversight will be provided by Maestral’s global team.

Materials will be produced in Ukrainian and Maestral will facilitate their translation into English for review purposes.

Workplan: 

The following is the anticipated project workplan for the role. This workplan is subject to change.

The anticipated level of effort for this consultancy is 36 days divided among the following tasks:

1. Review External Public Financing systems (May – June)
2. Develop costing model template with guidance (May – June)
3. Finalize costing model template based on feedback (July)
4. Finalize Guidance for costing (July)

Consultancy Requirements: 

• Expertise in undertaking economic research and advising Governments on Public financial management, including the costing of public policies, and cost-effectiveness analysis of policy options
• Experience in analysis of financial aspects of child protection/ social welfare service delivery, or relevant field with experience that would apply to child protection/social welfare
• Knowledge of current developments in the fields of Child Protection, Alternative Care, Social Policy, Social Protection and Social Welfare provisions in the Ukrainian context and situations
• Adept in Microsoft Excel
• Fluency in both Ukrainian and English
• Based in Ukraine
• Ability to attend meetings in Kyiv and to travel to appointed Oblasts within the country (note, no oblast travel will be near the frontline)
• Masters Degree in Economics, Public Finance or a related field

How to Apply: 

Interested applicants should submit the following items to jison@maestral.org no later than 26 April. Please note applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and this position may fill prior to stated deadline.

• Expression of Interest detailing relevant experience no more than 3 pages)
• Proposed distribution of 36 days of LOE for each of the tasks listed in the task table
• CV
• Contract information for 2 professional references
• Expected daily rate for this assignment