Consultancy: Senior Consultant, Pretoria, South Africa

job Description

About UNICEF
If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
Purpose of Activity/Assignment: The consultant will provide strategic guidance on the implementation of EOF's South Africa Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Outcomes Fund. The consultant will provide strategic guidance, work to ensure timely delivery of key programme milestones, support stakeholder engagement (DBE, provincial departments, evaluators, donors), support implementation of outcomes-based financing, and work to enable sustainability and evidence uptake into public systems.

Scope of Work:
The consultant will support EOF's team in relation to its ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) outcomes fund in South Africa, which is expected to launch in November 2025 and continue implementing until 2029.

Duties and Responsibilities

Terms of Reference / Deliverables
Develop and maintain implementation oversight tools, including milestone tracking reports (procurement, contracting, delivery, evaluation), risk registers (Excel), and performance summaries highlighting delays, mitigation actions, and delivery gaps.

Deliverable 1:
- 8 milestone tracking reports, each of 2 pages
- 18 updates to the risk register
- 6 summary reports (8-10 pages each)
4 tracking reports by 30.08.2026. The final 4 by 30.08.2025
6 risk log updates by 01.09.2026, an additional 6 by 01.09.2027 and the final 6 by 30.08.2028
2 summaries per year due 30.12.2026, 30.12.2027, 30.08.2028

Prepare for and facilitate 9 formal governance meetings between 2026–2028 with government, evaluator, and grantees. For each, prepare a 15-slide technical guidance pack to frame decisions and facilitate joint problem-solving implementation issues.

Deliverable 2:
- 12 governance meetings facilitated
- 12 technical pre-reading slide decks (15 slides each)
3 meetings by 30.08.2026
3 by 30.08.2027
3 by 30.08.2028

Provide strategic guidance to the team to support stakeholder engagement with DBE and provinces through bi-monthly meetings. Produce and submit contact and engagement reports summarizing key decisions and follow-ups. Ensure ongoing alignment between implementation and government priorities.

Deliverable 3:
- 100 contact and engagement reports (1–2 pages each)
30 by 30.08.2026
The remainder by 30.08.2028

Facilitate technical and planning workshops for government and implementing partners on topics including governance, evaluation design, and sustainability. Each session to be accompanied by workshop materials and feedback summaries.

Deliverable 4:
- 16 capacity-building workshops with DBE, provinces, and service providers of estimated 2 days per workshop
- Workshop slide decks and short summaries
At least 6 by 30.12.2026
Remaining 6 by 30.08.2028

Conduct site visits to programme provinces to validate progress, observe implementation, and engage local stakeholders. Produce 5-page reports summarizing visit outcomes, risks, and recommended actions.

Deliverable 5:
- 12 site visits conducted (each of estimated 5 days)
- 12 visit reports (5 pages each) 4 by 30.12.2026
4 by 30.12.2027
4 by 30.08.2028

Draft a 30-page Strategic Intelligence Report analyzing ECCE policy shifts, local government dynamics, opportunities for scaling outcomes-based finance, and EOF’s strategic visibility.

Deliverable 6:
- Strategic Intelligence and Local Positioning Report (30 pages) Draft by 01.12.2026
Final by 01.04.2027

Co-develop a long-term sustainability proposal for ECCE Outcomes Fund Phase 2, informed by two multi-stakeholder workshops. Proposal will include scale-up scenarios, integration into DBE systems, and costing frameworks.

Deliverable 7:
- 20-slide sustainability proposal
- 2 stakeholder consultation workshops Draft by 01.09.2026
Final by 01.12.2026

Produce 3 visibility briefs, 1 end-of-year summary, 1 events and visibility report, and 6 pieces of online content for EOF/DBE platforms to promote programme visibility and learning.

Deliverable 8:
- 6 visibility briefs (2 pages each)
- 5-page end-year summary
- An 8–10-page events report
- 12 social media/digital content pieces (estimated 1 page each)
At least 2 briefs and 3 content pieces by 30.12.2026
Remaining outputs by 30.03.2028

Strategic and operational guidance to EOF’s program team to resolve challenges related to the implementation of the outcomes fund.

Deliverable 9:
Join estimated 36 workshops with EOF’s program team over the duration of the assignment, each estimated 0.5 days, to provide strategic and operational guidance on implementation challenges.

Estimated 12 workshops by 30.08.2026
An additional 12 by 30.08.2027
An additional 12 by 30.08 2028

Produce reports at the end of each years implementation to analyze the program successes and challenges to date, including visibility within government, evaluation implementation, progress towards outcome targets, implementation challenges.

Deliverable 10:
-3 reports, one at the end of each year’s implementation, summarizing the program delivery that year. Estimated 15-20 pages per report.
-1 report by 30.08.2026
-1 report by 30.08.2027
-1 report by 30.08.2027

Qualifications and Experience

(1) Education
A university Degree in Education, International Development, Social Sciences, Project Management, or a related field is required.
A Master's degree is preferred but not required.
(2) Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:
• At least 10 years’ experience in leading and managing strategic development programmes in South Africa, ideally in the education sector.
• Direct experience of working with the Government of South Africa, ideally in the education sector.
• Experience leading a team, and managing multiple stakeholders across complicated projects.
• Fluency in English is required.

Desirable requirements
• Prior experience working with international organisations in development and donors in in South Africa is desirable.
• Experience with innovative finance, particularly outcomes funds, is desirable.
• Fluency in Sepedi, IsiZulu or IsiXhosa is desirable.

Requirements:
Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and
- Upload copy of academic credentials
- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :
o the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
o travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
o Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
o Indicate your availability
- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.