South Africa: Analysis and Advocacy for Child-Centred Budgeting

Background and Justification

Economic growth inSouth Africa has been sluggish for some years, and current forecasts in terms of short- and mid-term macroeconomic and fiscal performance look grim. This is due to a combination of a deteriorating external environment (slowing pace of economic growth in China, falling demand for and stagnating prices of commodities), internal structural bottlenecks (infrastructure and power grid bottlenecks), short-term shocks (drought-induced production shortfalls in the primary sector of the economy) and a business environment that has led to a sharp weakening of the South African Rand. The combination of these factors is generating concerns about the country’s ability to maintain its traditional relatively high levels of social sector spending into the future. Signs are already emerging that budgets in the health and education sectors are bound to experience substantial cutbacks.

These developments unfold against a background of relatively large shares of South Africa’s budgets being devoted over many years to sectors relevant to children (e.g. health, education, social assistance). By contrast, certain sectors have typically lagged behind, in particular the social welfare and justice sectors where the budgets to finance programs and services seeking to prevent and respond to child abuse and violence (“child protection”) are found. Within these sectors, the budget shares specifically devoted to benefit children are not always clear. Additional questions arise with regard to differences in budget execution (differences between allocations and expenditures across social sectors as well as between sub-national entities), decentralization (the extent to which various spheres of government have a major say in budget decisions), equity and fairness (how fair and equitable budget allocations and expenditures are), allocative and technical efficiency of public spending in child-relevant sectors, etc. Levels of budget transparency tend to vary by sector, as do decision-makers’ awareness and UNICEF’s capacity to influence the budgeting process in a manner that will deliver better results to children.

A core objective of UNICEF’s work on Public Finance for Children relates to its capacity to mobilize and strengthen in-country capacities for understanding the State Budget and helping shape budget decisions in ways that can help leverage resources and optimize results for children, especially the most disadvantaged. Timely production and dissemination of Budget Briefs can not only help inform decisions about the allocation of funds for programs and services relevant to children, but also position UNICEF Offices as a key advocate and broker for more child-centred budgeting outcomes. This requires a good understanding of a country’s budgeting process, the way a country classifies and reports on revenues and expenditures, the critical times in the budgeting cycle where greater oppprtunities for leveraging exist, and the most relevant national stakeholders that UNICEF needs to work with to help shape budget decisions in favour of children.

This assignment, which requires specialised skills, firsthand knowledge of national planning processes and prior expertise in budgeting for children, fits in with AWP and Regional priorities relating to public finance for children, as well as one of the two focus areas in the BNLSS joint work program on social inclusion.

Scope of Work

1)*Goal and Objective:*** Under the supervision of the Chief, Social Policy the consultant will:*

· Refine, test and implement a framework and methodology for conducting child-centred budget analysis in key social sectors (health and nutrition, early childhood development, education, water and sanitation, social protection and social welfare)

· Scope and identify the most strategic entry points for leveraging policy influence and advocacy to influence budget decisions in favour of children

· Produce Budget Briefs in selected sectors, as a means of laying the ground for a sustained, systematic and effective engagement in child-centred budget analysis and advocacy over the medium to long term in South Africa*.*

2)*Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered:*** Budget Briefs are short,reader-friendlyadvocacy tools, based on sound and rigorous analysis of theState Budget in sectors relevant to children. They aim at expanding the debate around social sector budgets and help shape a more child-centred, transparent, participatory and equitable pattern of public spending in the country. The main audience of the Budget Briefs will be government officials, members of the Parliament, development partners and civil society representatives engaged in child rights advocacy. Their intent is to help spark broad public interest and debate around the State Budget and how resources are distributed among as well as within social sectors, in light of a country’s poverty profile and national and international-treaty obligations with respect to their children. Specifically, the Budget Briefs have thefollowing key objectives:

a)To inform Government, Parliament, civil society and academia, and the general public about key patterns and trends of budget allocations and expenditures in the social sectors, thereby serving as a tool for increased understanding and advocacy on child-centred budgeting.

b)To inform UNICEF advocacy and programmatic efforts seeking to leverage resources for children*.*

By conducting in-depth analysis of social sector budgets and developing a set of clear advocacy messagesseeking to leverage resources for childrenmore effectively, the work around Budget Briefs will contribute to the implementation of AWPPCR/IR 2.1.2 (s*trengthen the capacity of Parliament and Chapter 9 institutions for budget analysis and related oversight), and the BNLSS Joint Program on Social Protection Focus Area 2.1: Conducting Budget studies and analysis to support social protection financing.*

3)Activities and Tasks:This consultancy assignment is part of a joint initiative undertaken in countries in Southern Africa: Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa (BNLSS). In each of these countries, a National Consultant will be recruited to develop Budget Briefs, managed by the respective UNICEF Country Offices, with technical guidance and support provided by an International Consultant who will be recruited separately but work simultaneously with the National Consultants.

The Consultant will develop his/her detailed methodology of gathering and analyzing information and data for the production of the Budget Briefs.Each brief will cover one sector, teasing out allocations and expenditures that are child-specific from those that are not, as a gauge of the extent to which children are being prioritized in the budget planning and execution process. The work will mainly focus on the review of budgetary and financial plans and expenditure records in the National Treasury and relevant Departments. Qualitative methods of data collection could also be employed to gather information on budgetary allocation and expenditure from key government officials.

The National Consultant will start by developing a detailed work plan with timelines at the beginning of the assignment, which will be revised at the inception phase after discussion with the International Consultant and the UNICEF Office.Key public finance and sector strategy documents will be reviewed, based on a conceptual framework that will be agreed and validated during the project inception phase. The National Consultant will be responsible for liaising with national stakeholders (Treasury officials, line ministries), collecting background public finance data, undertaking analysis of South Africa’s budgets based on a common approach and methodology informed by the international consultant, and distilling key findings and messages that will be used to advocate for more child-centred budget outcomes in South Africa. Further details of the National Consultant’s tasks and deliverables are provided in a matrix format below.

4)Work relationships:The National Consultant will work closely with the UNICEF Country Office and an International Consultant, who will be recruited separately and managed by UNICEF South Africa, to provide technical backstopping and support to all BNLSS countries during the span of this multi-country project. The role of the international consultant will be to help:

· Develop a common underlying framework and methodology for child-centred budgeting that meets the needs of South Africa and other BNLSS countries

· Guideand provide feedback and quality assurance to the local consultant and UNICEF

· Review the preliminary analysis conducted, assist in distilling key messages for inclusion in the Budget Briefs and provide quality assurance to the final version of the Briefs

· Take part in inception and dissemination workshops to raise awareness and transfer know-how on how to make budgets more child-centered in Southern African countries.

In collaboration with UNICEF offices and the consultant(s) recruited locally in each country, the international consultant will assist in the development of the first round of Budget Briefs andplay a key role in transferring know-how and capacity for ongoing budget analysis and advocacy to local stakeholders in these countries.This requires careful planning among the five BNLSS countries to ensure the recruitment and starting dates of all consultants are done in tandem.

To allow for flexibility in work planning, the assignment is set for 40 days spread over a period of 5 calendar months. During that time span, the National Consultant will be expected to be able to accommodate the flexibility required to align as much as possible his/her work plan with that of the International Consultant and other National Consultants. The Consultant is also expected to work in close collaboration with the National Treasury, line Ministries relevant to each sector and UN partners.

5)Outputs/Deliverables:TheBudget Briefs intend to cover key social sectors such as education, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, social protection and social welfare (child protection). The analysis underpinning the budget briefs will also help inform the development of afiscal space profile*, as a basis for exploring ways of leveraging more resources and/or better spending in favour of children in South Africa.*

Subject to agreement and validation during the inception phase, it is intended that the Budget Briefs in principle comprise of the following components:

1.Assessment and analysis of the amount of budget allocated to specific sectors as percentage of the GDP

2.Analysis of thetrends or percentage change in the government’s allocation and expenditure on sectors over the past 5 years

3.Detailed analysis of the structure of the sectors’ budgets by examining the internal distribution across programs (e.g. preventative/curative) and cost areas as defined and classified in each country

4.Assessment and analysis of the proportion of sector budgets that mostly benefit children

5.Analysis of equity dimensions that need to be examined during the budgeting process (e.g. differences in per capita spending across provinces, by population group, age, sex, socioeconomic status, etc.)

6.Key advocacy messages geared to strengthening child-centered budgeting in specific sectors

7.Practical recommendations for decision makers in Government and Parliament.

The assignment will essentially involve the following four stages: inception (including consultations with key stakeholders and agreement on the underlying framework and methodology as a result of the inception workshop), data collection and analysis (including desk review and working meetings with government counterparts, UNICEF and the international consultant charged with guiding and quality assuring the process and outputs), report writing (including the submission of d*raft Budget Briefs for joint review with UNICEF and the international consultant), and validation (including agreement on key findings and messages, finalization of the Budget Briefs and dissemination).*

Detailed timelines for each stage will be agreed during the inception phase, once it has been determined when key background information required for the assignment (e.g. provincial budget information) will be made available, and to allow for close coordination and articulation with parallel processes that will be taking place in each BNLSS country as part of this multi-country initiative. Performance will be assessed based on its timeliness and quality. Payments will only be made once the staff member supervising the assignment agrees that they meet the standards of excellence expected of an output bearing the UNICEF logo.

Below is an indicative schedule spelling out the main tasks, deliverables and timelines for the assignment, which will be adjusted jointly with UNICEF and the International Consultant to ensure collaboration and work planning with all five BNLSS countries.

Tasks

Deliverables

Timeframe

· Hold discussions with UNICEF Country Team and key Government Counterparts

· Participate in the inception workshop and draft a country-specific inception report based on the consultations and the common underlying framework agreed at the workshop

Inception report, including proposed methodology, work plan and study tools

5 days

· Collect relevant public finance documentation from National Treasury and relevant sector Ministries (national as well as provincial)

· Conduct thorough desk review and analysis of all relevant data sources

· Hold working meetings with the international consultant, UNICEF and other key national actors as required

· Based on the analysis and consultations held, construct sample tables and graphs depicting key trends, in line with the agreed framework

At least 2 teleconferences with the international consultant to discuss progress and address any technical issues arising during the project

Drafts of tables and graphs depicting key trends in sectors selected for analysis

15 days

· Conduct further analysis and report writing

Drafts of budget briefs for selected sectors, submitted for discussions and joint review with UNICEF and the international consultant

15 days

· Take part in a validation workshop involving key government staff and UNICEF

Validation workshop held: Review and agreement on key findings and messages for inclusion in the policy briefs

2 days

· Review and finalize the Budget Briefs

Final set of Budget Briefs revised after validation with partners

3 weeks

Payment Schedule

Payments will be made upon submission and acceptance of the specified deliverables and submission of invoices. Payments will be made in tranches, with the percentage of consultancy fee indicated in the table below. Payment of travel and accommodation allowances will be made in line with the respective UNICEF rules and regulations.

· 1st payment: 20% upon delivery of the approved methodology after inception mission

· 2nd payment: 40% upon delivery of the first draft budget briefs

· 3rd payment: 40% after the satisfactory completion of the assignment.

As per UNICEF policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to amaximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

The successful candidate will have:

· An advanced University Degree in Economics, Public Policy, Governance or other relevant areas

· At least 10 years of experience in Public Financial Management and related fields in South Africa

· A solid knowledge of PFM instruments, and proven experience on similar analyses of the State Budget with focus on child-centred analysis of the social sectors

· Strong analytical and writing skills, and the ability to present the results in a simple language, making use of interesting visual aid (maps, graphs and other visual tools)

· Consolidated knowledge and foundation on crosscutting themes such as equity and sectoral decentralization

· Full computer literacy, including an advanced knowledge of Excel

· High proficiency in English

· Ability to complete the tasks in a tight schedule and with limited supervision.

The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.

Conditions

This consultancy is open to National Professionals only. The selected consultant will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.Interested candidates should indicate their professional fees in the application letter.

Risks

Given that this assignment is part of a multi-country project spanning the five Southern African countries of Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland (BNLSS), parallel processes of recruitment will need to take place in each of these countries to ensure that implementation of the work plans is aligned across countries. To guard against the risk that quality might vary from one country to another, an International Consultant is being recruited separately to guide, support and quality assure the work at country level. It is therefore also critical that the National Consultant in each country is brought on board at the same time as the International Consultant, to ensure that critical milestones in the project (e.g. the inception workshop, report writing and validation phases) take place simultaneously in all countries, though with sufficient flexibility to accommodate the specific needs of individual countries. To ensure that progress proceeds apace throughout the BNLSS countries, there is regular communication and close coordination with the lead social policy personnel in each of the UNICEF offices, as well as with the Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa.

How to Apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV, and signed P11 form (which can be downloaded at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html) to safpretoriavacancy@unicef.org with subject line “Analysis and Advocacy for Child-Centred Budgeting in South Africa**”** by 02 March 2016 . Please indicate your ability, availability and rate (daily? Monthly?) to undertake the terms of reference above.

Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.