MICS Data Harmonization Enhancement and Support for Tabulator Development Consultant, Data Collection Unit, Data and Analytics Section, DATA Team, DAPM, NYHQ, remote. Req#585091

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 fordeveloping 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 is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Consultancy: MICS Data Harmonization Enhancement and Support for Tabulator Development Consultant

Duty Station: Data Collection Unit, Data and Analytics Section, DATA Team; DAPM, NYHQ

Duration: 15 Dec 2025 – 10 Nov 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

UNICEF, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, is dedicated to advocating for the rights of every child, meeting their basic needs, and creating opportunities for their full development. A cornerstone of this mission is the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) program — the largest source of internationally comparable data on children and women worldwide. MICS provides vital evidence for policymaking, program design, and progress monitoring toward global development commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Covering a wide range of thematic areas, MICS remains a key instrument for evidence-based decision-making at both national and international levels.

While MICS data is publicly accessible, effective use of it often requires advanced statistical tools and expertise, which can limit its reach among policymakers and practitioners. To address this, UNICEF is developing the MICS Tabulator — an online platform designed to make MICS data easier to access, analyze, and visualize. The Tabulator will enable users to generate customized tabulations, pivot views, indicators, and visualizations directly online, without needing to download microdata or use specialized statistical software. By enhancing accessibility, the platform will empower policymakers, researchers, and development partners to leverage MICS data more effectively for informed action.

The MICS Tabulator will play a pivotal role in broadening data use and dissemination. It will ensure that key insights on the well-being of children and women are accessible to a wider audience while maintaining international comparability and rigorous quality standards. In parallel, it will strengthen national capacity by enabling National Statistical Offices (NSOs) to conduct child-focused surveys with increasing autonomy, requiring only limited technical support. Ultimately, this initiative supports UNICEF’s overarching goal of advancing evidence-based policymaking and improving outcomes for children and families worldwide.

MICS surveys generate extensive datasets covering health, education, nutrition, child protection, and gender equality. Over time, adjustments to survey instruments and country-specific adaptations have led to structural variations across datasets, making cross-country and trend analyses more complex. To address these challenges, UNICEF has partnered with IPUMS at the University of Minnesota to harmonize MICS datasets across multiple rounds. This collaboration ensures consistency and comparability across countries and time, forming the backbone of the MICS Tabulator’s harmonized database.

Through this partnership, IPUMS has successfully harmonized 1,207 MICS datasets, utilizing translation tables, programming files, and SPSS codebooks to map variables into a unified framework. While highly effective, the current process relies heavily on external expertise. To ensure long-term sustainability and institutional capacity within UNICEF, a consultant will be engaged to review the existing harmonization workflows, documentation, and outputs. The consultant will help define a sustainable harmonization strategy for future MICS rounds — including standardized procedures, tools, and guidance for the MICS team — and support technical collaboration with the MICS Tabulator vendor by reviewing selected parts of the codebase and providing recommendations for improvement.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will build on the harmonization work already completed by IPUMS and support UNICEF in establishing a sustainable, in-house capacity t