Consultancy: Hosting Review Senior Consultant - Req.#581054

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, hope!

Consultancy Title: Hosting Review Senior Consultant Section/Division/Duty Station: United Hosted Funds, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), New York HQ Duration: May 2025, to October 31, 2025  Home/ Office Based: REMOTE        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

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. Through its investments, it supports and protects holistic learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so that no one is left behind. Since 2017, ECW has mobilized $1.645 billion and reached over 11.4 million children across 46 countries.   ECW is currently hosted by UNICEF, which means that it is guided by UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations. As the fund custodian, UNICEF also provides the necessary fiduciary services and has full fiduciary responsibility for the receipt, custody and disbursement of funds. However, primary accountability of ECW and its Secretariat is to a High-Level Steering Group (HLSG) and an Executive Committee (ExCom) on which the various (donor) partners and constituencies which came together to establish ECW are represented.  In 2018, the first hosting review recommended that ECW be hosted by UNICEF during incubation and that another review be carried out during the second strategic plan period. Consequently, the HLSG has requested the Secretariat to initiate a follow-up review to map out the various hosting options currently available to ECW and, based on a careful analysis and comparison of these options, make clear recommendations so that the HLSG and the ExCom can take an informed decision about ECW’s future hosting arrangements.   Scope of Work: ECW is looking for a senior consultant to carry out the hosting review. This will serve as the most cost-effective and time-efficient approach in view of the comprehensive and forward-looking hosting review conducted by Mokoro in 2018. Building on the work carried-out in 2018, the review is intended to clearly present the different hosting options available to ECW, analyse and compare these options based on a set of agreed-upon criteria, and present the HLSG and the ExCom with clear recommendations as to how and by whom ECW should be hosted in the coming period.  The review should also include a clear timeline and a list of concrete actions that would need to be taken by both ECW and the recommended host to ensure a seamless transition (as appropriate). It is expected that the review will be evidence-based and that it will triangulate different sources of information to verify and substantiate findings and recommendations. When different stakeholders or stakeholder groups have different views, these should be noted. Although it is expected to become a public document, available on ECW’s website, the ‘owners’ and primary audience of the hosting review are the HLSG and the ExCom. Hosting criteria: The criteria against which potential hosts will be assessed include:  • Value for money It will be critical to keep the costs of the future hosting arrangement as low as possible and to ensure value for money, i.e., to ensure the best possible use of resources to achieve the desired result(s). This will require a careful review of both the fund administration costs and the costs associated with the actual hosting of the Secretariat. • Hosting capacity It will be equally important to ensure that the host has the capacity to support the effective delivery of ECW’s mission, while also affording the fund and its leadership a sufficient degree of autonomy. This will require an in-depth analysis of both fund administration capacity (i.e., receipt and deposit of financial contributions from donors, grant contracting and disbursement, including to smaller local NGOs, production of annual and certified financial reports, etc.) and capacity to provide administrative support services to th