Microdata Harmonization Consultancy/ Division of Analysis, Planning & Monitoring, DAPM; Data and Analytics Section/remote, Req #581699

Consultancy Title: Microdata Harmonization Consultancy

Division/Duty Station: Division of Analysis, Planning & Monitoring, DAPM; Data and Analytics Section  

Duration: 30 June 2025 – 31 July 2026

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 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

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The overarching aim of this consultancy is to build a workflow for processing education data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). The education team maintains a repository of key education indicators by harmonizing MICS surveys, and moving forward, the team seeks to update the workflow in R by building on the existing systems with the support of a consultant. This work will involve leveraging both past and forthcoming MICS data to develop a system for microdata harmonization that produces education indicators. In addition, the consultant will support the country validation exercise, working closely with country offices to validate recent education estimates.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will perform the following tasks:

1. Develop a Per-Country Workflow for Microdata Harmonization of key education indicators:
• Design and Documentation:
  • Update the current CSV control file template that outlines all necessary parameters for generating the factsheet per country
  • Prepare accompanying documentation detailing the structure and intended use of the control file
• Workflow Development:
  • Create a template per country R script that reads the CSV control file and generation indicator estimates for different disggregations (out of school rate, completion rate, ANAR, Digital Skills, Literacy Rate, Dropout rate, repetition rate, Current school attendance, child labour, ECDI, early marriage, functional difficulties, remote learning, learning environment at home, parental involvement in school)
  • Validate the generated output using sample data and iterate based on feedback
• Reproducibility:
  • Ensure that the code is well-annotated and published on a GitHub repository for future reproducibility and scalability
2. Translate Legacy Codes into a Unified MICS6 Workflow:
• Translate from Stata into R the codes of harmonizing the MICS6 Datasets

• • • For around 30 countries with MICS6 data, translate the codes written in Stata that harmonize the educational indicators into R and embed them in the new GitHub workflow on harmonization and standardization of educational microdata.
    • Ensure the reproducibility of the codes, as well as correspondence of the calculated values with the officially published/reported numbers

1. Running CRAVE Process (every November-January)

• • Run the annual process of Country Reporting and Validation Exercise with respect to harmonized indicators, ensuring timely correspondence with the country offices, as well as validation of the calculated values derived through the harmonized datasets throughout the existing process

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

 1.  Proposal of a new data workflow

-  Proposal Document with workplan

20 July, 2025

2.  Develop and document per-country workflow: control file template (a csv metadata file of the surveys and indicators) and supporting documentation

-  Updated CSV control file template. Documentation describing structure, use cases, and workflow logic.

31 August 2025

3.  Develop R script to generate indicator estimates by country based on control file

- R script template on GitHub with example run

-  Annotat