Consultancy: Senior Consultant - South Africa - Ref.# 582287

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Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Senior Consultant – South Africa

Section/Division/Duty Station: Education Outcomes Fund, Pretoria South Africa

Duration: September 1, 2025 to August 30, 2028

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

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.

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 pr