RE-ADVERTISEMENT | Home-based in Bulgaria : National Consultant for Country Programme Evaluation (30 working days; with travel as needed) - ECARO

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, an advocate.

Purpose of Activity / Assignment

Country Programme Evaluations (CPEs) in UNICEF fulfill a key role in identifying lessons which can inform the design of the next Country Programme or adjustments in the current Programme, and opportunities to improve UNICEF’s performance. The CPEs usually assess (i) the contribution of the Programme of Cooperation to national development results; (ii) UNICEF’s contribution to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSCDF) results; and (iii) UNICEF’s strategic positioning in relation to its child rights mandate.

Being strategic evaluations, CPEs are mostly used to inform the direction of Country Programmes (CPs), which is outlined in the country programme documents that are designed and planned every 5 years, on average. At national level, CPEs may also inform the UNSDCF planning and evaluation processes and, at regional and global levels, they may inform multi-country evaluations, synthesis and strategic evaluations undertaken to assess and / or document UNICEF’s performance, management decisions and policy and programme development. CPEs in UNICEF align with UNICEF’s 2023 Evaluation Policy with which it has become a requirement for Country Offices (COs) to commission CPEs, at least, once every two programme cycles, or once per programme cycle for yearly office budgets if monitoring information or audit point to a significant shift in the programme context, or a significant increase in the level of risk. To guard independence, CPEs are managed from Regional office (RO) level in close collaboration with COs and with final quality assurance undertaken by UNICEF’s Evaluation Office in New York (Table 1).

Table 1. An extract from the revised Evaluation Policy on Country Programme Evaluation (Source : UNICEF Evaluation Policy, June 2023)

Evaluation Frequency Contextual considerations Management arrangements Country programme evaluation

Minimum once every two programme cycles.

May be conducted earlier if circumstances warrant.

Country programme evaluations feed into the pending country programme document and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). Managed by the regional evaluation adviser or the multi-country evaluation specialist.

Romania, Croatia, and Bulgaria (the countries) Country Offices (COs) are currently reviewing their programmes and preparing to adapt their business model to be better suited to operating and programming in a High Income Country (HIC) with the added EU member state context. This process is framed by a complex and shifting environment characterized by geopolitical risks in Europe and ongoing changes in the international development global setup. Internally, UNICEF needs to become more agile to respond to emerging opportunities.

Considering the need for actionable EU-aware insights on organizational changes COs should take, UNICEF has identified the need for three national consultants. This expert would work with the evaluation lead to ensure contextualization of the evaluation. Each consultant (one per country) will work on data collection and analysis particularly on their individual country.

Background

Bulgaria context

Bulgaria's socioeconomic context in 2023 and 2024 is characterized by a mix of progress and ongoing challenges. The country has achieved significant economic growth, with a GDP per capita reaching 63% of the EU average in purchasing power parity terms. The unemployment rate remains low at , but the share of NEETs (young people not in education, employment, or training) remains high, with notable gender imbalances. Despite these economic gains, Bulgaria faces substantial social vulnerabilities, particularly among children. The share of children living at risk of poverty or social exclusion has slightly increased to in 2024 due to the cost-of-living crisis. The country continues to grapple with structural challenges, including gaps in social benefits coverage and adequacy, which fail to lift many families out of poverty. Bulgaria's socioeconomic policies are focused on addressing these disparities and ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth in the medium term.

Bulgaria has a resident population of over million people, with approximately million being children, making up of the total population. The country faces a declining population due to low birth rates, an aging population, and net emigration. Children in Bulgaria face significant challenges, with a high percentage at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The Bulgarian government, in collaboration with UNICEF, has been working on several initiatives to address these issues, including the development of a National Child Strategy 2030 and improving the social impact of benefits for children. Despite these efforts, gaps in access to quality education, healthcare, and social services remain, particularly for vulnerable groups such as Roma children and children with disabilities. The focus is on ensuring that all children have access to the necessary resources and support to thrive.

Acknowledging this context, the COs have spent the last few years testing models to transition UNICEF’s presence from a middle-income context to a high-income one. Their most recent CPDs have focused on strengthening national institutions and on the use of advocacy and partnerships as implementation strategies. The end goal is to find an appropriate programmatic and operational set up that is efficient, sustainable, and self-funded, all while enabling change at scale by positioning children and child right commitments (CRC) recommendations front and center in the national agenda.

In addition, all COs have been selected at the regional level to pilot UNICEF office’s transition process to a new business model as a high-income country office. This model needs to be in line with the process tested at global level and corresponding with the aim to maintain relevance and functionality as a UNICEF office in a high-income country that is also an EU member state.

The Romania Country Office has already conducted several comprehensive evaluations on the key programme interventions. The Croatia CO also have available evaluation insights on some of key programmatic interventions being implemented by UNICEF and partners. And the Bulgaria CO has a recent country programme evaluation that can feed into this update. Taking into account the available evaluation reports on the programming processes and the need for the Office to define a more agile business model to be competitive and relevant in a hgh income country (HIC), this evaluation will focus on building evidence-based knowledge on what approaches worked or need to be adjusted in office management and operations (including human resources).

Click here for the full Terms of Reference : 4_TOR_NatConsultant_FINAL_SY_24 Jun_CLean_25 Jun

Approach and methodology

The approach and methodology presented is guided by the UNICEF’s revised Evaluation Policy, the Evaluation Norms and Standards of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG), UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluations and Data Collection and Analysis and UNICEF’s reporting standards. The proposed approach presents a way forward to design and implement a multi-country programme evaluation (M-CPE) for the two countries. The proposed approach will have the common evaluative elements which are shared by the COs and the elements which will be optional for each CO to add. It is assumed that this design will be effective to strike a balance between the interests of each CO and RO’s interest in learning across the region.

The CPE will take the following general approach :

• Use as much as possible existing information already produced by the CO, including internal databases, reports, repositories of evidence, etc.
• Allow for maximum ownership by CO staff and place the least possible burden on UNICEF staff.
• Align to country programme planning processes, in coordination with the Planning team, to ensure the evaluation feeds into the overall country programme document design.
• Engage country, sub-regional and regional key partners throughout the evaluation process.
• Work in a way that will allow sharing good practices and lessons learned across and within countries. All of this toward the ultimate goal of improving UNICEF’s implementation of change strategies and accountability in high income countries
• Maximize the use of ongoing and recent evaluations, Programme Reviews, and other related evidence generation, with a view to reducing duplication (as well as evaluative burden) and to deepening the available data set.
• Ensure that current context and forward-looking analyses are formulated based on information and evidence available for a forward-looking recommendations and way forward.

The evaluation will rely on a mixed methods approach. While the evaluation team is free to propose a theoretical and methodological framework, any final design should consider at least the following :

• Foresight methodology : As previously stated, the evaluation will be a main input towards informing the COs operational and programmatic presence for the next 10 years. To achieve this, the evaluation should rely on future thinking approaches to identify the most likely needs of children in each country, as well as to assess UNICEF’s readiness to address them. The proposal can consider Horizon Scanning, Delphi method, and other relevant future thinking tools. The work done by Coon, Vatja and Parkkonen (2024) provides insights on how foresight can inform evaluations.
• Admin data : The evaluation should make use of UNICEF’s internal administrative data systems. This includes structured (HR data, budget data, project data, results data) and unstructured sources (annual narratives, performance letters, reports, qualitative assessments). UNICEF ECA RO will make available a script designed to compile and analyze the data. The evaluation team will be able to adjust the script to quickly analyze data for all countries.
• Organizational science : The evaluation will make use of organization science tools (SWOT, PESTLE, Balance Scorecard) to assess if the COs’ proposed structures are aligned with their strategic goals and vision.
• Minimize principal-agent bias : The subject of the evaluation will lead to interviews and surveys aimed at people that are both principals and agents of the solution. It is expected that this issue will be widespread across all evaluation domains. As such, the evaluation design should consider steps to minimize such bias. These can include triangulation of sources, cognitive interviewing, vignette methodology, survey experiments, and list experiments, among others.
• Positioning : The evaluation design should also consider a methodology to measure how UNICEF is positioned within the country’s existing children network. The domains will be defined collaboratively during the evaluation inception phase but will likely include fundraising and value perception of UNICEF. A potential approach toward measuring positioning lies in the field of network analysis. UNICEF has conducted similar exercises for other CPEs and can make the data collection and analysis tools available (they would need to be modified). A different methodology can be defined during the inception phase.

Click here for the full Terms of Reference : 4_TOR_NatConsultant_FINAL_SY_24 Jun_CLean_25 Jun

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone Deliverables / Outputs Timeline / Deadline Introductory Meetings and Briefing by TL / CO Meetings, debriefs By end of July 2025 Desk reviews and analysis of secondary literature Draft analysis materials, ToC, evaluation matrix, etc By July 2025 Translation / Review / Adaptation of Data Collection Tools Reviewed and translated Data Collection Tools By mid-August 2025 Organize workplan / meetings / agenda Detailed Plan and Agenda By mid-August 2025 Conduct KIIS in the Capital and other key locations Interview protocols and key findings reports By September 2025 Compile Results of Site Visits Site visits reports By October 2025 Inputs to Zero Draft of Country Report Draft Evaluation report By November 2025 Inputs to Evaluation Report and presentation Final Evaluation report and presentation By January 2026

Estimated Duration of the Contract

30 working days between July 2025 and February 2026

Consultant's Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be home-based in Bulgaria.

As part of this assignment, some local travels are foreseen. The consultant will arrange her / his travel as and when they take place, and related costs will be reimbursed per UNICEF travel policy.

Travel Clause

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSAFE certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel / medical insurance and an immunization / vaccination card.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work / outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 30 working days to undertake this assignment, without travel fees as these will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced degree (Master's or higher) in economics, social or political science or similar field
• Minimum 5 years of experience in research in public sector research
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, preferably experience in evaluation.
• Have experience and knowledge of the country context
• Experience of work at the senior level in the country will be an asset,
• String communication skills and access to respective government officials.
• Fluency in local languages of the country and English.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most marginalized children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks : Please submit a

• full CV ,
• a Cover Letter  and
• a short methodological proposal (2-4 pages) illustrating an understanding of the TORs

in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered.  Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and / or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.