Terms of Reference for Consultants and Contractors
Mandate of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to enable them to reach their full potential.
National Technical Advisor:
UNICEF Pakistan wants to hire a National Technical Advisor in the capacity of a consultant to provide technical support to Population Census Organization (PCO) throughout the Census 2008 process. The incumbent will be based in the PCO, Islamabad.
Background:
The previous Pakistan Population and Housing Census took place in 1998. The next comprehensive housing and population census (The Census) will be conducted by the Government of Pakistan in 2008. The Population Census Organisation (PCO), based in the Federal Bureau of Statistics, is the nexus for the preparation, data collection, analysis and dissemination of the results. Government of Pakistan’s request for financial support from international donors is related to covering some direct costs as well as all costs of national and international technical assistance. Contributing UN agencies include UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UN Habitat and UNDP. This program, including preparation, data collection, analysis and dissemination, is planned over a 3 year time frame, from 2008-2010. UNFPA will act as the Convening Agent (CA) for the UN Joint Program on census, as well as a coordinator for the entire donors’ assistance to the census.
The enumeration of the entire population will take place in October 2008 and the process will be completed within 20 days. In the 1st phase the households/structures will be numbered and household listings prepared. The 2nd phase covers the enumeration, upon which the completed questionnaires (machine readable forms) will be sent from the districts to the five provincial census centers. In each centre, the data will be transferred from the questionnaire to a database by using Intelligent Character Reader (ICR) technology. The provincial data will subsequently be transferred to the central database in Islamabad. The government of Pakistan will release the final census report in 2010.
As requested by the PCO, UNICEF has agreed to support a national expert who will directly work with the international Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) to assist in census planning & implementation, review the census plan, tabulation plan, etc. This input will provide long term support to the PCO and for effective planning, management and execution of the 2008 census. In line with the census process which is envisaged to be completed in 2010, UNICEF has decided to support PCO for the period 2008-2010. The person will be based in the PCO.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the general supervision of UNICEF PM&E chief and the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Adviser and Chief Census Commissioner, the National Technical Adviser will provide support on data collection, capturing and analysis throughout the census process and contribute substantively to the effective planning, management and execution of the 2008 Population Census of Pakistan. The overall responsibility of the National Technical Adviser is to support the CTA in providing technical assistance to the Population Census Organization to maintain state-of-the-art scientific and internationally recognized standards throughout the process and supporting the ensuing demographic analysis and data dissemination and to work horizontally with other consultants sponsored by sister UN agencies. Specifically, he/she will undertake the following tasks to support the CTA and PCO:
1. Collaborate with the census mapping team on geographic and GIS outputs;
2. Participate in the development of the plans for data analysis and tabulation;
3. Assist in data processing (data entry, quality control, tabulation);
4. Help in organizing data analysis orientation workshops, as well as report finalization workshops;
5. Develop a training plan and ensure timely training of the staff involved in the field work, data processing (coding, data entry) and analysis;
6. Facilitate the update of a precise and realistic calendar of the relevant census activities and ensure its timely implementation in all stages of the process;
7. Regularly assess the progress of PCO activities and provide periodic reports and feedback to the National Authorities, UNICEF and other partners in this process;
8. Provide advice to the UNFPA Country Office for effective implementation and monitoring of the project and optimization of the resources allocated to the Census;
9. Participate in census advocacy and resources mobilization by preparing relevant documents;
10. Identify technical assistance needs and coordinate relevant technical support;
11. Promote and coordinate national counterpart and population sensitization activities;
12. Supervise and coordinate the use and the maintenance of the equipments;
13. Coordinate and participate in the elaboration of the census administrative and management report;
14. Provide support to field-based post-census survey and ensure quality data and analysis;
15. Provide assistance to UN agencies in promoting engendering census.
16. Provide technical support to the PCO during the data analysis and production of detailed census reports.
Appraise the census process as it goes along and produce a final report to feed into census review and documentation process.
Qualification/Special Knowledge/experience:
• Advanced degree preferably in demography, social sciences are also encouraged – PhD preferable or equivalent professional experience;
• More than 10 years of professional experience in the field of social and demographic data collection, processing and analysis, preferably with regard to population censuses;
• Proficiency with design and implementation of quality control procedures for large-scale population-based data collection procedures
• Proficiency in current office software applications, data processing software, and data analysis software. Skills in working with SPSS will be considered an advantage.
• Previous working experience with PCO / Statistics Division in Pakistan will be considered an advantage.
• Fluency in oral and written English.
Deliverables:
• Duties as laid out in the ’Duties and Responsibilities” section of these TORs.
• Monthly progress report provided to CTA and PCO and certified by former as “acceptable.
Duration:
• May 2008-December 2010
How to Apply:
• Interested persons are required to send by email their most recent and duly completed UN Personal History form (P11) to pakjobs@unicef.org by clearly mentioning “Application for UNICEF CONSULTANCY” as the Subject of the email.
• Last date for submission of application is Thursday, 08 May 2008.
• P11 form can be downloaded from the “Vacancies” page.
• Only short-listed applicant will be contacted.
UNICEF IS COMMITTED TO GENDER EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN ITS MANDATE AND ITS STAFF WELL QUALIFIED CANDIDATES, PARTICULARLY FEMALES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE TO APPLY
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