Technical Support to Child and Gender Sensitiveness in Kenya’s National Social Protection System

Terms of Reference for Individual SSA Position Title: Technical Support to Child and Gender Sensitiveness in Kenya’s National Social Protection System

Consultancy Fees: P-5

Location: Remotely and in Nairobi, Kenya

Duration: 24 working days

Start Date: 01 February to 28 February 2013

Reporting to: Joanne Bosworth, Senior Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Kenya Technical Working Group on Orphans and Vulnerable Children Cash Transfer

Budget Code/PBA No: RR – Regular Resources

Background

Government of Kenya is preparing for the development of a social assistance system and significant expansion of coverage of social assistance under the recently approved National Social Protection Policy, and building on the findings of the recent Social Protection Sector Review. The main elements of the system development relate to the five principal cash transfer programmes currently operating in Kenya (the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Cash Transfer, Older persons Cash Transfer, Persons with Disabilities Cash Transfer, Urban Food Subsidy, and the Hunger Safety Net Programme). Aspects of the development of the system include strengthening the capacity of existing programme systems (targeting, payments mechanisms, MIS, grievance mechanisms); moving towards harmonisation of programmes (single registry; trialling common targeting mechanisms; developing a flexible and harmonized crisis response); and expansion of coverage in line with an agreed expansion strategy.

Development partners are preparing to support this expansion, including through a proposed $250 million World Bank credit through a Program for Results (P4R) mechanism known as the National Safety Net Programme, under which funds are disbursed against results, known as Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs).

The proposed expansion is an opportunity to consolidate the five cash transfer programmes into one common strategy for providing regular and predictable cash transfers to the households in order to strengthen the capacity of families to care and protect their vulnerable members, and to promote human capital development, and additionally to develop a flexible mechanism for cash based responses to humanitarian crises. Covering the five programmes that are currently the most significant for the social assistance sector, the credit would support a doubling of resources for transfers from KShs 8 billion to KShs 17 billion, and enable 2.9 million people to be covered by 2017.

Kenya’s Constitution commits all state institutions and public officers to progressive realisation of Article 43 rights, to application of the principle of equity in public programmes, to protect and affirm the rights of vulnerable and marginalised groups including children, and to apply the principle of gender equity.

While the current proposals for the National Safety Net Programme seek to support progressive realisation of the right to social security together with many other rights that are supported through social protection, there is less evidence of consideration of equity, child and gender sensitiveness in the programme. There are specific questions relating to equity for children that should be considered in the proposed consolidation and expansion of programmes, including:

• The numbers of children being covered by the various programmes; Current dialogue around the programmes focuses on children reached through the OVC Cash transfer. However, there are many other children being covered through the other programmes and this should be considered in expansion plans.

• The possibility of expanding criteria for child vulnerability beyond the current criteria used in the OVC-CT; The current criteria for eligibility require a household to either be caring for an orphan or a chronically ill child, or where the principal carer is disabled or chronically ill. Estimates currently in use put these numbers at 3.6 million children. Focusing only on those (around 50%) who are believed to be living below the national poverty line, this is estimated to mean around 1.8 million children living in 310,000 households. There is need to revisit both the estimates for numbers of OVCs and potentially the criteria for assessing vulnerability, given that OVCs as currently defined are only around 20% of the total children in Kenya living in poverty.

• The potential to modify or strengthen the child sensitiveness of targeting of programmes; Several of the current programmes may have targeting criteria that include child or gender issues, but this has not been systematically reviewed.

• The extent to which other elements of programme systems can be modified to improve the child sensitivity, for example the design of the single registry and MIS systems, the level of transfer, or linkage with other social services. The above issues also relate to larger policy questions that have been identified as requiring consideration within the plans for expansion. • Targeting: including the question of coverage of children who are vulnerable but not orphans (around 80% of children living in poor households are not targeted under the OVC-CT); and how to manage geographical expansion (HSNP and UFS) vis-a-vis more categorical type transfers (OVC-CT, OPCT, and PSDT);

• Cash Transfer value: whether there is a case to vary transfer values according to household size and needs or to maintain a uniform level of transfer to all types of beneficiary;

• Eligibility for more than one transfer: currently beneficiary households are eligible for only one transfer and benefiting from more than one programme is considered “double dipping” and potentially fraudulent. However, given transfer values are uniform, there could be a case for some beneficiaries to receive more than one transfer, particularly if they have multiple needs; UNICEF has undertaken to support an initial review of child and gender sensitiveness of aspects of the proposed scale up of social assistance with a view to ensuring the system as developed best meets the aspirations of human rights and equity of the Constitution.

Scope of Work Preparation for the NSNP is already at quite an advanced stage including preliminary proposals under development for scale up and financing frameworks. A technical design team from the World Bank has already been involved in preparation of technical, social and risk appraisals. A pre-appraisal mission will take place from 11-22 February during which many aspects of the proposed scale up will be debated further.
The purpose of this consultancy is to make a preliminary assessment of the child and gender sensitiveness of proposals and make recommendations for potential improvements in this regard, including making recommendations in the context of ongoing review of UNICEF’s country programme for future UNICEF support to social protection.
Specific Tasks:

1. Review the data on orphans and vulnerable children and provide an accurate estimate of the number of OVCs and number of households containing OVCs in the 47 counties of Kenya and at sub-county level if possible (note: this should be done as far as possible with the World Bank using the Census data as part of the ongoing development of options for expansion)
2. Quantify the number of children currently reached through the five main cash transfer programmes on the basis of existing MIS or other data as far as possible
3. Review the targeting criteria and processes for the five main cash transfer programmes and identify the extent to which they take into account the needs of children and gender concerns
4. Conduct a desk review of existing programme reviews and evaluations and summarise relevant findings and lessons relating to child and gender dimensions of implementation and impact
5. Contribute to the development of options for consolidation and expansion of cash transfer programmes from the perspective of human rights, equity, child and gender sensitiveness
6. Present initial conclusions and recommendations as part of the Technical review scheduled for February 2013
7. Prepare a report summarising findings and making recommendations for strengthening child and gender sensitiveness of the national social assistance system as it is developed during 2013

AWP areas covered SPME IR1 – Knowledge and analysis for equitable pro-child social policies increased and strategies for reducing inequity adopted by policy makers by 2013

Expected Deliverables The expected deliverables are: 1. Summary information on current coverage of children by the five main cash transfer programmes – both numbers and proportions of children, at national, county and sub-county level. Summaries should identify proportions of children below the national poverty line, and numbers of OVCs, as far as possible. 2. Review of targeting criteria and targeting processes under the 5 main cash transfer programmes to identify to what extent child and gender issues are incorporated. 3. Summary of findings on child and gender sensitive implementation and impacts from existing evaluations and reviews. 4. Presentation of major findings to the Technical Design team during the pre-appraisal mission from February 11-22, to include: (a) Recommendations for child and gender sensitive expansion of social assistance; (b) Recommendations for modification of targeting criteria and processes under the five main cash transfers; (c) Recommendations for improvements to other aspects of the system to improve child and gender sensitiveness (eg: single registry, monitoring framework, grievance procedures)

1. Final report summarising findings and recommendations, including recommendations for future UNICEF support to the national social protection system.

Desired background and experience The consultant is expected to have the following qualifications and experience: • Master’s degree in applied economics, humanities or social sciences • Minimum 10 years’ experience in applied economic analysis or social policy analysis and advice • Strong skills in quantitative analysis including poverty analysis • Knowledge and expertise in social protection and cash transfers • Relevant knowledge of human rights based approaches, child and gender sensitive approaches • Relevant work experience in developing countries • Excellent command of English, with proven writing and documentation skills • Strong presentation skills • Proficiency in computer applications

Interested and suitable candidates should forward their applications to: kenyahrvacancies@unicef.org

How to apply:

Interested suitable candidates should forward their applications to:

The Human Resources Manager UNICEF Kenya Country Office

Email address: kenyhrvacancies@unicef.org