Consultant - 2020 Appropriation Proposal Bill at ActionAid

ActionAid Nigeria is an affiliate of ActionAid International, which is a global alliance of organisations working towards achieving a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys the right to a life with dignity. As a large and visible development organisation, we work in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Our expertise lies in community-led approaches to development and working through partnerships with the poor and other grass root organisations.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Analysis of the 2020 Appropriation Proposal Bill

Location: Abuja
Contract: Short Term

Background on the Governance Programme
Within the AAN’s Country Strategy Paper 2019-2023, the governance programme has the core mandate to enhance peoples’ power in a democratic and inclusive governance, while creating linkages with young people, women, the most vulnerable group, the PLWD etc. In line with this, the programme strives to promote accountability and transparency, through which the people are empowered to hold governments and corporates bodies accountable for their stewardship and ultimately build peoples power. It drives to open inclusive and accountable decision-making spaces at different levels of the polity.

To deliver these laudable objectives, the governance engagement focuses on six key thematic areas, namely:

• Enhancing Democratic Choices for Citizens
• Making Local Governance Work for the People
• Institutional Engagement to Promote Inclusive, Accountable and Redistributive Public Finance
• Promoting Effective Gender Responsive Public Service Delivery for the poor
• Opening of Shrinking Political & Economic Spaces
• Fight Against Inequality

Under the programme’s institutional engagement aimed at promoting inclusive, accountable and redistributive public finance, the programme has been pushing for participatory approach to budgeting in Nigeria at all level of the government. It means the involvement of all stakeholders in the different stages of the budget processes, more importantly, from the planning stage to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This step will enable the citizens and the civil society organizations to technicality support and provide inputs round the budget cycle. The advantages of such wider citizen participation are enormous, eg. improvement in service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness of governance, enabled context for private sector driven growth, enhanced equity and inclusiveness, improved citizens access to public decision making, etc.

Similarly, AAN has been advocating for increased budgetary allocation to the Agriculture, Health and Education sectors given their strategic importance. Agriculture employs up to 80% of the population, especially in the informal sector, where the majority of the small-scale food producers are women farmers. Financial incisiveness should be encouraged through increased access to credit by the small-scale farmers. Improved funding of the education sector will minimize the incessant strikes in our public institutions, enhance quality of education and provision of infrastructures at our basic, secondary and the tertiary institutions. Furthermore, the health sector requires improved funding, our health centers, maternities and hospitals lack basic essential facilities and drugs. Evidences have shown that increased investment in these pro-poor sectors has strong impact on poverty and inequality reduction, while simultaneously creating employment opportunities.

In view of the above strategic needs, the governance programme is seeking the services of a competent consultant to undertake the analysis of the 2020 Appropriation Proposal, focusing on the five key sectors enumerated below:

• Education
• Health
• Agriculture
• Women Affairs
• Social Investment Programme (SIP).

Purpose

• In line with the AAN’s submission at the Joint Parliamentary Hearing October 22, 2019, the purpose for the analysis of the 2020 Appropriation Proposal is to provide an in-depth breakdown of the allocations to specified propoor sectors in form factsheets, with which to engage various policy holders
  

Specific Objectives

• To provide an advocacy tool to be used by various AAN’s programme to engage with policy holders in the sectors mentioned above, namely Education, Health, Agriculture, Women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme (SIP)
• To provide the needed information that will enable CSOs and citizens effectively engage with the 2020 Appropriation Proposal
• To create awareness, mobilize and support CSOs and citizens to effectively engage in tracking and monitoring capital projects provided in the 2020 Appropriation Proposal
• To ascertain value for money in public expenditures.

Reporting Lines:

• The consultancy shall be managed by the Governance Manager, while the final report is to be submitted to the Director of Programmes, who shall approve same.

Deliverables
The deliverables of the consultant are outline below:

• A report accompanied with a factsheet showcasing the comparative capital and recurrent expenditures allocations in the 2020 proposed allocations to the Education, Health, Agriculture, Women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme
• A factsheet graphically illustrating with infographs the capital allocations to Education, Health, agriculture, women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme into Geographical zones, states, senatorial zones and LGAs, the capital allocations (This is an advocacy tool for townhall meetings)

Tasks and Scope of Work
The Consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks below, to arrive at the deliverables:

• Make a detailed comparative and trend analysis of the 2020 proposed allocations to the Education, Health, Agriculture, Women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme clearly highlighting strengths and weaknesses and articulate recommendations for improvement before the proposed December 2019 passage by the National Assembly
• Make comparison among provisions for capital allocations in the sectors considered pro-poor (including Education, Health, agriculture, women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme) versus overheads, which represent the administrative cost.
• Classify into Geographical zones, states, senatorial zones and LGAs, the capital allocations to Education, Health, agriculture, women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme
• Using tables and graph illustrations, compare the percentage allocations to pro-poor sectors, Education, Health, agriculture, women Affairs and the Social Investment Programme
• Determine how gender responsive the 2020 Appropriation Proposal is and clearly demonstarte this using the generated data
• Demonstrate the dimension and partern of inequality inherent in the allocations with regards to the specified sectors
• Produce a report accompanied with a factsheet containing data illustration using inforgraphs

Methodology:

• The consultant shall work independently through a Desk Review of the 2020 Appropriation Proposal to obtain the necessary material/resource for the task
• Present the report and the factsheet in a validation workshop to be organized by AAN’s team at a desired location in Nigeria.
• Data gathering, analysis, report writing and validation through a workshop

Timeline:

• The Desk Review analysis is expected to be undertaken within a period of Fifteen (15) working days. For detail, 14 Days will be devoted to data analysis, while 1 Days is earmarked for the presentation of the report and the factsheet in a validation workshop to be conducted by the AAN.

Required profile for each consultant applying
The Consultant is expected to have the following qualifications:

• Minimum of Master’s degree in Development Economic, Political Economy, Economics, Public Administration, Statistics or any of the related Social Science disciplines.
• At least 10 years progressive experience working in the areas of public finance management and analysis and public sector reform and excellent knowledge of the development sector
• Excellent facilitation, writing and reporting skills
• Computer literate and able to apply Microsoft Office and other analytical tools efficiently
• Excellent communication and interpersonal relation skills
• An excellent team player

Payment

• The Consultant shall be paid a daily consultancy fee commensurate with the level of experience and ActionAid rates for the number of days. Fifty percent of the total sum shall be paid in advance at the beginning of the consultancy period.
• The balance of 50% will be paid when the final report and factsheet have been submitted and approved by the AAN’s Director of Programme.

Application Closing Date
15th November, 2019.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates/firms should submit their Applications (expression of interest and profile) electronically to: procurement.nigeria@actionaid.org clearly indicating the "Position applied for" as subject of your mail.

Click here for More Information (PDF)