Consultancy Terms of Reference
Supporting UNICEF Activities for Child Mortality Estimation
New York, 2011
1. Background
Child survival monitoring is one of the main activities for UNICEF as a response to the commitments to
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other international agreements as well as UNICEF’s
Medium Term Strategic Plan (2006-2013). UNICEF has direct responsibility to monitor and assess child
mortality indicators at the global, regional and country level and to these efforts, the organization is
engaging governments, civil society, international organizations, academic organizations and individuals
working in this area. UNICEF and other members of the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality
Estimation (IGME) including WHO, the UN Population Division and The World Bank generate child
mortality estimates every year for monitoring MDG 4. The IGME and its Technical Advisory Group aim
to work on improving the methodology to access data quality and to estimate child mortality.
Due to the increasing emphasis on equity, including the gender perspective, the UN Inter-agency Group
for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) will begin working on generating estimates of sex-specific child
mortality. Methods have been developed for this purpose. UNICEF is working on incorporating the
methods into the IGME’s child mortality database/software CMEInfo (www.childmortality.org). The
overall plan is to make CMEInfo capable of generating sex-specific child mortality estimates and then
publishing these on CMEInfo at the same time as UNICEF would release the child mortality estimates for
both sexes.
2. Objective
The main objective of this consultancy is to incorporate the methods for generating estimates of sexspecific child mortality into CMEInfo and to generate high quality estimates of sex-specific child
mortality, under the supervision of the child mortality specialist in SMS, Policy and Practice.
Specific duties:
a. Provide detailed technical guidance to DevInfo Support Group to incorporate methods into
CMEInfo and to design the CMEInfo interface.
b. Test CMEInfo at every step during the period developing the new version of CMEInfo and
finalize the tool.
c. Compile, format, archive data on child mortality by sex, residence, wealth index, mother’s
education for all of the member States of UNICEF, and upload all data into CMEInfo
database.
d. Generate high quality estimates on sex-specific child mortality for all of the countries with
available data, using proposed methods and collaborating with other members of the IGME,
and make all estimates available in the CMEInfo database.
e. Prepare and respond to numerous ad hoc requests relevant to child mortality area.
3. Duty Station
The consultant will be based in UNICEF Headquarters in New York.
4. Duration
The consultancy will take place between 1st July and 31st October 2011.
5. Activities and Outputs
Outputs/deliverables
Estimated
Duration
(person days)
Deadline
Finalized CMEInfo interface for generating sex-specific
child mortality
25
31st July 2011
Data compilation, formatting, uploading and archival
25
31th August 2011
Preparation of draft estimates of sex-specific child
mortality
30
30th September 2011
Preparation of final estimates of sex-specific child
mortality
30
15th October 2011
TOTAL person days & amount payable
110
6. Travel
No Travel is expected for this consultancy.
7. Key skills and experience required:
The consultant should have the following skills and qualifications:
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Minimum Master’s degree in demography, public health, statistics or other related field.
Minimum 3 years of professional experience in the area of database management,
demographic and statistical analysis.
Computer literate, particularly in statistical software R.
Experience of working on CMEInfo expert workspace.
Detail-oriented.
Excellent communication and writing skills.
Ability to take initiatives and work independently.
Creativity and enthusiasm.
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Ability to work well in a team environment.
Fluent in English.
How to apply:
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter with subject line: (Child Mortality
Consultancy), CV and P11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at
(http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html)
to pdconsultants@unicef.org by 24 June 2011. Please indicate your ability, availability and
daily/monthly rate to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a
daily/monthly rate will not be considered.