Economist - Consultant - CONS005 - Beirut, Lebanon

On 17 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Lebanon voted in favour of this instrument designed to enhance responsibility-sharing in hosting and supporting the world’s refugees. UNHCR was mandated to convene every four years a Global Refugee Forum (GRF), to be held at a ministerial level, to follow-up on the progress made. The first GRF is set to meet in Geneva on 17 and 18 December 2019. 

To address the gaps in international responsibility-sharing, UNHCR is seeking to inform the process with empirical data and evidence. To that end, UNHCR sought the technical support of the World Bank Group to devise options and methodologies to capture the contributions of, and measure the impact on, refugee host countries. Lebanon is part of the process that aims to define and quantify costs associated with hosting refugees.

After a round of meetings with representatives from the concerned States, including Lebanon, aiming to agree on a homogeneous approach across countries, the World Bank has elaborated a document proposing an average cost approach, including a template with data requirements, to estimate fiscal costs for education, health, water, sanitation, energy, social transfers and subsidies, direct contributions and refugee-specific costs including registration and administration. The transparent, participatory process led by hosting countries will inform a progress report to be prepared for the GRF in December 2019. 

UNHCR is seeking to recruit an economist to contribute technically to the detailed impact assessments to be undertaken within this process, which for Lebanon is led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). The minutes from workshops held at the UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva contain further background information to the process, and guidance for conducting the impact assessments.

The research to be undertaken is a part of other “measuring contributions” exercise namely: 

(i) A measure of contributions by “donor” countries, with a consistent methodology; and 

(ii) A metric that would measure the way contributions are distributed across Member States.

Also this research will complement a broader research being done by the World Bank to analyze the consequences of the Syrian conflict for Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon in a systematic and comparable manner, and more specifically examine the impact of the Syrian conflict on various sectors (power, WASH, housing, transportation, education, and health.) While this World Bank study takes a comprehensive approach, the one being conducted ahead of the GRF will be limited to analysing the fiscal costs of hosting the Syrian refugees in a number of sectors, including education and health.

The overall contractual responsibility rests with UNHCR. MoFA and UNHCR will co-manage the work of the Consultant throughout the process.

Duration

• From:14 October 2019 
• To: 20 December 2019 

 

Total amount of days/weeks/months to be worked:    10 weeks

Overall purpose and Scope of Assignment:

(Concise and detailed description of activities, including measurable outputs and delivery dates, impact indicators (what qualitative and quantitative results would be achieved upon completion of consultancy), performance indicators (time lines, value of the service rendered in relation to the cost, timeliness) and work plan.):The overall objective of the research and analysis is to provide data to underpin discussions among the Member States that could eventually lead to a more equitable, predictable and sustainable responsibility-sharing arrangement, that is not limited to financial responsibility-sharing alone. In order to serve this purpose, the Consultant is expected to identify, review and analyze data available from different line ministries and estimate the fiscal costs of refugee needs in Lebanon.  SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIESWith advise from and under the direction of the Expert nominated by MoFA  to the workshops on “Measuring the impact arising from hosting, protecting and assisting refugees”, identify and gather the official data from different line ministries, in coordination with Inter-Agency of the Lebanon Crisis Response (LCRP) if needed, pertaining to the fiscal costs for education, health, water, sanitation, energy, social transfers and subsidies, direct contributions and refugee-specific costs including registration and administration and any other sector deemed relevant Populate the template proposed by the World Bank with the available data and adjust it, where necessaryAnalyze the data gathered and estimate the fiscal costs of refugee needs related to the delivery of services in the concerned sectors ACCOUNTABILITY

• Clearly identify the contributions of the host country - excluding those supported through donor contributions- defined as additional fiscal costs attributable only to the presence of refugees 
• If needed, suggest any other presentation that would better serve the objective of measuring the impact of hosting refugees on Lebanon

Qualifications and Experience

(List the required education, work experience, expertise and competencies of the individual contractor. The listed education and experience should correspond with the level at which the contract is offered.)

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced university degree in economy or econometrics
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional work experience
• Excellent research, analytical and drafting skills
• Proficiency in Arabic and in English. The data is mostly available in Arabic and the deliverables will be in English
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and other relevant programs and analytical tools
• An understanding of and interest in refugee protection matters

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of the Lebanese context

Experience in liaising with government officials and NGOs

Monitoring and Progress Controls

(report requirements, periodicity, format, deadlines):

a. The final product (e.g., survey completed, data collected, workshop conducted, research documents produced specify): 

All documents shall be delivered in one electronic soft copy in Microsoft Word and Excel format.  All documents are to be submitted in English.

Supporting documentation produced in the framework of this assignment including reports compiled, data collected and synthetized should be delivered in soft copies and editable format to the project for their records and future use. 

Once approved by MoFA, the deliverables and supporting documents will be co-owned by MoFA and UNHCR. 

The Required deliverables under the terms of reference are:

Deliverable 1:

 

Collection and review of data

 

3 weeks after contract signature

 

Deliverable 2:

 

Draft Report including data summary, methodology and analysis of fiscal cost of refugee needs

 

6 weeks after contract signature

 

Deliverable 3:

 

Final Report

 

8 weeks after contract signature

 

 

Payment schedule:

25% Upon the signature of the contract

25% six weeks after the signature of the contract

50% Upon the submission of deliverables and final report