Lead Research Consultant-Youth and Structural Change: Comparative Development Prospect of Asia and Africa Report, (Nairobi), Deadline: 12 March 2015

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CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Issued on: 27 February 2015

ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION:

UN-HABITAT

DUTY STATION:

Nairobi

FUNCTIONAL TITLE:

Lead Research Consultant-Youth and Structural Change: Comparative Development Prospect of Asia and Africa Report

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT:

6 over 8 months

CLOSING DATE:

12 March 2015

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat has been involved in the publication of several reports to ensure that urban youth development issues are reflected substantively including the Global Report on Human Settlements and of the State of the World’s Cities Report.

UN-Habitat has undertaken to carry out an analytical study to examine the impact of structural change on opportunity of youth employment, poverty and inequality in comparative perspectives of African and Asian countries with the objective of informing public policy discourse and improving the policy landscape for young people.

Presently, 1.7 billion people – more than a quarter of the world’s six billion people – are between the ages of 10 and 24, thereby making this group of change agents the largest ever to be entering adulthood and the largest under-represented segment of the world’s population. Young people in all countries are both a major human resource for development and key agent for social change, economic development and technological innovation but these ability of youths cannot be discovered if they are not contributing and participating in decision making processes of society at all levels. These young people have the potential of making a huge contribution to society, but their ideas, enthusiasm and commitment are often overlooked by the world’s decision makers.
Globally, the situation of young people today is characterized by extreme poverty, and inequalities deriving from disparities in economic, technological, social and cultural resources, which vary enormously across regions, countries, localities and population groups. The United Nations World Youth Report 2007 states that youth make up 25 per cent of the global working-age population, but account for 43.7 per cent of the unemployed. Eighty-six per cent of 10-to-24-year-olds live in less developed countries. The first six goals of the MDG are directly related to children, youth and development. These disparities suggest that youth development should be a priority for development.
We propose in this analytical study to examine long-term structural change and its broad impact on the development of youth using as entry points the key variables of poverty, urbanization, and employment. By allowing capital and labour to move from low productivity to high productivity sectors, structural change fuels economic growth and productivity. Developing countries with “dual” economies, modern and traditional sectors, have the potential to significantly increase their productivity and growth through these movements and resulting resource allocation efficiency gains, even when withinsector productivity is not changing much*. Urbanization and structural change are intertwined. In the narrative of structural change two dynamics take place: “the rise of new industries (i.e. economic diversification) and the movement of resources from traditional industries to these newer ones. Without the first, there is little that propels the economy forward. Without the second, productivity gains don’t diffuse in the rest of the economy.” Understanding this dynamics and how it is affecting job creation that particularly benefiting young men and women will of strategic and policy importance.*
This has a direct bearing on the inclusive growth agenda which increasingly has gotten traction within the global discourse, and currently a focus within the post 2015 debate and goal setting process. Inclusive growth demands not just high economic growth, but also that benefits most those
In the lower income percentile, and the number and quality of jobs is a key determinant and channel of achieving it. Jobless growth constitutes a serious concern because leaving large swathes of society in the mire of unemployment is costly to economies and societies; it leads to lower growth, lower productivity and throws the economy into an inefficiency cycle. In a recent study a strong association was established between lower levels of inequality in developing countries and sustained periods of economic growth . Developing countries with high inequality have “succeeded in initiating growth at high rates for a few years” but “longer growth spells are robustly associated with more equality in the income distribution.” In other words long run sustainability is closely connected to sustained equality Therefore job rich growth and structural change is fundamental to addressing inequality over the long term. Evidently other factors are also necessary such us for example the role of the State in long-run growth, governance, state capacity, and skills, but low inequality is still among a necessary condition.
The study would collect empirical evidence from major developing countries such as China, India, Peru, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa. The evidence from China, India and to a lesser degree South Africa and Nigeria show that these countries have witnessed considerable structural change over the last few decades. One distinct feature of growth in several emerging and developing countries is the growth without the expected job creation. This suggests that countries may well record economic growth, whether through within sector productivity increase or through structural change, but this do not necessarily lead to employment, an important concern for youth development.

The process will also include a series of specialist publications. It is envisaged that the report will consist of the following structure and Contents;

• Structural Change, Productivity and Growth


• Structural Change, Growth Youth Employment and Job Creation


• International Evidence (China and other Asian Countries)


• Structural Change and African Countries


• Productivity Change and Sectoral Growth


• Structural Change and Sustainable Urbanization


• Structural Change Impact on Urban Poverty and Prosperity (special focus on Youth)


• Structural Transformation in Comparative Asia and Africa Perspectives


• States, Youth and Structural Transformation in Asia and Africa

Objective of the Assignment

UN-Habitat is seeking to engage a Lead Consultant to manage the development of the report on the Youth and Structural Change: Comparative Development Prospect of Asia (special focus on China) and Africa ensuring high quality research outputs, extensive engagement and outreach activities such that the report delivers real policy impact. The Lead Consultant is expected to achieve this through methodological guidance, effective coordination and supervision of the writing team, as well as management of inputs and advice from the Contributing Authors and Research Assistants, and quality assurance.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall guidance of the Chief Scientific Advisor and direct supervision of the Branch Coordinator Urban Economy Branch the Lead Consultant will be directly responsible for the following activities:

• Provide substantive guidance in the development of the report methodology with special focus on youth employment, poverty, inequality, productivity, urbanization, prosperity, and social issues in selected cities.


• Based on relevant literature, UN and other Databases, produce long-term trends analysis on the subject of structural change across countries and the relevant regions including cross-regional comparisons;


• Combined with the trend analysis and other objective data, , performing data analysis/interpretation; drafting and editing the report in consultation and collaboration with the other Author(s) involved in the report, the writing team and Report Coordination task force


• Providing feedback to draft outputs, and ensuring quality of final deliverables


• Coordinating the development of the final report, through close management of inputs/feedback from Authors, and the writing team by an agreed upon date


• Submission and presentation of the final report (English) by the agreed date with the Project Coordinator.


• Ensuring regular, structured communications with the Lead Authors and Report Coordination task force


• Providing advice and support to the planning and delivery of consultation events, seminars and youth consultations


• Attendance at consultation events, seminars and youth consultations

KEY DELIVERABLES

• Inception report which spells out a clear methodology, metadata and literature review on Youth and Structural Change in Africa, Asia and Latin America.


• Publication of three papers in major international economic journals by end of the year;


• Completed fully edited and reference report on the “Youth and Structural Change: Comparative Development Prospect of Asia and Africa” derived out of a highly participatory process


• Publication of the report by a recognised publishing company


• Presentation of the report findings before and/or during HABITAT III in 2016.

TIME LINE (time line looks unrealistic)

• First Delivery: end April2015;


• Second Delivery: end June 2015


• Third Delivery: end August 2015.


• Fourth Deliverable: end of November


• Fifth Deliverable: October-December: Final Write-Up

The report will be published in March2016.

COMPETENCIES

Professionalism: Knowledge of concepts and approaches relevant to the communication sector and ability to conduct independent analysis, identifying issues, formulating options and making conclusions and recommendations.
Communication: Excellent oral/communication skills and ability to articulate ideas in a clear and accurate manner including the ability to prepare and edit a variety of written documents, reports and briefs.
Planning and organizing: ability to work under pressure, establish priorities and plan, coordinate own work plan, use time efficiently and apply judgement in the context of competing deadlines.
Teamwork: Good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations in a multi-cultural environment

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Abilities and adequate experience of conducting surveys, econometric models constructing and large-scale research projects


• PHD in Development Studies, Economics, Statistics or other relevant field


• General adequate knowledge in urbanization and youth issues/realities, structural development, and economy


• Excellent understanding of both qualitative and quantitative survey and data collection methods


• Thorough knowledge of SPSS manipulation or other relevant software


• Clear experience managing teams at the organizational, departmental or unit level


• Experience with International Organizations and United Nations is considered to be an asset

WORK EXPERIENCE

At least 15 years of relevant experience in the development sector (research, data handling, report writing)

LANGUAGE SKILLS

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official language of the UN is an advantage.

OTHER SKILLS

Familiarity with United Nations system, processes & good knowledge of emerging UN issues; and In-depth knowledge of UN-Habitat mandate and areas of work

REMUNERATION

Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies. The rate is determined by functions performed and experience of the consultant. The fees will be paid as per agreement.

How to apply:

Applications should include:
• Cover memo (maximum 1 page)
• CV in the PHP format, accessible through the INSPIRA website (inspira.un.org) Please note, if using INSPIRA for the first time, you need to register in order to activate your account, which will allow you to log in and create a personal History Profile.
• The PHP should be attached to the application as a PDF file.
• Summary CV (maximum 2 pages), indicating the following information:

1. Educational Background (incl. dates)


2. Professional Experience (assignments, tasks, achievements, duration by years/ months)


3. Other Experience and Expertise (e.g. Internships/ voluntary work, etc.)


4. Expertise and preferences regarding location of potential assignments


5. Expectations regarding remuneration
   • Cover memo (maximum 1 page)

Please also be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the
UN-HABITAT e-Roster in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the e-Roster
through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org

All applications should be submitted to:
Ms. Anne Muchiri
UN-HABITAT
P.O. Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Email: Anne.Muchiri@unhabitat.org

Fax: +254 20 7623080

Deadline for applications: 12 March 2015

UN-HABITAT does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and requesting the payment of a fee, please contact:recruitment@unon.org

Dani Rodrik and Margaret McMillan, (2011), paper prepared for a joint ILO-WTO volume.

Andrew G. Berg and Jonathan D. Ostry,(2011) a study for the IMF.

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