National Consultant - Costing Specialist

The National Consultant will provide specialized technical support in the costing and financial planning of the draft National Action Plan for the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The consultant will develop a comprehensive budget and resource-mobilization framework, conduct financial assessments, and align the Action Plan with national budgetary processes to ensure viable long-term funding.

Responsibilities

• Conduct a targeted review of the draft Action Plan, relevant national strategies, programmes, budgets, expenditure frameworks and other relevant documents to understand the existing resource allocation and financing arrangements related to prevention and response to violence against women and domestic violence.
• Develop and agree with UN Women on an appropriate methodology and costing framework for estimating the financial requirements of the Action Plan.
• Review the proposed objectives, activities and measures under the Action Plan and identify the key cost components and assumptions required for costing each activity, including human resources, capacity development, service provision, institutional strengthening, communication and awareness-raising, monitoring and evaluation, and other relevant costs.
• Consult relevant government institutions and other stakeholders to collect available financial, budgetary and programme data necessary for the costing exercise and validate key costing assumptions.
• Develop detailed cost estimates for the activities and measures included in the Action Plan, including annual and overall financial requirements, as applicable.
• Assess existing or planned national budget allocations and other potential resources relevant to implementation of the Action Plan and identify indicative financing gaps and resource requirements.
• Ensure that the costing framework and estimates are appropriately reflected in the structure of the Action Plan and aligned with its objectives, activities, implementation timelines and responsible institutions.
• Present the preliminary costing and methodology to UN Women and relevant national stakeholders, explain key assumptions and calculations, and facilitate discussion and validation of the proposed estimates.
• Revise and finalize the costing of the Action Plan based on comments and data received from UN Women and relevant national stakeholders and provide the final costing framework, calculations and supporting documentation.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in economics, public finance, finance, public administration, public policy, development studies, statistics, or another relevant field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with 7 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• At least 5 years with Master’s degree or minimum 7 years with Bachelor’s of relevant professional experience in public finance, programme costing, budgeting, financial analysis, costing of national strategies/action plans, or related areas.
• Demonstrated experience in costing national strategies, policies, programmes or action plans, preferably in the social sector, gender equality, human rights or related areas.
• Proven knowledge of public financial management, national planning and budgeting processes and methodologies for costing policy interventions.
• Strong knowledge of Armenia’s national budgeting, planning and public finance context.
• Experience in developing costing methodologies, costing matrices, financial models and resource requirement estimates.
• Demonstrated ability to collect and analyze financial and budgetary data and translate programme activities into realistic cost estimates.
• Experience working with government institutions and consulting relevant stakeholders on budgeting, costing and financial planning.
• Experience in gender-responsive budgeting and/or costing interventions related to gender equality and violence against women would be a strong asset.
• Previous experience working with UN agencies or other international organizations would be an asset.
• Excellent analytical, quantitative, drafting and communication skills.
• Fluency in Armenian and English is required.

Skills

• Public Finance
• Programme Costing
• Budgeting
• Financial Analysis
• Costing National Strategies
• Public Financial Management
• National Planning
• Costing Methodologies
• Costing Matrices
• Financial Modelling
• Resource Requirement Estimation
• Financial Data Analysis
• Budget data analysis
• Gender-Responsive Budgeting
• Multi-Stakeholder Consultation
• Government Relations
• Drafting
• Quantitative Analysis
• Costing Policy Interventions

Languages

Armenian, English