Stretch Assignment: Three months, Banjul, The Gambia (Onsite)
Title: PF4C Specialist
Level: NOC/P3 – we encourage staff from all levels with the relevant experience to apply
Reports to: Representative
Duration: Three months
Section: Office of the Representative (Social Policy) Section, Division/Office
Location: Banjul, The Gambia
Dates/Duration: Stretch assignment from 4th August until 30th September 2025.
Eligibility: All Fixed-Term, Permanent or continuing appointment UNICEF staff members currently working in UNICEF worldwide.
Background
Multiple vulnerabilities affect the rights and development of children in The Gambia. To realise the vision that no child is left behind is dependent on building a greater understanding of how funding decisions by government impact on the wellbeing of children. The Gambia launched its second Recovery Focused-National Development Plan (RF-NDP) 2023–2027 named “YIRIWAA”, a Mandinka word meaning development. The plan outlines seven national priorities, namely:
- Building Community Resilience to Shocks and Crises
- Governance Reforms
- Macroeconomic Stability and Growth
- Human Capital Development
- Agriculture, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change
- Empowerment, Social Inclusion and Leaving No One Behind; and
- Energy, Infrastructure, and ICT/Digital Connectivity
To attain the “Yiriwaa” including the Sustainable Development Goals, government should improve its economic and financial system to generate both domestic revenue and attract international financing to implement the “Yiriwaa”.
In 2024, The Gambia's economy has increased by an estimated 5.7%, with per capita growth at 3.4%. This growth is primarily attributed to strong performance in the agriculture and services and industry sectors boosted by construction activities. Inflation reduced, with estimations indicating a rate of 11.7% for the year. Additionally, the fiscal deficit decreased to 3.5% of GDP, largely due to increased domestic revenue collection and reduced capital spending.
For 2025, the Gross Domestic Product of the Gambia is expected to grow by 5.6%, with inflation further slowing to 9% over the year. The government projects a fiscal deficit of 1.4%. The Gambia's public finances in 2025 are marked by fiscal consolidation, enhanced revenue mobilization, and ongoing debt management efforts. The 2022 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment highlighted improvements in budget reliability and transparency, while identifying areas for enhancement in fiscal risk management and internal controls. The government continues to implement its 2021–2025 PFM Strategy, focusing on strengthening budget execution, enhancing revenue administration, and improving public investment management.
Expanding fiscal space for social services in The Gambia remains a pressing challenge, given the country's limited budgetary resources and high reliance on external funding. Recent analysis by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs found that The Gambia allocates approximately 1.2% of its GDP to social protection programs, with only 0.09% coming from domestic sources. This indicates a heavy dependence on donor funding for social assistance initiatives. Spending on health remains below international benchmarks, and education spending is inequitably distributed between rural and urban areas. To ensure sustained and equitable investment in children, The Gambia must create fiscal space through a mix of domestic resource mobilization, efficiency gains, and strategic use of donor funding. Embedding child-focused outcomes into budget frameworks (via program-based budgeting and MTEFs) is essential to institutionalize child-responsive financing across sectors. Recent improvements in revenue performance and ongoing public financial management (PFM) reforms present opportunities to expand investment in child-sensitive services.
Purpose of the Position
The consultancy is to provide both technical and strategic support to the government of The Gambia in implementing the National Development Plan and contribute towards the attainment of the SDGs. In addition, the consultancy will build on and strengthen existing government systems for sufficient and adequate investment in children and adolescents.
The primary objective of this consultancy is to strengthen the government public finance system to improve investments in children and adolescents and recommend public finance strategies for children and adolescents, with a view to supporting and enabling the full implementation of the second National Development Plan, in line with the Public Finance 4 Children Strategy of UNICEF Gambia.
Duration
This stretch assignment will be for a period of three (3) months.
Key expected results
- Conduct a review and mapping of current public finance mechanisms, investments related to children and adolescents and budget and expenditure trends related to children and adolescents.
- Identify gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities for increased or more effective investment in children to improve efficiency of child-related spending and use political economy analysis to determine its feasibility for implementation. Developing actionable recommendations to optimize public finance for children at national and/or sub-national levels.
- Support implementation of efficiency savings and reinvestment for child-related spending.
- Develop PF4C guidelines including programme-based budgeting and build the capacity of government planning and budget officers.
- Support Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to monitor child-related social spending on an ongoing basis.
- Build the capacity of parliament’s Budget Analysis Office in monitoring and evaluating child-related budget allocations and supporting members of Parliament with the evidence needed for decision-making and fulfilling parliamentary oversight.
- Form the UNICEF Gambia office on UNICEF’s PF4C framework, collaboratively developing key points of engagement for each section and build the public finance knowledge of staff for effective engagement with the government and other stakeholders.
- Collaborate with Civil Society Organisations to produce high-quality budget advocacy products and sessions.
- Support the implementation of the PF4C Strategy of UNICEF Gambia and following up on recommendations of recent analysis completed on vaccine financing, and budget briefs on health and education spending.
Minimum Qualifications and Competencies
- Advanced degree in Public Finance, Economics, Public Policy, Social Policy, or related fields.
- At least 5years of proven experience in analyzing government budgets, public expenditure management, financing strategies and PF4C guidelines including capacity building of government planning and budget officers.
- Experience implementing programme-based budgeting.
- Specific experience working on issues related to children and adolescent’s rights and public finance.
- Strong analytical, writing, and communication skills.
- Familiarity with international frameworks such as UNICEF on children’s issues is desirable.
For details, please refer to the attached Stretch Assignments - PF4C Final TOR
Funding arrangement
This is a temporary development opportunity and there will be no changes to the staff member’s status (position number, level, etc.).
The Office will cover the ticket for economy class travel and 100% of the UN DSA rate during the first 30 days, and 50% DSA for the remaining time.
Interested UNICEF staff should discuss this opportunity with their supervisor and seek the approval of their management before applying.
Candidates considered potentially well-matched for the stretch assignment will be contacted for an informal interview. Supervisors may also be contacted for references.
