Consultant to prepare a background paper on ‘Multidimensional Poverty and Social Protection in the Arab Region’

Result of Service

The expert should deliver a consolidated background paper that sets out the evidence, methodological considerations and policy options for integrating multidimensional poverty information into social protection policies and services delivery in the Arab region, delivered in a timely manner. The expert should address all comments provided by the Poverty Project and the Social Protection Team leaders, and should provide all statistical software code, data sets and bibliographic references related to the activities by the end of the assignment in an organized manner. The assignment will ultimately contribute to the strengthened capacity of Arab governments to assess and apply multidimensional poverty information in the design, targeting, coordination and delivery of social protection and services. All deliverables produced will become property of ESCWA.

Work Location

Beirut / Remote

Expected duration

3 Months

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Background

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits countries to end poverty in all its forms and to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems for all. Across the Arab region, governments have expanded social assistance and cash transfer programmes over the past decade, often relying on social registries and proxy means tests (PMTs) to identify eligible households in situations where credible documentation of income (i.e. means verification) is challenging to produce, and while increasingly aiming to use the related programme delivery mechanisms (including social registries) as a nucleus for case-management for referral and access to non-cash benefits and services.

Meanwhile, reduction of poverty headcounts or -rates has stalled, particularly in low-income and conflict-affected countries, which places a premium on reaching those most in need with limited resources. To support its member States with designing policies for alleviating and reducing poverty according to various definitions, ESCWA has advanced novel approaches for measuring monetary and multidimensional poverty consistently across countries and years, including measures of destitution and severe multidimensional poverty.

PMTs estimate household economic welfare from a limited set of observable characteristics. They are relatively costly and time-consuming to implement on a regular basis, and they are at times prone to inclusion and exclusion errors and – while increasingly non-income related data like education, health status, and skills/qualifications - do not in all instances capture the overlapping non-monetary deprivations that many poor households face. Social registries can at times (though decreasingly) also suffer from incomplete registration and outdated household information, though in recent years have improved notably and have become the core of wide-ranging social policy interventions.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which is based on surveys (i.e. samples of households, not census data) captures overlapping deprivations in education, health and living standards. Monetary and multidimensional poverty often identify different groups: a household may experience severe non-monetary deprivation without falling below a monetary poverty line, and vice versa. The two approaches can therefore provide complementary information for social protection design and delivery. Several countries, notably in Latin America, have explored MPI-informed case management, while PMT-based social registries remain prevalent in a limited though increasing number of countries. ESCWA has already reviewed how multidimensional poverty indexes can be applied to social policies and poverty-targeted social assistance, and is working on MPI and census data in Iraq. A challenge at times is that social registry data may not contain all the indicators required to construct an MPI, while linking registry records with census or survey data may be constrained by data access, comparability and coverage. Operationalizing MPI related criteria via social registries therefore requires careful consideration of data sources, policy objectives, administrative capacity and the availability of complementary services.

Against this backdrop, ESCWA is preparing a background paper on how the MPI can inform existing social protection systems and programmes in the Arab region. The background paper will review international and regional experiences and identify practical policy options for integrating multidimensional poverty information into social protection design and delivery, in particular – given member states interest – in the context of non-cash benefits and services. Its findings will inform ESCWA’s future capacity-building and training activities with member States, including the annual joint training workshop organized with the LAS which is planned to take place around April 2027.

2. Purpose of engaging an expert

ESCWA is recruiting an expert to prepare a background paper examining how the MPI can complement, rather than replace, PMT-based social protection identification systems and social registries in the Arab region. The paper, which will be co-authored and substantively led by ESCWA Poverty and Social Protection Team Leaders, will distinguish between uses of MPI information for household eligibility, geographic prioritization, the referral to and case management of complementary interventions, and monitoring of poverty reduction. The expert will review the literature and country experiences, assess the feasibility of available data sources, develop a typology of policy applications and a framework for comparing PMT-based and MPI-informed approaches, and formulate recommendations that will be discussed in an internal consultative meeting and form the basis of ESCWA’s position. The objective is to identify not only whether the MPI can improve service delivery, but also which applications are most feasible, for which policy objectives, and under what data and institutional conditions.

3. Duties and responsibilities

Reporting substantively to the Poverty Team Leader and the Social Protection Team Leader, under the broad supervision of the Cluster Leader, the expert will work closely with the Poverty Project and Social Protection teams on the following:

1. Review the literature on conventional social protection programming, particularly PMT-based approaches, social registries, and service delivery and on emerging MPI-informed programming, including recent work by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), building on ESCWA’s existing work on applying the MPI to social policies.
2. Review country experiences with PMT, MPI and other approaches to identify individual households for cash and non-cash delivery, with particular attention to Latin America, South-East Asia, and the Arab region, distinguishing between the use of MPI to determine household eligibility, prioritize geographic areas, inform complementary interventions, or monitor poverty reduction.
3. Map the level of population coverage of social registries in Arab middle-income countries and – to the extent possible – identify which MPI related data (esp. regarding health and education) are collected as part of registration procedures.
4. Develop a typology of policy applications, covering geographic targeting, household-level targeting, cash and cash-plus interventions, case-management/complementary services and policy coordination, and shock-responsive social protection, impact monitoring, and assess their suitability in different country contexts, including low-income and conflict-affected countries.
5. Based on the above inputs a consultative meeting will be held with ESCWA poverty and social protection teams which will result in a proposed framework for integrating existing PMT-based systems with MPI-informed approaches, including a two-stage approach combining geographic prioritization with household-level assessment, and covering inclusion and exclusion errors, coverage of severely deprived groups, administrative costs and potential welfare outcomes. The expert will integrate this framework in the background paper and where data permit, illustrate it with an application to an Arab country.
6. Using inputs from the Social Protection Team, the experts will describe – in writing as well as by establishing a process map – a model case of how MPI-informed social assistance programme registration data can be used to support case-management and referral systems to non-cash services.
7. Based on above inputs and in collaboration with co-authors from the ESCWA Poverty and Social Protection Teams, the expert will consolidate a draft of the background paper that will serve as the main input into training materials for the joint ESCWA and LAS annual training workshop on multidimensional poverty and social policies, including policy recommendations and implementation requirements, and address all comments from the Poverty Project and the Social Protection team leaders.
8. Present the findings at an ESCWA meeting or workshop, in person or virtually, if requested by the Poverty or the Social Protection Team Leaders.
9. Assist in other related tasks as requested by the supervisor.

Qualifications/special skills

A Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, statistics, social policy, public policy or related area is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 3 years of professional work experience in poverty measurement and/or social protection analysis, including multidimensional poverty measurement (Alkire-Foster method), is required. Demonstrated knowledge of social protection targeting methods, including proxy means tests and social registries, is required. Experience in analyzing household survey, census or administrative microdata using statistical software is required. Experience in the Arab region and a record of publications on poverty or social assistance are desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position fluency in English is required and Knowledge of Arabic desirable. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.