National Consultant on MICS UNICEF

UNICEF Iraq Country office is currently carrying out MICS that began in the year 2025 and will continue into 2026, which will be referred to as MICS7. The MAPLE Section in the CO is responsible for ensuring that all necessary pre-requisites are complete, and necessary human resources are in place to provide support to the UNICEF survey team and the Association of Statistics and GIS (ASGIS) and the Kurdistan Regional Statistical Office (KRSO). To ensure that the implementation of the MICS survey runs smoothly, the UNICEF Iraq Country Office plans to hire a full-time consultant to provide technical support to UNICEF and government counterparts.

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is an international household survey programme developed and supported by UNICEF. MICS is designed to collect estimates of key indicators that are used to assess the situation of children and women. Over the past 20 years, MICS has become a key source of data on child protection, early childhood education, and a major source of data on child health and nutrition. Iraq Country office initiated its support of a MICS in the year 2025. which will be referred to as MICS7. MAPLE is responsible for ensuring that all pre-requisites are complete and necessary human resources are in place to provide support to the UNICEF survey team in MAPLE, the Association of Statistics and GIS (ASGIS)and Kurdistan Regional Statistics Office (KRSO). In order to ensure that the implementation of the MICS survey runs smoothly, specific deadlines are met, and that Central Statistical Office (Bagdad and Kurdistan Region) receives the technical assistance necessary to produce statistically sound and reliable data, the UNICEF Iraq Country Office intends to hire a full time consultant to provide administrative support to MAPLE and technical support to government counterparts to ensure appropriate oversight of the MICS process.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Social Inclusion, the UNICEF MICS Consultant will support and provide guidance to UNICEF Iraq Country Office and the Association of Statistics and GIS (ASGIS) for the preparation, implementation, and completion of the MICS survey in country. The Consultant will advise (ASGIS) and (KRSO), especially the Survey Coordinator and sampling and data processing experts, during survey planning, questionnaire design, sampling, training, fieldwork, data processing, data analysis, dissemination, and archiving, ensuring that MICS protocols and recommendation are being followed at all times. The Consultant will communicate effectively between the Survey team in UNICEF CO, RO and ASGIS , responding promptly to MICS related needs and issues as they arise

MICS surveys are usually carried out by government organizations, with the support and technical assistance of UNICEF. Since 2025, UNICEF has been working closely with the implementing agency (ASGIS) and (KRSO) to undertake MICS7 and ensure that MICS guidelines [1] and international standards are met at all stages.

MICS 7 will is being managed by relevant MAPLE staff but the volatile situation and changing work priorities in context of Iraq necessitates that a full-time support capacity is available to the MICS team within UNICEF. The MICS team, however, will continue to work on the planning aspects along with the chosen consultant.

Specific Tasks

The Consultant will be responsible for coordinating and supporting the work of other resource persons hired by UNICEF to provide technical assistance to the MICS process. He/she will work in close collaboration with the survey team, the stakeholders, and Steering and Technical Committees and will represent UNICEF in meetings and workshops in relation to the survey as needed.

Main Tasks Related to the consultancy

• Provide specialized technical and managerial support on MICS Data Cleaning and Processing
• Deliver presentation on the MICS methodology, tools, and guidelines to partners/stakeholders (e.g. ministries, UN Agencies, etc.).
• Provide technical inputs of key methodological discussions arising from MICS technical meetings
• Amend when needed in collaboration with national partners and UNICEF CO, the Survey Plan and Budget, including timetable and share with UNICEF Regional Office (RO);
• Provide technical outputs including datasets, tabulation plans, and analytical reports.
• Communicate regularly with the UNICEF CO, RO and/or Headquarters (HQ) responding to all MICS-related issues in a timely manner.
• Provide progress reports on MICS activities to the UNICEF CO/RO/HQ on monthly basis.
• Provide technical inputs to external expert reviews (e.g., Regional Sampling Consultant, Regional Data Processing Consultant, and Regional Household Survey Consultant) and support the incorporation of technical recommendations into survey outputs
• Provide technical advice on the documentation and archiving of survey-related materials (questionnaires, manuals, datasets, reports, and related outputs) in accordance with MICS standards
• Contribute technical expertise during MICS Steering Committee and Technical Committee meetings, as required.
• Contribute technical inputs and knowledge sharing during MICS regional workshops and technical consultations
• Document technical lessons learned, methodological challenges, and good practices during the MICS process and provide recommendations for sharing with the broader MICS community.

In consultation and collaboration with the UNICEF CO, ASGIS and KRSO the National MICS Consultant will provide technical guidance, quality assurance and methodological support to ensure the following activities have been undertaken following the MICS guidelines and will contribute to the coordination of these activities:

Data Processing, Analysis and Report Writing:

• Provide technical review of the tabulation plan and SPSS syntax to ensure alignment with standard MICS tabulation requirements.
• Provide technical inputs to UNICEF Regional Data Processing Consultant with necessary information and support to his/her country visits (as necessary), including to the national Data Processing Workshop.
• Provide technical guidance on the calculation and application of sampling weights included in the datasets and reviewed by sampling expert of ASGIS with the guidance and review of the UNICEF Regional Sampling Consultant.
• Provide technical inputs and recommendations during the drafting of the Survey Findings Report and Final Report , ensuring alignment with MICS reporting templates and methodological standards
• Conduct technical review of datasets, tables, and derived indicators , including the wealth index, prior to the preparation of analytical reported HQ.