Consultancy – Qualitative Research Consultant (Disrupting Harm) – Global Office of Research and Foresight – approx. 125 working days – remote/work from home in Skopje, North Macedonia

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, answers 

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.
To improve the global evidence-base and support UNICEF’s advocacy, programming and policy development for the future, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight (UNICEF Innocenti) has been conducting research on children’s use of digital technology for the past 10 years. The office continually contributes to global and national discussions and debates on a range of issues for children in the digital world including: the impact of technology on children’s mental health; privacy and data protection regulation; parenting in the digital age; online violence; online sexual exploitation and abuse; digital skills development; the impact of online gaming on children’s rights; and gaming and well-being.
To develop appropriate policy and program responses, UNICEF needs robust evidence on how children use the internet, whether they can make use of the many opportunities it offers, and which risks and harms they may face online. Such evidence will significantly contribute to the development of programs and policies that target children and their parents, teachers, law enforcement and others who bear responsibility for the protection of children.

Disrupting Harm
In 2019, UNICEF Innocenti – along with ECPAT International and INTERPOL – received funding from the Safe Online to establish the Disrupting Harm project. Disrupting Harm is a multi-method, multi-country project that aims to understand the extent to which children experience technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse and to identify how national legislation and protection systems can be better prepared to respond to these crimes. Disrupting Harm is the most comprehensive evidence-generation project to date on technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse. By surveying and interviewing a wide range of stakeholders, the project provides tailored roadmaps for countries to strengthen their prevention and response systems. With its use of a standardized mixed-method approach in all study countries, it also provides data that is comparable across countries.
The first round of studies took place between 2019-2022 in 13 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and South-East Asia. Disrupting Harm conducted innovative research on children’s experiences of violence, sexual exploitation,
and abuse online, including nationally representative household surveys with children and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and system actors in each country.
Following successful completion of Disrupting Harm in the first set of countries, a second round of studies is being implemented in 2023-2026 in 12 additional countries, including North Macedonia. For the second round of Disrupting Harm studies, UNICEF Innocenti is recruiting a qualitative research consultant to implement national qualitative research with frontline service workers and justice professionals in North Macedonia on their experiences of working with cases of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Disrupting Harm tendersglobal.net Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight

How can you make a difference? 

The qualitative research consultant will report to and work with the Disrupting Harm central team based at UNICEF Innocenti in Florence, Italy. The consultant will also work in collaboration with UNICEF North Macedonia for this assignment. The consultant is expected to conduct interviews in-person in North Macedonia and meet regularly (primarily online) with the qualitative research team at UNICEF Innocenti and with UNICEF North Macedonia as needed.

The consultant is expected to follow the UNICEF Procedure on Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis.
This is a deliverable-based consultancy contract. 

Research preparation and training:
•Participate in and complete trainings on the research method, safeguarding protocol, and analysis methods, to be led by UNICEF Innocenti.
•Review the research protocols and data collection tools to ensure they are adapted/amended for the local context.
•Lead on developing a sampling plan, participant recruitment plan, and timeline which outlines different recruitment strategies to be used and organizations/institutions to be contacted.

Participant recruitment:
•Identify research participants who meet inclusion criteria, with support from UNICEF and local organisations and networks, and in line with the agreed sampling and recruitment plan.
•Contact and follow up with identified participants to recruit agreed sample group.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity, please review the complete Terms of Reference here: ToR_Consultant Qualitative Researcher MKD EXT.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in social sciences, anthropology psychology, social work, public health or related field.
  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in designing and conducting qualitative research.
• Demonstrated working experience in North Macedonia, and knowledge of the social and local context.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting qualitative interviews and analysis (preferably thematic analysis), including familiarity with qualitative data analysis software (e.g. NVivo, ATLAS.ti, Dedoose or others compatible with the latest version of NVivo).
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to establish rapport with research participants and work collaboratively with other team members.
• Fluency in Macedonian language and in English.
• Ability to organize own work and to carry out research with limited supervision according to deadlines.

Desirable:
•Experience conducting key informant interviews including with frontline providers (e.g., social workers, psychologists) and/or justice professionals.
•Demonstrated knowledge of child protection system (including legal and justice) in North Macedonia.
•Knowledge and experience incorporating trauma-informed approaches to qualitative research.
•Experience of conducting research on child protection, child sexual abuse, or violence against children.
•Fluency in other local languages.

For every Child, you demonstrate:

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility tendersglobal.net UNICEF.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.