Expression of Interest – Individual Consultant for Documenting Lessons Learnt in Child Protection programs (Open to Zimbabwean Nationals Only)

 

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UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights. 

Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the 2022 to 2026  UNICEF Zimbabwe country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.

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UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to develop a roster of consultants for identifying and documenting lessons learnt of UNICEF Zimbabwe Child Protection programs with a view to inform future programming and potential scaling up. Selected consultants will be placed on a roster and can be called upon for their services when needed. The consultants will have a chance to discuss the assignment for clarification before accepting the assignment.

BACKGROUND

Improving UNICEF Zimbabwe Child Protection strategies to be more context-responsive is key to achieving programmatic results, and necessary for UNICEF Zimbabwe to meet its organizational commitments. Hence, systematic documentation of good practices and lessons learned from different child protection interventions are critical to foster high-quality programme design and implementation in Zimbabwe.

Technical knowledge on the existing community practices related to child protection and effective analysis to inform programmes is in need. Contributing towards the development of an evidence-based set of criteria for what constitutes a ‘promising practice’ in Child Protection programming in Zimbabwe, UNICEF Child Protection is seeking for a roaster of expertise to

• Reflect on good practices and lessons learned from preselected interventions
• Reflect on how traditional practices, social norms and community ownership etc. are takein into considerstion across the programme cycle
• Identify gaps and evidence of the impact on beneficiaries as applicable
• Provide an overview of key recommendations to influence effective programming based on the results of the documentation.

In Zimbabwe there is limited documentation on Child Protection Programming practices for practitioners to learn from in responsive and preventive child protection work. The NAP for OVC III, according to the consultative process  report on the implementation of NAPIII and its operational framework the National Case Management System (NCMS) faced challenges in districts without support from development partners against the background of high turnover rates of experienced and commited public sector social services actors for a multi-sectoral service delivery system to achieve results for all children. Zimbabwe’s Child Protection Financing reduced significantly with some major donors who were supporting mainly the civil society organisations exiting the Child Protection Fund.  Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC)  has been  one stream that has benefitted child protection in affected geographical areas to respond to emerging challenges such as deepening socio economic situation, recurrent emergenices resulting in increased drug abuse, child labour, violence against children, child marriage, mental health issues and children on the move.  Systems sterngthening  and sustaninable programming for other vulnerable groups such as children living and working in the streets, children in residential care, children with disabilties and those with chronic conditions accross the national systems has fallen through the cracks.

In its strategy document, National Development Strategy 1-2021-2025 (NDS1-2021-2025) the government has pledged to enhance the welfare and safeguarding of vulnerable populations, including children with disabilities, as outlined in the NDS1 (2021-2025).  NAP for OVC IV  now to be known as the National Strategy for Orphans and Vulnerable Children has been designed to leave  no one beehind in line with GoZ’s vision and national objectives.The  National Strategy aims to ensure that children have their basic needs met, their rights fulfilled, and that they are protected from deprivation, lack of access to social services, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Child Protection sector will be supporting implementing partners proposing prevention and response initiatives that cut accross the 5 pilars of the Strategy on achieving meaningful, sustainable community based preventive solutions for the most vulnerable groups of children.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

1.           Pillar 1: Adequate Access to Inclusive Basic Social Services

2.           Pillar 2: Child Protection and Safeguarding

3.           Pillar 3: Family & Community Capacity Building

4.           Pillar 4: Child Labour Elimination

5.           Pillar 5: Institutional Strengthening & Capacity Building of creating a society where every child can thrive and reach their full potential efforts.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to develop a roster of consultants for identifying and documenting lessons learnt of UNICEF Zimbabwe Child Protection programs with a view to inform future programming and potential scaling up. Selected consultants will be placed on a roster and can be called upon for their services when needed. The consultants will have a chance to discuss the assignment for clarification before accepting the assignment.

Validity Period of a Roster

The selected consultants will be placed on the roster. The roster may not exceed a three-year validity period.

Major tasks and deliverables:

Tasks/Milestone:	Deliverables/Outputs:	Timeline and payments schedule
Desk Review of Child Protection issues in Zimbabwe, program documents and relevant materials as required	Newsletters, reading notes/reports produced	The scope of the work and due dates will vary depending on the assignment.
Develop an inception report outlining the proposed methodology for consultations, and documentary and reports for selected model(s) a calendar of events for documentation of lessons learnt for the selected projects	Submit an inception report and proposed workplan indicating areas for lessons learning	The scope of the work and due dates will vary depending on the assignment.
Conduct fieldwork in the selected community with program participants and partner staff to elicit their views on what is working, what is not working, programmatic gaps and what are the success stories.	Preliminary Documentation of model(s), and  lessons learned	The scope of the work and due dates will vary depending on the assignment.
Final documentation of what has worked well and why  to achieve what results and an appendix report of what did not work despite efforts made	Final documentation report	The scope of the work and due dates will vary depending on the assignment.

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

Education: 

Advanced university degree in public health, social sciences, or related field.

PHD holder with relevant research and published articles that have been sighted in protection and care of children will be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 8 years of professional experience at national and international levels, including field experience and expertise in in documenting community models in care and protection of children and women.
• Strong knowledge and experience Multi-sectoral social services delivery systems.
• Strong anlytical skills
• Experience working in Zimbabwe will be an asset
• Technical experience in the area of Child Protection and GBV

Languages:

Fluency in English

Good proficiency of a local languages is essential 

Application Procedure:

If you meet the entry qualifications and you are interested and available to be placed on the roster, please submit your application online, upload your application letter, highest academic qualification and detailed CV. The selection process will be competitive.

The detailed consultancy terms of reference is downloadable via this link  Terms of Reference.pdf

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 here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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. 

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.