National Consultant for development of case studies on the Minimum Package of Services (MPS), Bucharest, Romania

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.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Although important progress has been made in the past decades, Romania remains the EU country with the highest rate of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion (39% – sensibly higher than the EU-27 average of 24.8% in 2023), hindering the full realization of their rights. Inequality rates also remain high, with persistent disparities in economic opportunities and in access to quality services across different regions and especially between urban and rural areas, where over 47 per cent of children live. Children with disabilities, children from Roma communities and children out of family care are also between the most vulnerable and excluded categories; as of 2024, the group of refugee and migrant children seeking shelter in Romania has also grown into a sizeable group, including unaccompanied and separated girls and boys. One of the system’s main bottlenecks is that the child social protection relies mainly on social transfers and less on social assistance services, which still lack qualified workforce and it is unevenly distributed nationwide.

To respond to this situation, since 2014, UNICEF has supported national and local authorities in the modelling and currently the national scale up of the so-called Minimum Package of Services (MPS). The MPS is an umbrella concept involving the delivery of basic, integrated services in health, education and social/child protection in communities, with a special focus on the most vulnerable children and their families which was evaluated multiple times, proving the critical relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the model.  It has been included as one of the flagship interventions in the new Romanian child rights policies, including in the National Strategy for protection and promotion of the rights of the child 2023-2027 and in the Action Plan for the implementation of the EU Child Guarantee.

As of 2024, Romania is in the preparatory phase of scaling up integrated services in 2,000 rural communities, through an institutionally led and EU-funded project, which should enter into its operational phase towards the end of 2024. To support this process and pave the ground for the implementation of integrated community services at local level, since early 2024 UNICEF has partnered with the National College of Social Workers to deploy a cadre of 42 experts, one in each county, to support local authorities to conduct needs assessment in their communities, plan for the development of services – including integrated services – at local level, and give them tools to better leverage funds for children.

The major purpose of the consultancy assignment is to contribute to the process of quality documentation of this process, by gathering information from key stakeholders at local level and developing case studies, with the goal of contributing to the process of sensitization on the importance of integrated services and good governance for children, knowledge sharing and dissemination of good practices within Romania but also with other EU member states, and beyond.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist and in close collaboration with the larger UNICEF team to develop 10 case studies. These case studies will help highlighting the importance of the support and accompaniment received in strengthening evidence based, child and vulnerability sensitive planning and delivery of services, leveraging of resources as well as the impact to the final population. The case studies will need to capture different phases of the process (gathering evidence through needs assessment, using evidence to plan interventions, leveraging resources for children and delivering services to the most vulnerable).

To achieve this, the Consultant will fulfil the following key tasks and responsibilities:

1. Selection of the 10 localities to be conducted through consultation with relevant authorities and partners, as well as UNICEF.

2. Conducting key informant interviews with relevant stakeholders in the 10 localities (up to 3 per locality).

3.  Developing 10 case studies, with pictures, presenting the abovementioned key elements through a journalistic language capable of reaching a general non-technical audience.

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

• University Degree in one of the following: Anthropology, literature, journalism, psychology, sociology, education, social sciences and development sciences, or other relevant technical fields

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

•    A minimum of eight years of professional experience in documenting and communicating around social programs

•    Proven capacity to develop strong communicational documents on social programs

•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills

•    Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Romanian and English

•    Computer skills, including Internet navigation and various office applications.

•     Relevant experience in similar activities with UNICEF, other UN agencies or development partners will be considered as an asset

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.