Supporting Sharjah in the next phase of the CFCI planning

The Child Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) is an initiative that brings together a wide range of partners, advocates for governance approaches and participatory urban management promoting the realization of the rights of the youngest citizens. The CFC approach is one of the ways through which UNICEF addresses issues of child rights and protection in an urban setting.  On the 2nd of May 2018, the Emirate of Sharjah was recognized as a Child-Friendly City, marking it as the first city in the UAE to be recognized by the new UNICEF CFCI guidelines. Time has now come to take stock of progress made so far in the current plan, in order to ensure that Sharjah continues to meet the standards of a Child Friendly City.

The recent UNICEF CFCI Guidance Note and other related programme tools will provide the direction necessary to ensure that Sharjah CFC planning fits coherently in the global CFC Initiative as it is expected to further develop in the future. Complementarily, the work carried out in Sharjah CFC over many years of commitment to children will provide the basis on which to complete the implementation of the current CFC Action plan and frame the next one to make Sharjah and the emirate overall increasingly responsive to the needs and rights of their children and young people.

UNICEF is seeking a consultant to support Sharjah in this process of reviewing progress and developing a new action plan to meet the criteria for continuing to be a child friendly city.

Given that UNICEF’s process for recognizing Child-friendly Cities has become more rigorous as the programme has evolved, it will be crucial for Sharjah to prepare an action plan that is evidence-based and draws on a ‘whole of government’ approach. Sharjah’s leadership as a CFC, both in the region and globally, requires the highest standards be applied to both the monitoring and planning exercises that should be carried out in 2024.

A progression from the current action plan to the next can be divided into three phases:

Internal end term review of current Action Plan for Programme Cycle 2018-2024: 

• Definition of dimensions against which to evaluate current Action Plan, including developing an explanatory theory of change and a hierarchy of possible indicators to use to measure impact. Priority will be given to indicators already included in the global pilot of M&E tools.
• Proposal of possible qualitative methodologies to use that complement quantitative analysis.
• Support provided to SCFO, CFC Executive Committee Members and other partners to collect cross-sectoral data from existing monitoring information systems (MIS).
• Support and quality assurance provided to data analysis by SCFO with technical assistance by UNICEF (resources required to support UNICEF CFCI expert).
• Conduct a Rapid Situational Analysis of children to provide the baseline for the new action (Use of M&E tools to inform the planning process, update and analyze data fed into mid-to-end term review).
• Build on overview presented at Pre-planning workshop (details below) to further expand cross-sectoral data gathering from/through SCFO and CFC Executive Committee Members and other partners
• Support data analysis by SCFO (with technical assistance from UNICEF).
• Organize a Pre-Planning Workshop in Sharjah to: Share End Term Review data to reach consensus on progress made during the first cycle.
• Development of the new action plan (2025-2028) – consultations, technical assistance.
• In close coordination with SCFO, organize a consultation workshop to prepare the new action plan.
• Prepare a summary of key data on children in Sharjah to provide an overview of persisting gaps and recent progress (focus on additional data and information gathered since pre-planning workshop). Further guide workshop participants to identify the priorities of the next Action Plan, in response to identified gaps.
• Document workshop discussions to include partner discussions of next Action Plan as part of workshop summary document.
• Propose for validation timeline for next Action Plan (to include activities, accountability matrix, budget, KPIs and M&E strategy).

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

Education:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Law, Child rights, and Child Protection, Social Sciences, Urban Planning, or any other related fields.

Experience:

• Over 10 years proven experience in child rights, decentralized planning, urban planning, CFCI or related fields. Proven experience working directly with Child Friendly Cites or Child-Responsive Urban Planning is a must, including experience on M&E in the field. Previous work with the government sector as well as UN agencies (preferably with exposure to the Arab/Gulf region). Strong analytical skills, including use of data in local planning processes. Very good communication and presentation skills with government and community members.

Languages:

• Excellent knowledge of English languages. Knowledge of Arabic language is a plus.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/577496