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Consultancy Title: Consultancy to undertake needs assessment to support strategic shift for the prevention of violence against girls, boys, and women.

Section/Division/Duty Station: Child Protection Section, Programme Division – New York HQ

Duration: May 2023 to June 2023 - Remote

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The Child Protection Programme Team (CPPT or “the Team”), the Gender Equality Unit in Programme Group and the Child Rights and Protection in OOR have agreed on a strategic and paradigm shift on the approach to violence against girls, boys, and women as part of the new Child Protection Strategy, 2021-2030, and Goal Area 3 of the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022-2025. The strategic shift is comprised of three elements: (i) focus on primary prevention of violence; (ii) social and behavioural change/gender transformation as a strategy; (iii) explicit attention to the violence subjected on women, as well as girls and boys.

Building on the great strides in knowledge and lessons learned during the preparation of the Child Protection Strategy and the UNICEF Strategic Plan and implementation at country level, there is now consensus at the global level on the programmatic shifts on preventing and responding to violence against girls, boys, and women. We have an opportunity to accelerate the strategic shifts at the country level and implementing these changes through the country programmes and within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). Such an acceleration would require the buy-in and ownership by the Child Protection Regional Advisers and other members of the Extended Child Protection Leadership Team (ECPLT) as well as ultimately at the country level where it will be operationalized. In addition, the support from colleagues in other Divisions and Teams working on “Gender Based Violence/Violence against Women and Girls” is critical for this new paradigm and the strategic shift. This buy-in and whole of organization consensus is required to operationalize the strategic shifts and achieve the results in Goal Area 3 of the Strategic Plan and to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 5.2 and 16.2.

To support the operationalisation of the strategic shift, UNICEF has established a “Global Technical Team (GTT)” of key HQ, Regional and Country Office colleagues.

By 2024, the GTT will support strengthening of UNICEF’s contribution to SDG 16.2 and 5.2 through:

• Integration of the strategic shift into all new CPDs and country programme strategy documents
• In at least 20 country offices, implementation of a core package of gender transformative prevention interventions that demonstrate programme excellence in terms of design, measurement, and scalability
• Scoping and design of the formative evaluation on UNICEF programmes preventing violence against girls, boys, and women
• UNICEF niche and comparative advantage established in interagency, policy and donor fora, buttressed by “whole of agency” approach

The CPPT is seeking a consultant to undertake a needs assessment with a sample of regional and country offices to inform the strategic shift.

Scope of Work:

Under the direction of the Senior Advisor, Violence against Children, and with the guidance of a core group comprises of key HQ staff, the consultant will design and execute a process in view of to identify knowledge and operational gaps, and support needs to take forward the strategic shift through UNICEF’s global, regional, and country office network.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Work Assignment Overview

Deliverables/ Outputs

• Interview protocol accepted by core group

• Summary notes from 15 completed interviews

• Final report (maximum 15 pages)

Qualifications

(1) Education

• Advanced university degree in Social Sciences or related disciplines (Economics, Statistics, International Development, International Relations, Public Administration, Public Policy, Human Rights, Geography, or related fields)
• Fluency in English required

2) Work experience

• At least 5 years of experience programming in social development in low- and middle-income countries, ideally in UNICEF country office;
• Prior engagement in UNICEF NYHQ planning, programming, monitoring and evaluation procedures will be considered an asset
• Solid understanding of violence against women and children programming and a United Nations context

3) Competencies

• Ability to facilitate and build consensus amongst stakeholders with divergent and conflicting views and
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to liaise with people successfully and effectively in a wide range of functions in a multi-cultural environment.

Requirements:

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

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

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.

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.