Consultancy - Early Childhood Education, ECARO

Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

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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, education

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:

Early childhood offers a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child’s holistic development and build a foundation for their future. The European Pillar of Social Rights states that all children have the right to affordable early childhood education and care (ECEC) of good quality. It is in the earliest years of a child’s life that the foundation and capacity to learn is laid, and this is built on throughout life. Learning is an incremental process; building a strong foundation in the early years is a precondition for higher level competence development and educational success as much as it is essential for health and the well-being of children. Participating in early childhood education and care is beneficial for all children and especially beneficial for children in a disadvantaged situation. It helps by preventing the formation of early skills gaps and thus it is an essential tool to fight inequalities and educational poverty. Quality, affordable ECEC also allows for increased parental workforce participation. In May 2019, the Council of the EU adopted a Recommendation on high-quality early childhood education and care systems approved by the education ministers of EU Member States.

UNICEF is working with countries across Europe and Central Asia, as well as EU member states to support system reforms to improve access, quality and inclusion within the ECEC sector. UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office is working closely with the European Union to provide technical support to selected countries through the Technical Support Instrument (TSI). The technical support under the TSI includes, but is not limited:

• Evidence generation in the area of ECEC within the countries receiving technical support, and across EU member states where good practice can be adapted for other countries.
• Development of strategic frameworks to strengthen quality and conditions in ECEC.
• Supporting the development of strategic recommendation and planning to feed into national strategies.
• Strengthening capacities and knowledge of ECEC stakeholders in countries, especially in relation to ECEC quality and monitoring.
• Development of communication resources and campaign strategies to strengthen the perception of the sector.
• UNICEF is seeking a consultant to provide technical support in the area of ECEC to ensure that the EU Technical Support Instrument projects are in line with ECEC theories and best practices, the EU ECEC Quality Framework, and aligned with the recovery and resilience plans and Child Guarantee action plans of the countries involved.

The consultant will:

1. Provide support for development of TSI projects;
2. Provide support for the development of key ECEC project deliverables (research, tools, technical reports, compendiums of good practices, etc.) as required by the TSI project description, providing input into and reviewing the content developed by the expert working groups in the TSI countries and other partners.
3. Provide ECEC expertise for the development of quality communications resources and opportunities for information sharing, capacity building and mainstreaming of lessons learned on ECEC.
4. Ensure effective management, including monitoring and reporting of the TSI projects, drafting necessary project management documentation as per EU regulations, coordinating inputs, providing quality assurance, liaison with all project partners, and other relevant as needed.

The Consultant will work closely with the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office teams, the EU, country ministry representatives and the research/consultancy teams.

Deliverables

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

(days)

Estimate Budget

(% total)

Development of TSI projects

Develop and draft 1 project description (DoA) and budget as agreed with the EU and UNICEF.

5

5

Identify the scope of the consultancies and partnerships required for the implementation of the projects and propose team members.

5

5

Support the development of new TSI project on ECEC.

5

5

Development of key ECEC deliverables

Organise and prepare meetings of project coordination bodies (2 meetings every 2 weeks) and technical meetings, including agenda, background documents and technical documents, presentations, and other as required.

22

16

Technical inputs into and quality assurance for development of key TSI project deliverables: ECEC sector analysis reports, ECEC Quality framework, ECEC country desk review, European good practice reports, M&E frameworks, communication strategy, and other relevant documents as agreed by the EU.

40

30

Coordination, technical support and capacity building of consultants and institutions working on the project to ensure quality of the planned deliverables.

6

5

Development of communications resources and opportunities for information sharing, capacity building and mainstreaming of lessons learned on ECEC.

Develop comms and advocacy materials including: a communication strategy, visibility reports and a series of 5 x 2-pager communications documents, others are needed.

4

3

Sharing of lessons learned and good practice through at least 5 learning sessions with the country and EU working groups.

3

2

Supporting capacity building of partners and relevant stakeholders: provide 2 lessons learned reports as part of reporting processes.

3

2

Providing advisory support across engagement with member states across ECEC.

4

4

Providing guidance on ECEC Systems strengthening in the ECA region.

3

2

Project management, monitoring and delivery of results.

Ensure effective management of the TSI projects, including leading on drafting and providing input for preparation of necessary project documents (M&E framework, 2 x technical/narrative reports, financial reports), others as needed.

30

14

Final, validated quality project outputs (based on the project descriptions of action) (see point 4.)

10

7

Total

140

100

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

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Master’s degree in the following disciplines: Education, child development, public health and/or medicine, nutrition, psychology, human development, child development, families' studies or another relevant technical field
• Five years minimum of relevant professional experience in early childhood education and care (at national/systems level).
• Experience managing national programme implementation essential.
• Experience working with Ministry reform programmes is essential and ideally experience working on ECEC reforms across a split system.
• Understanding of ECEC quality assurance, workforce development, data and monitoring, and policy/legal reforms is essential.
• Experience managing EU projects, including experience in developing project agreements and experience in EU narrative and financial reporting.
• Knowledge of the ECEC agenda in the EU.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Experience working in Cyprus and/or Austria is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is essential. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

Administrative details:

Supervision

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Regional Adviser Early Child Development.

Workplace

This is a consultancy home-based. Candidates are required to have internet connection, IT and communication equipment.

Travel

This consultancy involves duty travels.

Duration

The estimate duration of this consultancy is from February 2023 until January 2024 (140 working days).

How to Apply

Application should be submitted online and should include: Resume, Cover Letter and Financial proposal. A financial proposal including the fee for the assignment based on the deliverables and number of days must be submitted. Consultants are asked to stipulate all-inclusive fees, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable.

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.

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org