Consultancy for Mapping of Childcare supply in KSA, 70 days, remotely

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, hope

As part of KSA’s ambitious Vision 2030 and recent legal reform of its social security system, there is an opportunity to improve access to childcare, particularly among low-income families. As part of the National Transformation Plan, one of eleven Vision Realization Programs (VRPs) with five-year milestones designed to translate the Vision 2030 into action, Strategic Objective 8 aims to increase the proportion of women in the workforce

The ongoing social protection reform process, having already revised eligibility criteria and benefit amounts for damani beneficiary families, can now contemplate increased access to quality childcare as a part of a broader strategy to further advance female labour force participation in KSA. Furthermore, establishing sufficient quantity and quality of care centers to meet demand will indirectly support higher enrolment in kindergarten, a Ministry of Education objective as part of the same VRP, by acclimating families and small children to formal education settings from a young age. At the same time, the roll-out of the Ministry of Economy and Planning’s Early Childhood Development strategy dovetails with the social protection reform, presenting a particularly opportune moment to engage in this mapping. Clear evidence on the current childcare system is the first step in expanding and improving childcare throughout the Kingdom.

For this reason, UNICEF in collaboration with the Family Affairs Council in KSA is looking to engage a consultant to prepare a mapping of childcare and analysis of its quality from birth to 6 years old in KSA that will:

• Quantify the number and types of service providers who are active in KSA.
• Outline the existing governance for childcare in KSA.
• Provide an overview and analysis of the different models applied in KSA and range of costs per child for different models.
• Detail the existing initiatives that support or facilitate childcare provided by government, non-government and private sector
• Summarize the best practices for childcare expansion and regulation in high-income countries and compare the current approach to childcare in KSA to this state of the art, identifying gaps.
• Describe financing models that have been used to underpin national childcare expansion in other countries and provide options/recommendations for KSA.
• Outline data collection strategies to support Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in monitoring improvements to quality, including elements of: population-level data collection (to compare trends among children who attend childcare to those of children who do not attend), center-level data collection that populates a dashboard for the Ministry, and some teacher-level and child-level assessments that can be carried out among a sample of beneficiaries regularly over time.
• Recommend approaches to increase and improve training for childcare providers that draw on global standards and emphasize the importance of inclusion of children with disabilities in all areas.
• Propose governance improvement that would improve enforcement of standards and quality of care provided, including aspects of oversight, supervisory visits( frequency and approach), referrals to other sectors and case management, when necessary.

How can you make a difference?

Key tasks envisaged for the consultancy include the following:

1. A) Suggested focus and script for interviews to compile information for mapping.

B) conduct interviews

2. A) produce a table of all available information about childcare supply (birth to age 6) in KSA

B) summary of existing childcare initiatives

C) description of existing governance and regulation mechanisms for childcare in KSA

D) Summary of existing information (if any) on costs of different childcare models in KSA.

3. Description of approaches to scale-up of and financing for childcare in other relevant high-income
4. Prepare interviews on three areas of recommendations (governance, data collection and training/certification of childcare workers).
5. Present preliminary findings from 1&2 to counterparts (in person) and conduct second round interviews
6. Develop recommendations on data collection and monitoring at various levels (population, center, teacher and child level)
7. Develop recommendations on approaches to improve training for childcare providers that draw on global standards and emphasize the importance of inclusion of children with disabilities in all areas. These should draw on the nurturing care framework and improve the centers’ ability to provide quality care for all children across all dimensions of the framework.
8. Develop recommendations on governance that would improve enforcement of standards and quality of care provided, including aspects of oversight, supervisory visits (frequency and approach), referrals to other sectors and case management, when necessary.
9. Report outline
10. Compilation of all existing components of the mapping into one draft report, including gap analysis and recommendations for expanding child care in KSA
11. Final report, addressing comments and suggestions from UNICEF and partners.
12. Present summary PowerPoint to counterparts

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

-Masters degree in relevant social sciences with at least 5 years of relevant work experience, demonstrating familiarity with quantitative analysis.

-Bilingual in Arabic (able to conduct interviews and research in Arabic) and English (all consultancy products should be in English)

-Demonstrated Experience generating analysis and high-quality evidence

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.