Consultant for Situation Analysis (SitAn) of Children and Adolescents in Serbia

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and gender parity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified candidates, irrespective of nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. UNICEF Serbia office is accessible to a certain extent, and employees are entitled to reasonable accommodations that are needed for ensuring equitable working conditions.

The Situation Analysis (SitAn) of children’s rights and wellbeing is a flagship product designed to inform policy dialogue, partnerships and interventions to improve the lives of children around the world. It is an assessment and analysis of the country situation, with respect to children's rights and critical issues affecting their realisation. The SitAn is a crucial part of the child rights monitoring (CRM) framework and represents a key UNICEF strategic tool that helps identify important equity gaps and child deprivations that require the attention of a range of actors in the country. By promoting the broad engagement of all stakeholders in a comprehensive process, the SitAn is expected to inform policy dialogue in the country and child-focused policy advocacy to make an important contribution to accelerating the achievement of child-related goals with equity.

The SitAn reflects UNICEF’s role to urge all levels of government and all key stakeholders to use the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guiding mechanism in policy making and legislation to:

• Develop a comprehensive national agenda,
• Develop permanent bodies or mechanisms to promote coordination, monitoring and evaluation of activities throughout all sectors of government,
• Ensure that all legislation is fully compatible with the Convention and, if applicable the Optional Protocols, by incorporating the provisions into domestic law or ensuring that they take precedence in cases of conflict with national legislation,
• Make children visible in policy development processes throughout government by introducing child impact assessments,
• Analyse government spending to determine the portion of public funds spent on children and to ensure that these resources are being used effectively,
• Ensure that sufficient data are collected and used to improve the situation of all children in each jurisdiction,
• Raise awareness and disseminate information on the Convention and the Optional Protocols by providing training to all those involved in government policy-making and working with or for children,
• Involve civil society – including children themselves – in the process of implementing and raising awareness of child rights.

Purpose of the Assignment

The main purpose of this assignment is to conduct an inclusive human-rights based and equity-focused Situation Analysis of children and adolescents in Serbia with respect to the realisation of children’s and adolescents’ rights and draft the report. The analysis should examine the progress, challenges and opportunities for achieving child rights and well-being, and the persistent patterns of deprivation that children and adolescents face. The analysis should be objective and verifiable and is expected to be used by all partners and stakeholders in the country in addressing key challenges preventing children and adolescents, especially the most disadvantaged, from enjoying their rights ensured in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other international obligations the country has ratified.

Work Assignment Overview:

The main objectives of a rights-based, equity focused SitAn in Serbia are the following:

• Develop a deep understanding of the situation of children and adolescents (including relevant groups of young people in particularly vulnerable situations) by analysing the policies and strategies, social and economic trends affecting them (data disaggregated by age, gender, urban/rural, ethnicity, socio-economic status and other relevant factors).
• Identify and analyse the barriers and bottlenecks that prevent children and especially the most disadvantaged children and families from benefiting from social services across sectors and enjoying their rights; draft strategies and recommendations on how the bottlenecks and barriers can be removed.
• Provide national government partners with comprehensive equity-sensitive and evidence-based analysis on children and adolescents for result-based decision-making;
• Provide essential information to non-government partners (NGOs, community-based organisations, civil society, media and business sector) to be used in their planning and interventions to address the most urgent issues affecting children and adolescents
• Propose entry points for the (re)formulation of key national strategies so that the priorities for the most disadvantaged children and adolescents are integrated into the socio-economic development agenda.
• Identify critical data gaps and contribute to the generation of evidence that can improve the monitoring of the rights of children and adolescents, especially the most vulnerable groups
• Assess the current or potential presence of emergency risks (disaster risks and other potential shocks); the likelihood of their occurrence, the underlying vulnerabilities and the capacities and coping mechanisms of families, communities and local and national institutions.
• Analyse to what extent there is an enabling environment for the realisation of the rights of all children and adolescents, and analyse how evidence-based interventions and services needed to address deprivations are prioritised in national policies, laws, strategies, plans and budgets
• Capture new or emerging area of concerns regarding children and adolescents, such as environmental issues affecting them, mental health issues etc.
• Analyse the role/impact of business sector on child and adolescents’ rights fulfilment as well as public financial management.

Duration of the assignment:

December 2023 – May 2024 (up to 50 workdays)

Detailed task description:

Task 1: Inception phase

• Initial desk review to assess availability of data/information
• Development of a final conceptual framework for the SitAn and specific tools for data collection.
• Presentation of the conceptual framework and the tools to UNICEF and key stakeholders mapping to facilitate an in-depth common understanding of the framework
• Presentation of an inception report, including finalised conceptual framework and methodology.

Deliverable:

• SitAn inception report, which includes the initial analysis of the information that needs to be updated as a priority in the SitAn.

Timeframe: by 30 January 2024 (up to 10 working days)

Task 2: Data collection and analysis

• Data collection and in-depth desk-review of existing evidence regarding the situation of children and adolescents. This includes data/information on most disadvantaged and deprived groups of children. National strategies and planning documents, policies and budgets. Relevant data and information on climate issues, energy and environment, gender equality, public financial management, role of the business sector, and the meaningful children and adolescent’s participation should be collected and analysed.
• Interviews and/or focus groups with key informants (as determined and approved in the inception phase).
• Secondary analysis of available data/information.
• Discussion and agreement on strategies to remove bottlenecks to the realisation of child rights, particularly for vulnerable groups.

Deliverable:

• Systematized collection (database) of data, evidence and analysis

Timeframe: by 15 March 2024 (up to 15 working days)

Task 3: Reporting

• Development of draft reports, presentation and annexes

Deliverable:

• Preliminary report on key findings and conclusions, which follows the suggested Outline, including, a power point presentation for validation of the findings. It also includes an Annex of State of Children’s Rights (SoCR) with issues, bottlenecks and national actions arranged by the proposed child rights domains and sub-domains (format provided)
• Final Report – which integrates comments from the validation process, ideally limited to ~ 50 pages (not including Annexes).
• Final PowerPoint presentation and, as applicable, detailed causality analyses.

Timeframe: by 31 May 2024 (up to 25 working days)

Based on the UNICEF Core Guidance: New Generation Situation Analysis, a suggested outline for the report includes proposed elements which should be followed. Inputs on submitted inception and draft reports provided by UNICEF and other stakeholders should be addressed in the process and final documents. All submissions should be electronic. All materials submitted to UNICEF should be delivered in English, while preliminary report on key findings and conclusions, SoCR, SitAn Reports and PPTs should be submitted in both, English and Serbian language.

UNICEF in Serbia will hold copyrights for all reports. The documents (including raw materials, etc.) may not be reproduced, distributed or published without the written permission from UNICEF.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Advanced degree in social sciences, international development or related fields relevant for the assignment.
• At least 5 years of experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, policy (and finance) analysis and report preparation (including experience in the consistent use of age and sex-disaggregated and gender sensitive data).
• Relevant experience in development of analytical reports and policy documents related to children and adolescents.
• Experience in facilitating consultations with government representatives, NGOs, academia, children, adolescents, and other stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills – references to previous work or institutions.
• Excellent knowledge of statistics, social service systems, development agenda.
• Knowledge of human rights-based approach to programming.
• Previous experience with UNICEF is an advantage.
• Fluency in English and Serbian.
• Excellent writing skills.

How to apply:

The application must include a financial proposal as a separate document, providing a separate fee for each of the three tasks:

1. Deliverable 1
2. Deliverable 2
3. Deliverable 3

Important notes:

• The consultant will make their own arrangements for the travel and daily subsistence, and these costs should be calculated into the consultancy fee(s).
• Please do not forget to specify your name in the financial proposal file while saving (to be uploaded online under the “Financial Proposal” tab).
• Please do not indicate financials anywhere else in the online application form, please mark "n/a” or “00" under the fee-related questions in the online application form.
• Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

For every child, you must demonstrate UNICEF's core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.