Consultant (Senior Safeguarding), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Hosted Fund, New York, USA, 480 days, Home Based Req

Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

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NICEF 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.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the first global movement and fund dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crises. It was established in 2016 during the World Humanitarian Summit by international humanitarian and development aid organizations, along with public and private donors, to help reposition education as a priority on the humanitarian agenda, usher in a more collaborative approach among actors on the ground and foster additional funding to ensure that every crisis-affected child and young person is in school and learning.

ECW positions education strongly on the humanitarian agenda and advocates for quality education that is inclusive and integrated with protection for communities and learning spaces in emergencies and protracted crises. Embedded within the United Nations system, ECW adheres to and ensures that safeguarding standards, including protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment (PSEAH), are applied throughout its investments.

Its orientation towards safeguarding is informed by, inter alia, the strategy to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse across the United Nations system, and Security Council Resolution 2272 (2016) addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations. ECW also aligns with UNICEF as its host institution regarding HR, legal, finance and administrative policies and procedures, and with safeguarding efforts undertaken by members of its governance body. As a fund investing in tackling challenges of access to education for children and youth in emergencies and protracted crises, ECW recognizes its responsibility to drive up PSEAH and child safeguarding standards and practice and ensure a ‘do no harm’ approach. Action on safeguarding is aligned to other strategies and frameworks in ECW, including the gender strategy and the risk management framework.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The purpose of this consultancy is to deepen ECW’s existing safeguarding work programme, ensuring alignment with the safeguarding policies, procedures, and initiatives of UNICEF and the IASC. The focus of the consultancy will be the operationalization of ECW’s safeguarding regulatory framework across the ECW investment portfolio, advisory and capacity strengthening support to the ECW Secretariat, as well as overseeing grantee PSEAH assessments for which responsibility will move from UNICEF to its hosted funds from 2024.

In undertaking the deliverables below, the consultant must place child safety and wellbeing in programming as well as partner capacity at the heart of their approach, finding an appropriate balance between heavy regulatory approaches and field-friendly implementable solutions.

SCOPE OF WORK

1. Partner safeguarding assessments

• Carry out PSEAH Assessments, or oversee others to carry them out, and develop a work plan to include all assessments required in the remainder of 2023, 2024 and 2025 (approximately 30 assessments).
• Prepare Safeguarding Action Plans and work with partners to follow up on agreed actions.
• Provide targeted guidance to partners on safeguarding practices to improve weaknesses and bolster strengths.
• Formulate and deliver ECW’s institutional approach to assessing partners, inclusive of PSEAH assessment and wider safeguarding capacity.

2. Monitoring

• Monitor Implementing Partners’ progress against agreed Safeguarding Action Plans. Advise ECW on remedial action for non-compliance where applicable.
• Provide monthly updates to the Chief of Strategy, Planning and Accountability (SPA) team on the status of Safeguarding Action Plans and outstanding actions.
• As required by the Chief of SPA, lead on the production of key data sets and analysis to be used in reports for ECW’s Senior Management Team and Executive Committee.
• Undertake 2-4 field visits per year to review safeguarding practices in countries where there have been safeguarding incidents/repeat incidents as well as missions, as required, to follow up on action plans from PSEA assessments.
• Work with the Risk and Compliance Manager to determine if other safeguarding monitoring is needed, e.g. at the programmatic level.
• Develop a set of safeguarding indicators for the ECW indicator library and ensure information is accurate and up to date.

3. Incident reporting and referral mechanisms

• When incidents occur, provide, within an agreed timeframe and subject to grantee actions, updates to the ECW Executive Committee and advise on the identification of lessons learned and coordinating corrective action.
• Lead ECW’s preparation for participation in, and reporting to, the UN Partner Portal (UNPP).
• Develop a methodology for anonymized reporting of trends and overview of safeguarding work and produce an annual report for ECW’s Executive Committee.

4. Quality assurance of ECW investments

• Review each ECW MYRP and AF investment proposal (approx. 13 per year) from a safeguarding lens within a timeframe agreed with the Education Team, and recommend amendments to strengthen safeguarding measures, paying particular attention to the risk assessments submitted by grantees.

5. Capacity strengthening

• By end of June 2024, develop user-friendly guidelines and, if needed, indicators for assessments, for partners to manage non-SEAH safeguarding risks (to complement their compliance with the UN Implementing Partner PSEAH Capacity Assessment Protocol).
• By end of May 2024, develop and deliver a set of half-day virtual workshops/webinars (inclusive of feedback questionnaires for attendees on achievement of workshop objectives) to the following stakeholders: implementing partners by region; ECW staff; ECW thematic specialists; ECW Country and Emergency Managers. Partner workshops should focus on end-to-end compliance with ECW expectations and guidance available; ECW staff workshops should focus on ECW obligations and guidance available; 1 ECW thematic specialist workshop should focus on the development of integrated safeguarding tools.
• Deliver additional capacity development of internal and external stakeholders and produce training materials, as deemed necessary, including mentoring to Country Managers, and providing guidance to colleagues ahead of them undertaking field missions.

6. Sustainable transition management

• Create a comprehensive Information and Knowledge Management repository of key documents, guidance, check lists and training underpinning the above deliverables, ensuring user-friendly access by relevant ECW staff.
• Oversee and ensure a well-organized and robust information management system for all correspondence and reporting related to ECW incident reporting.
• If applicable, before the end of the consultancy period, provide a comprehensive virtual handover to the incoming safeguarding lead.

7. Stakeholder engagement

• Liaise with internal and external stakeholders as needed in performing the above-mentioned duties. This includes proactively establishing meetings where required with UNICEF and UNICEF hosted fund leads on safeguarding.
• Support the Risk and Compliance Manager and the Chief of SPA team in the recruitment and management of safeguarding interns and management of the P2 Risk and Safeguarding Officer.
• Lead ECW’s preparation for, and engagement in, the UNICEF/Hosted Fund monthly safeguarding group meeting.
• Host the Safeguarding Peer Review Group meetings on a quarterly basis and prepare action plans for follow-up.
• Lead preparation for, and attend, ECW meetings with select Executive Committee members e.g. the UK Government, on safeguarding cases of interest.
• Stay up to date with UNICEF and partner safeguarding policies, procedures and practices.

Work Assignments Overview

Deliverables/Outputs

Delivery deadline

Partner safeguarding assessments

Completed PSEAH assessments and follow up plans

Dec 2025 (95 days)

Monitoring

Quarterly presentation on safeguarding to to ECW’s SMT and written update to ExCom twice a year – or as otherwise requested by ExCom; Completed field visits (2-4 per year, expected duration of 3-4 days per mission), with a written mission report and action plan submitted to the Chief, SPA team, within 10 days following return from the mission.

Dec 2025 (50 days)

Incident reporting and referral mechanisms

Finalization of UNPP participation; preparation and add all relevant current cases to the portal; methodology for reporting of trends developed. Notification emails issued to ExCom on all new and closed safeguarding incidents, following thorough investigation with grantees

July 2024; Dec 2024 (100 days)

Quality assurance of ECW investments

Completed MYRP and AF investment proposals (13 per year – approximately one per month, but this may change during busier periods of the year)

Dec 2024; Dec 2025 (75 days)

Capacity strengthening

Guidelines and indicators for non-SEAH assessments finalized; webinars delivered (as per detail on item 5b above).

Dec 2024 (95 days)

Sustainable transition management

Knowledge Management repository set up on ECW’s SharePoint site and populated with key documents at least twice a year.

July 2025 (25 days)

Stakeholder engagement

Meetings held with stakeholders as required; participation in all monthly safeguarding meetings and hosting of Peer Review Group; preparation of written action plans from each of the above meetings within 10 days after the meeting and follow-up with stakeholders in the ECW Secretariat every 6 months or more often if contacted by stakeholders..

December 2025 (40 days)

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

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in social work, international development, law, social sciences, public administration, or other related fields.
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant progressively responsible experience in safeguarding (child safeguarding, PSEA, PSH), child protection and/or gender-based violence risk mitigation in humanitarian and development action at the international level.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required. Knowledge of an additional UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish), particularly French, is desirable.

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Proven experience in conducting safeguarding partner assessments and developing action plans for humanitarian and development action.
• Ability to undertake complex analysis, engage with uncertainty and formulate recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience in managing responses to complex safeguarding incidents, including knowledge of best practice approaches, in humanitarian and development action.
• Proven experience in delivering capacity-building activities on risk and/or safeguarding.

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 6 days ago - Updated 2 hours ago - Source: unicef.org