CP/ GBV Consultant to Mainstream CP and GBV in Public Health Facilities, Home Based, 51 working days

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) with the support of UNICEF, Himaya and K2P finalized in 2018 a roadmap to emphasize the role of the health sector in the protection of children in Lebanon. The road map stipulated the problem related to absence of prevention, early identification, and reporting of violence against children in health care institutions. It highlighted the lack of Child Protection (CP) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) related knowledge and skills among healthcare providers and the absence of a standardized mechanism, tools, and awareness around prevention and early identification and safe referrals of child protection cases.

To tackle these problems, UNICEF supported MoPH in 2019/2020 to set up an action plan to strengthen CP/GBV mainstreaming in the health sector which included multiple priority actions; one of them was the development of CP and GBV guidelines for Health Care Professionals (HCPs).

In line with Children’s Rights International and National Laws, and in consultation with ministries of Justice, Social Affairs, Interior and municipalities and Education; heads and focal points of the medical and paramedical orders, syndicates, and associations; university hospitals working on child protection, as well as national and international NGOs and UN agencies working on child protection in Lebanon1 , the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in partnership with UNICEF, launched in March 2022, these CP and GBV guidelines for the Health Care Providers (HCPs)2 that aimed at setting a national framework to support healthcare providers who are in constant contact with children, boys and girls including adolescent girls, and specified their roles and responsibilities in the prevention and response to violence against children in the health sector.

The guidelines included a guidance on how to create “child friendly hospitals” and most importantly described how to identify cases of violence, refer, record, write reports and provide specialized health services while ensuring all fundamental principles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are taken into consideration; especially child participation, non-discrimination, and Best-Interest of the child.

Following the launching of the guidelines, a training curriculum was developed to communicate the key CP/GBV concepts and enhance the skills of healthcare providers on the identification and safe cases referral of children victims of violence, including married girls and adolescent survivors of GBV. This curriculum was piloted in one public hospital in September 2022.

Given the upsurge of the reported cases of child abuse in 2023; UNICEF is looking to expand the support provided to MoPH and reinforce the mainstreaming of CP/GBV practices into the health sector, by accelerating the roll out of the guidelines and the developed training curriculum in 10 selected public hospitals (Tripoli / Halba/ Minieh/ Nabatieh/ Baalback/ Karantina/ Rafic Hariri /Zahle /Saida and Batroun).

The trainings will target public hospitals team members who are in contact with children and will include coaching on how to take the necessary arrangements to support the early identification of high-risk CP cases identified at the public health facilities and to safely refer them to the relevant protection or judicial actors in line with national laws and the newly developed inter-ministerial referral pathways.

How can you make a difference?

Work Assignment Expected Results

Tasks/Milestone: Deliverables/Outputs: Timeline Organise three meetings with the national technical committee that supported earlier the development of the CP/GBV guidelines for HCPs, so they can endorse the plan for capacity building and support in the roll out and trainings for the HCPs.Three meetings with the technical committee working on mainstreaming CP in the health sector.3 daysDesk review for the laws related to “mandatory reporting” of cases of child sexual abuse and the draft interministerial referral pathways.

Preparation of a memo/ decision to be signed by Minister of Public Health on mandatory reporting for HCPs and importance of following the CP guidelines in the 9 selected public hospitals.

Draft decision prepared in line with the penal code, and the laws for health care professionals, and civil servants; this decision needs to be signed by the Minister of Public Health.3 daysPrepare for the meeting with the administration in the 9 governmental hospitals to present the CP / GBV guidelines, its importance, get their buy in , and mobilise them to and to put in place the necessary arrangements to support the early identification and safe referral process. Meeting with the management of 10 governmental hospitals to introduce the guidelines , its importance and their role in preventing and responding to CP cases accessing the hospitals.One dayPreparation of the training material including coordination with experts who will support in the facilitation of the training from MoSA / MoJ and selected university hospitals.Training material reviewed, with more case studies to be included. 3 daysThree days Training for 10 governmental hospitals.

The trainings will target doctors in the emergency unit, head of nurses and midwifes, paediatricians, administration staff – each training is supposed to target up to 8 HCPs.

In some locations, we will combine training for two hospitals in one location such as *Zahle/ Baalback- Karatina and Rafic Hariri- Tripoli/ Halba and Nabatieh

6 trainings to be delivered in Tripoli / Halba/ Minieh/ Nabatieh/Baalback/Zahle / Karantina/Rafic Hariri / Saida and Batroun Public hospital.

10 action plans to enhance CP prevention and response in the 9 hospitals

10 action plans to mainstream CP and GBV in the 9 selected hospitals.

18 daysTwo coaching visits for 10 public. This includes support in the roll out of the training on CP and GBVTwo coaching visits to be conducted to selected hospitals to follow on the implementation of the action plan 20 daysFinal report to highlight the lessons learned and the recommendations for the next steps.Final report on the achievements and the next steps.3 daysTo qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Bachelor’s degree in social science, public health, Human rights laws, Gender and genderbased violence related issues. Mater degree is a plus.
• A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in the area of CP and GBV.
• Have 7 years’ experience in child protection and/or gender-based violence including the legal framework and standard operating procedures.
• Have 4 years of experience in working or coordinating with Lebanese public sector or judiciary. A previous experience with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Public Health or Ministry of Justice or Public Health is desirable.
• Previous experience with civil society, intergovernmental/ non-governmental or the United Nations, the Ministry of Public Health or other government institutions with a child protection mandate is desired.
• Have a strong knowledge of Arabic and English languages both oral and written.
• Have excellent training experience on child protection and gender-based violence.
• Have previous experience in networking and building good working relationships with a variety of stakeholders.
• Possess excellent communications skills, including with children and adolescent girls.
• Demonstrate strong integrity and ethical standards, and commitment to children’s rights.
• Demonstrate strong skills in formulating Strategies and Concepts.
• Be able to travel when asked to field locations with his/her own mean of Transport.
• Be able to work individually and within a team.
• Computers skills (Microsoft word, excel, power point).

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.

UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the recruitment process.