Early Childhood Development Advocacy Consultant

Job Description

Background of the project

The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is a global network of over 18,000 individual members, affiliated with more than 4,000 organizations from 190 countries with representatives from UN agencies, International and National NGOs, donors, governments, universities, schools, and affected populations working together to ensure all persons the right to quality education in emergencies (EiE) and post-crisis recovery. As INEE is a network hosted by its membership, the IRC hosts the INEE Secretariat.

The INEE Early Childhood Development (ECD) Working Group aims to improve outcomes for young children in humanitarian and fragile settings by providing resources and capacity-strengthening opportunities to support quality and responsive ECD programs, practices, and policies for children and families affected by crises.

Scope of Work:

The Early Childhood Development Advocacy Consultant will develop a brief that contributes to raising awareness and advocates for the importance of providing early childhood development in acute emergencies. The brief will highlight the role ECD (can) play in supporting young children and their caregivers to foster healthy development and help communities and countries recover from crises, particularly in cases when acute emergencies exacerbate existing protracted crises, which is often the case.

This consultancy will include four key areas of work:

● Conduct a desk review to collate evidence on the enablers and challenges regarding the provision of ECD in acute emergencies. This should include a brief mapping of the different audiences and stakeholders involved in the decision-making and provision of ECD.

● Identify and interview key informants with voices on the importance and value of providing ECD in acute emergencies (which could include beneficiaries of ECD in acute emergencies programming).

● Develop an advocacy brief that presents the current situation, a statement of purpose, and a call to action/recommendations for different stakeholder groups.

Deliverables:

● Work plan and the timeline for deliverables.

● Brief outline proposal for discussion.

● Literature review matrix and a folder containing consulted resources.

● List of potential interviewees and selection criteria.

● Interview guide.

● Draft document and final brief version (approximately ten pages).

Qualifications

Requirements:

The role requires awareness and sensitivity to different contexts, deep knowledge of ECD and emergency contexts, and key skills in relationship building and advocacy. The ideal candidate will have:

● A minimum of 7 years of experience working in early childhood development (ECD) in emergencies or related fields, including a minimum of 4 years of experience working on advocacy.

● Proven expertise in trends, policies, and challenges related to early childhood development in acute emergencies.

● Excellent writing skills, ability to synthesize complex ideas into user-friendly formats; experience writing advocacy papers.

● Excellent organizational skills, flexible work attitude, ability to work independently, and track and follow up on various tasks.

● Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to successfully manage consultation and feedback processes and interact with various people.

● Fluent in verbal and written English, with the ability to work in other INEE core languages highly desirable, particularly Spanish (Arabic, French, or Portuguese).

Application process: Please submit your CV, a letter of interest, a writing sample, and a proposed methodology via email to [email protected] with the subject line “INEE Consultancy - Early Childhood Development Advocacy Consultant” no later than April 20, 2023.

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