Home-based consultancy: Disability Assessment Consultant (63 days)

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Examine disability assessment system and propose reforms for improved child inclusion.

You have:

• Advanced degree in education, sociology, social work, with focus in disability inclusion.
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in disability inclusion, preferably in social and child protection sectors, inclusive education, and both at the national and international levels.
• Extensive research experience in the area of disability inclusion (childcare, social protection, education, health).
• Knowledge and experience in disability assessment reforms.
• Knowledge and experience in applying ICF for research, planning, service provision purposes.
• Knowledge of childcare and education reforms processes.
• Knowledge of the ECA region.
• Excellent analytical and written skills.
• Fluency in English (oral and written).

Contract

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For every child, results

Introduction:

In the past decade, UNICEF has been supporting governments in all 22 countries in Europe and Central Asia Region (ECAR)[1] in their efforts to advance the rights of children with disabilities. The evidence-based advocacy jointly with other UN agencies, partners and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) has led to ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in all countries (except one)[2]. Consequently, government have translated this commitment in national strategies and action plans, and launched disability-inclusive reforms in childcare, social protection, health and inclusive education. UNICEF has supported these initiatives through advocacy and technical assistance for revision of legislation, building the required institutional setup and capacities of stakeholders and service providers for implementation, as well as improving budgetary allocations.

New evidence suggests that despite efforts, children with disabilities remain the most invisible and excluded group in ECAR, and they continue to face barriers in accessing services and participating in community life and decision making. The disability assessment remains the key barrier to realizing children’s right to live in a family environment and access education and key services on equal basis with others. In the context of de-institutionalization, UNICEF has helped governments with the introduction of new approaches and frameworks and tools (e.g. ICF), capacity building of disability commissions and change in legislation. However, evidence indicates that the understanding, identification, assessment of disability, eligibility determination and related provision remains medical.

It is proposed to take stock of these reforms in six countries in ECAR, determine progress, analyze remaining barriers and propose a way forward for systemic transformation of disability assessment based on the understanding that disability commissions can be a strong enabler of deinstitutionalization and instead of segregating children in various types of institutions and special education rather serve as a gatekeeper and facilitation of alternative care provision and access to services., through cross-sectoral collaboration, which leads to the empowerment of children and young people with disabilities and their effective inclusion in the community.

Background:

Children with disabilities remain the most invisible and excluded group worldwide and in ECAR. The region continues to have one of the highest rates of institutionalization, and children with disabilities represent a large proportion of this number- at the end of 2018, an estimated 368,000 children were in residential care and 295,000 were children with disabilities[3]. An estimated 3.6 million children with disabilities are out of school and/or invisible in official statistics[4].

After decades of evidence-based advocacy and policy dialogue, many governments have closed or transformed large-scale institutions and replaced them with community and family based alternative care services, put in place family support services and invested in inclusive education. Countries like Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia have been particularly successful in transformation, downscaling and closing down residential institutions, and reallocation of resources towards development of a range of alternative family- and community-based care, early identification and response to risks of family separation, family support (and reintegration) services, gate-keeping system (decision-making in the best interest of the child), promoting case management, specialized care services. These countries have also invested in inclusive education reforms towards building capacities of teachers and schools for inclusive teaching and learning, but also redirecting specialist provision from special schools towards children’s participation in learning in regular schools. The focus has also been to expand social protection from focus on cash and benefits only towards facilitating access to key services and support.

Disability assessment is used here as a broader term to capture much broader notion of several interconnected processes: disability assessment, disability certification and eligibility determination. In countries, disability assessment was formerly known as disability categorization undertaken by disability categorization commission usually the responsibility of the health sectors and was seen as a significant barrier to the process of de-institutionalization and inclusive education. It was based on diagnosis (type and severity of disability) which was directly linked with recommendations for placement in institutions and/or with eligibility for benefits and specialized services. Identification of disability was happening too late in the life of the child with disabilities-usually before entering formal education and was related to benefits and rehabilitation with focus on correcting and compensating for incapacity to learn, work and live independently.

To de-medicalize these commission, this responsibility was moved to the social affairs sectors. To expand the understanding of disability beyond health related conditions and expand to functioning in different domains in interaction with environmental and personal factors with the aim to get a better understanding of children’s needs for support, governments with the support of UNICEF have introduced new frameworks and tools (e.g. the International Classification Functioning Disability and Health-ICF), trained commission staff on its application, supported cross-sectoral collaboration. These efforts were accompanied with re-organization of the disability commission to include social workers, psychologists and pedagogues, changes in legislation, development of rulebooks, expansion of the network of commissions at regional level, as well as links with the assessment processes in the different sectors (for instance assessment for education in schools). In this endeavor, UNICEF in few countries collaborated with UNDP, WHO and the World Bank- while UNICEF focuses on the needs of children with disabilities and access to early intervention, education and community-based support and services, UNDP, WHO and the World Bank focus on adults with disabilities and links with independent living arrangement and employment.

A number of situation analyses[5], concluding observations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child[6], as well as country assessments and evaluation[7] find the disability assessment is still not aligned with the human rights-based approach promoted in the CRPD. The evidence indicate the use of a prevalent medical approach to assessment, the service is available mainly in urban areas - parents have to travel and this comes with cost, inadequate capacity of professionals and insufficient representation of social and education professionals, lack of common understanding and approach across the different disability assessments undertaken in the different sectors and at different levels often resulting in multiple and unnecessary assessment and information that is not always useful to improve support and services, lack of accessible information, and most importantly failure to include children with disabilities and their families and to consider their perspective in the design and implementation of the assessment. In many countries, parents reported cases of bribe and corruption.

UNICEF Regional Office for ECA, Child Protection Section in its role of coordinator of the disability-inclusive agenda engages in programming and initiatives and partnerships with the aim to guide the governments in the future course of reforms. In collaboration with major partners, most significantly with EU, UNICEF Regional Office for ECA is leveraging commitment to de-institutionalization both within the EU and in their development programming, developing technical guidance to inform the future course of child-care reforms[8]. UNICEF has also established TransMonEE as the data centre on the most disadvantaged children in the region, including children with disabilities with indicators related to child-care reform that enables quality and comparable data collection as the basis for governments and partners or monitor progress in implementation.

Based on requests from many countries, we are seeking consultancy support to map the progress and develop guidance in the area of disability assessment reforms.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the Assignment:

The assignment will examine the extent to which disability assessment is aligned to the human rights-based approach and contributing to more effective support for children with disabilities who are transitioning from institutions to families and communities, but also more broadly contributing to improved policy and service planning and provision for children with disabilities throughout their life cycle. The focus of it is both on the conceptual framework and the systemic perspective. More specifically, the analysis will examine the role of ICF or other framework in providing a common language about disability among the different professionals while focusing on functioning and participation, as well as facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration for improved policy and service planning and provision. The analysis will bring together the person’s perspective ( the child’s talents, interests and needs, and situation) and the system perspective (the community, the different professionals and institutions involved in the process, alignment between the different assessments, the capacity of professionals, funding, accessibility, management, monitoring and evaluation). Most importantly, the extent to which these processes have enabled the involvement of children with disabilities, their parents and families, disability groups in the design and implementation of disability assessment.

Under the supervision of the Disability Focal Point, the consultant will undertake a mapping in six countries, and propose a technical guidance and considerations for future disability assessment reform in the region, and beyond.

Under this background the paper aims to:

1. examine the extent to which disability assessment reform in six countries has led to understanding of disability in line with human rights-based approach to disability, improved assessment of individual child needs and the extent it has contributed to effective policy and service planning and provision for children with disabilities and families
2. examine the extent to which use of ICF in disability assessment, certification and eligibility determination has facilitated transition from medical towards to human-rights based approach to disability inclusion
3. examine the extent to which disability assessment reform has contributed to common understanding of disability and strengthened cross-sectoral collaboration, particularly in the context of de-institutionalization and transition to family community-based care, early identification and response to risks of family separation, family support (and reintegration) services, gate-keeping system (decision-making in the best interest of the child), promoting case management
4. examine the extent to which it has led to systemic transformation (human and financial resources, capacity building, legislation)
5. develop normative guidance with considerations for effective and efficient disability assessment that could help countries in their reforms.

Methodology

To increase our understanding of this issue, and to further inform our work with governments on reforming disability assessment, the consultant will undertake a desk review of documents from at least six countries in the ECAR, and key informant interviews, in-depth interviews and inputs from an Reference Group of UNICEF and external experts.

The desk review will compile existing secondary data on disability assessment, including studies, evaluations, government laws, regulations, protocols and tools related to disability assessment, and related service planning and provision. Secondary sources of relevant data will include data collected by governments, public institutions, as well as major national and international NGOs, UN agencies active in this area (ILO, UNDP, the World Bank). The desk review will also scan existing literature and documents on effective disability assessment practices from other countries (primarily EU and beyond), as well as from other UN agencies and partners.

Through Key informant interviews, In-depth interviews and focus group discussions primary data will be collected from a number of stakeholders and with representatives of UNICEF country offices in the six countries.

The Reference Group will be established to review the research findings and the guidance in each key stage of the process (following the development of the framework to guide the mapping, the draft mapping and good practices and data collection from countries, draft guidance). Bi-lateral semi-structured interviews and follow-up group consultation of the drafts of the Working Paper will be conducted with its members, if needed.

Main Tasks:

The main tasks of the assignment are as follows:

1. Undertake literature review and review of good practices of disability assessment reforms from other countries (EU and beyond) and develop a framework to guide the mapping and also serve as a framework for future reform around the key processes (assessment, certification, eligibility determination and link to service planning and provision across sectors) and key system aspects (accessibility, capacity building, legislation, funding, etc).
2. Undertake review of country documentation (reports, tools, legislation) in 6 countries
3. Undertake primary data collection (from key informant interviews/ In-depth interviews and focus group discussions)
4. Develop a draft report based on existing literature, primary and secondary data.
5. Contribute to the creation of the Reference group, drafting its ToR and recommending and approaching organizations and individuals.
6. Undertake a series of bilateral consultations with the members of the reference group, child protection, social protection experts
7. Presenting the zero draft to the Reference Group to identify areas for further deep dives into the issue.
8. Develop the guidance which contains findings, conclusions and recommendations.
9. Consult the pre-final version of the guidance with the Reference Group and develop the final version of the guidance and validate it with the external reference group.

10. Develop a short version, a policy brief for different stakeholders, i.e. governments, European Commission, UNICEF offices, etc.

    Deliverables:

11. Initial literature review and conceptual framework- 4 days

12. Desk review of country reports – 12 days (2 for each country)
13. Developed instruments for primary data collection- 1 day
14. Undertake primary data collection – 12 days (2 days for each country)
15. Analysis of primary data – 4 days
16. Developed zero-draft report on the basis of existing primary and secondary data – 6 days
17. Contribute to the preparations for the Reference group, recommending and approaching organizations and individuals – 1 day
18. Undertake consultation with child protection and social protection and another sector exerts
19. Plan and undertake a further research on identified issues with the members of the Reference Group and other experts – 5 days
20. Present the zero draft to the External Reference group to identify areas for further research – 1 day
21. Develop the first full draft of the working paper, which contains findings, conclusions and recommendations – 7 days
22. Consult the first draft of the paper with the External Reference Group and develop the final version of the paper – 1 day
23. Develop 2-3 short versions of the paper, in the forms of a policy brief for different stakeholders, i.e. governments, European Commission, UNICEF offices, etc. – 4 days.
24. Support national cross-sectoral consultations on disability assessment reform in Kazakhstan- 5 days

Contractual modalities:

• Estimated Duration of the Assignment: The consultant is expected to work 63 days from August to December 2021.
• Duty Station: Consultant will work from home.
• Payment: the consultant will be paid upon timely and satisfactory submission of deliverables as per the above description.
• UNICEF Supervisor: The consultant will report to the Disability Focal Point.

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

• Advanced degree in education, sociology, social work, with focus in disability inclusion
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in disability inclusion, preferably in social and child protection sectors, inclusive education, and both at the national and international levels
• Extensive research experience in the area of disability inclusion (childcare, social protection, education, health)
• Knowledge and experience in disability assessment reforms
• Knowledge and experience in applying ICF for research, planning, service provision purposes
• Knowledge of childcare and education reforms processes
• Knowledge of the ECA region
• Excellent analytical and written skills
• Fluency in English (oral and written)

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.

To apply:

Interested candidates should:

• Complete their UNICEF profile;
• Attach CV and Cover Letter;
• Indicate a daily fee. Applications without fees will not be accepted.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

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[1] These include: Albania; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Georgia; Greece, Kazakhstan; Kosovo (UNSCR 1244); Kyrgyzstan; Montenegro; Republic of Moldova; Romania; Serbia; Tajikistan; North Macedonia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Ukraine; Uzbekistan

[2] Tajikistan has only signed the CRPD

[3] TransMonee is supported by UNICEF http://transmonee.org/

[4] UNICEF (2018) In Focus: Children with Disabilities. UNICEF Geneva. see more at: https://www.unicef.org/eca/reports/focus-including-children-disabilities

[5] For example: Bosnia and Hercegovina-; Situation Analysis of Children with Disabilities

[6] For example North Macedonia

[7] Analysis of the system of assessment and eligibility for social protection of children with disabilities in Montenegro

[8] UNICEF (2020) The role of small-scale residential care for children in the transition from institutional- to community-based care and in the continuum of care in the Europe and Central Asia Region

UNICEF (2020) Deinstitutionalization for Children with Disabilities - Technical Guidance for UNICEF's Engagement in National Reform Efforts

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org