Home-based Consultancy: Peer-to-peer and MHPSS Expert Consultant (215 Working days), ECARO, O/P Italy

Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

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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, Protection

Starting in 2015, the European Union began the development of a Child Guarantee, meant to ensure that all children in Europe who are at risk of poverty, social exclusion, or are otherwise disadvantaged, have access to essential services of good quality in the areas of healthcare, education, childcare, housing and nutrition In June 2021, the Council of the European Union adopted a Recommendation establishing an EU-wide Child Guarantee to combat child poverty and social exclusion of the most vulnerable children.

In Italy, the Child Guarantee is being piloted since 2020 under the oversight of an interinstitutional Steering Committee, composed by the MLSP and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Department for Family Policies, and UNICEF including through testing of models of intervention for the support of children particularly at risk of poverty and exclusion. Including through the evidence generated during the pilot phase, in March 2022 Italy submitted to the EU a draft National Action Plan for the implementation of the Child Guarantee, which included the scale up of models of interventions to contrast child poverty and social exclusion of children.

One of the models being tested by the DFP and UNICEF as part of the pilot phase of the Child Guarantee is a model of peer support between vulnerable families, including families with children with disability, to expand the range of services offered by the Family Support Centers (Centri per la Famiglia - CpF), multidisciplinary services that provide support to families in situation of vulnerability through a differentiated set of services that range from positive parenting, psychosocial and educational support to the referral to other services.

Furthermore, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services to children and adolescents continue to be a UNICEF’s global priority. The UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025 identifies MHPSS as a priority area, building upon existing programming through child protection, education, and health, shaped by actions and standards set out in the Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS), Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) and the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies.

According to recent UNICEF State of the World’s Children 2021, 13 per cent of adolescent worldwide is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder, whose prevalence in Italy is 16.6% of the national 10-19 aged population. Over the last two years, and especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, psychosocial wellbeing and mental health have increasingly become a collective and institutional concern for this age group. Therefore, fostering the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents has become today of paramount concern for UNICEF.

Disadvantaged children and adolescents, such as migrant and refugee children and youth inside and outside the reception system, and especially children and adolescents who have experienced displacement, violence and other highly threatening event, or who are exposed to protection threats, have increased risks to develop distress and even other forms of more severe mental conditions, unless their needs are promptly identified and addressed through tailored interventions. Special attention is given to the refugee influx of boys, girls and their families who arrived in Italy since the begin of the conflict in Ukraine.

UNICEF psychosocial support and mental health actions are integrated into prevention and support programmes covering child protection, gender-based violence, education, advocacy and research. There are multiple actions that UNICEF carries out in Italy together with governmental counterparts, relevant institutions, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to strengthen the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children, adolescents and their caregivers. MHPSS services aim at strengthening the individual psychosocial wellbeing, self-care, the own skills to overcome adversity and parental capacity to take care of the own children. Through these interventions, UNICEF intends to promote individual agency and active participation of children, adolescents and young people.

Scope of Work:

Under the guidance of UNICEF’s Child Protection Specialist and in coordination with the Department for Family Policies, the Consultant will focus on supporting the pilot, monitoring and systematizing of one of the models of interventions aimed at the reduction of poverty and social exclusion in Italy, tested as part of the pilot phase of the EU Child Guarantee.

Additionally, the Consultant ewill contribute to developing and rolling out MHPSS technical tools and training packages tailored to support adolescents (such as the UNICEF Adolescent Toolkit for Expression and Innovation), younger children and their caregivers. The Consultant will also support capacity building initiatives aimed at disseminating these tools and enhancing MHPSS knowledge and skills of relevant service providers, decision makers and frontline workers.

Finally, the Consultant will support UNICEF in the different technical pieces related with the work with children with disability.

The scope of the work is to contribute to UNICEF’s efforts in two main areas:

• Supporting the Department for Family Policies in the further strengthening of the support provided to families through the Family Support Centres, by providing technical support for the piloting of the peer support model between families currently being implemented in different Regions of Italy. The consultant is also required to develop a clear methodology and tool to track the results of the model and collect feedback received from both the participant families and the workforce of the Family Centers.
• Supporting MHPSS capacity building for Implementing and institutional partners and other relevant service providers and stakeholders. This action will consist of: a) contextualization to the national context of MHPSS technical tools (such as the Adolescent Toolkit for Expression and Innovation, I support my friends and a pyscho-social tool for caregivers currently under piloting); b) development of three training packages for different audience (1) staff operating in disembarkation areas and first line reception system; 2) youth centers’ staff; 3) teachers - online) and c) delivering technical sessions to support Implementing partners in integrating the tools in the current running programmes.

How can you make a difference?

Work assignment overview

Deliverables/ Outputs

Timeline/DeadlineSupport and monitoring of the pilot implementation of the peer support between families with children with disability model in the selected CpF

1 training package developed for Family centers staff based on the already developed tool related to the model of family peer support

6 sessions for the roll-out of the training package

1 monitoring tool to track the outcomes of the pilot in the Family Centers

3 Reports on the collecting feedback from staff and families and roll-out of the tool in the 6 family centers

3 technical sessions delivered to the Family Centers’ staff (one every two-months) to support the implementation of the model

4 quarterly reports on the implementation of the peer support model, including on the quantitative and qualitative monitoring of activities and with participants’ feedback and recommendation for its scalability/replication

September 2023 -6 days

October 2023 ( 2 sessions) - 10 days

December 2023 - 5 days

February 2024 - 5 days

April 2024 - 5 days

June 2024- 5 days

September 2023- 3 days

October 2023 - 2 days

January 2024 - 2 days

April 2024 - 2 days

October 2023- 6 days

January 2024 - 6 days

April 2024 - 6 days

September 2023 - 3 days

December 2023 - 3 days

March 2024 - 3 days

July 2024 - 3 days

Supporting MHPSS capacity building of CSO and institutional partners and other relevant service providers and stakeholders

3 UNICEF MHPSS technical tools for adolescents and caregivers adapted to the national context

1 in-presence training package for MHPSS in emergency for staff operating in disembarkation areas and first line reception system

Testing/roll out of the training package in 5 locations (ideally Lampedusa, Crotone, Taranto, Ragusa, Trieste)

1 in-presence training package for Youth centers on MHPSS interventions with adolescents

Testing in 3 locations of training package

1 online course for teachers on MHPSS principles

3 training sessions for UNICEF Implementing partners on MHPSS principles

6 Technical sessions for implementing partners on how to integrate the tools in the running programmes (one every two months)

December 2023 - 30 days

December 2023 - 11 days

January 2024 - 5 days

March 2024 - 5 days

April 2024 - 5 days

May 2024- 5 days

June 2024 - 5 days

December 2023 - 6 days

January 2024 - 3 days

April 2024 - 3 days

June 2024- 3 days

June 2024- 20 days

December 2023- 3 days

March 2024 - 3 days

May 2024 - 3 days

January 2024 ( 2 sessions) - 6 days

March 2024- 3 days

April 2024 - 3 days

May 2024 - 3 days

June 2024 - 3 days

Contractual arrangements:

- Work location: Home-based in Italy

- Payment schedule: The consultant will be paid based on satisfactory and timely submission of deliverables.

- Duration: 215 days between July 2023 and June 2024

- Travel: The consultant is expected to travel.

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The consultant is responsible for his/her for travel arrangements. The most economic and direct route is authorized.
• Travel costs will be reimbursed after the completion of mission upon submission of the invoice together with the supporting documentation.
• The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSafe certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance and an immunization/vaccination card.

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

• Master’s degree in Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, Education or related topics.
• At least 7 years of professional experience working in areas related to MHPSS and the support of vulnerable children, including specific experience on children with disabilities.
• Proven experience in the development and roll-out of trainings.
• Proven experience in the development or implementation of peer support methodologies.
• Ability to work with vulnerable children and youth.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships.
• Fluency in Italian and English is required.

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 10 months ago - Updated 10 months ago - Source: unicef.org