Implementation Research for Most Significant Change (MSC) International Consultancy, Damascus, Syria, 145 working days within 11 months (On-site & Off-site))

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, commitment

BACKGROUND (RATIONALE AND CONTEXT):

Children across Syrian face one of the most complex emergencies in the world. There are 14.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 6.9 million children, 4.2 million people with disabilities and 5.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). This is driven by the worsening economic crisis, disease outbreaks, localized hostilities, mass displacement, devastated public infrastructure and weakened social services. Forty-one per cent of Syria’s 7,266 communities have low to medium levels of accessibility due to insecurity and/or control, complicating aid efforts.

Protection concerns remain paramount. In 2022, more than 2,400 grave violations against children were verified, including recruitment by armed groups and conflict-related deaths and injuries. The economic crisis is worsening negative coping mechanisms, especially affecting female-headed households, and contributing to the normalization of gender-based violence (GBV), which predominantly affects girls. Seventy-one per cent of communities surveyed reported child marriage (often affecting girls) and 84 per cent that children are working (often affecting boys).

Therefore, and in order to strengthen its programming, UNICEF intends to recruit a consultant who can design, implement and support an Implementation Research (IR) strategy in Syria with UNICEF Child Protection and ADAP Partners. The Implementation Research strategy will utilize, among other relevant methods, the Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology. The main objective of the consultancy is to deepen the understanding of the impact that Child Protection and ADAP Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) skill-building programmes have on children aged 6-17 and on caregivers attending MHPSS parenting programmes.

Specifically, the IR strategy will seek to explore the factors that affect the implementation of the MHPSS intervention among children and adolescents to understand for whom does the intervention work, in what settings, and how/why. As a secondary question, the IR will also explore whether the M&E strategy adopted for the intervention supported programme accountability and learning. The consultant will provide leadership, advisory support, guidance and assistance to UNICEF SCO in the use and embedding of this strategy and relevant methodologies.

The consultant, in collaboration with UNICEF SCO, will also identify and implement additional relevant methods (such as key informant interviews, programme document analyses, etc) to answer the IR questions. One method of particular interest to UNICEF SCO is the Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology, which will be leveraged to explore the service delivery aspect of the two programmes including the implementation of MHPSS activities for children and parents, in addition to life skills activities implemented by ADAP partners. The MSC stories generated using this methodology are expected to showcase different aspects of the activities and interventions being implemented at field level and encourage discussions among key stakeholders about the value of the reported changes on the lives of children, adolescents, and parents engaging with the intervention, and why they think the change occurred. These personal accounts generated through the MSC, along with the other identified methodologies, are also likely to document unexpected changes that might have been noted by beneficiaries and that highlight UNICEF values and ideas. Moreover, the stories are intended to be easy to read and understand, while giving a rich picture about the intervention to enhance programme learning and explore how UNICEF’s child protection and ADAP programmes are having an impact on the lives of children, adolescents and parents, and the values shaping our change mechanisms. Ideally the stories collected will show the synergies between the two programmes and how integrated programming has increased impact on the children and adolescents attending the programmes.

How can you make a difference?

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT (PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT):

The overall objective is to design, initiate, and establish an Implementation Research (IR) strategy in UNICEF Syria MHPSS and Parenting programmes to improve programme evaluability and learning, and improve reporting on impact of programming, notably for the UNICEF SCO Child Protection and ADAP programmes, in collaboration with implementing partners. This would be done through:

- Analyze for whom, in what settings, and how/why MHPSS child, adolescent, and parent skill-building interventions worked.

- Collect and analyses personal accounts from intervention attendees to identify how change comes about and when, through positive and negative accounts of most significant change, that UNICEF’s Child Protection and ADAP activities and initiatives have on the targeted population.

- Identify unexpected changes that might have been noted by beneficiaries and that highlight UNICEFs values and ideas.

- Enhance the understanding of UNICEF Child Protection and ADAP values and objectives among both UNICEF’s staff and partners.

- Build on the capacity of UNICEF teams to conduct IR to strengthen programme accountability and learning.

- Inform UNICEF management and donors on the relevance and impact of systematically using IR and methodologies such as the MSC as part of the monitoring and/or evaluation mechanisms in place in Syria.

LOCATION (GEOGRAPHIC AREA/ DUTY STATION): Damascus, Syria

On-site working days: 100 working days

Off-site working days: 45 working days

Field Missions/Travel: Yes, part of the on-site working days will require field missions; to be confirmed upon start of the assignment

DURATION:

The selected consultant will work for 145 workdays within (11 months). It is envisaged: (45) workdays out of county and (100) in the country. The exact schedule of the activities will be agreed with the consultant based on the consultancy implementation progress. The deadline for submission of final deliverables to UNICEF is at the end of the contract.

SUPERVISOR:

The consultant will be supervised and report to UNICEF Child Protection Officer, in close collaboration with technical support as required from UNICEF Syria Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation team. On a day-to-day basis, consultant is expected to work closely and liaise with a focal point from the Child Protection Programme team (Child Protection Officer). A small Reference Group will be formed to provide technical guidance and support to the management of the evaluability assessment consisting of members of Child Protection, ADAP, SCO PME team and regional office colleagues.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT (TASKS, SMART DELIVERABLES, DEADLINES):

PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Approval of satisfactory deliverables based on the above schedule:

1. Approval of inception report by Reference Group linked to 20% payment of fees;

2. Approval of IR methodology guide by Reference Group linked to 30% payment of fees;

3. Presentation of interim results and analysis Reference Group linked to 30% payment of fees;

4. Report & presentation of key findings and recommendations to Reference Group linked to 20% payment of fees.

The outlined instalments will be paid based on the approval of the deliverables by UNICEF SCO, inclusive of all fees, upon submission of the invoice.

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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

1. Academic qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences degree or any other relevant field is required.

2. Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Proven knowledge and experience in using the Most Significant Change methodology, especially from MENA region;

• At least 10 years of experience in humanitarian context on monitoring and evaluation;

• Proven experience working in the humanitarian field (e.g., NGO, INGO, or UN);

• Proven experience with both quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis;

• Previous experience in providing training and capacity building, especially for Child Protection and ADAP implementing partners is an asset;

• Excellent analytical and writing skills is required;

3. Language requirement:

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required

EVALUATION PROCESS (OF APPLICATIONS):

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Applications through UNICEF’s Talent Management System (TMS) or P11 form

2. Cover Letter

3. CV.

4. Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees only, Travel & Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will be covered by UNICEF Syria.

5. Examples of previous work/proposed methodology/approach to managing the project

6. At least 3 Referees from Direct Supervisors (+ last two PERs for former UNICEF staff)

Shortlisted applicants may be invited for further technical assessment. Final recommendation will be made based on “best value for money”, i.e. the hiring section/office shall normally select the individual who quoted the lowest fee from among the candidates who are assessed as suitable for achieving all tasks on time, as per the criteria stipulated in this ToR, and based on the outcome of the evaluation/assessment conducted.

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.

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 the 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.