Individual Consultancy: Mapping of Community-focused Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) systems in the north of Mozambique

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Application deadline 1 year ago: Sunday 30 Oct 2022 at 21:55 UTC

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Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

To map out existing AAP approaches and mechanisms utilized by UNICEF, partners and/or UNICEF-led clusters and provide recommendations for setting up a comprehensive community-based feedback and accountability mechanism for Cabo Delgado and Nampula.

Scope of Work:

Background

Accountability to affected populations (AAP) has its roots in the 2016 Grand Bargain Humanitarian Summit and requires agencies and governments responding to humanitarian crises to inform people of their rights, provide accurate information on what aid is available and where and how to access it, actively listen to and respond to community feedback, and include affected populations in decision-making and response planning. AAP is about holding humanitarian responders to account and protect the rights of people and communities impacted by any crisis, natural hazards, conflict- or climate-related emergencies.

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) defines AAP as “an active commitment to use power responsibly by taking account of, giving account to, and being held to account by, the people humanitarian organizations seek to assist. UNICEF is guided by its IASC commitments to AAP and the Core Humanitarian Standards, both of which set out to respect for fundamental human rights to be protected.

UNICEF’s AAP vision is designed around seven pillars of accountability principles and good practices that put vulnerable people at the centre of emergency and development programmes. These include ensuring affected communities have timely information and communication is provided and available; communities have the ability to participate in decision-making; community views and concerns are used for advocacy; community capacities are strengthened to be able to participate and be heard; there is a feedback and complaints mechanism that are accessible and effectively used; protection from sexual exploitation and abuse is embedded in AAP mechanisms; and there is good coordination among all actors and partners. In this case, “partners” refers to UNICEF’s implementing agencies, members of UNICEF-led clusters in nutrition, WASH, education and child protection, as well as sister UN agencies, donors, and the government.

Against this backdrop, UNICEF seeks to expand its AAP vision and implementation in Mozambique, especially in the conflict-affected provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula, by taking into account a comprehensive operational response framework for AAP. While the focus is to be community-centric and community-driven, the operationalization will require support and engagement of all responders engaged in the humanitarian response in the north of the country. To put this into action, and in coordination with the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), UNICEF will work with its partners and in coordination with UNICEF’s emergency, communication for development, community engagement and PSEA staff.

Assignment Purpose, Objectives and Scope

The overall goal is to map out existing AAP approaches and mechanisms utilized by UNICEF, partners and/or UNICEF-led clusters and provide recommendations for setting up a comprehensive community-based feedback and accountability mechanism for UNICEF response in Cabo Delgado and Nampula.

The specific objectives are:

  • Map out existing feedback mechanisms from communities receiving humanitarian assistance at all levels;
  • Identify the information flow adopted to record and address community feedback, as well as the main actors involved;
  • Explore existing operating dynamics, challenges and bottlenecks;
  • Recommend next steps for a community-focused AAP mechanisms in the northern region.

Approach

The selected consultant should provide a combined methodology to undertake the mapping, as outlined in the background. Key steps should be considered, such as the proposed below:

  • Interviews with UNICEF partners and cluster members, HCT as well as the AAP Working Group, to understand how communities are communicated with, what participation mechanisms are in place with affected communities and local government and responders, how feedback is collected, how information is shared to appropriate responder, how actions are fed back to communities and what redress systems for grievances have been put in place by government and UNICEF partners, or other humanitarian actors (local/international);
  • Quick review of the trends/data available on the use of the existing hotlines such as Linha Verde, Linha Fala Criança and other SMS based systems such as Alo Vida in collecting feedback and communicating back to communities. This includes speaking to relevant stakeholders to understand the limitations/challenges of these systems, as well as the advantages;
  • Interviews or focus group discussions with local authorities and responders at the district level to determine how affected communities are consulted in processes such as rapid needs assessments and in development of response plans;
  • Workshop with a range of stakeholders from Clusters based on desk review and interviews to determine existing good practices and gaps in the AAP mechanism in northern Mozambique, with a focus on Cabo Delgado, but including major actors from Nampula when possible;

  • Provide key recommendations for the MCO and partners on a contextualized and localized community-based system for AAP for northern Mozambique.

Deliverables/Outputs:

Deliverable 1: Inception Report

Timeline: Week 1

Estimate Budget:

Deliverable 2: Report on data collection

Timeline: Week 2-3

Estimate Budget:

Deliverable 3: Workshop with stakeholders

Timeline: Week 4

Estimate Budget:

Deliverable 4: Compilation of existing good practices

Timeline: Week 5

Estimate Budget:

Deliverable 5: Final report delivered to UNICEF

Timeline: Week 6

Estimate Budget:

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

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

  • At least 5 years’ experience working in emergency contexts focused on community participation and engagement in response and recovery efforts;
  • Experience of working in several applied research in humanitarian settings;
  • Experience in Mozambique or a similar country context is preferred;
  • Experience in engaging multiple actors, including government representatives, INGOs and Community-based organizations;
  • Experience and skills to be able to work in a rapidly changing environment with multiple humanitarian

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

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.

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