Individual Consultant: ECD Project Coordinator (open to nationals of Guyana only)

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, development

How can you make a difference?

Background

The Education & Skills programme focuses on ensuring that children and adolescents, in development and humanitarian contexts – especially the most vulnerable –benefit from equitable, inclusive, and gender-transformative quality education, leading to improved learning outcomes, increased resilience and skills for life and work. UNICEF provides technical support for the development of quality assurance criteria in ECE and ECD, child-centered curricula, and improved pedagogical practices. Through its 2022-2026 Country Programme, UNICEF is also engaging national partners in elaborating affordable, climate-smart, and cost-effective solutions aimed at adjusting education policies and teaching methods in mainstream schools to accommodate the needs of children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

The project partnership between the Canada High Commission and UNICEF aims at promoting a safe and healthy learning and living environment to migrant and host communities in Guyana’s hinterland: Supporting Early Childhood Development and Adolescent Programming. This presents many opportunities for responding to the survival and development needs of the young child and the adolescent and their parents as well as to amplify the cross-cutting issues necessary for all-around development in safe and protective spaces. The project is guided by 2 objectives to promote safe and healthy learning and living environments in migrant and host communities in Guyana’s hinterland and selected coastal areas in Guyana namely:

• Early Childhood Development (ECD) in safe, secure environments in Guyana’s hinterland and selected coastal locations to ensure that all girls/boys < 4 years and their parents have access to quality early childhood development programming • Safe, secure, healthy learning environments for secondary school adolescent boys and girls living in dormitories in Guyana’s hinterland, through system strengthening and gender-responsive programming for healthy lifestyles All aspects of nurturing care positioned under the ECD components and strategies for Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (CAHN) are addressed in this project. The project’s objectives and planned results will address the equity gaps for safe and healthy learning and living environments most evident in migrant and host communities in the hinterland and selected coastal areas in Guyana. This project demands critical and creative thinking, innovative strategies and sound technical support for conceptualizing, implementing, and monitoring activities across the decentralized health and education systems in the country.

Scope of Work

Under the guidance of the Education Specialist, the Project Coordinator will be responsible to support for overall planning, implementation, coordination, and monitoring of the integrated Early Childhood Development programme in Guyana and will specifically:

• Develop and monitor an integrated approach (for health, education, social services, WASH) for the project that encapsulates the two project objectives and their activities. • Coordinate with the focal points in the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education in relation to the implementation of the project activities. • Work closely with international ECD consultants to provide input to their work, facilitate networking, connect them with resources, review their deliverables, and share feedback. • Provide technical guidance, and follow-up, where necessary to focal points in the implementing Ministries and community leaders so as to ensure sustainability of the initiatives. • Support the monitoring of project activities to ensure timely, quality progress reports for the project and provide technical input to these reports. This includes supporting both the development of data collection tools and any related training undertaken by Ministry partners/international consultants. • Provide logistic support to UNICEF staff and international consultants in relation to field and monitoring visits. • Support procurement of items for the project including identifying items, designing materials, and tracking the delivery of same to beneficiaries. • Monitor the release of project funds and provide updates on project expenditures. • Prepare monthly status updates on project activities and outputs for the supervisor. • Periodically represent UNICEF in relevant technical meetings. • Accomplish any other related task assigned by the supervisor, Deputy Representative, and Representative.

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

A university degree in Education, Public Health, or Administration and a minimum of ten (10) years of professional leadership experience in designing, implementing, and supervising programmes Proven experience in managing projects.

• Knowledge of and experience in the social sectors in Guyana (education, health, social services). • Proven analytical skills and experiences lending to the ability to identify and evaluate best practices and innovative approaches to be utilized by the project. • Experience working with a Development Agency. • Knowledge of the workings of the decentralized system in Guyana. • Good communication and networking skills and ability to work with all partners with minimum supervision. • Strong organizational, writing, and presentation skills. • Must be a Guyanese national living in the country.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

Please access the complete ToR here: TOR Project Coordinator_ECD.pdf

All candidates should submit a technical and financial proposal

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.