Individual Consultant: Technical Assistance for Capacity Improvement on Management and Strengthening of Child Protection Systems in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Soc Trang and Da Nang, Viet Nam

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, Child Protection

Background:

Violence against children is widespread in Viet Nam. Many children suffer multiple types of violence with multiple negative sequelae that can be long-lasting throughout the lifespan and across generations. The growing child protection issues are exacerbated by the absence of strong and well-coordinated child welfare and protection systems, particularly by the lack of trained social workers and specialized services for protection of children from abuse, violence and exploitation. The existing services for prevention, early identification and intervention, referral to rehabilitative and specialized services and follow up are either not in place or are fragmented and unregulated. At the sub-national level, social work and child protection services are provided by volunteers and untrained workers undertaking complex tasks without the necessary skills and training. To strengthen the prevention and response to cases of child neglect, abuse, violence, and exploitation, the capacity of child protection workforce is pivotal.

In response to this, UNICEF has advocated and supported the Government of Viet Nam to build and strengthen the child protection system, as interpreted in child protection related solutions in the National Action Plan for Children, 2021-2030. UNICEF also provides technical assistance to the government, both at national and local levels, to advocate for and strengthen capacity of key child protection personnel within the concerned sectors including the social welfare, health, education and mass organisations to respond effectively to child protection needs.

As part of the Child Friendly Projects in Dien Bien, Gia Lai and Soc Trang provinces and Child Friendly City Initiative in Da Nang (2022-2026), UNICEF will be supporting the development and operation of local child protection systems with an aim to strengthen the capacity of the workforce, improve case management, and multi-sectoral coordinated child protection services for children victims and at risk of neglect, abuse, violence, trafficking, and exploitation in line with the Child Law (2016) and its supporting sub-laws. For these reasons, UNICEF continues to provide technical support to DOLISAs and Child Protection Committees in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Soc Trang provinces and Da Nang city in strengthening the local child protection systems.

Purpose:

The consultant (or a team of consultants under the leadership of a team leader) is expected to provide technical assistance to DOLISA and other concerned the local implementing partners in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Soc Trang and Da Nang to strengthen the institutional capacity, operation and effectiveness of the local child protection systems in providing sectoral and inter-sectoral child protection services.

Specific objectives are:

1. To help strengthen capacity of DOLISA, local Child Protection Committees at provincial, district and commune levels and frontline workers of project locations in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Soc Trang and Da Nang in case management, inter-sectoral cooperation, and reporting on the operationalization of the local child protection systems.

2. To contribute to improving capacity of DOLISA on provision of child protection services and supervision of child protection case management by social workers at provincial and district levels in Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Soc Trang and Da Nang.

Specific Tasks and Deliverables: as attached Consultancy Notice on Supporting CBCPS 2022 2023.docx

Management and Reporting:

The responsible Child Protection Specialist/Alternative Care will supervise, provide available reference resources, facilitate the communication between the consultant(s) and relevant stakeholders, providing technical inputs and day-to-day support to this consultancy. The Chief of the Child Protection Section will be responsible for providing overall technical guidance and advice.

Performance indicators for evaluation:

Timeliness, inclusion of and response to UNICEF and DOLISAs comments, quality of services rendered and submitted reports/documents.

The performance evaluation is conducted upon the completion of deliverables according to timeline as mentioned above.

Payment Schedule linked to Deliverables

- Payment will be made upon delivery of all final products and full and satisfactory completion of the assignment. 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…

The consultant (or a team of consultants) should have the following qualifications to effectively carry out the proposed tasks:

- Advanced Degree in social work, child protection and/or related field;

- At least 10-year experience in developing and facilitating training programme in social work and/or child protection;

- Excellent knowledge on and understanding of the roles and functions of social workers and social work services in child protection;

- Strong knowledge on the community-based child protection system;

- Good working experience and familiarity with UNICEF vision, mission and programming on child protection;

- Excellent written, communication skills and computer skills.

Applications will be evaluated technically and points are attributed based on how well the proposal meets the requirements of the Terms of Reference using the guidelines detailed in the assessment criteria below.

If a team of consultant would like to apply, it is expected that a clear mechanism for management of this assignment will be reflected in the applying documents and that UNICEF will consider signing the contract with a lead consultant only. CVs of applying team members should also be submitted.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Assessment criteria:

The two-stage procedure shall be utilised in evaluating proposals, where the evaluation of the technical proposal will be completed prior to any price proposal being reviewed and compared.

The Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) will be used for evaluation and selection in this process.

a. Technical Qualification: weight 70 %

• Advanced Degree in social work, child protection and/or related field, 10%.
• At least 10-year experience in developing, facilitating training programme and coaching in social work and/or child protection, 20%.
• Excellent knowledge on and understanding of the roles and functions of social workers and social work services in child protection, 15%.
• Strong knowledge on the community-based child protection system, 15%.
• Good working experience and familiarity with UNICEF vision, mission and programming on child protection, 5%.
• Excellent writing and communication skills, 5%.

b. Financial Proposal (max. 100 points): weight 30 %

The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

The Contract shall be awarded to candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the verification interview.

Submission of applications:

Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply and upload the following documents to the assigned requisition in UNICEF Vacancies: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/:

1. Letter of interest and confirmation of availability
2. CV or resume
3. Separate Technical proposal which clearly explains the outline on how to deliver the tasks and deliverables (less than 6 pages).
4. Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments (if available)
5. Separate Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel costs for this assignment as per work assignment.

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.