Individual National Consultancy to provide professional support and coordination to the Social Work Specialists of the MoLSP, Ashgabat Turkmenistan

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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UNICEF has been engaged in supporting establishment the social work professional practice in Turkmenistan. With the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection (MLSP) in lead, the social work profession and social services for the most marginalized groups of population was introduced. To provide adequate methodological support to the MLSP and professional support to the social work specialists, to ensure high-quality performance of tasks and a uniform standard of social service provision within the MoLSP as well as with the allied workforces, the social worker’s Coordinator’s role has emerged. In 2023, UNICEF and the Prosecutor General’s Office will be modelling a Diversion with Restorative Justice, which is the first of its kind in Turkmenistan. These initiatives further require the involvement of social work specialists to apply case management approach for children in contact with the law. Their main efforts will be made to provide children in contact with the law with rights to information, psycho-social, legal and medical services and protection.

Therefore, the purpose of Consultancy will include:

• providing professional supervision to social work specialists in close collaboration with the UNICEF international technical local support team,
• support the national partners in developing the professional growth and supervision model to nurture the newly forming social workforce,
• support the Ministry in liaising with the representatives of the local administration, specialists at the community level, implementing an interdisciplinary approach to social work,
• creating an inter-agency cooperation for social work specialists and psychologists to address the needs of children in conflict with the law
• ensuring communication between pilot sites and the MLSP in order to monitor and evaluate the development and reform process of the social services system,
• coordinate the flow of cases between primary and specialized social services provided by the pilots implemented by UNICEF,
• ensuring continuity of providing methodological support to the MLSP and professional support to the social work specialists and gradual handover of the function to the MLSP staff.

Scope of Work:

• Support the MLSP to assess the quality of services provided by social workers and provide methodological support in liaison with International technical expertise in addressing the needs of targeted families and children
• Facilitate the revision process of social work case management guidelines, referral criteria, and procedures for dealing with child protection cases at etrap levels based on established practice
• Provide methodological support in liaison with international technical expertise to guide and monitor trained social worker specialists to provide counselling and referrals to services for identified vulnerable families and children
• Provide methodological support to MoLSP in coordinating the flow of cases between primary and specialized social services
• Coordinate and provide methodological support in distributing the cases of children in conflict with the law and the documents/forms provided by the referral bodies (Commission on Minors and Inspection of Minors) among social workers
• Liaise with community-based organizations that provide services/programmes that are incorporated into the diversion plans of children in conflict with the law
• Monitor the progress of the boy/girl regularly and assist the social workers to adjust the diversion plan (if required) in the order it is still tailored to the boy/girl’s needs
• Support development of a multi-sectoral referral protocol for coordination among statutory referral organs on the provision of child protection services
• Support development of data collection mechanisms in primary community based and specialized services for children through revision of reporting tools and needs assessment instruments

• Initiate and coordinate orientation sessions allied workforces and social service practitioners at etrap level

  Work Assignment Overview

• Methodological support

• Capacity building
• Data collection and analysis

Minimum qualification required

Bachelor degree

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Successfully completed the Joint Programme certification course; experience in providing methodological supervision and data collection, preferably in the social sector or in the UN system; professional experience or experience of volunteering in public organizations that provide social services will be an advantage; experience in existing state social institutions (territorial centers, orphanages, children's homes, boarding schools for the elderly or adults, etc.) or other social structures will be an advantage; knowledge of Russian and Turkmen languages, knowledge of English will be an advantage; an understanding of the newly developed social services system and social workforce existing in Turkmenistan will be an advantage

Submission of applications

The technical proposal should include

• A cover letter, including

  • Assessment of suitability vis-à-vis the requirements of this ToR; Terms of Reference_Coordinator_adv.pdf
  • A summary of experience in similar assignments;
• • Links to/attachments of examples of similar work;

• Comments and suggestions on the ToR and proposed workplan and deliverables

• P11 form

Financial Proposal: Candidates needs to submit a financial proposal (All-inclusive consultancy fee, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable) as a separate attachment in pdf file to complete the entire assignment based on the terms of reference. All-inclusive consultancy fee should be broken down as per attached ToR.

The applicants should ensure that all pricing information is provided in USD. Invoicing will be in the currency of the proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be disqualified.

Evaluation criteria

Each proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its price. In making the final decision, UNICEF considers both technical and financial aspects to ensure the best value for money. The Evaluation Team will first review the technical aspects of the offer (based on the qualifications described above), conduct interview for the shortlisted candidates, followed by a review of the financial offers of the technically compliant candidates. The proposal obtaining the highest overall score after adding the scores for the technical and financial proposals together, that offers the best value for money will be recommended for award of the contract, subject to a positive result of the reference check. A cumulative analysis will be used to evaluate and award proposals. The evaluation criteria associated with this TOR is split between technical and financial as follows:

• 75 % Technical
• 25 % Financial

1. Technical proposals will be evaluated against the technical evaluation criteria (75%) with the following weighting. The total amount of points allocated for the technical component is 75.
2. Price proposal evaluation criteria (25%). The consultancy fee request shall be considered together with the evaluation of technical criteria. Technical proposals failing to reach a score of 60 in total will not be considered for the Financial Evaluation. The applicants should ensure that all pricing information is provided in USD. Invoicing will be in the currency of the proposal. For evaluation, UNICEF shall use US Dollars to evaluate all financial proposals

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.