Individual National Consultant to Support the Development of an Operational Manual for Child Sensitive Cash Plus in Da Nang City, Viet Nam

Consultant Programme & Policy

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Background

Over the past decade, the reform agenda of social protection in Viet Nam has seen significant progress. In 2017, Viet Nam marked a key milestone when the Prime Minister approved the Master Plan on Social Assistance Reform and Development (MPSARD) 2017-2025 and Vision to 2030, serving as the first comprehensive social assistance framework in Viet Nam. The plan envisages an ambitious scaling up of social assistance, with the overall aim of progressively realizing universal access.

In 2021, the Government issued Decree 20/2021 replacing Decree 136/2013 serving as the most important decree on cash assistance in Viet Nam, with the renewed focus in the first 1,000 days of life. As of 2021, more than 3.1 million people received a regular benefit (about 3 per cent of the population) of which about 51,000 are orphans and 70,000 are children with disabilities (MOLISA, December 2021). The newly issued Decree 20 reflects an expansion in social assistance coverage for only a small group of children under 3 years old from poor households living in ethnic minority communities in mountainous areas . The Decree 20 also includes an important article allowing provinces and cities with an existing and potential fiscal space to have the flexibility to make decisions on the coverage and the value of the benefits to be transferred to beneficiaries. However, the revised Decree 20 is still categorical, narrowly targeted and without a roadmap for a progressive introduction of universal social assistance for children nor the inclusion of emergency and shock responsive cash assistance for children. Finally, the Decree 20 does not provide guidance to strengthen the linkages between social assistance beneficiaries and access to essential services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that social protection system needs modernization. The support provided to households and children in response to the pandemic has been limited in terms of coverage, linkages to essential services, the adequacy of the benefits delivered, the complexity of targeting and limitation in the current management information system which have resulted in inclusion and exclusion errors in the identification of the people most in need.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Assistance (MOLISA) is the government body responsible for the administration, implementation, and general oversight of social protection in Viet Nam. Over the past years, MOLISA and UNICEF have developed a strong partnership to promote and protect children’s rights in Viet Nam. Under the new Country Programme Document of 2022-2026, UNICEF Viet Nam Country Office.

continues its collaboration with MOLISA in strengthening the integrated and child-sensitive, shock responsive and gender transformative social protection systems.

At sub-national level, UNICEF Viet Nam has cooperated with Da Nang City since 2020 with a focus on evidence generation to inform the planning, development and implementation of child sensitive socio-economic development plans and the City Programme of Action on Children. Da Nang is a vibrant economic hub and has been experiencing rapid urbanization and stable economic growth. Da Nang is one among few self-financing provinces/cities in Viet Nam. In addition, Da Nang is one of the sub-national authorities to have increased the level of social assistance allowance, expanded the group of beneficiaries for social assistance, and added an education subsidy.

UNICEF and Da Nang Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA) are supporting the initial stages of a child-sensitive cash plus programme in Da Nang. The programme facilitates linkages between cash transfer and complementary services to bring about synergistic impacts for children and their families with the ultimate goal of advancing child-sensitive, gender and shock-responsive social protection in Viet Nam, free from violence. The programme is part of the Da Nang Child-friendly City Project 2023-2026 — a collaboration between UNICEF Viet Nam and Da Nang City. The concept paper on child sensitive cash plus model was developed to inform the design and support the initial stages of this programme in Da Nang City. It's crucial to have an operation manual to guide the implementation of the cash plus model in selected districts of Da Nang City.

Purpose and Objectives

The overall objective of the consultancy is to develop an operational manual for child sensitive cash plus intervention, including the key steps with relevant stakeholders, expected outputs and the training materials to provide specific guidance to related stakeholders for effective implementation of the cash plus pilot intervention in Da Nang city.

Scope of Work

This assignment is expected to take place during the period of 4 months from March-June 2024, and will include traveling to Da Nang City for fieldwork.

The key contents for the manual include:

- Concrete guidance on the key steps of the intervention (e.g. identifying and registering beneficiaries, cash transfer in terms of amount, frequency, disbursement mechanism, service provider, distribution plan, cash plus plan), role and responsibilities of key stakeholders involved, and expected outputs.

- Concrete guidance on governance/coordination/communications/quality assurance mechanisms of the intervention.

- Concrete guidance on M&E (using products from M&E consultancy), reporting, IT management and feedback mechanisms.

- Training materials for key stakeholders;

- Key risks and mitigation measures;

- Concrete guidance for wrapping up/follow-up plan at the end of the intervention.

Specific expected outputs include:

The consultancy is expected to be delivered by one national consultant with technical expertise on cash assistance and cash plus.

Output 1: Inception report: This report needs to present a workplan to carry out the consultancy including methodology, tools for field mission, timeline, expected deliverables and the outline of operational manual.

Output 2: Draft Operational Manual. The draft Operational Manual needs to be sufficiently specific and detailed that it can be used by the intended users for the practical rolling out of different component of the child sensitive cash plus model including the cash transfer and case management.

Output 3: Workshop materials for the validation workshop, the delivery of the validation workshop itself and a workshop report that gives an overview of the feedbacks received during the validation workshop on the draft Operational Manual.

Output 4: Final Operational Manual which has incorporated the feedbacks received during the validation workshop and which has been discussed and agreed upon with UNICEF, MOLISA and Da Nang.

Output 5: The preparation of training materials for the TOT for a core group of staff from DOLISA, SWC and localities of Da Nang on the use of the Operational Manual and the delivery of the TOT. A short training report needs to be prepared after the workshop with an assessment of the achievements of the TOT and recommendations for possible future training.

Detailed Work Assignments and Deliverables as attached TOR Consultant for Cash Plus Operational Manual Da Nang for dissemination.pdf

Management

The consultancy is to be supervised by UNICEF Social Policy Officer under the overall guidance of Chief of Social Policy and Governance Section. The consultant will work in close collaboration with the colleagues from SPG and CP section, consultant from Child Protection (CP) Section and M&E/baseline consultant, and Da Nang DOLISA.

The consultant is responsible for directly coordinating and communicating with UNICEF and Da Nang on all matters related to this assignment. He/she will consolidate inputs from Child protection and M&E consultants for the content related to the case management, M&E and ensuring the overall quality assurance, deliverables within the deadlines and all coherence and logic of the Operations Manual and Guideline.

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

- Advanced degree in public (social) policy, development studies, economics, statistics, social work or social science-related field. Being part of academic or affiliate researcher is an asset.

- Over 10 years of experience in undertaking cutting-edge policy-level research on social protection with focus on children.

- Proven experience in developing operational manual on delivery of cash transfer programme.

- Knowledge of UNICEF’s organizational positioning on universal social protection / child grant, cash plus, child sensitive and shock responsive, is an advantage.

- Knowledge of Viet Nam’s socio-economic context as well as social protection framework and reform process would be an asset.

- Excellent written and communication skills in English.

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:

For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:

a) Technical Qualification weight 75 points:

- Educational background (15 points):

+ Master’s degree, ideally in public (social) policy, development studies, economics, statistics, social work or social science-related field.

- Relevant work experience (40 points):

+ Minimum 10 -years of working experience in doing research on social protection, social work, child protection and monitoring and evaluation.

+ Have a good understanding of Da Nang’s socio-economic and partnership context.

+ Strong knowledge and technical capacity

- Relevant skills and competencies (20 points)

+ Excellent research, analytical, writing, and communication skills;

b. Financial Proposal weight 25 points:

- All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.

- Financial proposal should be all-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, costs for domestic and international travels and communication.

- The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates. 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 if needed.

Submission of applications:

a. Letter of interest/confirmation of availability and CV;

b. A technical proposal which clearly explains the outline on how to deliver the tasks and deliverables;

c. Three references;

d. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, costs for domestic and international travels and communication and any other relevant costs for this 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.

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Added 2 months ago - Updated 2 months ago - Source: unicef.org