International Consultancy: Consultancy for M&E Integration into Child Protection Programming Focusing on Participatory Evaluation

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.

For every child Future

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The nation of South Sudan has emerged following decades of war and conflict. Soon after independence it fell back into a bloody and fractious civil war that has scarred the new nation and left a weak and fragile protective environment. As in all wars, violence is the fundamental mechanism by which power is exercised. In South Sudan violence, or the threat of violence, remains ever present in the home, in the community, at schools, on the street, and in the instruments of government. Government structures are insufficiently capacitated to implement rights-based laws nor policies and the social norms and protective strategies that people have relied upon for survival through half a century of armed conflict remain dominant.

Within a context such as this, it should neither be surprising nor alarming that vulnerable populations, including women and children, but also the elderly, people with disabilities, and minority groups of all distinctions, are susceptible to abuse, neglect, deprivation and exploitation. South Sudan is transitioning from a protective environment founded upon armed struggle to remove oppressive foreign forces, to a protective environment founded upon laws and policies intended to safeguard the rights of its citizens. This transition may be long and challenging, but it doesn’t need to be. War has manifested values, behaviors and social norms that served to protect during war but are often unhelpful in building peace. While the war has ended, the social norms and protective strategies that emerged throughout these years, have not. They are ingrained in the way children are raised, the way families make decisions, the way men achieve power, the way vulnerable people are treated, the way business is exercised. These norms inherently undermine women, scare children and inhibit free expression and open communication. The weak, poor and vulnerable are routinely abused, exploited, forgotten and/or neglected. They are structurally deprived of opportunities.

The protection of children requires social change led by South Sudanese children, women and men. It must be championed by the government with its national and international partners. Children need a protective environment that allows them to play, to learn, to grow, to feel love and to build healthy friendships. Children need to live free from fear, free from violence and South Sudan’s wars must be taught about in school, not experienced in their lives.

With UNICEF’s new country programme in South Sudan (2023-25), we have made a strategic shift in its child protection programme aimed at building a network of local child protection partners across all states to ensure effective service provision, community mobilization and referral pathways for gravely affected children. Additionally, we are working with a network of women led organizations to work overtly on shifting social norms at the root of gender-based violence as well as to build an empowered network of female leaders to improve the safety of women and children at the community level. We will also be establishing a network of youth and adolescent centers to reintegrate children formerly associated with armed forces and groups, children in conflict with the law, child survivors of violence, children in gangs and arms carrying children.

The purpose of this assignment is to build the capacity of our network of local NGO, youth adolescent and women led organizations in implementing deeply participatory evaluation and monitoring tools whereby children and youth themselves provide insights into the programme. The children and youth would also be building skills and knowledge through engaging with various multi-media approaches (film, storytelling, video blogging, social media, music, art, etc.). The assignment will develop an overarching evaluation methodology and introduce new methodologies for UNICEF and its child protection partners that will be focused on promoting learning, empowerment and critical reflections from programme participants.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

This consultancy aims to ensure that M&E is fully integrated into the programme design and implementation. Through the application of participatory techniques that empower young people, women and children to provide insights throughout the programme cycle, we aim to create a more dynamic child protection programme that genuinely learns from the perspectives of children while simultaneously empowering children to provide insights and views on all issues that affect their lives. Thereby expanding and strengthening the protective environment for children.

The main objectives of this consultancy are twofold: 1. To develop an overarching framework for the participatory evaluation of UNICEF’s child protection programme in South Sudan. 2. To ensure UNICEF’s network of CP partners have the knowledge, skillset, attitude and tools to ensure children are empowered to provide critical insights and reflections on the Child Protection programme through a range of different media.

Scope of Work:

Main tasks and deliverables related to the consultancy:

1. Support UNICEF to critically review existing monitoring and evaluation systems applied to the child protection programme through an inclusive process that involves key NGO partners, children and other relevant stakeholders as recommended. 2. Building on the information collected through the review – propose recommendations that will facilitate ongoing learning and development 3. Develop an understanding of the evaluative capacities/limitations of UNICEF’s Child Protection partners. Including identification of existing participatory approaches utilized to ensure children’s views and interests are considered in programme design and implementation. 4. Based on existing capacities, develop an overarching framework and tools that supports UNICEF partners to extend opportunities for children and youth to co-create interventions; and ensure ongoing insights of children in M/E to ensure children play a central role in the ‘learning’ process during and after the interventions. 5. Support training and capacity building of partners on several key methods and approaches to ensure regular insights from children are captured and meaningfully incorporated into programme interventions.

Work Assignment Overview Tasks/Milestone: Deliverables/Outputs: Timeline/Deadline Payment % Virtual meetings with key UNICEF stakeholders and child protection partners culminating in the development of an inception report with workplan, introducing key participatory techniques, approaches and ideas based on the latest thinking, evidence and science on participatory programming. - Inception meeting,- Virtual key informant interviews - Inception report/PowerPoint presentation (6 days) 01/07/2023 10% In-country field visits to partners to gain insights into existing practice, shadowing child protection workers and gaining understanding of current practices in child protection programming in South Sudan. Consultant to visit a sample of organisations (not all) and develop findings on the sector regarding the approaches utilised. Develop an assessment report identifying: 1. Areas for improvement in local partner capacity to use participatory techniques 2. Propositions on participatory techniques based on global evidence and best practice in participatory M&E 3. Development of a broader structural systems map and evaluative framework to support ongoing Child Protection learning and programming. 4. Presentation of the framework, approaches and findings to UNICEF and key partners – at a national child protection M&E workshop. - Field visits to partners (20 days) - Development of assessment findings on participatory M&E and programming in CP (10 days) - Presentation of findings to UNICEF CP partners and workshop to create and validate an M&E framework (5 days) (35 days in country) 30/09/2023 40% Development of participatory evaluation/programme tools and techniques for application in the UNICEF CP programme. Proposal of a methodology for building capacity of partners to implement the participatory techniques - Develop methodology for building capacity in participatory programming in CP - Develop capacity building materials and training tools (5 days virtual) 30/09/2023 25% Ongoing support and mentoring to UNICEF and partners on participatory evaluation and building strong habits of participatory programming. Online and web-based mentoring, coaching and support (10 days virtual) 16/2/2024 25%

Minimum Qualifications required: Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Masters degree or above in Social Sciences or equivalent field.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English. Fluency in another UN language is an asset.

• At least 10 years of post-master’s experience in participatory evaluation • Experience in developing and delivering innovative participatory evaluation programmes • Experience in delivery of evaluation in low- and middle-income country contexts • Experience in implementing, evaluating and/or programming with and for child and women rights • Previous experience in South Sudan (desirable)

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of

• Care,
• Respect,
• Integrity,
• Trust,
• Accountability
• Sustainability (CRITAS)

Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

1. Builds and maintains partnerships
2. Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
3. Drive to achieve results for impact
4. Innovates and embraces change
5. Manages ambiguity and complexity
6. Thinks and acts strategically
7. Works collaboratively with others.

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 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

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.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

All applications must be accompanied with detailed technical and financial proposal.

The Consultant will be working Remotely with visit to Juba (25 days in-country)