International Consultancy - Technical Support to MoES on the development of national strategic action plan on climate adaptive WASH in schools (CAWinS), 40 w/ds, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

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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, Access to safe water, adequate sanitation, and suitable hygiene

Every child has the right to a quality education, which includes access to WASH services while at school. Children spend a significant portion of their day at school where WASH services can impact student learning, health, and dignity, particularly for girls. The importance of WASH in schools has been recognised globally by its inclusion in SDGs’ targets 4.a, 6.1, 6.2 as critical components of a safe, non-violent, inclusive, and effective learning environment and as part of achieving universal WASH access .

Tajikistan has recognized the presence of WASH facilities as important and essential learning condition in schools in its National Development Strategy 2030, with commitment to SDGs related targets defined in its National Programme for Children.

The JMP data available for schools and pre-school education facilities indicate that 79% of schools across the country have access to a functioning water supply system (basic level of supply), 47% of schools have access to improved sanitation and only 26% of schools have water and soap available in designated handwashing areas near toilets. 48% of urban pre-school institutions have permanent centralized water supply against 17% of rural pre-school institutions. A functioning central sewerage system is available only in 7% of kindergartens and early childhood development centers located in rural areas, and in 41% of kindergartens/early childhood development centers in cities.

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) School Mapping Study carried out in 2006 demonstrated that the physical conditions of school buildings are one of the major problems affecting school attendance. Sanitation is an important issue, especially for teenage girls. Many schools have very basic latrines and washing facilities. Lack of clean water, rundown toilets, a lack of sanitary facilities and lack of privacy may discourage teenage girls from attending school. As part of UNICEFs study of girls in 2015 who had dropped out of school or were at risk of dropping out, 18 per cent of those interviewed say that they missed school because of poor sanitation facilities.

Approximately 26 and 50 per cent of schools in urban and rural areas of Tajikistan respectively do not have access to piped water as a primary source of drinking water in the school grounds/compound. Primary schools (grades 1-4) have even poorer access to clean water than middle schools (grades 5- 9). The chemical quality of the drinking water is lower in rural areas. Rural students are more likely to consume water with higher concentrations of inorganic salts, organic matter, and traces of heavy metals. The availability and quality of sanitation facilities are also significantly lower in rural areas.

From a WASH perspective, impaired access to continuous safe water, adequate sanitation and hygiene because of natural disasters and continuous degradation of ecological environment (caused by changing climate) has major impacts on child survival and development. Limited research in Tajikistan suggests that an increase of up 60 percent in extreme precipitation events is expected at the 1:100 years return level in certain parts of Tajikistan. At the same time, the data also indicates that longer dry spells can also be expected. Considering the projected changes in precipitation extremes, this suggests that both the intensity and duration of precipitation events are expected to increase in magnitude for the intermediate future. Additionally, climate change impacts are leading to extreme events such as floods (including landslides and GLOFs), droughts, extreme temperatures etc. that adversely affect optimal functional of WASH infratsucture in schoos and subsequently impact child health especially in vulnerable communities that can impact to the quality of education. Tajikistan faces relatively high disaster risk, ranked 64th out of 191 countries in the INFORM 2019 Index for Risk Management. This risk is driven most significantly by exposure to drought, for which Tajikistan ranks 8th in the world. Risk is also enhanced by moderate levels of flood exposure and relatively low levels of coping capacity.

According to the 2017 World Bank School WASH Survey , most sanitation facilities (59 per cent) consist of pit latrines and slabs. Only 7 per cent of schools (and no rural schools) have a flush to the sewer system. In rural areas, basic latrines are more common. About 26 per cent of rural schools have a pit latrine without a slab or an open pit, as opposed to only 11 per cent in urban areas . Availability of soap for handwashing at critical times is limited; at the national level, 34 per cent of schools reportedly had no soap available. In addition, the lack of water in schools prevents staff from preparing food for children because cleaning the kitchen and utensils after meals is rendered too difficult. This has nutritional implications for children from poor and food insecure households.

Currently the EMIS indicators are not aligned with JMP/SDG definitions and the updated national standards (which also includes aspect of climate adaptation and resilience) and there is no systematic mechanism in place for such data collection at the facility level which is analyzed on a regular basis for the purpose of monitoring and making informed decisions for improved access and coverage in line with the safe learning environment specified in the National Education Strategy.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Chief of WASH, and direct supervision of the WASH Officer, the International Consultant will provide technical support the Ministry of Education and Science to develop climate adaptive WASH in schools (WinS) national strategic action plan. This mainly includes targeting key priorities specific to policy and regulatory environment, financing, institutional capacity, and service delivery to accelerate basic access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene as specified under SDG 4 and 6 while adapting to the impacts of climate change effecting children.

DUTY STATION/DURATION:

Duration: 40 working days - 7 months (December 2023 – June 2024)

Duty station: Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Supervisor: WASH Officer, UNICEF Tajikistan

1. Review the existing enabling environment building on the findings from the WASH Joint Sector review specifically on WASH in schools and aspects of climate adaptation/resilience for mainstreaming and conducting and in-depth bottleneck analysis. This would include policies, plans, regulations, coordination, monitoring systems, institutional capacity, financing, data and knowledge management and sustainability.

2. Gather primary and secondary data (from a sample of schools keeping in view geographical and resource variability) and draw analysis of the WASH vulnerabilities in schools specifying existing and potential impacts of climate change on children

3. Map projects (internal and external) that are ongoing and in pipeline targetting the WASH service gaps in schools and also related to climate mitigation and adaptation in different geographical regions to understand the overall gap and identify potential strategies to fill those gaps.

4. Draft and recommend updated indicators on WASH to be integrated into Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in line with JMP definitions and updated national WASH in schools’ standards to MoES.

5. Develop a national strategic action plan aligned with the National Education Strategy through a consultative process with annual targets keeping in view existing and potential resources for the acceleration of integrated targets of SDG 4 and 6 applicable for WASH in schools and based on the climate vulnerability analysis of schools.

6. Develop a realistic costed action plan for the implementation of the strategic action plan and present to the MoES.

7. Final presentation to the MoES.

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Estimated Budget

Review the existing enabling environment building on the findings from the WASH Joint Sector review specifically on WASH in schools and aspects of climate adaptation/resilience for mainstreaming and conducting and in-depth bottleneck analysis.

1. Report of the desk review and bottleneck analysis specifically keeping in view policies, plans, regulations, coordination, monitoring systems, institutional capacity, financing, data and knowledge management, service delivery and sustainability.

10 days (remote)

30% payment

Gather primary and secondary data (from a sample of schools keeping in view geographical and resource variability) and draw analysis of the WASH vulnerabilities in schools specifying existing and potential impacts of climate change on children.

1. Methodology of the assessment

2. Questionnaire

3. Data sets

4. Climate vulnerability mapping and analysis

Assessment report

10 days

Map projects (internal and external) that are ongoing and in pipeline targetting the WASH service gaps in schools and related to climate mitigation and adaptation in different geographical regions to understand the overall gap and identify potential strategies to fill those gaps.

Mapping of WASH in school’s projects that ongoing and in pipeline both by the government and development actors against the overall need specified based on available data.

3 days

70% payment

Draft and recommend updated indicators on WASH to be integrated into Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in line with JMP definitions and updated national WASH in schools’ standards to MoES.

Proposed indicators with methodology on updating EMIS in alignment with JMP definitions, country commitment and updated national standards submitted to UNICEF.

3 days

Develop a national strategic action plan aligned with the National Education Strategy through a consultative process with annual targets keeping in view existing and potential resources for the acceleration of integrated targets of SDG 4 and 6 applicable for WASH in schools.

1. Draft strategic action plan submitted for review by UNICEF and MOES and feedback collected from sector partners

2. Costed draft action plan

3. Presentation (in power point format) to be made to the MoES and sector partners

4. Final draft action plan

14 days (remote)

Total:

40 days

100%

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

• Education: University degree in water management, environmental management, engineering, business administration, public policy, public health, climate change or another relevant field.
• Work Experience: At least 8 years of relevant working experience in WASH more specifically on strategic engagements including national action plans/strategies/policies and climate vulnerabilities in schools. Work experience in Tajikistan in strategic WASH is an added advantage.
• Competencies: Strong coordination and analytical skills. Ability to work under pressure and commitment to work to tight timeframe.
• Language: Excellent proficiency in English (written and oral) while knowledge of Russian and Tajik is an advantage.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application/CV/diploma.
2. A technical proposal with the proposed methodology/approach to managing the project, showing understanding of tasks.
3. Financial quote (separate from technical proposal in USD) for the consultancy per deliverable, also stating the timeframe for completion of deliverable and/or daily rate as well as travel and subsistence costs, as applicable: airfare, DSA - 20 days.
4. 3 references (most recent direct supervisors).
5. Applications without technical and financial proposal will not be considered.

Applications must be received in the system by 28 November 2023 on our website.

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.

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Added 6 months ago - Updated 5 months ago - Source: unicef.org