International consultant for Development of Guidelines and training package for support to child victims and protection of child witnesses in Bhutan

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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 have Equal Rights

The Royal Government of Bhutan’s signing, and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1999 marked the turning point in the protection and advancement of children’s rights in the country. Since then, the country has made significant progress on child rights through legislation and policy. The Child Care and Protection Act of Bhutan 2011 provides provision for children in conflict with the law and those children identified as children in difficult circumstances. Various institutions have committed to enforcing justice for children in accordance with their distinct institutional mandates.

On justice for children, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), with support from UNICEF and other development partners have made significant achievements in administration of Justice for children in Bhutan. Some of these include, The Diversion and Prosecution Guidelines for Child in Conflict with the Law 2017, which was developed and put into effect by the Office of the Attorney General. The Office further developed training package on Administration of Child Justice in the Kingdom of Bhutan 2022 and provided training on it to relevant stakeholders. Additionally, with the National Plan of Action for Child Protection (NPACP) 2013-2018 and the establishment of Women and Child Protection Units/desks at the police stations, the coordination among the agencies working on justice for children has improved greatly and made significant progress. However, on providing support and protection to children who come in contact with the law as victims and witnesses, there is a lack of guidance and limited capacity of the justice service workforce to support these children.

The lack of guidelines and capacity to provide protection and support for child victims and child witnesses has challenged the institutions working with children in contact with the law to effectively carry out their mandates. Child victims and child witnesses should be treated with care and respect throughout the justice process. Every child deserves to be treated with dignity as an individual with his/her own rights and needs. It is crucial to develop guidelines and design training materials to provide relevant justice for service workforce with the required capacity to effectively protect child victims and child witnesses. It is essential to put in place a robust guide for those working with child victims and witnesses of crime. A comprehensive guideline and training package would supplement the efforts in delivering justice for children in Bhutan.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of the assignment is to:

○ Develop a comprehensive guideline for relevant stakeholders in providing support and protection services to child victims and child witnesses.

○ Design a training package in line with the Guideline to builds the professional capacity of officials on best practices for protecting child victims and witnesses.

○ Conduct a training of Trainers (ToT) to deliver training to relevant service providers.

Scope of Work:

• Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to identify the specific challenges and requirements related to the protection of child victims and witnesses in Bhutan.

• Review of existing legislations, policies, practices and documents on child friendly legal services that has relevance in developing the guideline and training package.

• Ensure that the guideline and training package are in line with national and international standards and laws related to child protection.

• Assess existing guidelines and training materials on justice for children to determine gaps and explore areas for improvement.

• Engage with the working group (working group will be identified by OAG) and gather input and feedback to ensure that the guideline and training package addresses the needs of all stakeholders involved.

• Conduct workshop to validate the guidelines.

• Design a comprehensive training package on protection of child victims and child witnesses that covers key topics such as but not limited to child rights, trauma-informed care, interview techniques, courtroom procedures, and confidentiality with relevant tools and assessment forms.

• Deliver Training of Trainers (ToT) to the identified group of trainers.

Work Assignments Overview

Deliverables/Outputs****Delivery Timeline1.Review of existing provisions, procedures and documents on child protection and justice for children that has relevance in developing the guidelines, training package and relevant tools.

Inception report containing desk review information.30 August 2024

Interview, consult and hold focus group discussions with key stakeholders to assess gaps, needs, challenges and opportunities to strengthen the current services available, capacities of service providers to meet the needs of child victims and witnesses including the current referral and case management system;

Report of completion of meetings and stakeholder’s consultations interviews, and stakeholder’s meetings organized with SITAN and recommendations13 Sept.2024Developing guidelines and Designing training package.

Develop draft guidelines and design a comprehensive training package on protection of child victims and child witnesses that covers key topics such as child rights, trauma-informed care, interview techniques, courtroom procedures, and confidentiality with relevant tools and assessment forms.4th October 2024Presentation and submission of guideline and training package

Presentation of guidelines and training package during a stakeholder consultation11 oct. 2024Submission of final guidelines and Delivering ToT to relevant stakeholdersSubmit final guideline and deliver ToT18 Oct. 2024Final adjustments to training package and relevant toolsFollowing the ToT and based on feedback from participants and testing the package final adjustments are incorporated8 Nov. 2024 2024Travel: Round trip Economic airfare and DSA should included in the lumpsum quotation. Estimated total number of days in Bhutan 15 days.

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

• Master's degree in law.
• Demonstrated specialist knowledge in the fields of child justice and child protection.
• Experience working in the field of child justice with solid knowledge and demonstrated experience working on child victims and witness protection.
• Ability to conduct needs assessments, research, and analysis to inform the development of training packages.
• Demonstrated experience in developing guidelines, training materials and capacity building programs related to child protection, child rights and relevant fields.
• Excellent presentation and Communication skills in English.

For clarification: Technical contact :Kuenzang Dolma, Child Protection Officer @ kdolma@unicef.org

Interested candidates needs to upload following documents:

1. Motivation letter

2. Latest CV

3. Approaches and methodology for the assignment

4. Sample of similar work done in the past

5. Lumpsum professional fees based on 35 working days and travel as per the duration mentioned above

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.