International Consultant on Documentation of the Minimum Package of Services (MPS), UNICEF Romania, 7 months (65 working days), home-based

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, protection

Why working for UNICEF video

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Consultancy:

Although important progress has been made in the past decades, Romania remains the EU country with the highest rate of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion (41.5% - almost double the EU-27 average of 23.8%), hindering the full realization of their rights. Inequality rates also remain high, with persistent disparities in economic opportunities and in access to quality services across different regions and especially between urban and rural areas, where over 47 per cent of children live. Children with disabilities, children from Roma communities and children out of family care are also between the most vulnerable and excluded categories; as of 2022, the group of refugee and migrant children seeking shelter in Romania has also grown into a sizeable group, including unaccompanied and separated girls and boys. One of the system’s main bottlenecks is that the child social protection relies mainly on social transfers and less on social assistance services, which still lack qualified workforce and it is unevenly distributed nationwide.

To respond to this situation, since 2014, UNICEF has supported national and local authorities in the modelling and currently the national scale up of the so-called Minimum Package of Services (MPS).

The MPS is an umbrella concept involving the delivery of basic, integrated services in health, education and social/child protection in communities, with a special focus on the most vulnerable children and their families. The MPS was designed to prevent, or address at an early stage, issues such as: violence in all its forms and settings (with a focus on the family), poverty, early pregnancy, preventable diseases, lack of access to cash benefits and school dropout. The core of the MPS lays in outreach activities, ensuring early identification and early intervention, mainly through house visiting. The work of a team of professionals at community level – composed by a social worker, a community nurse and a school counsellor – is characterized by (1) ensuring a single point of entry and comprehensive assessment of the members within a household, (2) providing joint case management, (3) often being co-located, and (4) sharing information, knowledge and training, meeting key components of integrated services.

An evaluation of the initial pilot was conducted in 2019, proving the critical relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the model. In 2020, Romania, through an amendment to the Law on Social Assistance (292/2011), made the minimum package of services “universal and mandatory, so as to ensure the right to survival, development, protection of every child and to fight against poverty”. As a result, with technical support from UNICEF, the MPS is in the process of being scaled-up to national level, funded through a combination of EU structural funds and national and local budgets. It has been included as one of the flagship interventions in the new Romanian child rights policies, including in the drafts of the new National Strategy for protection and promotion of the rights of the child and in the Action Plan for the implementation of the EU Child Guarantee.

The major purpose of the consultant assignment is to contribute to the process of quality documentation of the MPS with a view to systematize all information related to the MPS programme and thus support the process of knowledge sharing and dissemination of good practices within Romania but also between EU countries, and beyond.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist and in close collaboration with the larger UNICEF team to document the MPS programme. The documentation will highlight how integrated outreach services, given their role of identifying and reaching those most at risk, can constitute a cornerstone measure in addressing child poverty and social exclusion by connecting the most vulnerable population with the entire social system, including protection, social protection, education, and health. To achieve this, the Consultant will fulfil the following key tasks and responsibilities:

1. Desk review of the existing materials on the MPS, including but not limited to methodological guides and training materials, evaluation reports, policy briefs, costing models and exercises, scale-up strategies

2. Conduct key informant interviews with relevant stakeholders at national and local level to gather additional information and evidence on the MPS

3. Develop a comprehensive documentation package on the MPS, targeting (particularly) international policymakers, aimed at presenting the MPS and promoting its replication outside of Romania.

The documentation package will be comprised of:

• Advocacy brief – approx. 2/3 pages – including the main highlights and core actionable message on the MPS programme

• Programme brief – approx. 10/15 pages – including rationale for the set-up of MPS programme, objective, overview of phases, summary of results (including those emerging from the evaluation conducted in 2019) and summary of lessons learned

• Operational guidance for replication – approx. 50 pages, including tools and steps to set up MPS teams, recruitment and training of professionals, methodology for the inclusion of children in all steps of the process, methodology for the development of the social census, digital supports, connection with services, intersectoral coordination, supervision and governance, data collection and M&E; to the degree needed, this shall include easy to understand visuals and charts

• Process and lessons learned – approx. 20/30 pages, including the process for the set-up of the programme in Romania and main bottlenecks and acquired knowledge through the implementation, with recommendations for consideration for application in other countries/contexts

• 2 case studies – approx. 3/5 pages each, to highlight the main results of the MPS programme,

Work Assignment Overview

Task/Milestone:

Deliverable/outputs:

Timeline:

Planning

Terms of reference, methodology and tools for the documentation process

Month 1 – 5 days

Review and data collection

Summary report of desk review and KII

Month 2 – 15 days

Development of documentation package

Operational guide for replication

Month 3 – 20 days

Process and lessons learned

Month 4 – 10 days

Case studies

Month 4 – 5 days

Programme brief

Month 5 – 7 days

Advocacy brief

Month 5 – 3 days

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

• Bachelor degree in the following disciplines :Anthropology, psychology, sociology, social assistance, education, social sciences and development sciences, or other relevant technical fields;
• A minimum of eight years of professional experience in monitoring, reporting, analysis, and documentation of social programs;
• Proven strong analytical and drafting skills;
• Good written and verbal communication skills and preferably experience in interaction with senior government officials;
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English, knowledge of Romanian will be considered an asset;
• Computer skills, including Internet navigation and various office applications;
• Relevant experience in similar activities with UNICEF, other UN agencies or development partners will be considered as an asset

For every Child, you demonstrate:

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Application procedure:

The application will be made in the dedicated UNICEF platform and it must include:

1. an Updated CV focused on the skills and experience matching those requested by the current consultancy;
2. List of similar projects, portfolio;
3. Financial Offer should indicate the GROSS amount in USD as per the attached template Financial Offer_documenting MPS.xlsx

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, if and when applicable. 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 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. Consultants 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 (if 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.