International Consultant to conduct Evaluation of UNICEF Syria Social and Behavior Change (SBC), Damascus, Syria, 90 working days within 5 months (Remote)

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SY Home-based; Damascus (Syria)

Application deadline 1 year ago: Saturday 25 Mar 2023 at 21:55 UTC

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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, commitment

BACKGROUND (RATIONALE AND CONTEXT):

Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) is a framework that uses the strategies of advocacy, behaviour change communication and community mobilization to influence both individual and societal change. SBC focuses on the relationship between the individual, the community and society, with individuals at the heart of the changes to be promoted. By involving individuals, it seeks to inform them to be able to analyse their own situation to mobilise knowledge to find out solutions and to make the necessary changes.

SBC is one of 11 Change Strategies for accelerating programme outcomes for children in the Middle East and North Africa region, in alignment with the UNICEF Global Strategic Plan (SP) 2022-25: a social and behaviour change communication strategy that addresses the interrelated causes of social norms and practices that are harmful to children’s health, education, development and participation. SBC is a key change strategy in the UNICEF Syria Country Programme: ‘a social norms and behavioural change communication strategy that targets inter-related causes of sub-optimal norms and practices for children’ , which includes including risk communication and community engagement activities across sectors.

Consistent with global and regional trends, the use of SBC in support of UNICEF Syria’s work has been increasing, ranging from routine programmed activities to the emergency response to infectious disease. SBC activities in Syria span life-saving and protective behaviours, aim to address harmful social practices as well as build capacity of partners and communities and works with programmes to accelerate results and create demand for services for children. UNICEF Syria SBC follows the 3E approach – education, engagement and empowerment through service, media and community delivery platforms to achieve social and behaviour change while employing risk communication and community engagement approaches and methods to be first, fast and frequent to deliver life-saving high impact practices at individual, family, community, organizational and institutional level.

The SBC programme in UNICEF Syria started in 2015 mainly to respond to the polio outbreak and by the beginning of 2018 the programme transitioned from a small programme focusing on campaigns to a fully-fledged programme addressing key priorities for social and behavior change issues in Syria in a systematic manner and integration into primary care package, including routine immunisation. SBC and Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) was a key aspect of the UNICEF Syria COVID-19 response, which since early 2020 brought major opportunities and achievements in new partnerships, more meaningful engagement with the Ministry of Health (MoH), additional resources (financial and technical), and social listening platforms. UNICEF Syria has a dedicated SBC (formerly C4D) team consisting of six SBC staff members in 2021. Demand for SBCC has been increasing since 2015, which also reflects the recent public health emergencies (COVID-19 in 2020 and cholera in 2022), with SBC expenditures increasing, with total expenditure in 2022 of approximately $3.9 million.

Relevant country programme outputs:

As a crosscutting function, SBC activities are integrated within sector specific plans and coded in UNICEF internal reporting systems under programme effectiveness: “SBC activities integrated in all programme components of the Country Programme and are inclusive of research, capacity building, community engagement, media and innovation”.

Indicators proposed in the UNICEF Syria SBC Programme Strategy Note 2022-2024 (November 2021) are:

UNICEF Syria SBC Research, Monitoring and Evaluation framework (under development) proposes that results are determined by measuring the following:

1. improved knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers (behaviour change)

2. changed group norms and practices, community engagement and empowerment (social change).

3. increased demand and utilization for services (uptake).

4. increased community member participation in decision-making, community engagement and empowerment at local, state and national levels (governance).

5. increased number of civil societies, private sector, community-based organisations, partners and community leaders that contribute to community engagement and national mobilization (partnerships).

How can you make a difference?

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT (PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT):

The purpose of the assignment is to conduct an evaluation of UNICEF Social and Behaviour Change programming from 2018 to 2022 and its focus on key strategic priorities for UNICEF Syria which include Covid-19 awareness and vaccination, infant and young child feeding, routine vaccination of children, integrated SBC/WASH programming, and cholera response.

Given the multi-sectoral focus of these initiatives, the evaluation will help identify learning for both individual sectors and cross-cutting approaches to help strengthen programming results for children in Syria, and reflect on those SBC strategies that have helped to accelerate outcomes for children in Syria. The evaluation comes at an important time to inform the future strategic direction of the SBC team and should reflect on approaches taken to date, their successes and identify opportunities and forward direction.

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

i. Review the design and achievements of UNICEF Syria SBC programming by assessing the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of specific approaches & materials, in particular community engagement system & system strengthening ;

ii. Assess the main enablers and drivers for SBC in Syria as well as bottlenecks and barriers for behaviour and attitudinal changes at household and community levels and identify recommendations for programming approaches that are most effective in this context;

iii. Identify opportunities for/adjustments needed by programmes and corresponding SBC material to support the achievement of key results for children in alignment with UNICEF Syria Country Programme Document 2022-2024, Programme Strategy Note Communication for Development (C4D) 2022-2024 and UNICEF MENA SBC-CE Regional Strategy and Programme Guidance for 2022-25, including an assessment of the results framework (in particular challenges of measurability and attribution of results);

iv. Assess the common understanding of SBC across UNICEF Syria programming, including how UNICEF teams understand and utilise SBC approaches to achieve results and the added value of any integrated approaches to date, with a view to identifying areas of good practice and scope for improvements;

v. (as appropriate, provide real-time reflection on any emergency SBC activities and identify transferable learning and success factors from recent responses).

Scope:

The evaluation will assess both i) the selection/prioritisation by UNICEF Syria Country Office of specific thematic areas to be the focus of significant SBC activities well as ii) the success and appropriateness of specific SBC modalities (system strengthening, community engagement). It is both a reflective exercise on what works in Syria and why, as well as a forward-look on what are the building blocks for effective SBC, the enabling factors and how they can deliver future results for children in Syria.

The time period that this evaluation will cover is from 2018 – 2022, for activities across the 13 governorates in Syria where UNICEF operates through 6 field offices.

The evaluation will use the existing data and evidence compiled from field monitoring visits, surveys, trainings, community engagement, risk communication, awareness-raising materials, social and media platforms, and reports and monitoring mechanisms. Qualitative data collection for the evaluation will also be possible through remote interviews with key informants and use of UNICEF Syria Third Party Monitors for in-country data collection (e.g. focus group discussions).

The following draft evaluation questions indicate the main areas of interest and to guide the focus of the evaluation, but it is expected that these will be discussed and refined with the evaluation consultant during the evaluation design phase:

Relevance:

1. How appropriate were the designs, approaches and targeting of the SBC strategies to address the needs and priorities of the targeted population(s) and address the desired social/behaviour change?

2. To what extent were the activities and expected results of the SBC strategy consistent with the overall purpose and the attainment of its objectives and those of individual UNICEF programmes/sectors and the country programme?

3. How have SBC strategies been adapted and changed over time to different contexts within Syria?

4. Going forward, what are the key approaches and enabling factors for UNICEF SBC to ensure relevance?

Efficiency:

1. How efficiently were resources (funds, expertise, time) used to achieve the objectives of SBC strategies in a timely way? How did SBC activities in Syria compare with other countries in MENA (where comparators are possible)?

2. Were the resources allocated to the programme implementation team and implementing partners appropriate to implement the activities and achieve change either in terms of behavioural or social change as part of programme effectiveness?

3. For emergency public health responses, to what extent were the SBC activities timely in terms of design and implementation?

4. What examples of cost-effectiveness of specific SBC activities or strategies can be identified for replication and / or scale up, and what are the core aspects of SBC in emergencies to be utilized for future responses?

5. What were the different leadership roles and coordination models taken by UNICEF in SBC activities and what are UNICEF strengths and weaknesses in these roles?

Effectiveness/Impact:

1. To what extent did SBC activities achieve the set targets including community perception of risk; changes in practices; increase in utilization of services? How effectively do these targets function in terms of reflecting SBC achievements?

2. To what extent did the SBC strategy contribute to the achievements of country programme results?

3. To what extent is it possible to determine achievement of SBC programming objectives in terms of attribution of results to UNICEF Syria (given the mainstreaming of SBC); what adjustments can be made to M&E to better support future attribution?

4. What can be learned about the most effective SBC interventions for the achievement of results in terms of design, implementation, targeting; what are the most effective activities for driving change?

5. What were the major/critical factors that contributed to or hindered achievement of SBC results?

Coherence/Coordination:

1. To what extent were SBC activities designed with a focus on coherence across relevant sectors to maximize synergies and complementarities, and what form did this take (within UNICEF and externally)?

2. Where SBC activities were explicitly intended as integrated between sectors, how successful was the integration and what was the added value of the integration?

3. How effective were relations with partners in the design and implementation of SBC activities?

4. To what extent was duplication of activities with other partner or external actors managed?

Sustainability:

1. To what extent was the sustainability of activities and results considered in SBC programme design?

2. What factors need to be in place for sustainability of key SBC messages in Syria context?

Rights, Gender and Equity:

1. To what extent were SBC messages and engagement modalities relevant to needs, based on evidence, and addressed the challenges of the targeted groups including marginalized and vulnerable groups?

Methodology:

This evaluation will be conducted in accordance to the 2016 United Nations Evaluation Group Norms and Standards for Evaluation and the UNICEF Evaluation Policy (2018) .

The methodology of the evaluation, and related deliverables, should consist of:

a) Document review of strategy and programme documentation, monitoring data and reports ;

b) Mapping and assessment of data availability, both internal and external sources to identify evidence gaps;

c) Stakeholder mapping and interviews with key internal and external stakeholders, including UNICEF Syria programme staff and senior management; UNICEF MENARO SBC staff; Government of Syria counterparts; implementing partners

d) Data triangulation & analysis

It is not anticipated that the evaluation will involve quantitative primary data collection with beneficiaries or communities due to availability of existing internal monitoring and reporting data. Primary data collection should instead focus on qualitative data collection to complement existing data and reflect on SBC design and strategy.

Risks and limitations

A key risk is that programme planning, monitoring and reporting data may be incomplete or not have generated enough information to undertake a meaningful assessment of programming design, implementation or results. Where this is the case, the consultant should document the gaps, identify any possible proxies, and recommend how to improve in future.

Another risk is related to engaging with communities in Syria, such as accessing individuals outside of UNICEF-supported facilities. Any engagement with communities for data collection or access to personal and identifiable information during the evaluation will be subject to UNICEF and UNEG ethical standards and would require ethical approval.

It is important that the evaluation is timely in terms of the needs of the SBC programme and the recruited consultant will need to ensure adherence to workplan.

LOCATION (GEOGRAPHIC AREA/ DUTY STATION): Damascus, Syria

On-site working days: 0

Off-site working days: 90 days

Field Missions/Travel: 0

DURATION:

The selected consultant will work for 90 days within 5 months period. It is anticipated that the work will be done remotely. The exact schedule of the activities will be agreed with the consultant based on the contract implementation progress. The deadline for submission of final deliverables to UNICEF is by the end of the contract. Specific dates for the deliverables should be detailed and agreed in the inception report

SUPERVISOR:

The consultant will be supervised and report to UNICEF Syria Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, in close collaboration with the UNICEF Syria SBC team who will provide ongoing technical support. On a day-to-day basis, the consultant is expected to work closely and liaise with the Country Office Evaluation Focal Point (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist) and Evaluation Specialist who are responsible for managing evaluation functions on the ground. A small Reference Group will be formed to provide technical guidance and support to the management of the evaluation.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT (TASKS, SMART DELIVERABLES, DEADLINES):

PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE

By Deliverable:

1. Approval of inception report by Reference Group linked to 30% payment of fees;

2. Approval of draft report by Reference Group linked to 30% payment of fees;

3. Approval of final report by Reference Group linked to 20% payment of fees;

4. Technical support on implementation of recommendations linked to 20% payment of fees.

The outlined instalments will be paid based on the approval of the deliverables by UNICEF SCO PM, inclusive of all fees, upon submission of the invoice.

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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

1. Education:

Advanced (Masters or above) university degree in evaluation, economics, social sciences, or related field.

2. Work experience:

• At least eight years of relevant professional work experience in evaluation activities including work experience in the field, particularly experience in complex emergencies and protracted crises for United Nations agencies is required;

• Direct experience of conducting evaluations in Syria and/or the MENA region is required;

• Experience conducting evaluations for UNICEF is desirable.

3. Technical knowledge/competencies:

• Knowledge and experience of social behaviour communication and community engagement research, programming and/or academic endeavours is required;

• Experience in SBC communication in the field of humanitarian work; experience of Syria/or MENA region is desirable;

• Ability to work well with people from diverse knowledge and background and at different levels of the organization;

• Excellent communication and analytical skills.

4. Languages:

• High proficiency in reading and speaking in English & Arabic is required;

• Proficiency in report-writing in English.

EVALUATION PROCESS (OF APPLICATIONS):

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter (1-2 pages) that highlights previous experience in evaluation including with UN, in Syria and technical experience with evaluation/research of social behaviour change communication and community engagement should include reference to at least two past work examples/experiences in relation to evaluability/M&E reviews/results-focused assessments of programmes of interest.

2. Technical proposal (2-4 pages) that details methodology, focus areas and challenges and mitigation measures.

3. Financial quote as daily rate for this consultancy;

4. CV clearly stating the relevant past experience and similar assignments

5. At least 3 Referees.5.

6. The application should be submitted by UNICEF’s Talent Management System (TMS).

Shortlisted applicants may be invited for further technical / written assessment and interview. Final recommendation will be made based on “best value for money”, i.e. the hiring section/office shall normally select the individual who quoted the lowest fee from among the candidates who are assessed as suitable for achieving all tasks on time, as per the criteria stipulated in this ToR, and based on the outcome of the evaluation/assessment conducted.

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.

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.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org