International Individual Consultancy: Support the introduction of Functional Assessment for Disabilities in the State of Palestine

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 fulfil 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, a voice.

UNICEF in the State of Palestine works to uphold the rights of children to access services and protection, from early childhood through to adolescence. Our objective is to ensure that every child in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, irrespective of background or circumstance, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential. We are working for every child and young person in the State of Palestine.

Persons with disabilities in Palestine may benefit from a range of services and benefits. In most cases, the condition that leads to disability and its severity (the disability percentage) determines an individual’s possibility to benefit from existing schemes. In Palestine there are a range of disability and eligibility assessment mechanisms, and schemes, which draw upon different legal and regulatory frameworks, access mechanisms and actors.

How can you make a difference?

This consultancy will support strengthening the realization of Disability Rights across the State of Palestine. The consultant will work directly with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) as it leads the portfolio for the rights of persons with disability under the Social Development Sector Strategy (2017-2023). The project is part of the UN joint programme on Social Protection strengthening between ILO, UNICEF and WFP focused on the rights of Persons with Disability (PwD) and Older Persons (OP). The JP aims to support the government’s effort to adapt the national social protection system to address the specific needs of particularly vulnerable groups, notably PwD and OP.

Major Tasks to be accomplished

The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks:

1. Review the current assessment process and tools as well as the country context, including the perceptions of key stakeholders, reflecting on the principles of UNCRPD and the ICF classifications and referring to good practice from similar contexts and produce a draft report on the same. This should be based upon the ‘Assessment of Disability Determination Mechanisms in Palestine’. This should focus on several criteria: ease of access all over the country for all persons with disabilities across the life cycle; level of understanding and predictability by persons with disabilities; integrity of the process (corruption); consistency across the territory; length of the process from start to approval; denial and appeal; information gathered and information used for determination; case management; and policy planning.
2. Review existing and planned information system(s) and service delivery capacities of health care, social work/welfare, CBR and other outreach mechanisms that could be used for disability assessment at local level. This review should engage national stakeholders including PwD in reviews of the: i) Objectives and purposes of the disability assessment; ii) Service package which the disability assessment will give access to those deemed to have disabilities, i.e. which services and benefits require an additional disability assessment; and iii) Selection of relevant (ICF) categories and scales to be used in the State of Palestine.
3. Draft a report outlining a proposal for revised assessment including: i) determining the appropriate model of functioning and procedures with institutional arrangements; ii) develop an easy to use assessment form and detailed a proposed manual of operations for the assessment, indicating roles and responsibilities about application, data collection, data analysis, grievances, and recertification; and iii) propose options for digitalization including an app/ database/ information system, this should allow for decentralization and supervision and better use of data for case management and policy planning; iv) propose an overall approach to implementation, i.e. sector pilot (phased approach) or cross-sectoral.
4. Facilitate a validation workshop on the new assessment for key stakeholders including PwD and build the capacity of national stakeholders on the draft tools, manual and other resources.

The tools, manual and other resources are planned to feed into the planned byelaws for the draft Disability Law once approved nationally.

The consultant will report to the Chief Social Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Estimated duration of contract and timeline

Phase

Deliverable

Estimated # working days

Inception phase

Inception note, including document review, proposed methodology, tools development and expected timeline

5 days

Key Informant Consultation

The consultant should lay out the methodology for key informant consultation in the Inception Note

22 days

Report and tool draft

A draft report:

1. outlining a proposal for revised assessment, institutional arrangements and corresponding proposed new assessment tools
2. detailed a proposed manual of operations for the assessment, indicating roles and responsibilities about application, data collection, data analysis, grievances, and recertification.

10 days

Validation, dissemination and capacity building

The consultant should facilitate a validation workshop on the new assessment for key stakeholders and work closely with the national stakeholders involved in Disability Assessment to ensure that they understand the proposed assessment, tools and manual.

6 days

Total level of effort

43 working days across 4 months

Cost and Terms of Payment:

The consultancy will be paid for 43 working days within the period of 4 months, starting 1st August 2021.

The applicants should submit both a CV and cover letter explaining why they are well placed to undertake this work in the State of Palestine. Applicants should also submit a financial proposal for the assignment, outlining all-inclusive fees (including professional fees and other professional expenses, etc.) in USD. The Financial Proposal should include the daily rate expected and the lump sum for the full period of the consultancy. If travel to the State of Palestine is considered feasible the consultant should include the cost of any travel.

The agreed fee will be paid to the consultant in three installments on receipt of the agreed deliverables as below:

• 20% upon completion of deliverable 1 (Inception note)
• 40% upon completion of deliverable 2 (A draft report with proposed manual of operations for the assessment and proposed new assessment tools)
• 40% upon completion of deliverable 3 (Dissemination and capacity building)

Recourse: UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the contract and/or withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines, if the rules and the regulations regarding confidentiality, ethics and procedures of UNICEF and the partners are not followed.

The consultant must respect the confidentiality of the information handled during the assignment. Documents and information provided must be used only for the tasks related to these terms of reference. The deliverables will remain the copyright of UNICEF.

Duty Station: State of Palestine (West Bank) but may be feasible from distance. The consultant should submit their: i) Proposal for in country or home-based work; ii) Include the costs of any travel to the State of Palestine if proposed. The consultant should clearly state in their application their willingness to travel to the State of Palestine, or not, given travel restrictions. However, note that travel to the State of Palestine may not be feasible by the time of under-taking this consultancy due to local travel restrictions.

IMPORTANT - Please refer to the terms of reference attached for detailed information.

Disability Functional Assessment ToR .pdf

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

• An Advanced university degree in economics, public health, or other relevant social sciences.
• Seven (7) years of experience in global good practices, tools and debates around disability data and classification.
• Extensive experience in establishing and evaluating disability data management systems related social protection programmes, and their tools (such as Disability Cards, etc.)
• Excellent facilitation and analysis skills.
• Knowledge of the Palestinian culture vis-à-vis disabilities is an asset.
• English is required for all UNICEF communication. Working knowledge of Arabic is a strong asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate:

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization

Remarks:

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.