Monitoring and Mentoring Consultant (Education, East Slovakia), Education Section, 8 months

Contract

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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, a future

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Slovakia has seen a rapid influx of persons fleeing hostilities and seeking protection. More than one million of individuals from Ukraine and third country nationals (TCNs) have crossed the borders into Slovakia, 77 per cent of whom are women and children (as of 15 December). The refugee population and population on the move also include unaccompanied and separated children and those with disabilities and urgent health needs. The Government of Slovakia has generously kept the borders open, and national, district and local authorities have rapidly responded to the large numbers of arrivals. Local communities have taken a welcoming stance, with humanitarian actors, civil society, the private sector and community volunteers complementing the government-led efforts by providing significant support at border reception points and urban areas.

Temporary protection (TP) status has been accessible to refugees arriving from Ukraine and their families since 1 March 2022 and as of 24 January 2023, over 107,000 individuals have applied for Temporary Protection in Slovakia, with the Government estimating that an additional 10,000 Ukrainians are benefiting from tolerated stay, within the legal framework, and hence are not registered for protection in Slovakia.

On 30 March 2022, the Government adopted Act No. 92/2022 Coll (Lex Ukraine) introducing further measures to address the situation in Ukraine, amending in total 32 Acts, including the Asylum Act, Residence of Foreigners Act, and the Health Act. TP holders are entitled to “urgent and necessary” healthcare as well as certain social benefits, including core relief items, childcare allowance for children up to three years of age, or up to six years of age for children with a long-term adverse health condition, subsidies for lunches in kindergartens and primary schools, and for school stationery.

Despite the favorable protection environment for refugees in the country, there remain major challenges in addressing areas including education and healthcare. Such gaps include comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, preventative mother and childcare, including immunization, education, available social protection mechanisms, ensuring specialized services for GBV survivors, and access of persons with disabilities to existing assistance mechanisms.

The risk of further displacement from Ukraine remains high, and new arrivals of refugees in Slovakia are expected in the context of escalating attacks on and damage to civilian infrastructure and evacuation of civilians in areas affected by the conflict.

While Slovakia welcomed the Ukrainian refugees, moving beyond providing immediate support and promoting their integration has posed significant challenges. One key difficulty has been ensuring equal access to education for refugee children. The Ministry of Education has developed several educational policies and practices that respond to the needs of refugee students and promote their inclusion in schools. Measures aimed at promoting the enrollment of Ukrainian refugee children in Slovak schools included expansion of preschool capacities, summer camps, language courses for Ukrainian children, as well as new systemic funding scheme (so-called EU normative for Ukrainian children). At the same time, the Ministry allowed refugee children to continue learning in the Ukraine syllabus by accessing online platforms. Approximately 10,000 refugee children have been enrolled in Slovak schools for the 2022-2023 school year, however, many more continue to learn online with very limited opportunity for peer interactions with the host community.

UNICEF is working with national systems and institutions as well as non-governmental organization partners in the Slovak Republic to welcome and integrate Ukrainian children in education. The partnerships efforts focus on: (1) strengthening national systems, effective leadership and coordination for quality inclusion of refugee children; (2) promoting and supporting equitable access and quality learning (including early learning) for children and adolescents; (3) supporting establishment of diversified services of early childhood education as well as non-formal opportunities (for all children and adolescents); (4) supporting education system to make the learning environment inclusive, safe and protective; (5) community engagement for positive social and behaviour change.

UNICEF Slovakia Ukraine Refugee Response is seeking a Mentoring and Monitoring Consultant in Education and ECD with experience in Education and Early Childhood Development (ECD) to provide technical support to national and local partners (both government and NGOs) that are part of UNICEF’s refugee response, with a focus on strengthening quality implementation of partnership activities in Eastern Slovakia (Kosice and Presov regions) and some locations in Central Slovakia. This entails conducting regular in-person meetings, observations and consultations with partners in the field to identify key implementation challenges and providing mentoring accordingly. The consultant will be based in Slovakia and will report to the Education Manager. The consultant will work in close coordination with Education and ECD colleagues of the Slovakia team, as well as with other colleagues in child protection, health, youth and social policy.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Education Manager, and in close collaboration with Education and ECD colleagues of the Slovakia team, as well as with other colleagues in child protection, health, youth and social policy, the consultant will provide technical support to UNICEF’s national and local partners (both government and NGOs) with quality implementation of partnership activities in Eastern Slovakia (Kosice and Presov regions) and some locations in Central Slovakia.

The consultant will support the development and implementation of a framework for programme monitoring, evaluation and learning to capture the common elements of quality for education and ECD programmes, and meet regularly with partners to support the implementation of programme activities. Based on their observations, the consultant will prepare two case studies in English and Slovak for further dissemination.

Work Assignment Overview

The consultant will provide technical support to UNICEF’s national and local partners (both government and NGOs), with a focus on quality implementation of partnership activities in Eastern Slovakia (Kosice and Presov regions) and some locations in Central Slovakia. More specifically, the consultant will:

1. Support the development and implementation of a framework for programme monitoring, evaluation and learning to capture the common elements of quality for education and ECD programmes.

2. Provide substantive support to national and local partners (both government and NGOs) with ensuring quality implementation of programme activities, as follows:

• Conduct regular in-person consultations, meetings and monitoring visits at programme sites;
• Gather quantitative and qualitative information and data on programme implementation;
• Jointly identify key successes and challenges with programme partners;
• Provide mentoring to partners on technical aspects to improve quality of implementation;
• Analyse and synthesize information based on visits/consultations to advise on lessons learned, promising/good practices, emerging trends and challenges, as well as recommendations for education and ECD response;
• As needed, support the UNICEF team to provide technical and operational support to government counterparts and NGO partners on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes and best practices on education and ECD related issues to support implementation and delivery of results.

3. Develop two case studies (in English and Slovak) based on the data and information emerging from the field support to national and local partners.

4. Participate in weekly check-in meetings with the UNICEF Education and ECD team, as well as attend in-person meetings at the UNICEF office in Bratislava as needed. These meetings are aimed at ensuring regular updates on progress of the consultant’s activities and joint reflections and brainstorming around challenges and solutions to strengthen implementation of Education and ECD programmes.

The consultant is expected to travel extensively in Eastern Slovakia and some locations in Central Slovakia (at least once per month). S/he will be responsible to organise their own travel, upon agreement with their supervisor.

Deliverables

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

Required experience

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Early Childhood Development, Education, International development, psychology or related field
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in programme planning, implementation, management and monitoring in Education, ECD/ECE, or a similar field, with experience in the Slovak Republic or similar context.
• Understanding of policies and strategies to address issues related to resilience and conflict situations
• Understanding of global Education and ECD agendas.
• Fluency in English is required
• Fluency in Slovak is required

Desired Experience

• Experience in international education context is an asset.
• Experience working within refugee setting is an asset.
• Experience working with state and NGO partners is strongly desired
• Experience working in UN organization an asset
• Fluency in Ukrainian and/or Russian is an asset.

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.