National Consultancy - Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) Communications for Development (C4D), Windhoek, Namibia (Open for Namibia Nationals)

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, quality education

Every child deserves the best start in life. The early years of a child’s life from conception to 8 years of age are critical in terms of building a strong foundation for healthy development, lifelong learning, and well-being for the individual. For society, quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs lead to successful communities, economic productivity, and harmonious civil societies. With quality implementation, integrated ECD is a highly effective and cost-efficient approach to ensure that all children develop their full potential. The 2017 Lancet series on ECD stressed that the human brain develops faster between conception and the ages of 2-3 than at any other time in life. It further points out that it is during the first 1000 days that a child’s development responds most readily to nurturing care in terms of health, nutrition, responsive caregiving, safety and security, and early learning.

Quality ECD provides a vital foundation for lifelong learning, health, and wellbeing. However, in Namibia, only 13% of children aged 0-4 attend Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres (ECD-MIS, 2018) and the pre-primary net enrolment rate is at 31.4% (EMIS 2017). ECD has been slowly gaining momentum in Namibia over the past five years. It has been identified as a development game-changer in the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) and more recently articulated as a priority in the national Harambee Prosperity Plan II. Despite this, access and quality remain important challenges. This is reflected by the high repetition rate in Grade 1 at 19.7% (EMIS AEC 2019) – these high rates of repetition continue into later grades, peaking in Grade 10. Survival rates across all grades show a rapid drop-out as learners progress through school. The foundation provided by quality ECD seeks to address this issue.

UNICEF Namibia has been supporting the roll-out of the RightStart campaign; a behavior change communication campaign to make every child’s first steps the right steps. UNICEF is thus recruiting an IECD Communication for Development Consultant to support the implementation and acceleration of specific activities under the campaign as specified in this ToR. The Consultant will be seconded to the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare (MGEPESW), and will coordinate the RightStart campaign activities with the ECD line Ministries; MGEPESW, the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC), and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS).

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of the consultancy is to provide support in advocacy and communication campaigns, to raise the awareness and visibility of IECD for improved access and quality of ECD and pre-primary education.

Key Tasks and deliverables:

The Consultant will undertake the following tasks and activities:

• Provide technical support for the completion, launch, and implementation of the high-level advocacy strategy and related documents
• Support and collaborate with the ECD line Ministries to conduct high-level advocacy activities with senior-level decision-makers, parliamentarians, and local authorities as stipulated in the advocacy strategy.
• Provide support to communication campaign in the planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring capacities at both central and decentralized levels for efficient IECD and PPE service delivery
• Support MGEPESW and MoHSS to conduct training of Community Health Workers, Religious and Community leaders on IECD and the #RightStart campaign.
• Support launch of ECD strategic and technical documents including the ECD 0-2 curriculum
• Support incorporation of the parenting manual/guidelines within the RightStart campaign platforms
• Work in collaboration with MGEPESW to incorporate Thrive by Five (Tb5) key messages and events in the RightStart Campaign
• As secretariat, convene the Visibility and Awareness Sub-Committee meetings and keep records of meetings.
• Support Community Liaison Officers at the MGEPESW in the coordination of IECD communication activities.
• Provide technical support for the implementation of the IECD Framework at the community level.
• Ensure the #RightStart Campaign Waka Waka Moo Episodes airing by local television stations and the visibility of episodes.
• Support implementation and monitoring of the RightStart Campaign activities and specifically collect and analyze viewership data of Waka Waka Moo TV episodes and mass media advertisements in close collaboration with Inter Teams.
• Liaise with officials from key line ministries (MGEPESW, MoEAC, MoHSS) development partners, and NGOs on ECD messages.
• Ensure visibility of ECD and PPE and the partnership between UNICEF, the Government of Namibia, the EU, and other EU donors as appropriate.

Key Activities

Deliverables

Timeline

1. Capacity building programmes

1. Community Health Workers, religious and community leaders training scaled-up.
2. Thrive by Five (Tb5) key messages and events incorporated in the RightStart Campaign
3. RightStart campaign activities implemented, maintaining partnerships with media houses
4. Viewership, readership and listenership data of #RightStart campaign collected and analyzed to inform decision-making.
5. Visibility and Communication Sub-Committee for IECD convened

6. Monthly Progress Report

   March 2022

2. Advocacy strategies

1. Advocacy strategy finalized
2. Viewership, readership and listenership data of #RightStart campaign collected and analyzed to inform decision-making.
3. RightStart campaign activities implemented, maintaining partnerships with media houses
4. Curriculum for children 0-2 years launched.
5. Monthly progress report

April 2022

3. Advocacy communication, in planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring capacities at both central and decentralized levels for efficient IECD and PPE service delivery.

1. Domestic resource allocation high-level advocacy activities
2. Viewership, readership and listenership data of #RightStart campaign collected and analyzed to inform decision-making.
3. ECD demand creation aspects incorporated in sectoral and national strategic planning documents of key line Ministries, including the NDP6 planning
4. Monthly progress report

May 2022

4. Support for parenting, birth registration and early identification of children with disabilities

1. Parenting, Birth Registration and Early Identification of Children with Disabilities manual/guidelines incorporated within the RightStart campaign platforms, including social media.
2. RightStart campaign reviewed, and the report finalized
3. Viewership, readership, and listenership data of #RightStart campaign collected and analyzed to inform decision-making.

June 2022

5. Communications and mass media content

1. Support provided to the planning and results framework development for the next phase of the RightStart campaign
2. High-level advocacy meetings held as per the advocacy strategy
3. Viewership, readership, and listenership data of #RightStart campaign collected and analyzed to inform decision-making

3 weeks

6. Consultancy report

1. Final Consultancy report with video recordings, pictures in high resolution and a PPT on the findings and recommendations for future interventions submitted
2. Handover notes

1 week

Payment will be monthly and based on deliverables

• March 2022: 20% upon delivery of monthly progress report and satisfactorily completed capacity building deliverables.
• April 2022: 20% upon delivery of monthly progress report and satisfactorily completed advocacy strategy deliverables,
• May 2022: 20% upon delivery of monthly progress and satisfactorily completed advocacy communication deliverables,
• June 2022: 20% upon delivery of monthly progress report and satisfactorily completed deliverables for parenting, birth registration and early identification of children with disabilities
• July 2022: Final 20% upon delivery of final consultancy report detailing all the activities undertaken, results, and satisfactorily completed communications and mass media deliverables, and approved handover notes.

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

• Requirements

  To qualify for this consultancy, candidates should have:

  1. A University Degree in Community Development, Communications, Child Development or any relevant field.
  2. Minimum of 2 years’ experience successfully implementing social behaviour change communication interventions.
  3. Experience in Early Childhood Development is required
  4. Experience working with Government partners, communities and high-level decision makers is required.
  5. Experience building successful partnerships with communications agencies and media houses will be considered an asset.
  6. Excellent proficiency in computer and information technology skills, including word processing, electronic presentations, spreadsheets, email and the internet including highly proven capabilities of keeping electronic records and producing reports.
  7. Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

  Administrative issues

  Work relationships:

  Day-to-day, the Consultant will report to the ECD Officer at UNICEF and the Director of Community Development, MGEPESW, with support from the Chief of Child Survival and Development (CSD). The activity as a whole will be overseen by the EU/UNICEF/GRN project steering committee made up of officials from the MGEPESW, Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Ministry of Health and Social Services, the EU Delegation in Namibia and UNICEF.

  Terms and Conditions:

  The Consultant will be contracted by UNICEF through a competitive bidding process.

  Conditions:

  • The Consultant will be allocated an office space at the MGEPESW with occasional meetings/working time at UNICEF as may be necessary. Please note in light of COVID-19, remote work/working-from-home may be preferred. S/he will have access to UNICEF printing/photo-copying facilities for routine small-scale photocopying.
  • The Consultant will work on their own computer
  • UNICEF shall be entitled to all property rights, including but not limited to patents, copyrights, and trademarks, about material which bears a direct relation to, or is made in consequence of, the services provided to the Organization by the consultant. In certain cases, UNICEF may be prepared to share intellectual property rights, requiring at a minimum, that UNICEF must be acknowledged in all use and publications of the data generated under the present consultancy, and retains the right to use the data for further analysis and publication with acknowledgement of any research institution concerned.
  • Financial proposals must be inclusive of all costs including to-country and in-country travel.
  • Please note that applications without financial proposal will not be considered.
  • The Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Child Welfare and UNICEF reserve the right to terminate the contract should the work not be satisfactory.
  • A monthly remuneration will be paid on submission of satisfactory deliverables. Deliverables will be reviewed for completeness and quality by both UNICEF and MGEPESW before any payment can be made.

  The Consultant will be expected to provide proof of medical insurance cover at contracting stage. A full list of UNICEF’s Standard Terms and Conditions will be shared at contracting stage.

  Risks

  A sudden increase in COVID-19 cases may lead to renewed movement restrictions, which may affect travel for meetings and therefore impact timelines for assignment completion. Candidates are encouraged to plan for online consultations/meetings for mitigation where possible. Contract manager will have regular meetings with the consultant to assess progress. The Consultancy timeline of 5 months already accounts for potential COVID-19 related delays.

  Qualified and interested candidates can access UNICEF’s vacancies page at

  https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/545557?lApplicationSubSourceID=

  or Vacancies | UNICEF Careers to submit an online application before the closing date.

  Qualified candidates are requested to send their CVs, letter of interest clearly indicating how their qualifications and experience match the requirements, a technical proposal that demonstrates understanding of the ToRs and overall approach to undertake the work, and a detailed financial proposal. The financial proposal must be all-inclusive. UNICEF will not cover any cost not included in the financial proposal (other than the cost of meetings with partners or as already stipulated under ‘Terms and Conditions’). Samples of relevant previous work may be requested at a later stage of recruitment.

  Please note that applications without either a technical proposal or a financial proposal will NOT be considered.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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.

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.