National consultancy on social services and child protection, Baku, Azerbaijan

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

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF’s programmes contribute to the vision that every child, wherever they are born, whatever their circumstances, has the same fair chance of good health and a good education; an equal chance to fulfill their potential; to be safe and protected from harm; to grow up with dignity; and to seize every opportunity to play their part in shaping the future of the country.

Child Protection (CP) programme works on strengthening national systems for effective prevention and response to violence against children (VAC). Social services, juvenile justice, education, and child rights monitoring are relevant platforms for the Child Protection programme to address VAC issues through the projects/programmes of technical support and advocacy.

Violence against children (VAC) is a global agenda that affects child welfare. Exposure to violence and abuse can have a long-lasting impact on children’s survival as well as their physical, psychological, and mental health, well-being, and their dignity. All children, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances, have the right to be protected, nurtured, and free from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and exploitation as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Protection of children from violence could be fulfilled through strong legislation and effective mechanisms of prevention, reporting, and responding as well as public awareness about the negative impact of the VAC on a child’s life and the whole of society.

Recent Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of a Child also highlighted the set of recommendations for the Government of Azerbaijan to support community-based social services and child helpline for the effective prevention of VAC, including GBV, update national legislation, maintain the capacity building of all professionals working with children on identifying all forms of VAC and referral to relevant services. The current CP programme contributes to fulfilling the recommendations of the Committee. Piloting social work in the juvenile probation system and child detention facilities, conducting social services for children and families, and capacity building of local government officials and service providers on the prevention of VAC and child protection referral mechanisms are key interventions that address VAC through different perspectives.

A national consultancy is required to coordinate, guide, monitor, and supervise the projects on social services and child safeguarding.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:

The following tasks should be fulfilled for the assignment.

• Providing technical guidance, monitoring, and supervision to NGOs and private companies on social services and coordination mechanisms in child protection in Ganja, Lenkeran, Masalli, Agjabadi, Fizuli districts;
• Training and supervision of the Child Safeguarding teams at a minimum of 10 schools in Baku and/or other districts;
• Providing inputs for improvement of the legislative framework in social services;
• Providing inputs for public awareness raising and advocacy activities for the prevention of VAC;
• Providing inputs for the draft strategy and action plan for the development of social service workforce.

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline:

Training and supervision of the Child Safeguarding teams at a minimum of 10 schools in Baku and/or other districts;

Progress reports on the results of training and supervision of CS teams

By 30 January, 2024

Providing technical guidance, monitoring, and supervision to NGOs and private companies on social services and coordination mechanisms in child protection in Ganja, Lenkeran, Masalli, Agjabadi, Fizuli districts;

Quarterly reports on the results of monitoring and supervision of implementing partners

By 10 April, 2024

Providing inputs for:

- improvement of the legislative framework in social services;

- public awareness raising and advocacy activities for the prevention of VAC;

- the draft strategy and action plan for the development social service workforce;

Inputs/proposals on the respective documents/papers

By 31 October,

2024

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

• University degree in Social Sciences, Human rights, Policy Analysis, Economics, or related field;
• 5-7 years of professional working experience in the field of social work and social services;
• Strong experience and expertise on issues of social work, social services, and child protection in Azerbaijani and international context;
• Minimum three years of working experience with local and/or international technical assistance providers;
• Analytical and conceptual ability; communication skills;
• Planning and monitoring skills; ability to organize work and projects;
• Strong experience and expertise in capacity needs assessment, legal and institutional review/assessment and development of policy documents, and development of training packages/ programs for the mixed audience (in-service and pre-service);
• Familiarity with UNICEF’s mission and mandate;
• Ability to travel within the country on a regular basis;
• Native Azerbaijani; fluent English.

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.