National Consultant: Development of Positive Gender Socialization Manual for CBCC and ECD care givers, Lilongwe, Malawi (Home based) (Open to Nationals of Malawi only)

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, education

Malawi has 15 percent of its population under five years old (Malawi Government, 2018). A study on Impact Evaluation for protecting Early Childhood development (ECD) (2011-2015) revealed that 39 percent of children aged 36-59 months attended early childhood education services nationally in 2014. It is also noted that this resulted in better education improved childcare services, child protection and health care outcomes. Malawi Government has a number of policy and legal frameworks which guide delivery of early childhood development services and among these is the National Policy on Integrated Early Childhood Policy (2017) which stipulates the need to bring up children in a gender balanced way and implement the ECD services in a gender sensitive manner. The Policy further recognises that gender perspectives can best be achieved in early childhood years.

Involvement of fathers in children’s learning and stimulation activities is even more limited and fathers play a limited role in childcare and domestic work in Malawi. For instance, women in Malawi spent on average 19 hours per week on domestic work including care work, while 80 percent of men do not spend any time on domestic or care work. (NSO, Malawi Government, 2017). Although the ECD manual has highlighted girls as particularly affected by stigma and discrimination, no implications are elaborated to address these. Additionally, ECD volunteer workforce is dominated by females with almost 90 percent of the community care giver are women. Thus, ECD sector has not been fully exploited in terms of gender integration and yet this is a strategic entry point to effectively change gender roles and norms if Malawi has to realize gender equality and women/girls’ empowerment goals.

How can you make a difference?

In line with UNICEF aspirations on gender socialization, the simplified Manual will be used by care givers to facilitate gender transformative delivery of ECD service at CBCC and communities levels to impart gender equality values in young ones especially under five years through parenting, stimulation and early learning initiatives. It is anticipated that this will contribute to realization of gender equality objectives through transforming gender biased practices and systems which is in line with UNICEF Strategic Objective on every child has an equitable chance in life.

It is based on this background that UNICEF requires services of national ECD consultant with strong knowledge in gender socialization to develop a Positive Gender Socialization Manual for care givers in CBCCs to address gender issues in parenting, stimulation, and early learning programming.

The Package will be used by care givers to promote positive parenting and equitable treatment of boys and girls in families, communities, and preschools/ECD/CBCC centres. The envisaged Positive Gender Socialization Training Manual is also expected to guide care givers in CBCCs in provision of gender responsive pedagogy in CBCC as such it needs to have a lot of simulations aimed at deconstructing gender stereotypes.

The Consultant will carry out, inter alia, the following tasks:

(i) Develop an Inception report detailing the methodology and data collection tools for the assignment.

Make reference to the Positive Socialisation Training Package developed in 2020, other key documents on gender in ECD, including exisiting manuals and/or materials used for training care givers in ECD centres to adapt the format.

(ii) Develop Positive Gender Socialization Manual for ECD care givers with scenarios and documentaries on gender stereotypes to be used delivery of ECE by care givers in CBCC and outreach activities with families and communities.

• • Pretest the draft Gender Socialization Manual for community ECD and CBCC care givers to assess its usability and practicability at CBCC, family and community levels.
  • Present the draft Gender Socialization Manual for community ECD and CBCC care givers to selected stakeholders in a validation and consensus building workshop (virtual).
  • Address input from the validation and consensus building meeting to finalise the draft.

(iii) Finalize and submit the simplified Positive Gender Socialization Package

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

• At least a Master’s Degree in Gender/Women Studies or its equivalent (Womens Law, Social Studies, Demography, Sociology, education economics or any other related technical field with special expertise in gender responsive programming
• At least 5 years’ experience in developing gender and or ECD training manuals/packages, modules and curriculum
• Experience working on ECD related issues is a must
• Fluency in English and Chichewa
• Refer to the attached full Terms of Reference LVC - TOR Development of Positive Gender Socialization Manual for ECD and CBCC Care givers.pdf for more details on the assignment and requirements

How to apply...

Interested consultants should provide the following:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. Brief technical proposal (no longer than five pages) demonstrating the consultant’s understanding of the assignment and approach/methodology to the assignment
3. Financial proposal including a breakdown of their all-inclusive fees (including professional fees, travel, living cost, visa and other costs). Complete the attached Financial Proposal for Consultancy.xlsxform.
4. References details

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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.