National Consultant - expert on strengthening social service system at national and local levels, Kyiv, Ukraine

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, hope

Since the beginning of the war, the capacity of host municipalities to provide quality, sustainable and integrated services for internally displaced persons (IDPs) remained limited. The key reasons for the limited coverage include the lack of understanding and prioritization of social services by the authorities, the limited knowledge and capacity of staff in those services, the lack of human and financial resources.

The types of services available at the community level that could address the diverse needs of vulnerable families, especially IDPs, those living below the poverty line or those having a child with disability are very limited. There is a high need to ensure access to sustainable, quality holistic services for the most vulnerable groups. Since February 2022 the majority of population of Ukraine can be considered as conflict-affected and vulnerable due to direct and indirect impact of the war, including raised unemployment rate, destruction of private houses and social infrastructure, developmental delays of children caused by toxic stress and others.

The demand for outreach by integrated social services has increased drastically given the high number of children and women on the move with complex and diverse needs, including psycho-social support and case-management.

There is a high need of social work case management and referral to social services such as day care centres, early intervention services, shelters for violence survivors, temporary assistance for vulnerable or at-risk families (e.g. family support services, parent training, counselling) – as well as violence prevention, risk mitigation and violence response services. These can be offered through community-based integrated social services that are able to address the multiple needs of vulnerable families with children, including IDPs.

How can you make a difference?

The Consultant’s scope of the work will include:

More specifically, the consultant will support the Child Protection Team in the following main area of work and tasks in line with streamline the system of integrated social services:

• Review UNICEF and other stakeholders’ available developments (briefs; manuals; case-studies; information materials) on integrated social services and provide recommendation for possible scaling up;
• Provide UNICEF with latest child protection and social service sector updates to strengthen community-based system of integrated social services;
• Support implementation of integrated social service model at community level to ensure continuum of social services in the target municipalities with focus on strengthening child protection systems;
• Enhance the Capacity of civil society partners in provision of continuum of integrated social services;
• In coordination with key stakeholders develop recommendations for social services establishment in municipalities with disfunctional child protection system with specific focus on newly liberated territories;
• Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders;
• Draft briefs, reports and inputs to other strategic programme materials for management use, information and/or consideration

Deliverable

Deadline

# of w/days

Deliverable 1. Quarter 1. Report on revision existing practices, gaps analysis and recommendations on integrated social services and recommendations for possible scaling up

By 28, May, 2023

45

Deliverable 2. Quarter 2. Report on technical support (latest area developments; revision of legislation; revision of humanitarian actors developments) to UNICEF and implementing partners on designing and modelling community-based system of integrated social services in target municipalities

By 28 August, 2023

45

Deliverable 3. Quarter 3. Report on recommendations for social services establishment in municipalities with disfunctional child protection system with specific focus on newly liberated territories

By 28, November, 2023

45

Deliverable 4. Quarter 4. Report on capacity strengthening of civil society partners in provision of continuum of integrated social services (6 webinars; 4 offline events)

by 28, February, 2024

45

Total # of working days

180

*Travel plan: it is prognosed that the Consulter will joint to some of CP field visits and Human rights Ombudsman’s monitoring missions. Total number of trip days per contact – 20 days. The trip plan will be developed jointly with Ombudsman’s representatives and the Consulter.

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

Education

• Master's degree in Social sciences, international law, international development, human rights, psychology, sociology or other related disciplines.

Professional experience

• At least 5 years of professional experience in social protection / child protection at national and/or subnational level.
• Knowledge of the Ukrainian system of child protection, system of social protection, system of alternative care for children (residential and family-based).
• Experience in strengthening social workforce and system of social services
• Experience in development of national wide strategies and plan of actions in area of child protection.
• Experience in building a dialog with national and local governments and CSOs.
• Experience providing consultancy services to UNICEF and other UN agencies.

Language

• Ukrainian - Advanced [C1]
• English - is an advantage

Skills and competencies

• Good analytical skills.
• Good coordination skills
• Good communication skills

Please provide an all-inclusive financial proposal to carry out the deliverables listed above.

i Costs indicated are estimated. Final rate shall follow the “best value for money” principle, i.e., achieving the desired outcome at the lowest possible fee. Consultants will be asked to stipulate all-inclusive fees, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable.

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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.

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.