National Individual Consultancy - Technical support for Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) roll out in UNICEF BiH Country Office, 40 working days, Remote with occasional field trips

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy

Overview

Provide technical support for AAP interventions in UNICEF BiH Country Office.

You have:

• University degree in Education, Social Sciences, Public Policy, International Relations, Political Science, or other relevant disciplines.
• 3-5 years of experience in the humanitarian sector with significant field experience working on AAP/CCE interventions.
• Fluency in English and BCS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) is mandatory.
• Strong ICT skills, including the use of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and data collection tools.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including intercultural sensitivity.
• Strong facilitation skills and ability to work independently and proactively.
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills, and discretion with confidential information.
• Humanitarian experience in the field in emergency situations is desirable.
• Experience in the UN Common System is desirable.

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, champion

Since the beginning of 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has faced an increased influx of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees after previously popular migration routes to Western Europe through the Balkans shut down in 2017. The national system to protect unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) in BiH - from identification and registration, to referral and protective services – was initially overwhelmed, but the response is increasingly stable. Nevertheless, UASC and other children on the move are exposed to heightened protection risks, including incidences of (gender-based) violence, abuse, and exploitation (smuggling and human trafficking).

UNICEF's humanitarian response to children on the move transiting through/stranded in BiH takes a two-track approach:

(1) Immediate humanitarian assistance and protection to refugee and migrant children, especially UASC, working in close collaboration with government authorities at all levels, UN agencies and NGOs; and

(2) Strengthening child protection systems to provide better services to all vulnerable children in BiH through capacity building, policy reform and technical assistance.

As UNICEF, we are strongly committed to putting affected families, children and adolescents at the center of our work, as reflected in the Core Commitments for Children, in the recently revised IASC commitments on Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), or in the World Humanitarian Summit, the Grand Bargain and wider 2030 Agenda commitments. These are central elements for improving the quality and effectiveness of our humanitarian and development programmes and ensuring affected communities can fulfil their rights to participate and be heard. However, efforts on Accountability to Affected Population (AAP) at country, regional and global levels remain ad hoc and not pursued with a coherent approach. UNICEF programmes have not fully connected the feedback from affected communities with the management processes that inform our actions.

Engaging communities and facilitating their participation enables people, vulnerable to and affected by crises, to lead and shape positive, sustainable change in their own lives, communities and society. To do so, it is important to provide accessible information, ensure that an effective process for participation and feedback is in place, and that design and management decisions are responsive to the views of affected people and communities. UNICEF is working to ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable groups are heard and acted upon – considering gender, age, abilities and other diversities. This will create an environment of greater trust, transparency and accountability.

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Officer, Education and Health and in collaboration with Planning Officer, Emergency Coordinator, the emergency team and chiefs of UNICEF Sections, the consultant is responsible for providing technical support in designing and implementing Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) interventions, ensuring views , preferences and priorities of affected populations, in particular refugee and migrant population in the country, effectively inform the humanitarian response and contribute to AAP integration in Country programme design and implementation in general.

The purpose of this consultancy is to expedite some core AAP activities, in support of UNICEF existing engagement with partners in the humanitarian response. In particular, it will contribute to the following results identified:

Description of activities:

• Conduct a desk review of AAP documentation relating to UNICEF BiH Country Office and of AAP documentation relating to the programme and, in the absence of a current assessment, conduct an assessment into AAP/CCE;
• Conduct desk review of UNICEF BiH humanitarian programmes and design Complaints and Feedback Mechanisms in relation to these services;
• Facilitate the development of a Country Office plan aimed at expanding AAP efforts in humanitarian response, with well-defined deliverables, measurable indicators, and realistic timeframes, particularly focusing on closing the feedback loop with the affected populations by drawing from community preferences and global best practices.
• Develop surveys and questionnaires using pre-existing tools such as UNICEF InForm, KoBo Toolbox or other suitable platforms and validate these tools in the field through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to ensure their effectiveness and appropriateness for data collection.
• Design and facilitate training modules on AAP for UNICEF and implementing partner staff based on global examples on data collection and survey deployment, including on tool familiarization, quality assurance, and data confidentiality; Build the knowledge on AAP/CCE through designing and conducting different types of trainings and sensitisation for agency staff, NGOs, INGOs and other partners, and beneficiaries;
• Support the set-up of a sustainable AAP mechanisms at humanitarian programme level highlighting opportunities, gaps to be addressed and preconditions;
• Advise on the integration of AAP/CCE approaches into the Humanitarian Programme Cycle;
• Assess priority learning needs relating to AAP/CCE at different levels within the response (senior; management, programme managers front line staff etc.) and develop appropriate awareness raising and skill building approaches;
• Design a feedback loop ensuring feedback, concerns and priorities from affected populations are consistently and systematically consistently highlighted during internal meetings and planning processes.
• Provide technical support and coordination of collective AAP approaches and initiatives within UNICEF Country Office

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

• University degree in Education, Social Sciences, Public Policy, International Relations, Political Science, or other relevant disciplines.
• 3-5 years’ of experience in the humanitarian sector with significant field experience working on AAP/CCE interventions in technical roles or similar experience in the field of market research and customer satisfaction analysis, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning experience
• Fluency in English and BCS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) mandatory.
• Strong ICT skills, including the use of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, data collection tools such as InForm, KoboToolbox, PowerBI
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, intercultural sensitivity;
• Strong facilitation skills and ability to work independently and proactively
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills and discretion with confidential information
• Humanitarian experience in the field (actual setting where a mission and/or project is being implemented) in emergency situations (complex emergency or natural disaster) is desirable
• Experience in the UN Common System is desirable.

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 2 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org