Remote/Home-based: Consultancy to support mainstreaming AAP in program planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (52 working days; Nov 2023 to Mar 2024) - Office of Emergency Progr

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, a champion

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) is an organization-wide priority and is being scaled-up across programmes and regions. It is mainstreamed within UNICEF’s key guiding frameworks, such as the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025, Core Commitment of Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs), and Country Programme Planning Guidance. As an integral part of UNICEF’s different stages of the program cycle, AAP ensures that views of affected populations, especially from all vulnerable and at-risk and girls, boys, women, and men, are heard; provided equal opportunities to listen to and provided feedback on all aspects of programming. Supported by the organization, they hold UNICEF accountable for promoting and protecting their rights, generating effective results for them whilst working in ways that enhance their dignity, capacities, and resilience. For UNICEF and partners, it improves programme outcomes, particularly through increased demand for and use of quality services and greater accountability.

Under the guidance of the AAP Section Emergency Specialist, EMOPS Geneva, the consultant will contribute to UNICEF’s commitments to scale up AAP in UNICEF, particularly in mainstreaming it in global program planning, implementation and monitoring policies and procedures, and review related guidance to country offices accordingly. This contributes mainly to strategic objective 1 and 2 of the UNICEF AAP Strategy 2022-2025.

• Strategic Objective 1: all country offices have AAP integrated into their country plans, with appropriatetechnical and financial support in place to support this effort
• Strategic Objective 2: all country programmes are informed by the views, participation and feedback fromcommunities and provide timely information to affected communities, Country offices with processes forconsultation and participate of affected populations programmes
• Strategic Objective 3: collective accountability approaches are championed by UNICEF in all emergencyresponses. Country office participates in and contributes to wider AAP coordination mechanism/s at thenational, subnational, and/or local level
• Strategic Objective 4: a coherent, organization-wide people-centered and inclusive culture is promoted byUNICEF leadership

The consultant will work in close cooperation with other members of the HQAAP Section, global DAPM and other HQ-based colleagues as relevant, as well as AAP regional advisors.

Scope of Work

Over the last three years, AAP has been included into relevant global programme policies and procedures, and benchmarks on AAP were introduced as part of the new “Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (the CCC’s)”. A number of revisions of those global policies and procedures have been made or are still under way and can have substantial impact on the scale up of AAP in UNICEF if AAP inputs were well mainstreamed in those, and well defined for country offices. The AAP team has been able to input in many of those, however some gaps remain at the program monitoring level that require a bit more in depth work.

In this sense, this consultancy helps us in:

1. Reviewing existing global DAPM developed guidance for RRBM, CPD, Sit AN, Global UNICEF’s monitoring guidance, and others (including checking UNICEF’s inputs in those) and the global AAP team’s input into the revisions of those global procedures, and suggesting additions if any.
2. Revising already existing guidelines developed by the AAP team to help mainstream AAP in PME processes, and mainlythe “mainstreaming AAP in CPD”, mainstreaming AAP in program planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluationaccording to the latest developments and revisions made by UNICEF to the global PME procedures.
3. Ensure AAP Indicators are mainstreamed in global policies and procedures, mainly the CCC indicators, the CSIs andtheir related methodology notes, HAC, RAM, and others and being part of the review of the CSIs global process takingplace towards the end of 2023-2024, as well as revise the AAP Monitoring guidance accordingly.
4. Adapting the guidance developed in ECAR on how to use feedback from CFMs to inform program decisions, to theglobal context, and revising this chapter of the global AAP handbook accordingly.
5. Guiding on how AAP can be mainstreamed in sectors such as Health, WASH, Nutrition, Education, Child Protectionand Social Protection

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone *Deliverables / Outputs******Timeline / Deadline*****Review and ensure adoption of AAP inputs in global guidance on program planning and implementation, and work on the revision of AAP indicators in different processes (CSIs, CCC, HAC, RAM, etc.)****Initial Inception reportSubmit an Inception Report2 working days;

By 14 November 2023

Program monitoringRevise AAP inputs to the DAPM global monitoring companion guidance, make amendments as needed and validate AAP inputs with DAPM.2 working days;

By 16 November 2023

Country Standard Indicators (CSIs):

• Review the DAPM approved CSI change requests coming from COs and changes that will be implemented before the start of 2023 CSI Reporting (all available in a recorded call)
• Engage in Preparations for 2023 CSI Reporting including Thematic webinars if needed and the review of the AAP; CSI methodology note as needed

6 working days;

By 24 November 2023

Participate in HAC 2024 revision calls and discussions, and propose a lit of new HAC indicators for AAP, along with their methodology notes.7 working days;

By 05 December 2023

Finalize the revised AAP CCCs Indicators and guidance, and validate with EMOPS.3 working days;

By 08 December 2023

Engage with and validate with global DAPM for a list of AAP RAM indicators.2 working days;

By 12 December 2023

Revise the global AAP Monitoring guidance and ensure it includes all the various components related to the above deliverables.3 working days;

By 15 December 2023

Program PlanningReview and validate with DAPM the adoption of the AAP inputs made to the various DAPM program planning guidelines: the CPD guidelines, the Country Program Planning (CPP) guidance, the SitAn new guidance, and RRBM training modules7 working days;

By 19 January 2024

Program implementationReview the AAP inputs in the Global Program Implementation Handbook and elaborate the DAPM approved components for proper AAP integration. Validate with DAPM.5 working days;

By 02 February 2024

AAP Guidance & Capacity building****Update existing guidance on AAP in the Program Cycle as well as AAP pages in the PPPxRevise chapter 5 of the Handbook on “Mainstreaming AAP in the program cycle” including the tools, ensuring it is hyperlinked to all products finalized during this consultancy (this chapter will then be considered the corporate guidance on Mainstreaming AAP in the Program Cycle)5 working days;

By 13 February 2024

Review the AAP pages in the PPPx in alignment with the above guidance2 working days;

By 15 February 2024

Ensure the new AAP capacity building curriculum reflects all guidance on AAP which was developed and updated during this consultancyConduct a meeting with the global AAP capacity building team & share relevant documents & guidance for the development of related modules2 working days;

By 21 February 2024

Ensure revision of the final capacity building product to ensure alignment with the work done under this consultancy4 working days;

By 29 February 2024

Reporting on overall deliverablesReport on deliverables submitted and handover notes and recommendations on how to move further2 working days;

By 06 March 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

52 working days (between November 2023 and March 2024)

Consultant's Work Place and Official Travel

The assignment will be home-based, and no travel is foreseen.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. Please indicate a professional fee (in USD) based on 52 working days to undertake this assignment.

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

• Master’s degree in public health, data and analytics, humanitarian field.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in of development and humanitarian response and/or international development.
• Familiarity with the principles of accountability to affected populations and community engagement (feedback and complaints mechanisms, participation, information provision).
• Thorough experience with and knowledge of principles and current approaches to monitoring and evaluation in humanitarian and development programmes, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Familiarity with and experience mainstreaming AAP in program planning, implementation and M&E modalities (including models, data analysis and interpretation, developing recommendations and dissemination of M&E results, operational and systems implementation).
• Experience with managing and conducting multi-stakeholder consultations at different levels.
• Preferably work experiences with UNICEF, ideally in a country office, on developing guidelines/guidance documents and capacity-building modules.
• Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently.
• Proficiency in written and verbal English language.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

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:

Please include a full CV and Financial Proposal in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered. 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.