SitAn on Children with Disabilities (Nationals of Guyana only)

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, equal opportunities

The Government of Guyana and its partners are focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, within the context of the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030. Guyana’s real GDP growth in 2022 is 56 per cent. Guyana’s long-term development strategy -the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040, reflects principles of a ‘green agenda’ within safe and secure borders and highlights the need for resilient development for all. It is based on the delivery of quality social protection education and health care, new economic opportunities, justice, and political empowerment while protecting the environment. Guyana requires significant human capital development and institutional strengthening in all sectors.

The Social Protection and Inclusion Programme in Guyana aims at supporting the achievement of Government of Guyana’s priorities for children with disabilities, under the leadership of Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. It also supports the realization of UNICEF strategic goal area 5: Every child, including adolescents, has access to inclusive social protection and lives free from poverty; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). ; the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Article 4 & 26 and the sustainable Development Goal number 10 which calls for reducing inequalities in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status within a country. This SDG (10) supports the realisation of SDG 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8.

Persons with disabilities can be exposed to additional vulnerabilities and may have different needs to persons without disabilities. The 2002 National Population Census of Guyana recorded 48,419 persons, or about 6.4 percent of the total population, living with some form of disability. At the time of the census, approximately 88 percent of disabled persons were 15 years and over and the remainder below age 15 years. The Census also found that there were also slightly more females living with a disability as compared to males. A survey undertaken in five rural regions between 2016 and 2018 found physical/mobility disability to be the most prevalent category of disability, followed by visual/seeing disability, hearing/speech disability, and learning/cognitive disability.

These Terms of Reference are for a local individual Consultant to conduct a Situation Analysis (SitAn) on children living with disability in Guyana. This SitAn will utilise a rights-based, gender sensitive, equity-focused and risk informed approach and will provide an accurate understanding of the current situation of children living with disability in Guyana, which is critical to inform (primarily) national strategies for at-scale programming. Secondarily, this SitAn will also inform the mid-term review of the Government of Guyana-UNICEF Country Programme - 2022-2026 inter alia prioritising and programming for children with disability. The Government of Guyana - MoHSSS is partnering with UNICEF to conduct this Situation Analysis on Children with disabilities.

This Situation Analysis on Children with disabilities will be conducted in the 10 administrative regions of Guyana and will assess key issues affecting children with disabilities. It will examine inputs, achievements, and bottlenecks across all sectors, within the context of age-groups identifying those barriers that prevent children with disabilities from benefiting from interventions and services. By adopting a people-centred approach, the Situation Analysis is expected to identify some noticeable gaps in cross-fertilization between stakeholders that work with/for children with disabilities. Given the importance of gender roles and relations between girls and boys, such considerations will be incorporated as an analytical approach to highlight gender disparities.

The scope of the SitAn is further defined below. The SitAn will:

1. assess key issues affecting Guyana’s children with disabilities and the findings will inform relevant analyses and the preparation of position papers and other supplementary documents. 2. examine internal or external economic and other shocks (conflict, natural hazards, climate, environment, etc.) affecting children with disabilities. 3. inform strategic actions, to address inequities among children with disabilities.

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

• A Master’s degree in Social Sciences (sociology, anthropology), research; Education; or related fields relevant to this assignment. • At least 10 years of proven experience in social research (qualitative and quantitative) and report writing for Situation Analyses/mixed-method data generation exercises. • Contextual technical knowledge required i.e., knowledge of children’s issues in Guyana, related to health, education, protection learning and development, adolescents and participation water and sanitation, etc. • Excellent interviewing, facilitation, and coordination skills. • Ability to conduct causality analyses. • Excellent Knowledge of and demonstrated competency in Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming (HRBAP) and Results-based Management (RBM) • Sound understanding of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). • Excellent developmental, writing and presentation skills in English. • Familiarity with the local political, economic, and cultural environment would be an asset. • Strong computer skills especially in Microsoft office package, quantitative and qualitative data analysis capacity; excellent interpersonal skills.

Desirable: • Previous work experience with the United Nations System. • Experiential knowledge of the Guyana context.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

Please access the complete Terms of Reference here: Terms of Reference SitAn on CWD.pdf

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.