UNICEF Senior Individual Consultant for Provision of technical assistance to integrate child protection into the response to pandemics Jobs in Rwanda

Background

The current experiences with COVID-19 confirm some of the concerns highlighted by both the child protection and healthcare professionals during EVD preparedness planning pointing to the lack of synergy between the two sectors to adequately address specific issues affecting children within the community and at designated health facilities.

Justification

In order to optimize services to protect and support children and their families and address increased mental health and psychosocial (MHPSS) during pandemics, it is necessary to strengthen collaboration between healthcare and child protection service provision through increasing the understanding of child protection issues among health care professionals and establishing a clear referral protocol between the two services

Both the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) and UNICEF have recommended the hiring of an expert in health and child protection to help develop guidance and tools and to provide technical assistance to both the child protection and health sectors towards improvement of protection and MHPSS of children and families during pandemics, drawing on lessons from the current COVID-19 pandemic and the recommendations made during EVD preparedness planning activities.

Objectives

The overall objective of this technical assistance is to increase the understanding of CP among health professionals and establish appropriate linkages between health and CP professionals to respond to health emergencies, this entails documentation review and elaboration of materials for capacity development of both child protection and healthcare professionals to optimize services to affected children and families during current and future pandemics and other health emergencies.

Specific objectives

Upon consultation of the health and child protection key informants and documentation and aligned to global guidance, the consultant will elaborate materials and tools aiming at increasing the capacity of staff to prepare and respond to child protection risks in pandemics.

Specifically, the consultant will produce:

• A brief review of the current health response to COVID-19 and preparedness to EVD, including the national SoPs, protocols, referrals and coordination mechanisms to assess current inclusion of or referral to child protection, and identify linkage opportunities and gaps.

• A guide and SOP’s on Child Protection and MHPSS during pandemics for child protection professionals. The guide should take account of specific child protection needs resulting from the impact of pandemics.

• A simplified guide and referral protocol on Child Protection for health professionals or if possible propose content for inclusion of child protection into existing national protocols.

• A Facilitator’s training guide and participants’ handbook for child protection and health professionals

Work Assignment

• Conduct a desk review of the existing documentation on health and child protection preparedness and response to pandemics globally and in Rwanda, including on COVID19 and Ebola, to inform ways of collaboration between the two sectors. The review would be carried out on following documents;

o The structure of the health response to COVID-19 and preparedness to EVD, including the national SoPs, protocols, referrals and coordination mechanisms and any current inclusion of child protection.

o The documentation and experiences at global level on child protection response during pandemics including on Covid 19 and the EVD

o The review of the national child protection system in Rwanda and referral pathways between health and child protection service providers at community, cell, sector, district and coordination at national level

o Asses and analyse potential opportunities to better link the two sectors through referral pathways or inclusion of child protection in national health protocols.

NB: the expert may also advise on additional critical documents not listed above.

• Consult with key actors in response to pandemics in the health and stakeholders in child protection to understand the current structure, work arrangement and referral, and to establish synergetic linkages between the two sectors in optimizing care and protection of children during pandemics including COVID 19 & EVD

• Elaborate key documents (as specified in above) and facilitate validation by key stakeholders

• Conduct the training of the national team of trainers

Major Tasks, Deliverable, Date , Milestone payment %

Produce an inception report highlighting the methodology, tasks, roadmap and milestones for execution of the project for each deliverable

Inception Report: covering all

relevant issues highlighted in major tasks, to be completed by 24 Dec 2020, payment of 15 %

Conduct a desk review of the existing documentation on the health response structure to pandemics in Rwanda and global guidelines on child protection preparedness and response , including on COVID19 and Ebola, and consult with key stakeholders in the health and child protection sectors, to produce a brief report on the current situation and ways to improve collaboration

A brief Report of the current situation and practices, to be completed by 31 Jan 2021, payment of 15 %

Based on the key findings of the mapping report, elaborate a comprehensive “Guide on Child Protection during pandemics” for child protection professionals and a simplified guide and referral protocol on Child Protection for health professionals

Comprehensive guide on child protection

A simplified guide & referral protocol on CP for health professionals , to be completed by 30 Mar 2021, payment of 30%

Based on elaborated guides, develop training materials, including the Facilitator’s training guide and Participants’ handbook for child protection and health professionals

Facilitators’ training guide

Participants’ handbook, to be completed by 30 Apr 2021, payment of 20%

Undertake all necessary steps to organize and conduct the training of the national team of trainers to be designated from the health and child protection key partners

Training report , to be completed by 15 July 2021, payment of 20%

Evaluation Criteria

The best candidate will be evaluated and selected based on the best fit on most of the qualifications outlines above. The most suitable candidates may be invited for an oral or written interview or both.

The Technical proposal is weighted at 70% and 30% for the Financial proposal.

Please note that the final remuneration will be negotiated by Human Resources from UNICEF.

General Conditions: Procedures & Logistics

• Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 22 working days.

• The consultants are not entitled to payment of overtime. All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.

• No work may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant or Contractor.

• The consultant shall not make use of any unpublished or confidential information, made known in the course of performing duties under the terms of this agreement, without written authorization from the Government Institution and/or UNICEF. The products of this assignment are not the property of the consultant and cannot be shared without the permission from the Government Institution and/or UNICEF.

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

Academic Qualifications

• Advanced university degree, preferably in social work, social sciences, child psychology or other related education background.
A combination of relevant academic background and work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

• Fluent in English with good writing skills and reports editing/layout

Employment experience

• Previous experience of working in endemic zones on preparedness and/or response (eg: Ebola affected zone, or COVID-19) handling child protection, or as part of health response with exposure to child protection.

• Minimum of 8 years work experience in social work with a focus on either child protection, or psychology, or child care and public health or a combination of some or all.

Language skills

Fluency in English. Knowledge of French and/or Kinyarwanda would be an asset

Skills and abilities:

• In-depth knowledge of child protection in emergencies including in pandemics, or health response in pandemics with exposure to child protection; familiarity with the child protection and or the health systems in Rwanda would add value

• Excellent writing skills, strong planning, organizational and analytical skills, computer skills and interpersonal communication skills;

• Ability to work with Government Officials at national and decentralized levels as well as with international and national development partners;

• Elaboration of training curriculum and good facilitation skills

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.

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; UNICEF Senior Individual Consultant for Provision of technical assistance to integrate child protection into the response to pandemics Jobs in Rwanda

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