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Consultancy Title: ECD Consultant (National, Belarus)

Section/Division/Duty Station: ECD/Disability Section section, UNICEF Belarus CO

Duration: April 2024 to March 2025 (12 months)

Home/ office Based: Remote/Home-based

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. Over 75 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and abuse. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations, and governments.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The Country Program Action Plan for the period 2021-2025 signed between UNICEF and the Government of Belarus, places special focus on wellbeing of children with disabilities and developmental difficulties during early childhood with a view of enabling them to develop to their full potential and be fully included into society. Programmatic interventions draw on a twin-track approach for ensuring the rights of children with disabilities and aim to contribute to: 1) strengthening relevant national policies in health and education, social and child protection to ensure access and availability of quality services; and 2) expanding inclusiveness and quality of services that address the specific needs of children with disabilities and developmental difficulties and their families.

Special attention is devoted to improving the national early childhood intervention system, that is part of primary healthcare system that provides services to more than 25,000 young children with disabilities and developmental difficulties. As part of the ongoing work and in partnership with Ministry of Health, UNICEF plans to expand programmatic and advocacy interventions in inclusive ECD and Early Childhood Intervention (ECI). The approach will support a seamless process for: 1) expansion of ECI Centers network, 2) strengthening of ECI service delivery quality, 3) review of the ECI-related normative package; 4) integration of nutrition-related services into existing services for children with disabilities, and 5) promotion of public awareness activities on the rights of children with disabilities and reducing stereotypes. The envisaged interventions will be delivered through the following strategies: system strengthening, capacity building of professionals, establishing synergies between sectors to ensure integrated approach to a family with children with disabilities, communication and social and behaviour change (SBC) campaign. The scope of work is nationwide.  (Система раннего вмешательства (prostodeti.by))

Another important angle of the consultancy is provision of technical expertise to the de-institutionalization programme for children of early age and those with disabilities. A key focus area is supporting implementation of the “Family for Every Child” project, running in Vitebsk oblast, supervision of already developed De-institutionalization (DI) mechanisms in Gomel oblast and technical support for the DI project in Pinsk Baby Home as well as overall expert support for the development of programme documents on this topic.

Purpose:  to provide technical expertise to develop further the ECD interventions including national ECI system, nutrition and breastfeeding, as well as provide support to other programmes on cross-sectoral issues such as on de-institutionalization on young children from baby homes or support in communications and social-behaviour change interventions.

Scope of Work:

Under the guidance and supervision of the UNICEF ECD Specialist, in cooperation with all relevant sections in UNICEF and in partnership with national partners, local authorities, outpatient clinics and other relevant national and local stakeholders, the Consultant will support the development and implementation of UNICEF’s program activities related to early childhood intervention, inclusive nutrition and support for parents of young children with disabilities as well as on DI and prevention of institutionalization of children of early age and those with disabilities.

The Consultant will be expected to carry out the following specific tasks:

1. Coordinate at local level UNICEF planned programme interventions ECI, as well as other interventions aiming to strengthen the national capacities for ECI.
2. Coordinate and organise meetings for ensuring a system approach to ECI and improving ECI practice in coordination at the local and oblast levels.
3. Coordinate programmatic linkages among service providers, and other relevant stakeholders and partners from health, education, and social protection sectors.
4. Provide technical support, training, and supervision to the network of ECI centers to strengthen capacity of professionals.
5. Provide technical support for the development of parenting materials with a particular focus on care for and the needs of children with disabilities and developmental difficulties (including those in residential facilities).
6. Coordinate development of the ECI in-service and pre-service training programmes in close partnership with National Medical University.
7. Support SBC Officer and Communication Specialist in  social and behavioral change and communication activities of UNICEF CO related to early childhood intervention for children with disabilities and developmental difficulties and parenting: participation in expert interviews, guidance and expert advice on communication products on children with disabilities and parenting, support for drafting different documents, coordination of related activities/events with different partners, identification of families and experts for relevant human interest stories, etc.
8. Provide technical expertise for the programme documents developed for DI projects.
9. Coordinate at local level UNICEF planned programme interventions on DI, as well as other interventions aiming to strengthen the national capacities for DI.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables / Delivery Deadline: 

Travel (if required as per TOR):

Applicant to provide estimated budgets for travels to project sites during the contract period (places, number of visits *rate per one visit* number of days of each visit).

Qualifications

 Education:

• Minimum Master’s degree in health, public health, social science, behavioral science, psychology, anthropology, pedagogy, education, early childhood development, international development, or other relevant fields.

Work experience/Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in ECDECI services, including country level experience.
• Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of ECD projects and concept papers
• Proven skills in analysis, synthesis, and ability to communicate complex issues clearly and succinctly both orally and in writing.
• Strong communication skills (written and oral) in Russian are required.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated experience working in a multicultural environment.
• Passion and demonstrated commitment to UNICEF’s mission and core values
• Background/familiarity with UNICEF’s ECD programme will be an asset.
• Fluency in Russian and English

Competencies:

• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and

• Interested applicants should provide a letter of interest (Cover Letter) describing how they can contribute to the interventions listed under roles and responsibilities and why they should be selected for this position. In addition, they should share their latest CV/Resume and financial proposal to undertake this job  Financial Offer template_ECD consultant.docx
• Samples of the related job/tasks done/portfolio.
• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal should be submitted using the financial offer template  Financial Offer template_ECD consultant.docxand must:
  • Reflect the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment period (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • Include travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR. Consultants are responsible for arranging their own transportation arrangements. UNICEF can provide office vehicle for some duty travel missions with prior agreement as per monthly travel plan approved by the supervisor
  • Include any other costs: health insurance, payment of an incidental expenditure (such as bank charges, insurances, etc.) and living costs as applicable.
• Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory 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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

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: 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.