Purpose of Activity/Assignment

To support UNICEF ECARO to develop a comprehensive approach for addressing barriers to childhood immunization among Roma children in Moldova and children affected by labour migration in Kyrgyzstan.

Scope of Work

This consultancy aims to support UNICEF Country Offices (COs) in ECAR by developing a comprehensive user guide with best-practice and evidence-informed approaches to engage with marginalised populations, a toolkit for identifying barriers to the uptake of CRI among these populations, and example methodologies for developing and evaluating high impact solutions.

The consultant will develop tools, methodologies, while also providing overall guidance and working closely with contractors at country level who will be in charge of in-country data collection and analysis related to the usability and acceptability testing and pre-testing.

The aforementioned objectives will be achieved through completing this consultancy in two countries in ECAR (i.e. Moldova and Kyrgyzstan) with their respective sub-populations, as follows:

1. Moldova: children from Roma communities; and
2. Kyrgyzstan: children affected by labour migration (due to the parents’ seasonal and/or foreign employment).

The ‘comprehensive’ nature of the user guide and toolkit refers to three main requirements, as follows:

1. The user guide will cover the entire process and provide guidance on how to: engage with the countries, do field observations relevant to specific audiences, engage with the audiences and relevant stakeholders who interact with these communities (e.g. Roma leaders, non-governmental organisations etc.). The user guide will include details on development, acceptability and usability testing, and pre-testing of approaches and assessment tools with guidance for future use and adaptation. It will also provide details on how to develop appropriate solutions to address the identified barriers and include well-defined methodological recommendations for the evaluation of these solutions. The proposed approaches and tools will be developed based on the specifics of these populations and their preferences, most effective ways of engagement with them, and evidence generation.
2. All tools in the toolkit need to be designed so that each can be used individually and has the capacity on its own to identify individual, social and environmental barriers to the target behaviour in the sub-populations in case resource constraints do not allow for the implementation of the entire toolkit.
3. Barriers need to be identified from the perspectives of the target sub-populations, HWs who provide the relevant health/immunization services as well as the health/immunization services (service design and delivery barriers).

The consultancy will conclude with solution development to address identified priority barriers and a well-defined methodological proposal for future evaluation.

This project will entail the following phases and deliverables:

1. Inception phase:

• Establishing working arrangements between the RO, the COs, and stakeholders. The consultant is expected to gather information needed for the inception report.
• The consultant will refer to relevant documents shared by the RO, COs, national stakeholders and will conduct a desk review of the literature.
• The consultant will engage with relevant members of the COs and national stakeholders through semi-structured interviews to gather relevant information (max. 5-8 interviews per country).
• The consultant will submit the inception report that must include:
  • the documentation of current realities of the identified sub-populations in each country in the context of CRI. The description should answer the following key questions: what is the estimated size of each sub-population; what is the demographic composition; where are they located geographically in the country; what are the key issues that may need to be considered in the context of CRI (e.g. unregistered, zero dose, no vaccination card/history, delayed vaccination etc.), and who are the relevant stakeholders who interact with them;
  • a summary of the evidence, if any, regarding barriers to CRI identified specifically in these populations;
  • a summary of the evidence, if any, regarding validated tools that have been previously developed to identify barriers in these populations;
  • a summary of the evidence, if any, regarding effective solutions that have been previously developed to address barriers in these populations;
  • appropriate citations for the sources of information reported;
  • the proposed framework that will be used to identify barriers (i.e. inform the toolkit development and analysis) and develop solutions to address those barriers;
  • the proposed approaches and methods to ensure the usability, acceptability, validity and reliability of the toolkit in the given contexts; and
  • a detailed project timeline with key steps and deliverables highlighted.

2. User guide and toolkit development phase:

• This will involve three main line of activities, as follows:

2/a: developing a preliminary user guide with a toolkit that encompasses research tools to identify barriers to the uptake of CRI among the two target populations. The consultant will identify previously validated research tools, if they exist, and adapt them to the contexts of this consultancy. The consultant is expected to take into account both qualitative and quantitative research tools insofar they are suitable for assessment with the target populations. Highly participatory qualitative approaches are likely be more suitable, for example, when working with Roma communities.

2/b: conducting an interative ‘usability and acceptability testing’ and ‘refining’ of the preliminary toolkit through participatory approaches with members of these populations. It is expected that by the end of this interative co-creation process, the assessment tools and approaches will be suitably developed for pre-testing.

2/c: developing necessary study protocols and supporting obtaining ethical approvals (where appropriate) for pre-testing the developed tools in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan with members of the respective populations.

• During this phase the consultant will submit:
  • a preliminary user guide and tools for identifying barriers in these populations;
  • documentations of insights gathered through usability and acceptability testing, and any refinements needed to the tools and approaches;
  • study protocols and analysis plan for pre-testing in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan; and
  • any further information needed to obtain relevant ethical approvals for pre-testing.
• The consultant will draw on the framework(s) proposed in the inception report to ensure that all relevant barriers are considered, and that the framework(s) will be made explicit in the description of the tools.
• Depending on the type of tools in the toolkit, a detailed user guide is needed that describes the variables and operationalises any potentially lesser known or composite measures together with a suggested coding system. Guidance for future adaptation will be included in the user guide (e.g. highlighting the core questions, and any composite measures that should not be modified without validity and reliability checks to ensure proper psychometric properties, if relevant).

3. Pre-testing phase:

• The consultant will conduct pre-testing of the tools with appropriate sample sizes from these populations in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan and identify barriers to CRI. Samples for pre-testing are not expected to be representative to the entire sub-populations.
• The consultant will document key steps in the user guide, and make necessary refinements in the guide and/or assessment tools based on the results and experiences gained from pre-testing.
• When analysing and interpreting the findings from pre-testing, the consultant will identify priority barriers based on their likely impact and centrality to improving CRI uptake in the populations.
• The consultant will submit regular progress reports to RO for review.

4. Solutions development phase:

• This will involve the use of participatory approaches for the solution development (e.g. human centered design) with the populations to adequately and effectively address identified priority barriers.
• By the end of the co-creation process with members of the target population and relevant stakeholders, the consultant will develop two well-defined, implementable and sustainable solutions for each country to address potentially high-impact priority barriers.
• The framework and approaches used for solutions development will need to be documented in the user guide so that it is replicable in other contexts.
• Detailed implementation instructions will be needed for each solution proposed.

5. Final report write-up phase:

• The consultant will develop and submit a final report that must include:
  • a summary of key insights gathered in the inception phase;
  • a summary of key methodologies and approaches used for various phases;
  • the final version of the comprehensive user guide and the toolkit;
  • insights gathered from Moldova and Kyrgyzstan;
  • approaches and frameworks for solutions development;
  • well-defined solutions (max. 2 per each country) developed to address the priority barriers identified and their implementation plans;
  • methodological recommendations for the evaluation of the proposed solutions.

6. Webinar planning and delivery phase:

• The consultant will prepare power points, plan and deliver a regional webinar to present the user guide, findings and the developed solutions. The consultant will:
  • Develop the webinar concept note and proposed agenda.
  • Engage with relevant COs/stakeholders to organize the meeting and agree on speakers.
  • Prepare a power point presentation detailing: phases of toolkit development as well as theoretical models used for its development, findings from pre-testing in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan, solutions developed for these countries, recommendations for adapting and further utilizing the toolkit in other countries.

Work Assignment Overview

Estimated Duration of the Contract

129 working days between September 2024 and September 2025.

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be remote/home-based.

As part of this assignment, some international travels are foreseen. The consultant will arrange her/his travel as and when they take place, and related costs will be reimbursed per UNICEF travel policy.

Travel Clause

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSAFE certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance and an immunization/vaccination card.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 129 working days to undertake this assignment, without travel fees as these will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

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

Required:

• PhD in social sciences, preferably on social and behaviour change, behaviour sciences and social psychology, is required.
• At least seven (7) years of experience in planning, designing and assessing SBC interventions and strategies, preferably for public health and immunization.
• Experience in using participatory approaches (e.g. human centered design) with populations in the context of social and behavioural change;
• Experience in designing a variety of tools for qualitative and quantitative data collection, including qualitative semi-structured interview guides, field observation guides and quantitative surveys;
• Experience in using behavioural science frameworks and methods for identifying and understanding factors that influence given target behaviours in context; and
• Experience in developing evidence-based solutions to influence behaviour change.
• Strong written and spoken English ability.

Desirable:

• Proven familiarity and experience working with the UN (ideally with UNICEF).
• Previous experience working with Roma communities and/or migrants;
• Fluency in Kyrgyz, Russian, Romanian and/or Romanes/Romani languages.