Individual Contractor for Integrated Child Protection System Model Project, Beijing, China

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, Care and Protection

Child Protection is one of UNICEF China’s programme areas.  It supports the Government of China in developing an equitable and integrated child protection system that benefits all children in China.

During the last decade, China has made enormous progress in developing legislation relevant to child protection.  Especially the revised Law for the Protection of Minors articulates an ambitious agenda for child protection, including to ensure all children have access to family centered child protection services.  In addition, a number of policies and strategic plans have provided opportunities to strengthen services for protecting and caring for children.  However, challenges remain regarding the institutional governance of China’s nascent child protection system.

With the aim to develop a child protection system in China and building on existing laws and policies, UNICEF has been working with the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) in generating a model of integrated child protection services in nine counties in the provinces of Guangxi, Jiangxi, Ningxia and Shandong since July 2020.  The project seeks to improve the quality and supply of child protection services that provide support and interventions to promote child and family wellbeing, to protect children who are at risk of abuse and neglect within their families or whose families do not have the capacity to provide adequate care and protection and to support children who have experienced abuse and neglect.  In doing so, the experiences and lessons learned from this project are being used to inform the improvement and enforcement of laws and policies as well as to inform scale up.

The results this work aims to achieve include:

1. Civil Affairs Bureaux (including child protection centres, child welfare institutions and community childcare service centres) in pilot sites function as an effective and operational coordination and reporting and referral mechanism for statutory and community-based services for vulnerable children at risk of or experiencing abuse and neglect.
2. Service providers (including local authorities, county level interagency child protection committees, designated social service organizations, social work stations and community workers) are capable of delivering high-quality child protection and welfare services.
3. Increased coverage and quality of equitable community-based child protection and welfare services, particularly for children in dysfunctional families, children in families affected by migration and children with disabilities.
4. Professional standards and guidelines for the delivery of statutory child protection services strengthened.
5. Evidence and lessons learned from the pilot are well documented and disseminated to inform national scale-up strategies and guidelines.

Given the scale of the work and the fact that implementation is gaining traction, the UNICEF Child Protection Section is seeking a full-time consultant, to support the team in delivering above results, and in particularly for the following:

• The development and implementation of guidelines for the key child protection-system building blocks
• A robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework, including tools and indicators, for the routine monitoring of the results of positive parenting and psychosocial support for children;
• Development and implementation of local communication and advocacy strategy on protection of children

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical input and support to the case management and M&E components of the ‘Integrated Child Protection Services Model’.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

Scope of assignment: 

Activities 1:

Facilitate inputs into the development of guidelines for the key building blocks of a strong child protection system, including:  1) Service Standard Guideline for Child Directors; 2) Service Guideline for Children's Places;  3) Guidance for county level minors protection centers; 4) Guideline on identifying and reporting child protection cases; 5)  Guideline on multi-agency collaboration for child protection case management;

Deliverables:

• Research and consolidation of good practices of child protection mechanisms and relevant service guidelines globally and in China
• Facilitation of training workshops and coaching sessions for county civil affairs bureauex) for trail implementation of the mechanisms and guidelines
• Collection of feedback from trail implementation for further improvement and flinalisation of the guidelines

Timelines:

August 2022 to July 2023

Activities 2:

Work collaboratively with the existing project coordination mechanism to support  strengthen the framework through the inclusion of essential indicators to measure over the duration of the project to ensure proper implementation are solicited, including tools and indicators for the routine monitoring of the results of the provision of integrated child protection services.  Key activities include:

• Accessing the routine data collection pathways, assessment indicators and tools currently used by the project
• Convene and facilitate meetings every two months on M&E within the scope of the project team of the implementing partners (mainly MCA’s project management office, focal persons of the provincial and county civil affairs bureaux), to ensure the process and deliverables outlined above are constantly discussed, validated and approved by stakeholders;
• Build the capacity of critical stakeholders and technical staff in Result Based Management (RBM) and particularly in implementing the M&E framework, through development of resources and delivering training sessions;

• Report with proposal for improving the routine monitoring data management system for the project, including proposed options and tools for improving routine data management system accountability structure and tools;
• Capacity building sessions held, with a report summarizing outcomes of training experience with recommendations for continuation of capacity building plan;
• Capacity development needs assesment, capacity building plan and training/ capacity building reports;
• Meeting minutes of bi-monthly meetings on M&E

Timelines:

At least bi-monthly, throughout the whole assignment

Activity 3

Work collaboratively with MCA’s project management office and the consultant institution to facilitate the development and implementation of a communication strategy aimed to increase awareness of general public on child protection;

Deliverables

Inputs provided to:

• Identification of target groups/stakeholders and communication objective for targeted audience in pilot counties;
• Create key program messages;
• Identification of main communication channels and strategies to reach the different target audiences;
• Identification of the communication products and activities tailored to each audience;
• Training and guidance to implement the proposed strategy;

Timelines:

August to December  2022

Start Date:  15 August 2022

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have Individual Contractor’s Qualification Requirements:

Minimum Academic Qualifications required and disciplines:

• University degree in social science, social development studies, humanity or other relevant discipline.

Knowledge/Experience/Expertise/Skills required:

• A minimum of five years of relevant work experience in child protection programming, including planning, management, monitoring and evaluation;
• At least 5 years of experience in a managerial capacity/senior supervisory role, as well as practical experience of coordinating work;
• Experience in developing and tracking programme results and M&E frameworks;
• Experience and proven record in child protection communications, advocacy, and strategic management;
• Self-motivated team worker with a clear drive for results;
• Good interpersonal skills;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Strong writing skills in Chinese and English;
• Ability to work under tight deadlines and independently;
• Ability to work in international and multicultural environment, and to work with cultural sensitivity;
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office software;

For every Child, you demonstrate:

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

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 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.