National Consultant: Child-Sensitive Village Law Implementation

Under the supervision of Social Policy Specialist, the consultant will work closely with and support MOV and UNICEF in implementing some of the aforementioned key activities. The purpose of this assignment is to support Ministry of Village, Disadvantage Regions and Transmigration (MOV) to increase the effectiveness of village fund utilization in addressing child needs in villages.

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Title: National Consultant: Child-Sensitive Village Law Implementation
Type of Contract: SSA (Special Service Agreement)
Duty Station: Jakarta
Duration: February until August 2017 (6 months)

Purpose of the Assignment

Following the passage of Law No.6/2014 about Village, the central government has transferred up to 10% of the total government budget (APBN) to villages since 2015. It is estimated that on average a village has received around IDR 700 million in 2016, and government plans to increase the transfer to IDR 800 million per village in 2017 and reaching more than IDR 1 billion per village by 2019. Community must use these funds to finance priority development activities that are identified and selected by themselves. Government expects this mechanism will improve community's welfare and development at villages by decentralizing the authority for financing development activities, including those that benefit children, to village community.

The Ministry of Village, Disadvantage Regions and Transmigration (MOV) is overseeing the roll out of the Village Law, managing around USD 3.6 billion of Village Fund per year that are distributed to villages for village development priorities and to address local problems. Evaluation on the effectiveness of village fund utlisation in the last couple of years, however, shows that the fund has not been effectively used to address child needs at village.

MOV is keen to make sure village fund can be used to improve child well-being at village and to support Government efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals at the village level. In a meeting with UNICEF in March 2016, the Secretary General of MOV requested UNICEF to support the ministry to strengthen the effectiveness of the Village Fund utilization in addressing child needs at village and to achieve child-related SDGs at the village level.
MOV and UNICEF have followed up this request and agreed on these key activities:
1) Support to review, refine and develop regulations, operational procedures, and guidelines on child-sensitive planning and budgeting at village;
2) Support for community and local government to ensure the village development planning and budgeting processes are responsive to child needs and rights;
3) Support for local government (including village government) to ensure that the use of village fund for children are managed in a participatory, transparent and accountable way, and to stimulate the increased and more effective utilization of local resources for village development;
4) Pilot innovative approaches to increase effectiveness of village fund utilization in meeting child needs at selected villages (also called Pembangunan Desa Terpadu Berbasis Anak or Child-based Integrated Village Development) at selected village(s) as agreed by Kemendesa and UNICEF; and
5) Document good practices during the implementation of village law at selected locations and disseminating these good practices to other villages/regions.

The expected outputs of this collaboration are:
1) Development of regulations (Permen, Perbup, Perwali) to support and increase the use of village funds for child needs;
2) Development of operation procedures, manuals and guidelines for village-level child-sensitive planning and budgeting, which to be used by local government, facilitators, and communities;
3) Implementation of pilot to test the most effective approaches to increase the effectiveness of village fund to address child needs in selected villages; and
4) Documentation and dissemination of good practices on child-sensitive planning and budgeting from the pilot village(s) to other villages/regions.

The achievements of these outputs are expected to lead to the achievement of two key outcomes of this collaboration:
1) Increased number and quality of child-sensitive activities funded through the village fund at selected pilot locations; and
2) Replication of good practices on village fund child-sensitive planning and budgeting from pilot locations to other villages/regions.

Assignment Tasks

Under the supervision of Social Policy Specialist, the consultant will work closely with and support MOV and UNICEF in implementing some of the aforementioned key activities. The purpose of this assignment is to support MOV to increase the effectiveness of village fund utilization in addressing child needs in villages.
This support includes:
1) Review, revise and develop operation procedures, manuals and guidelines for village-level child-sensitive planning and budgeting, to be used by local government, facilitators, and communities;
2) Review, revise and develop regulations on pro-child village fund utilization both at central and local government levels;
3) Provide advocacy support to ensure the regulations around Village Fund utilization are supporting child needs in villages;
4) Support to the preparation of piloting of pro-child village (or Pembangunan Desa Terpadu Berbasis Anak) at selected locations; and
5) Support in development of communication strategy to document and disseminate good practices from pilot locations.

Expected Deliverables

1. Final draft of guidelines, standard operating procedures, and manuals for the implementation of pro-child village fund are developed under the leadership of Kemendesa (SubDIt PPP) and in close collaboration with Kemendesa, UNICEF and other relevant stakeholders.
2. Final draft of the central level regulations (Peraturan Menteri/Permen) for village fund utilization in 2019 that addresses child needs at village are developed under the leadership of Kemendesa (SubDIt PPP)and in close collaboration with Kemendesa, UNICEF and other relevant stakeholders.
3. Technical inputs and support for UNICEF Jakarta, UNICEF Field Offices and local governments for the review, revision and/or development of local level regulations (i.e. Peraturan Bupati/Walikota (Perbup/Perwali)) on pro-child village fund utilisation at sub-national level.
4. Technical inputs for Kemendesa and UNICEF for the development of regulations, guidelines and operating procedures for the implementation and replication of the Child-based Integrated Village Development Pilot.

The main beneficiary of this support is the Sub Directorate of Participatory Planning and Development (SubDit PPP) under the Directorate of Community and Village Empowerment (Dit PMD), Ministry of Village. In addition, the support will also benefit local governments at selected areas, UNICEF Jakarta and Field Offices. The consultant will work closely with the SubDit and provide regular update to the UNICEF Social Policy team.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

Master degree in Degree in Social Sciences, Social Policy, Public Health, international development, development economics or related subjects.

Years of relevant experience

Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience.

Others:

1. Strong understanding of Village Law and child issues/child rights.
2. Strong understanding of community driven (CDD) development concepts.
3. Strong expertise in developing village/community related regulations and guidelines.
4. Strong expertise and experience in developing child-sensitive regulations and guidelines.
5. Past working experience with GOI partners, particularly the Min of Village (Kemendesa) and Min of Home Affairs (Kemendagri).
6. Familiarity with GoI's CDD programme focusing on health and education.
7. Understanding of Disaster Risks and Reduction (DRR) is an advantage.

Please indicate your ability, availability and monthly/lumpsum rate (in IDR) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation. This consultancy is open for Indonesian national only.