Nationalization/Localization of Coordinated Service Delivery Project, Child Protection in Emergencies (Consultancy)

The Child Protection AoR and the Education Cluster Unit are looking for a Programme Specialist Consultant to undertake the project 'Localization of Coordinated Service Delivery'. Duration: 6 months Duty station: Geneva with frequent travels

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.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, 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 AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

BACKGROUND

National actors are instrumental to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and sustainability of humanitarian results, as they are in place before, during and after crises, and are usually the first to respond when an emergency hits. Recognizing this critical role, international humanitarian actors have committed in at World Humanitarian Summit and through the Grand Bargain to making principled humanitarian action as local as possible and as international as necessary.

These commitments aim to galvanise new partnerships and collaboration with national actors, including government institutions, enhance necessary capacities and expand access to funding channels/mechanisms.

 In order to take these recommendations on-board, it will be important to reflect and understand the extent to which local actors are currently engaging, or not, in coordination mechanisms, including access to funding and decision making processes. To this end, a project is proposed that will provide the necessary data and analysis to better understand current practices, trends and issues in order to highlight how and where local actors are engaged, provide insights into reasons for not engaging, and identify barriers that prevent or hamper national actors from playing a meaningful role. In addition, the proposed project will also offer a series of practical and actionable recommendations rooted into strong evidence, as well as guidance and tools tailored to the roles and capacities of humanitarian partners.

 PURPOSE

This project aims to contribute to strengthening and increasing the role of national actors into coordinated service delivery, through enhanced capacity and access to humanitarian funding. Beginning with the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility, this outcome will be achieved through the pursuing of the following key objectives:

• Increase participation of local actors in coordination structures including decision making and funding mechanisms
• Improve partnership arrangements  to enable commitments of WHS and GB to be met (Government and Civil Society)
• Contribute to reformed funding allocation modalities to local actors (Government and Civil Society)
• Maximize the added value of local actors in ensuring accountability to affected populations

 PROGRAMME DESIGN

The initiative is expected to be rolled out in 3 phases:

First phase: it will gather and collect data through desk reviews and key informant interviews. The desk review will look at, inter alia, existing co-leadership arrangements, financial and structural arrangement for participation and the scale-up experiences of national NGOs. The analysis from this first phase will inform the scope and focus of case studies that will be conducted in a number of contexts relevant to the objectives of the project, also considering regional and context diversity.

 The second phase will include the conduct of case studies. Criteria for country site selection include:

• Existing partnership arrangements must be consistent with humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, both in armed conflict and natural disaster settings.
• Written commitment from the CLA to participate in the pilot, and support in-country visits to further local participation; additional commitments from other AoRs and clusters (e.g. Education) to engage with the initiative.
• Geographic and contextual diversity, including a combination of HC and early warning contexts.

The third phase of the project will focus on turning the results from the study into practical guidance and implementation plan for piloting. During the implementation phase, lessons and practices will be collected and feed into the revision of the guidance and tools.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

 Technical Oversight and Coordination

• Together with the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility leadership, finalise a preliminary work-plan and implementation strategy (including ToRs for consultancies, identifying participating countries and securing commitments from key actors);
• Oversee each phase of the initiative, including technical leadership and oversight to implementing partners and/or contractors, ensuring that deliverables are met and quality assured; and key milestones are reached on time;
• Provide onsite and remote coaching to implementing partners, participating country teams (and individual local NGOs, as required);
• Ensure effective coordination, information sharing, learning and engagement across the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility leadership, Initiative Advisory Group, UNICEF and other AoR agencies; and participating country teams;
• Document lessons learned, compile, analyze and keep up-to-date information on progress for AoR Coordinators;
• Represent or participate with Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility teams at coordination meetings at global level and in-country, as required;
• Identify and promote linkages between this initiative and the broader Cluster and AoR work-plans; and participating country and agencies' broader Cluster and AoR related programmes.

Advocacy

• Support the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility leadership to advocate for donors and new partners to fund or otherwise support the ongoing roll out of the initiative; while at the same time encouraging in-country partners and AoR teams to mobilise resources for their activities.
• Support the in-country Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility coordinators and partners to continue to enjoy ongoing management support to the initiative, through face to face and remote advocacy strategies.
• Support local Cluster and AoR teams to identify opportunities, advocate for, and document increased localization of aid throughout the initiative.
• Prepare briefings and documentation for the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection Area of Responsibility to share lessons learned across the cluster system and donor networks.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES

Education:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, education or related discipline.

Experience and skills:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience with either the UN and/or NGO in international settings;
• Experience in the child protection and/or education in emergencies field, including sound understanding of relevant international instruments, standards and best practices;
• Demonstrated experience in humanitarian contexts, including L3 environments and the cluster system; including development of small scale funding agreements and mentoring support to local partners;
• Demonstrated experience in multi-sectoral coordination, team management and coaching, including remote management;
• Ability to work under pressure and with minimal supervision; and willingness to travel, including emergency and hardship contexts;
• Proven high level analytical and communication skills and ability to build collaborative relationships at all levels and across sectors and agencies;
• Fluency in English (verbal and written).

Management Arrangements

This project will be managed through the Child Protection AoR and Education Global Cluster. The Management Group will be responsible for overseeing contractual arrangements and overall administration of the project. It will require close collaboration with other AoR Coordinators and member agencies at global and country level.

Global Education Cluster and Child Protection AoR will cover costs for an economy air ticket and DSA, as per stretch assignment guidelines. Funding for backfilling post will also be provided if required.

If selected for this opportunity, the relevant staff member will remain on their existing post and will be temporarily situated with the Global Education Cluster and Child Protection AoR in Geneva for the duration of the stretch assignment. Thus, no changes will be made to s/m's existing status (post number etc., will all remain as is).

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) 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.