Recrutement de 01 International Consultancy for Situation Analysis (SitAn) of Children and Adolescents

Recrutement de 01 International Consultancy for Situation Analysis (SitAn) of Children and Adolescents
Niveau d'études: Non précisé
Expérience: Non précisé
Expire le: 05-09-2022

UNICEF
Malabo, Guinea Ecuatorial
Humanitaire (ONG, Associations, ...), Projet/programme de développement
International Consultancy for Situation Analysis (SitAn) of Children and Adolescents, Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, 5 months

Job no: 554231
Contract type: Consultant
Duty Station: Malabo
Level: Consultancy
Location: Equatorial Guinea
Categories: Adolescent Development, Child Protection, Early Childhood Development

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, a better future

Background
The Situation Analysis (the SitAn) of children’s rights and wellbeing is a flagship product designed to inform policy dialogue, partnerships, and interventions to improve the lives of children. It is an assessment and analysis of the country situation, with respect to children's rights and critical issues affecting their realization. The SitAn is a crucial part of the child rights monitoring (CRM) framework and represents a key UNICEF’s programmatic output that helps focus on knowledge gaps related to inequities and child deprivations. By promoting the broad engagement of all stakeholders, the SitAn is expected to inform policy dialogue in the country and child-focused policy advocacy to make an important contribution to accelerating the achievement of child-related goals with equity.

The SitAn reflects UNICEF’s role to urge all levels of governments and all key stakeholders to use the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guiding mechanism in policy making and legislation to:

Develop a comprehensive national agenda;
Develop permanent bodies or mechanisms to promote coordination, monitoring and evaluation of activities throughout all sectors of government;
Ensure that all legislation is fully compatible with the Convention and, if applicable the Optional Protocols, by incorporating the provisions into domestic law or ensuring that they take precedence in cases of conflict with national legislation;
Make children visible in policy development processes throughout government by introducing child impact assessments;
Analyse government spending to determine the portion of public funds spent on children and to ensure that these resources are being used effectively;
Ensure that sufficient data are collected and used to improve the situation of all children in each jurisdiction;
Raise awareness and disseminate information on the Convention and the Optional Protocols by providing training to all those involved in government policy-making and working with or for children;
Involve civil society – including children themselves – in the process of implementing and raising awareness of child rights.
According to the previous SitAn, from 2016, Equatorial Guinea has gone through profound changes in the last two decades, mainly related to the discovery and exploitation of oil. Despite some years of accelerated economic growth and high investments in infrastructure, social indicators did not improve at the same pace. Moreover, there is a lack of updated, reliable, and disaggregated data to evaluate effective progress in some key areas of children and adolescents’ development and to identify the most disadvantaged sub-groups of the population.

Among the main findings of the previous SitAn are:
It is necessary to harmonize the national legal framework with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and reinforce its application.
The country needs to strengthen its capacities and institutions to improve access and quality of child-related services.
Increasing the investment in social sectors is key to overcoming disparities affecting the most excluded children and adolescents.
The lack of reliable, updated, disaggregated data and evidence, including a gender perspective, is a significant obstacle to improving the implementation and monitoring of policies to fulfill children’s rights.
Although the economic growth allowed improved access to schools, putting in place an adequate education infrastructure remains a big challenge. Most of the schools are private and unaffordable for low-income families. In addition, teachers’ capacities are low.
The number of children enrolled in preschool increased in the last years, but there is a huge gap between urban (75%) and rural (25%) areas. The number of students attending primary school also has increased, but repetition, extra-age, and dropout in rural settings are concerning. As for the secondary school, 82% of the schools are located in the main two cities of the country (Malabo and Bata), 75% are private, and in general, they have proven unable to satisfy the demand. Only two private schools in the country offer education to children with disabilities, and only 2% of the teachers have received specialized training to address their specific needs.
Regarding the right to health, from the supply side, health facilities in rural areas lack essential equipment, supplies, and trained personnel, particularly in rural areas.
Significant setbacks in vaccination coverage have been partially overcome through implementing a dedicated vaccination programme.
Access to antenatal care is broad (91% of pregnant women with at least one visit and 68% of deliveries in health facilities), but disparities between rural and urban women remain high.
Prevalence of HIV/AIDS is high in the country and affects more women (8.3%) than men (3.7%). Stigma and discrimination against populations living with HIV are common. There are interventions to get children diagnosed and treated in a timely manner, but they are mainly focused on major cities.
Even though there are no recent data on child nutrition, exclusive breastfeeding is as low as 7%, and food insecurity affected 65% of the population, according to estimations from 2015.
Child protection is still a developing concept in Equatorial Guinea. Social norms related to gender, violence against children, child marriages and unions, and child labour do not align with a child-rights approach.
Around half of the children are not registered at birth, mainly in the rural and continental regions, compared to the urban, insular areas.
Equatorial Guinea does not have a social protection system. The contributory regime covers a small part of the population employed in the formal sector of the economy. Still, the non-contributory pillar is limited to in-kind interventions with small coverages.

It is worth mentioning that UNICEF Equatorial Guinea conducted a mid-term review (MTR) in 2021, which included consultations with the Regional Office and main counterparts. The MTR concluded in June 2021 and led to an agreement on the following key priorities and strategies for 2021 – 2023:
Evidence generation focused on advocating to carry out a national household survey and to launching U-Report in the country.
Social protection, focused on advocating for the approval of law on the National Social Protection System, and to promote the public social investment for children.
Child protection, to promote increasing birth registration coverage through the interoperability between the judicial and health systems.
Health, by strengthening immunization services, supporting the eradication of HIV vertical transmission, and integrating decentralized health services at the district level.
Education, focused on measuring learning outcomes in preschool and primary; providing psychosocial support to children affected by the explosions in Bata, while keep supporting the government’s efforts to provide distance education, and generating evidence about water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools.

Bearing in mind the findings of the 2016 Situation Analysis, and having conducted extensive consultations with all relevant stakeholders, UNICEF, and the Government of Equatorial Guinea agreed to adopt a Country Programme Document (CPD) for the 2018 – 2023 period that centred around a series of complementary programme interventions under 3 broad components:
Child Protection and Equity - This programme component has one outcome related to the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework fit for children: to improve the social well-being of the most vulnerable boys and girls through the development of equitable social and child protection systems and policies.
Child survival, development, and learning - This programme component aims at addressing inequalities of investments within the social sector, prioritizing the continental region (via the UNICEF field presence in Bata) and focusing on health and education system strengthening, modelling an integrated approach in selected underserved districts. This “child-friendly district” strategy intends to integrate services to promote sustainable quality, creating evidence to influence policy advocacy for national scale-up.
Programme Effectiveness - This component aims to ensure that the country programme is managed efficiently, that its components are well coordinated and that cross-sectoral interventions for gender, policy advocacy, emergency preparedness and response, behaviour change communication and monitoring and evaluation are well integrated.
The implementation of the current CPD has achieved significant progress in areas such as birth registration, vaccination, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, learning outcomes, and distance learning. Some of the expected results in these areas were stagnated or delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemics and the emergency in Bata after a series of explosions in a military facility in March 2021. However, the CO took advantage of the emergencies to advocate and provide technical assistance to the government in “new” fields, such as psychosocial support and social protection, including implementing the first-ever humanitarian cash transfer programme for families with children affected by the explosions in Bata.

As Equatorial Guinea and UNICEF prepare to discuss the priorities of new Country Programme cycle, there is a growing need to update the analysis and provide UNICEF and its partners with new and robust evidence on situation of children and adolescents in the country, particularly the most vulnerable, to inform programme decisions and guide policy advocacy and partnership efforts, as well as to track progress of child rights implementation. Such an analysis will also be timely as it will inform the country CRC report, the drafting of a national child protection plan, and the Common Country Assessment which will be happening in parallel.

UNICEF, its partners, and other stakeholders conducted research, studies and evaluations that provided new evidence that could be used to strengthen and broaden data/information evidence on the situation of children and adolescents in the country.

In view of the above, UNICEF Equatorial Guinea CO is seeking the services of an international individual consultant to develop the SitAn report using the available evidence, while paying due consideration to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda, UNICEF Strategic Plan for 2022-2025, UNICEF Gender Action Plan 2022-2025, and main national and global priorities, such as the National Strategy for Sustainable Development "Agenda Guinea Ecuatorial 2035”.

Formative Evaluation of UNICEF’s contribution to increase the vaccination coverage in Equatorial Guinea, Desk Review on the KRC7 (Birth Registration), analysis of water sources in Bata after the explosions in March 2022, study of WASH in schools in Equatorial Guinea, private sector mapping in Equatorial Guinea, among others.

How can you make a difference?
The consultants will work in close consultation and under the supervision of UNICEF Equatorial Guinea Deputy Representative and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
The assignment is expected to be undertaken by one international individual consultant.

Required background and experience:

Background
Recognized institution/researcher with proven experience in public policy, social policy and policy analysis, public finance, and child/human rights

Education
Advanced degree in social sciences, international development, or related fields relevant for the assignment

Expertise and skills
Strong analytical skills – references to previous work or institutions
Excellent knowledge of statistics, social service systems, development agenda
Previous experience with UNICEF is an advantage.
At least 5 years of relevant experience in development of analytical reports and policy documents related to children and adolescents;
Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, policy (and finance) analysis (including experience in the consistent use of age and sex-disaggregated and gender sensitive data) and report preparation;
Knowledge of human rights-based approach to programming
Experience in facilitating consultations with government representatives, NGOs, academia, children, adolescents, and other stakeholders
Fluency in English and Spanish
Excellent writing skills

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:
Please see attached ToR

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.

Deadline: 05 Sep 2022 W. Central Africa Standard Time