Child Protection - Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant

Background and Justification

Within the framework of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2014–2017, the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Management Team (RMT) identified the following five programmatic priorities to focus cross-country action and learning, and to reinforce joint accountability: 1) enabling children to survive and thrive; 2) reducing stunting to provide opportunities for children to realize their full potential; 3) improving education quality and learning outcomes to prepare children for the future; 4) achieving results for adolescents (R4A) that help them manage risks and realize their full potential and 5) scaling up social protection interventions to reduce child poverty and other vulnerabilities that impede the full realization of child rights. ESARO Child Protection Section is responsible for monitoring progress against outputs in Priority 1 and 4 related to birth registration, violence against children and child marriage. Each output is accompanied by key bottlenecks, critical actions and indicators of success.

County Offices (COs) have signed on to selected priority outputs and are therefore held to account for the delivery of results.

A review of the status of alignment and implementation of the Regional Priorities related to child protection programming in ESAR indicate the following shortcomings:

1. Some country offices’ indicators are not aligned with the Regional Priorities focus areas on Birth Registration, Child Marriage and Violence against Children and hence cannot be used to track or measure the performance of selected outputs of the Regional Priorities;


2. There is a lack of data against the Regional priority indicators and


3. There appears to be a low level of investment in data collection system by the child protection sector in ESAR.

Against this background, the purpose of this Monitoring and Evaluation consultancy is to support country offices to improve the quality and reporting of the Regional Priority indicators related to child protection. Specifically, the consultant will provide technical support to country offices to assist them with (i) aligning their indicators against the regional priorities; (ii) establish baselines, targets and means of verification and (iii) to establish a monitoring framework to measure progress.

Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the Regional Adviser Child Protection and in collaboration with the Chief of PPME, the consultant will provide overall technical assistance to ESARO and ESAR COs to improve their capacity to effectively monitor the Child Protection components of the ESA Regional Priorities. In particular, the consultant will:

1. Conduct an assessment on the extent to which the country offices have aligned their indicators to the Regional Priority indicators related to child protection.


2. Conduct a bottleneck analysis of country offices usage of UNICEF’s internal management information system (RAM) as a management tool and provide actionable recommendations to address identified bottlenecks.


3. Produce a summary report on the results up to date on the Regional Priorities.


4. Provide technical support to country offices to align their indicators to the Regional Priorities, including the establishment of baselines, targets, frequency of updates and data sources.


5. Provide an orientation to country offices on the usage of RAM.


6. Provide technical assistance to country offices in the development of country specific monitoring system linked to the regional priorities.


7. Document good practices in monitoring results for child protection and share lessons learned and actionable recommendations with COs in the form of a webinar.

Outputs/deliverables

The consultant will assist identified Regional Priority countries for child protection to strengthen their country programme monitoring systems related to the regional Priorities. By the end of the consultancy, country offices will have an increased capacity to report progress on the Child Protection related Regional Priorities. To facilitate progress and ensure timely delivery of outputs, the consultant will submit an initial workplan, travel schedule and a final report including lessons learned, actionable recommendations and way forward as well as a summary list of outputs/deliverables.

Deliverable 1:

An inception report with an outlined methodology for the establishment of baselines, targets and means of verification for child protection outputs and outcomes related to the ESA Regional Priorities and an action plan.

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 30 October 2015

Deliverable 2:

Country by country feedback reports on the status of alignment of the Regional Priorities related to child protection, including identification of key bottlenecks in the usage of RAM as a monitoring tool for Regional Priority focus countries on child protection and recommendations on how to address these bottlenecks

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 30 November 2015

Deliverable 3:

Two (2) regional webinars for child protection M&E officers in Regional Priority focus countries for child protection on how to operate RAM, including documentation and sharing of good practices regarding programme monitoring.

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 30 January 2016

Deliverable 4:

Individual Regional Priority country M&E frameworks for how to monitor the regional priorities.

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 28 February 2016

Deliverable 5:

A report outlining results achieved to date on the regional Priorities related to child protection.

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 31 March 2016

Deliverable 6:

A final report of the consultancy (maximum 20 pages), including actionable recommendations and a way forward to strengthen the M&E capacity of COs.

Duration: 1 month

Deadline: 31 March 2016

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

Competencies and skills

• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.


• Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.


• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.


• Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.


• Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.


• Analyses and integrates diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.


• Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.


• Identifies urgent and potentially difficult decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates team- and department-wide activities.


• Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization.

Education/Experience

• Post graduate qualification in social sciences and/or statistics


• Minimum 8 years of experience in designing and/or implementing M&E systems


• Ability to collect, collate and analyse data in a scientific and effective manner


• Analytical, methodical and precise style of writing


• Experience in the usage of RAM would be a merit


• Excellent communication and presentation skills in English


• Availability to travel frequently in the region

Administrative Issues

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of UNICEF ESARO Child Protection Section and will report to the OIC of the section. A reference group will be established consisting of the consultant, OIC of the child protection section, the chief PPME and 2 child protection chiefs from focus countries for guidance.

The Consultant is expected to travel extensively in the region based on an agreed schedule with input and requests from country offices. The country offices will provide DSA and travel.

Travel schedules will be based on a regional assessment of the need and capacity at different country levels with a particular focus on the Regional Priority countries. Timing for visits and planning will be negotiated at country level via UNICEF country offices.

Conditions

Travel will be organized by the most economical fare and reimbursed as per UNICEF Policy. UN DSA rates for subsistence and accommodation apply at all times. Air travel is by most economical fare and reimbursement as per UNICEF Policy; Consultant to complete Waiver for Non-Staff issued with travel authorization in accordance with UNICEF Financial and Administrative Policy 5, Supplement 4 (B.2):

Non-UNICEF staff (including individual consultants) issued with UNICEF Travel Authorization are not covered by the insurance which automatically applies to UNICEF staff, and are fully responsible for arranging their own insurance cover.

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.

The selected Consultant will be governed by, and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.