International homebased consultancy-Research Consultant for Communities Care-UNICEF South Sudan 100 days

The purpose of this consultancy (100 days) is to manage all aspects of the research component of Communities Care (planning, data collection, analysis and reporting) and provide technical support and guidance to UNICEF partners on evidence based programming using qualitative and quantitative methods to start up, implement and monitor the Community-Based Care (CBC) and Community Engagement and Action (CE&A) components of the programme. The consultant will be home-based with quarterly travel to Juba. The consultant will receive overall guidance and day-to-day supervision from the GBV Specialist. S/he will work closely with the UNICEF Communities Care Consultant and Child Protection team based in field offices and UNICEF GBV partners.

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

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) South Sudan is a seeking a qualified Research Consultant with strong background and experience in social norms change interventions using Communities Care. Since 2023, UNICEF South Sudan has been scaling up efforts to address GBV and is expanding partnerships with national partners including women-led organisations (WLO) to increase the availability of GBV prevention, response, and risk mitigation interventions. As part of this, UNICEF is working with GBV partners to implement the Communities Care model, UNICEF’s flagship GBV prevention intervention to address harmful norms and beliefs that underpin GBV. The overall goal of Communities Care is to create safer communities for women and girls through transforming harmful social norms that contribute to sexual violence into social norms that uphold women and girls’ equality, safety and dignity. Communities care has twin objectives to create an environment in which survivors can obtain holistic compassionate care and support from quality survivor-centred services and to catalyse community-led action to reduce tolerance of sexual violence and to implement comprehensive prevention measures through transforming harmful beliefs and norms that foster sexual violence.

In 2023, all partners participated in a 14-day training on Communities Care and are currently setting it up in their programming. The foundation and first step within Communities Care is to strengthen response mechanisms for survivors of GBV, creating an environment in which survivors can obtain holistic compassionate care and support from quality survivor-centred services. GBV services are critical to ensure women and girls receive lifesaving assistance as well as to signal to the community that GBV is an important issue requiring action. Once such services are strengthened, the Communities Care model catalyses community action to transform harmful norms and beliefs that underpin GBV. This involves forming community discussion groups and leading them through a process of self-reflection of their own beliefs regarding GBV before mobilising community action to communicate new positive norms and to create an enabling environment for change through laws, policies and protocols. The research component is an important part of the programme as it will support monitoring and evaluation identifying norms and measuring changes in beliefs and measure effectiveness of participatory transformative education in shifting harmful social norms. This will contribute to learning on what works and inform any adaptations to the model.

UNICEF requires a Research Consultant who will have overall responsibility for managing the research, programme monitoring and evaluation management components of Communities Care and for consolidating practice-based evidence to inform any needed adaptations to the the Communities Care model for implementation in South Sudan.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:
The purpose of this consultancy (100 days) is to manage all aspects of the research component of Communities Care (planning, data collection, analysis and reporting) and provide technical support and guidance to UNICEF partners on evidence based programming using qualitative and quantitative methods to start up, implement and monitor the Community-Based Care (CBC) and Community Engagement and Action (CE&A) components of the programme. The consultant will be home-based with quarterly travel to Juba. The consultant will receive overall guidance and day-to-day supervision from the GBV Specialist. S/he will work closely with the UNICEF Communities Care Consultant and Child Protection team based in field offices and UNICEF GBV partners.
Scope of Work:
Main tasks and deliverables related to the consultancy:
1. Revise and adapt programme tools related to baseline and endline surveys, M&E and other research related tools to measure social norms changes in cooperation with UNICEF and other partners. In addition, the consultant will develop protocols to ensure the privacy of personal information and confidentiality of study data including the management of de-identified study participant records in line with ethical and safety recommendations.
2. Conduct quarterly visits to South Sudan to lead and coordinate research and monitoring activities at the field level and build the capacity of the UNICEF South Sudan and partners to ensure proper understanding of the programme tools, their timely and efficient implementation and overall understanding of the programme objectives and outcomes related to the research through trainings and remote support. As part of this, the consultant will support active collaboration, information sharing and joint meetings between UNICEF parnters, local authorities and other stakeholders to identify and strengthen support for programme activities.
3. Oversee baseline and endline surveys including data collection, collation and analysis in locations where partners are implementing Communities Care to measure impacst of the programme on the general population using qualitative and quantitative tools. This includes consolidating and analysing data collected at field level and producing comprehensive reports on baseline and endline surveys to share with partners implementing Communities Care to inform programme adaptations.
4. Support UNICEF South Sudan establish learning platforms that allow organisations rolling out Communities Care to share their experiences, challenges, lessons learned and promote more effective approaches and create solidarity between organisations engaged implementing Communities Care. As part of this, the consultant provide training and mentoring for partners’ M&E teams on qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g., conducting interviews, focus groups, survey sampling and design, and experimental design) to improve the quality of data collection and reporting and will work with them to integrate participatory and feminist approaches to M&E.
5. Design and implement a process evaluation of implementations using baseline and endline surveys, focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII) to document progress, challenges, lessons learned and good practices to inform the next phase of implementation. This should assess changes in beliefs, attitudes and social norms among community members and service providers on GBV from baseline to endline.
6. Produce report on evaluation to demonstrate findings and recommendations.
7. Review the Communities Care toolkit and provide guidance for adaptions based on lessons learned from implementation in South Sudan.

Deliverables
Revise and adapt programme tools related to baseline and endline surveys, M&E and other research related tools to measure social norms changes in cooperation with UNICEF and other partners. In addition, the consultant will develop protocols to ensure the privacy of personal information and confidentiality of study data including the management of de-identified study participant records in line with ethical and safety recommendations.
-Review survey and M&E tools
-Develop information sharing protocol with UNICEF implementing partners 30 June 2024
Conduct quarterly visits to South Sudan to lead and coordinate research and monitoring activities at the field level and build the capacity of the UNICEF South Sudan and partners to ensure proper understanding of the programme tools, their timely and efficient implementation and overall understanding of the programme objectives and outcomes related to the research through trainings and remote support. As part of this, the consultant will support active collaboration, information sharing and joint meetings between UNICEF parnters, local authorities and other stakeholders to identify and strengthen support for programme activities.
-Four visits to South Sudan conducted (30 days)
-Support two trainings on Communities Care research methodologies and M&E tools conducted
-Ongoing remote support to partners 31 March 2025
Oversee baseline and endline surveys including data collection, collation and analysis in locations where partners are implementing Communities Care to measure impacst of the programme on the general population using qualitative and quantitative tools. This includes consolidating and analysing data collected at field level and producing comprehensive reports on baseline and endline surveys to share with partners implementing Communities Care to inform programme adaptations.
-Two reports developed with baseline and endline findings 31 December 2024
Support UNICEF South Sudan establish learning platforms that allow organisations rolling out Communities Care to share their experiences, challenges, lessons learned and promote more effective approaches and create solidarity between organisations engaged implementing Communities Care. As part of this, the consultant provide training and mentoring for partners’ M&E teams on qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g., conducting interviews, focus groups, survey sampling and design, and experimental design) to improve the quality of data collection and reporting and will work with them to integrate participatory and feminist approaches to M&E.
-One learning platform established with quarterly meetings 30 June 2024
Design and implement a process evaluation of implementations using baseline and endline surveys, focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII) to document progress, challenges, lessons learned and good practices to inform the next phase of implementation. This should assess changes in beliefs, attitudes and social norms among community members and service providers on GBV from baseline to endline.
-Process evaluation conducted 31 December 2024
Produce report on evaluation to demonstrate findings, lessons learned and good practices including an analysis of baseline/endline surveys to inform plans for follow up support and recommendations in collaboration with UNICEF Communities Care Consultant and South Sudan team.
-Report produced 31 March 2025
Review the Communities Care toolkit and provide guidance for adaptions based on lessons learned from implementation in South Sudan.
-Recommendations provided for adaptations based on implementation. 15 April 2025

Qualification and experience
Master Degree in Sociology, Social Sciences or related field.
•A minimum of 8 years of experience working on GBV in humanitarian settings.
•Strong understanding of Communities Care implementation and GBV service delivery.
•Proven experience of planning and facilitating trainings, workshops and other capacity building modalities.
•Demonstrable experience conducting and analysing field research and supporting local research team.
•Strong computer skills must be competent in the use of Windows, MS office programmess (Word, Excel, Access), and ability to adapt to Communities Care programme developed databases and tools.
•Excellent spoken and written English and ability to write research documents and reports.
•Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to effectively liaise with people in a wide range of functions in a multi-cultural environment.
•Ability to work independently and productively, with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
•Ability to work productively in a team and independently, and to handle requests or issues as they arise.

All applications should be accompanied with detailed technical and financial proposal.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

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

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

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.