HON 15-2021 Consultancy to Coordinate the National Child Protection Area of Responsibility

UNICEF Honduras is searching for a qualified candidate to ensure a coherent and effective child protection response by mobilizing groups of agencies, organizations and NGOs to respond in a strategic manner to humanitarian crisis.

BACKGROUND

In the framework of the emergency brought upon by the passing of the ETA and IOTA hurricanes between November 01 and 16, 2020, the United Nations Resident Coordinator requested the activation of the Clusters in Honduras to respond in a coordinated and effective way to the humanitarian situation that generated natural disasters and that was aggravated by the context of pre-existing violence and COVID-19.

The Cluster activations fall within the Country Humanitarian Network constituted on May 21, 2010 according to the guidelines of the humanitarian reform. It aims to respond to the shared obligation to alleviate the needs of people, increasing the impact of humanitarian actions and the commitment to improve the coordination and participation of all humanitarian actors in humanitarian assistance. The Country Humanitarian Network of Honduras has as its reference the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC); Responsible for designing and agreeing on humanitarian policies at the international level to improve response to emergencies. The clusters currently active in Honduras are: Protection Cluster, Child Protection Area of Responsibility, Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility, Education, WASH, Health, Cash Transfers. There are also two subnational clusters; Sula Valley Protection Cluster and inter-cluster coordination group, based out of San Pedro Sula, Cortés Department.

The child protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR) is activated under UNICEF leadership and Save the Children co-leadership. UNICEF and 13 CP AoR partners are focusing their efforts on providing immediate relief in shelters, Migration routes, returns and any other humanitarian situation that children might face, including psychosocial support, protection services to affected families and children, and information to shelter coordinators and communities on ensuring protection of girls, boys, women and other vulnerable groups.

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The objective of a country-level Child Protection (CP) AoR Coordinator is to ensure a coherent and effective child protection response by mobilizing groups of agencies, organizations and NGOs to respond in a strategic manner to humanitarian crisis. The role of the CP AoR Coordinator as set out in the IASC Generic Terms of Reference for Sector Leads is to lead and facilitate this process through:

• Inclusion of key humanitarian partners;
• Establishment and maintenance of appropriate humanitarian coordination mechanisms;
• Coordination with national/local authorities, state institutions, local civil society and other relevant actors;
• Ensuring appropriate participatory and community-based approaches;
• Ensuring appropriate attention to priority cross-cutting issues;
• Undertaking needs assessment and analysis;
• Coordinating sector-wide emergency preparedness;
• Undertaking planning and strategy development;
• Ensuring the application of appropriate standards;
• Ensuring monitoring and reporting;
• Undertaking advocacy and resource mobilization;
• Undertaking training and capacity building; and
• Provision of assistance or services as a last resort subject to access, security and availability of funding.

The CP AoR coordinator will work impartially, serving the needs of all members of the CP AoR and should work closely with the UN Humanitarian/Residence Coordinator, UNCT/IASC as appropriate.

FUNCTION AND KEY RESPONSBILITIES 

Overall responsibilities

• Together with the Protection cluster, the GBV AoR and with child protection actors, lead the strategic development of the CP AoR including development of strategies, work plans, co-ordination of response activities,  considering the cross-cutting issues.
• Ensure that information is shared amongst AoR members and between sectors/clusters in order to improve planning, integration and implementation. This includes contributing to regular OCHA situation reports and taking an active part in OCHA co-ordination meetings.
• Support the capacity of sub-national AoR and ensure that clear and effective communication occurs between sub-national AoR and the national AoR.
• Facilitate the joint development of relevant and contextualized minimum standards, policies and guidelines by CP AoR members and build their capacity to apply these.
• Track and monitor AoR members fundraising for CP specific interventions. Ensure that members are aware of funding opportunities and support their capacity to access these.
• Support sector wide contingency planning including support to the development and application of sector wide emergency preparedness plans and capacity building of CP AoR members.

Main Tasks

• With child protection actors, leads, coordinates and supervises an inter-agency child protection needs assessment to map out priority protection gaps and identify key resources and assets, while considering the impact of the emergency on existing protective systems.
• Leads the exercise of the HNO/HRP for the CP sector, together with OCHA
• Work with the Protection Cluster lead and with the GBV AoR lead to ensure that key child protection concerns are reflected in OCHA-led multi-sectoral assessments, as well as other non-child protection specific sectoral assessments. Inter-agency Strategic planning responsibilities
• In collaboration with national and international child protection actors, map current response capacities including institutional one,
• Promote the filling of OCHA tools such as 345W.
• In collaboration with child protection Actors, develop a realistic evidence-based, inter-agency child protection preparedness and response plan, including both programmatic and advocacy activities (results oriented).
• Work with child protection actors to develop an inter-agency CPiE capacity building strategy that meets the needs and priorities of key national and local stakeholders (e.g. community, civil society, government officials, NGOs, non-child protection humanitarian actors) in order to be able to implement the agreed programmes. Monitoring and evaluation responsibilities
• With child protection actors, identify benchmarks for the inter-agency child protection Prepardness and response plan – ensure periodic review of agency and inter-agency response.
•  With partners, identify response gaps (including geographic coverage and programmatic scope) and seek solutions to fill the gaps.
• In consultation with non-governmental child protection actors and national civil society, identify appropriate mechanisms for working with and collaborating with national authorities.
• Promote, respect and ensure that the Principles of Partnership are reflected in the day-to-day work of the child protection coordination mechanism. Represent the interests of the sectoral group in discussions with the humanitarian community and other stakeholders on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy.
• Establish results-oriented, two-way communication channels between the national and sub-national levels, to promote, upgrade and strengthen a more standardized child protection response at the operational and national levels.
• Represent Child Protection Actors within the national and sub-national Protection Cluster, the GBV AoR,  the OCHA-led inter-cluster coordination mechanisms, other relevant clusters and, when possible, within the IASC/UN country team.
• Promote emergency response actions, while at the same time considering the needs for early recovery planning. When feasible, work with child protection actors to identify entry points for building national child protection systems.
• Work with partners to develop a child protection inter-agency emergency preparedness plan (before, during and post emergency).

Other Protection Cluster/CP related responsibilities

• Work with the Protection Cluster, the GBV AoR and/or other actors including Areas of Responsibility to identify opportunities to integrate child protection into other protection and other sector activities and to avoid duplication
• Work with the Protection Cluster the GBV AoR and/or other humanitarian actors to prevent unintentional harm to children as a result of inappropriate humanitarian assistance.
• Collaborate with the Protection Cluster, the GBV AoR and/or other bodies as necessary, such as the GBV AoR and the Health and Shelter Clusters to support and contribute to MHPSS coordination mechanism as necessary.

Fundraising responsibilities

• In close consultation with child protection actors, leads the development of CERF, FLASH and CAP proposals
• Advocate with donors to ensure appropriate support for inter-agency child protection activities. Organize inter-agency meetings with donors.
• Leverage resources within UNICEF to support Inter-agency child protection activities under the Cluster.

Standard promotion and setting related responsibilities

• Refresh or establish standards, where they are lacking, and core commitments to frame the response in the sector at the onset of the emergency
• Work with child protection actors, the GBV AoR and others to promote/facilitate the integration of crosscutting issues into the child protection response (e.g. gender, HIV, rights-based approach).
• Work with partners to promote the appropriate use of participatory and community-based approaches in assessments, analysis, planning and monitoring and response. Participatory approaches must be in line with the best interests of the child.
• Work with partners to promote the set up of feedback mechanisms
• Work with partners to promote ‘Do No Harm’ principles and facilitate their integration into all aspects of the child protection response.

DELIVERABLES

• The completion of the HNO and HRP processes and products.
• An updated AoR strategy that reflects the HNO and HRP accompanied with a strategic action plan.
• Mapping of response, needs, gaps and actors.
• Coordinated and quality Child Protection humanitarian response.
• Completion of OCHA Sit Reps and other humanitarian reporting requirements as determined by the Humanitarian Coordination Team.
• Monthly report detailing progress in the above deliverables.
• Experience in “children on the move” is considered as an asset

REQUIRED PROFILE

Education:  A university degree in one of the following fields is required: international development, human rights, psychology, sociology, international law, or another relevant social science field.

Experience: International experience working in a developing country, including at least 1 year in an emergency context in Child Protection in Emergencies CPiE.

Including at least one experience as CP Cluster/AoR coordinator

Experience of responding in the first phase of an emergency is considered as an asset

Relevant experience in programming in child protection related areas in a UN system agency is considered as an asset.

Language Requirements: Excellent Spanish communication skills both verbal and written. Good understanding of English. 

SELECTION CRITERIA

The selection of the consultant / consultant will be made based on the following aspects: methodology, experience in similar work, relevance of proposal, references, etc.):

• Technical proposal:          70%
• Financial proposal:     30%

** The technical and financial proposal must be submitted in separate documents

DURATION OF CONTRACT 

6 months after signature of contract. Possibility of extending up to a maximum of 11.5months. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

1. Location of work: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
2. Field visits: Frequent travel to San Pedro Sula and other north coast municipalities as required to coordinate with subnational clusters and in-field coordination activities.
3. Insurance: The consultant will acquire his own insurance policies to support medical expenses and / or personal accidents that cover these eventualities for the duration of this contract. UNICEF does not assume responsibility for any accident that the consultant may suffer, since this contract does not imply an employer relationship of any kind.
4. Report submission: The consultant will deliver the agreed products and reports electronically, in Spanish and to the satisfaction of the supervision of this consultancy. The expenses of issuance and delivery of these products / reports will be borne by the consultant.
5. Reservation of property rights: All documents, materials or products of this consultancy are the property of UNICEF and may not be used by third parties without their authorization.
6. Required training:If selected, the consultant must complete four mandatory courses (Bsafe, PSEA, Ethics and Harassment) prior to starting the contract. This is a new UNICEF requirement and applies to all consultancies. The courses are only taken once and with the certificates you can apply to other UNICEF consultancies. A copy of the certificates must be sent in order to sign the contract.
7. Taxation: Neither UNICEF nor the United Nations will assume responsibility for any taxes, fees or other contributions to which the individual consultant or contractor is liable on payments made on their behalf under this contract. In addition, neither UNICEF nor the United Nations will issue an income statement to the individual consultant or contractor.

FEES AND PAYMENT METHOD

Payment will be made according to the schedule presented in the financial offer; against delivery of invoice and expected products to the satisfaction of the contract supervisor. (The first payment cannot be more than 30% of the total value of the contract)

For national consultants, payment will be made in local currency with CAI billing.

For international consultants the payment will be made in US Dollars.

APPLICATIONS

Those interested in applying to this consultancy must submit the following:

1. An application letter highlighting the knowledge, experience and skills relevant to the development of this consultancy.
2. Your updated P11 form including three professional references.
3. A technical proposal that includes the following:

• Proposed methodology with its respective justification.
• Explanation of how the quality of the processes and intermediate products will be guaranteed in the development and implementation cycle.
• Description of the way in which the consultant will establish coordination mechanisms and institutional strengthening processes.

4. An economic offer with the fees, travel expenses and per diem to carry out this consultancy.

National consultants must present their offer in Lempiras. International consultants must present their offer in US Dollars