Individual National Consultant: Education in Emergency for the UNICEF Response Plan of Typhoon Yagi, Viet Nam

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, an opportunity…

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

To provide technical supports for the timely delivery of UNICEF education in emergency (EiE) response at scale targeting vulnerable children including ethnic minority and children with disabilities in the hard-to-reach affected provinces of the Typhoon Yagi. The consultant will focus on the implementation and monitoring of education interventions from early childhood education, lifesaving teaching and learning supplies, mental health and psychosocial support, unconditional cash for education, capacity building for teachers and education managers, dissemination information and awareness raising.

Scope of Work:

Typhoon Yagi affected 3.6 million people in nearly half of Viet Nam’s 63 provinces, exacerbating vulnerabilities in communities already at risk from climate-related disasters. The disaster led to the deaths of 307 people and injured over 1,900 people. Over 240,599 homes, 1,530 schools, and 570 health facilities were reportedly damaged, with another 73,248 homes submerged in floodwaters. An estimated 72,591 people now needed safe shelter due to homes being destroyed or severely damaged. The destruction of and damage to classrooms and school learning facilities also left many students without a place to learn.1

The Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office launched a nine-month joint response plan on 27 September 2024 focusing on the 11 northern mountainous provinces where 1.6 million people were affected and 51,421 homes were flooded, and 21,170 homes and 592 schools were damaged. The plan prioritizes the three most affected provinces of Yen Bai, Lao Cai, and Cao Bang that had pre-existing high levels of vulnerabilities and suffered the brunt of damages. Yen Bai, Lao Cai, and Cao Bang provinces account for more than 90 per cent of the severely damaged houses across the 11 northern provinces.

The Ministry of National Education and Training (MOET) led the education response by mobilizing its resources by cleaning flooded schools, distributing scholastic materials, uniform and textbook, and setting up temporary learning spaces. MOET reopened schools in the affected areas to avoid prolonged loss of children’s learning. The 2024 Education Sector Response Plan for Typhoon Yagi prioritizes to repair damaged schools, provide humanitarian cash assistance, educational materials, and teacher training on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), disaster risk reduction (DRR) and awareness raising activities to ensure children can safely return to learning environments as quickly as possible. The response plan targets to deliver education services for about 200,000 affected children and adolescents including children with disabilities. The Education Sector Group (ESG) for Emergency co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children was activated to coordinate the education response activities implemented by approximately 15 member organizations comprising UN Agencies, national and international NGOs, donors, and international development organizations.

UNICEF is supporting MOET, Department of Education and Training (DOET) and ESG members through its predictability role in the education preparedness, response, and recovery in emergencies. UNICEF will focus on scaling up education interventions targeting vulnerable children and adolescents in the hard-to-reach affected areas through provision of early childhood education, lifesaving supplies for children and schools, MHPSS, unconditional cash for education, capacity building for teachers and education managers on EiE as well as structured outreach and awareness raising activities. UNICEF will utilize education as strategic entry points for sectoral and cross-cutting collaborations with WASH, Health, Nutrition, Protection Sectors and gender, disability, and accountability to affected population, PSEA working groups and networks. Therefore, to ensure the response quality and timeliness and to support the over stretched team of Education, hiring an EiE consultant will be crucial to scale up UNICEF lifesaving EiE interventions in line with the the period and scope of the Joint Vietnam Response Plan for the Typhoon Yagi.

The EiE Consultant is required to bring in technical expertise to the emergency component of EiE intervention to meet UNICEF’s CCC in emergencies. The Consultant will assist the UNICEF Education team to effectively support education in emergency response, early recovery and rehabilitation efforts led by the MOET and DOET and other sector members. The recovery and rehabilitation measures in medium to long-term development framework will be informed by the ongoing Vietnam Multi Sector Assessment coordinated by UNDP and VDDMA. The Consultant will be required for 130 days between December 2024 and 31 May 2025.

Purpose and Objectives:

The consultancy will support UNICEF Education and Emergency Management Team (EMT) to effectively carry out planned education interventions through facilitating the implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting, knowledge management, resource mobilization and advocacy of the UNICEF education in emergency, and recovery response in the 11 provinces i.e. Bac Giang, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Dien Bien, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, and Yen Bai, or others when required. The consultant will also support the coordination and information management of ESG to improve the gap identification of education response. The officials of MOET, DOET and ESG members will benefit from capacity building training on EiE to be facilitated by the consultant.

Summary of Key Functions/Accountabilities:

1. Provide technical support for timeliness implementation of UNICEF education response implemented by partners including DOET in the targeted affected provinces.

2. Monitor the UNICEF EiE response to ensure it is in full track as per the agreed target and plan in coordination with other sectors (WASH, CP, Health, Nutrition, etc.) and cross cutting working groups (Accountability to Affected Population, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Gender Based Violence, etc.

3. Assist EiE communication/visibility and resource mobilization.

4. Support the EiE coordination of Education Sector Group (ESG) with national and provincial partners to ensure an inclusive response and accountability to affected populations, including monitoring the response and recovery implementation.

Location:

The consultant is expected to work from home and/or office, preferably in Ha Noi, have meetings virtually and/or at UNICEF and partner offices, and conduct field trips to the targeted provinces, including the Bac Giang, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Dien Bien, Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, and Yen Bai and others when needed.

Methodology:

The Consultant will report to Education Specialist (the Second Decade Education & Learning) under the overall supervision of the Chief of Education and work closely with the Education Team members, other UNICEF sections, ESG members and the focal points/officials of MOET, DOET(s) and other partners as required.

1 Joint Response Plan Vietnam for Typhoon Yagi, 23 Sep. 2024

Full TOR with deliverables as attached 

Terms of Reference EiE Consultancy.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• Advanced university degree in Education or a related technical field, emergency management or other relevant areas.
• At least 5 years of experience in development planning and management in formal and/or non-formal education and/other relevant areas is required, at least two of which field-based dealing with large-scale emergencies or displaced/refugee situations.
• At least 5 years with progressive experience working in emergency contexts in implementation of Education in Emergency programmes and coordinated assessments.
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal) required.
• Sound judgement is required in follow-up on requests; high degree of accuracy is important.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines through excellent time management, organization, and multi-tasking skills.
• Good computer knowledge and skill.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

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. 

Assessment criteria:

For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:

A. Technical Qualification weight 75%:

1. Educational background: 30 points

2. Relevant work experience: 45 points

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience with a Bachelor’s degree or 5 years of relevant experience with a Master’s degree at the national and/or international levels in Education, Emergency Programme Management, and other related fields. (20 points)
• Good understanding of GOV’s regulations and standards in education in emergency, development context and the Education Sector. (10 points)
• Practical experience relating to natural disasters, disaster risk reduction and environment, emergency program management, monitoring and reporting, communication, resource mobilization, information management, Education in Emergency coordination and information management in rural areas in Viet Nam. (15 points)

B. Financial Proposal (Maximum 25 Points)

The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened /evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum 50 points score in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

The Contract shall be awarded to candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the verification interview if needed.

Submission of applications:

a. Letter of interest/CV;

b. Three references of relevant previous assignment(s);

c. Technical proposal;

d. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel and any other relevant costs for this assignment. 

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. 

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