National Consultant: Capacity Building for Child Online Safety Programme, Pretoria, South Africa, 6 months (Work from home)

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, PROTECTION.

UNICEF South Africa

We work to promote the rights of every child.

South Africa is a middle-income country more than 30 years into the advent of democracy with remarkable progress to improve the well-being of its citizens. South Africa is recognized for its strong legislative framework and policies, including implementing children’s rights as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, enshrined in the Constitution of SA and the Children’s Act. South Africa is faced with the triple challenges of enduring poverty, inequality and unemployment, which impact the lives of children. Almost two-thirds of the South African children live below the upper bound of the poverty line with children in rural areas and those living in female-headed households, particularly at risk.

The fast-developing and continuously changing information and communication technology (ICT) environment is reshaping children’s lives globally. Now more than ever children are increasingly relying on online and mobile technologies to learn, participate, play, entertain and socialise. The digital age has brought opportunities to children and its use has been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, despite the many positive opportunities it provides, the internet also increases children’s risk of abuse and exploitation and compounds offline risks and negative experiences such as bullying and harassment, exposure to pornographic and other potentially harmful materials, and possible dangerous contacts. 

In 2021 UNICEF in partnership with the South Africa government conducted the National Kids Online Study as part of the Disrupting Harm Study to examine the opportunities and risks of ICT within a national context. The study revealed that most children (95.3%) and their parents/caregivers (80.2%) have access to the internet via a mobile device – which brings significant opportunities as well as risks. 70% of children use the internet without parental supervision and 1 in 3 children in South Africa are at risk of online exploitation. Risky online activities included meeting someone face-to-face with whom they met on the internet, actively seeking new friends, adding strangers as friends and sharing photos or videos of themselves with persons they have never met. Yet, many children remain silent about their experiences, with 50.5% of children not telling anyone what happened.

How can you make a difference? 

Under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist, the consultant will review/adapt a training package content relevant to online violence prevention and safety measures for children using online platforms and will provide content to frontline workers (educators) on their roles for prevention and mitigation risks that children face online.

The consultant is expected to engage with the developed online safety awareness raising manual, online safety developed curriculum for grade 8 to grade12 learners and deliver the content to the DBE with the support of UNICEF and relevant stakeholders of DBE. The consultant will also develop a training roadmap and deliver the training in the identified districts in North West and Northern Cape provinces.

This consultancy reviews the package for capacity development material for the frontline workers, in particular educators that is already developed and the curriculum for grade 8-12 that is already endorsed by the Department of Basic Education. The package is taking into consideration of the South African context to ensure social and cultural sensitivity. The developed materials and toolkits will be aligned to international instruments and national legislation and the network of ICT platforms available in SA with intentionality to build knowledge and skills that could be imparted to the learners.

Tasks and activities

1. Desk review: The consultant will conduct a brief literature review and research documents, and training materials developed in South Africa to contextualise relevant training packages for educators.
2. Organize need-based joint consultation with relevant UNICEF section focal point and government counterparts and non-governmental agencies within the online safety sector to address online violence and online safety.
3. Conduct two focused interviews with stakeholders including government officials, and frontline workers that will support the development of training need assessment and identification.
4. Adapt the package of training materials and toolkits for the capacity development of frontline workers, in particular educators. The consultant will cover materials for knowledge development on online safety issues including risk, prevention and mitigation strategies, the role of caregivers, and service providers, including appropriate content to promote the safety of children both online and offline. (with special reference to the online safety curriculum). The consultant will also take initiative for wider sharing with the government counterparts, CSOs, and networks for final inputs on the content and training package.
5. Develop a roadmap for training delivery for educators and frontline workers within the timeframe identified by UNICEF and Department of Basic Education both at National, Provincial and District level.
6. Conduct training sessions with educators and front-line workers according to the training roadmaps.
7. Submit to UNICEF compiled reports to articulate the key progresses with challenges and the way forward for future implementation of the training package.

Deliverables: 

• Inception report prepared (November 2024)
• Training package developed (December 2024)
• Training facilitation / content (January 2025)
• Training facilitation and report (February 2025)
• Report complied (April 2025)

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Law, Human Rights, Journalism, Communications, Digital Technology and Social Work
• A minimum of 8 to 10 years of relevant professional experience within training/capacity development or conducting research in the field of digital platform
• Outstanding ICT/ Digital technology knowledge including analytical skills, strong ability to analyse data, reports, integrate and summarise information, and data in the digital space
• Good command of English and excellent writing skills in English, including a demonstrated ability to draft, clear and concise reports
• Ability to work independently and ensure high-quality deliverables
• Demonstrated capacity to engage key stakeholders and facilitate workshop dialogue with government officials
• Demonstrated capacity to carry out the assignment within the time frame
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset
• Knowledge of another local language is an asset

Please indicate your ability and availability; and attach a technical proposal and financial proposal in ZAR to undertake the terms of reference above (including admin cost if applicable). Proposals submitted without a detailed financial proposal aligned to the assignment will not be considered.

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. 

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