National consultant to support the shock responsive approaches and capacities into local and national level

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Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
Starting in January 2022, upon request of the Government of Albania and of the United States of America, with financial support from USAID (and later from BPRM), UNICEF began responding to the needs of the Afghan population transiting in Albania, by providing education, health, child protection and cash assistance services through NGO implementing partners. Well over 8000 Afghans have received UNICEF services and transited through Albania as part of these programs and flights continue to regularly arrive and depart from Albania as part of the official agreement between the U.S. and Albanian governments. The current arrival flow is 100-120 person per week, for an estimated stay in Albania for around 2-4 weeks”.
Since August 2023, UNICEF has started the cash plus intervention as an effective way to address the immediate needs of vulnerable children and families in times of crisis and emergencies. The initiative is implemented through an implementing partner. The “Cash plus” support is a comprehensive and holistic approach through which the multifaceted needs of Afghani children and their families will be addressed. The intervention on cash plus aims at integrating and coordinating additional services and support in order to address the underlying factors that improve the outcomes for Afghani children and their families. The model of cash plus offers an opportunity to support the refugee families and at the same time, it serves as an opportunity to the local economy and building bridges between the hosting community in Shengjin and the refugees. The practice built on this model may offer opportunities to further contribute to building a shock responsive social protection system in Albania that could response to future crises situations by using lesson learnt and evidence from the field.
This initiative is serving as a promising practice to further enhance a shock responsive national social protection system in Albania and establish tools and mechanisms at the local level for effective response through an integrated model of cash and care services.
Indicative Targeted municipalities: Gjirokaster, Vore, Cerrik, Librazhd, Kavaje, Kurbin, Kukes, Kruje, Pogradec, Korce, Kamez, Vlore, Elbasan, Durres, Lezhe

Scope of Work:
The national expert will be hired to provide support enhancing the cash plus initiative implemented by the local partner (Shengjin area) and provide feedback, inputs on monitoring aspects of the project.
UNICEF is looking for a national consultant to support establishing a training course on shock responsive and cash plus in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences and support in rolling out the training programme for paraprofessionals and key professionals in the area. In addition, UNICEF is looking for developing five tools and guidance to integrate shock responsive into local social plans, social care services, job descriptions and procedures of social services at the local and regional level. Finally, the expert will explore the options on how the current cash assistance programme to the Afghan community could, be transition to the national system of delivering cash assistance as part of the emergency response. The expert will report to the Social Protection Specialist.

Deliverable 1- Revision and comments on the monitoring report ( max. 2-3 pg.)
– Review and provide inputs to the monitoring mechanism and reports of the local partner implementing cash plus programme with Afghan community
Timeline – 5 days (1 day/ month)

Deliverable 2- Document on guidance/ concept paper, materials regular meetings and inputs
– Support and provide guidance , inputs and materials to the Department of Social Policies and Social Work in developing a training module on shock responsive social protection.
Timeline – 8 days

Deliverable 3- Analytical paper exploring the national system, operational aspects and suggestions for potential use of the national electronic register for cash assistance ( max. 20 pg.)
– Explore options on how the cash plus model of UNICEF could be transition to the national system of delivering cash assistance as an emergency response measure.
Timeline – 10 days

Deliverable 4- Five tools for local level shock responsive and guidance compiled in a Manual for local level preparation
– Develop 5 tools and guidance on integrating shock responsive at the local level – local social plans; job descriptions of social service providers; internal operational procedures; activating cash assistance scheme and terms of references for a cash plus shock responsive local mechanism); guidance how to prepare, endorse and implement ‘Data sharing agreement/s for the post verification cash plus for local authorities’.
Timeline – 15 days

Deliverable 5- Training module ( max 3 pages, incl. annexes)
– Establish a training module, friendly user in the form of a manual for local government on integrating local level shock responsive measures into local social planning.
Timeline – 15 days

Deliverable 6- Five meetings with key representatives from municipalities/ SSS/ MoHSP
– Organize at least 5 consultation meetings on the tools and guidance with the local, regional and national level to collect inputs, build ownership and provide mentoring on monitoring local social plans, identifying areas to further build shock responsive measures.
Timeline – 5 days

Deliverable 7- Two days of training sessions for at least 15 municipalities on shock responsive social protection at the local level
– Facilitate two days training for 15 targeted municipalities representatives on shock responsive social protection at the local level.
Timeline – 7 days (2 days training and 5 days preparation)

Deliverable 8- Half days/ municipality (prepare a brief report for each municipality/ 3- 5 pg.)
– Provide coaching / mentoring to 15 targeted municipalities on monitoring of local social plans and integrating guidelines/ tools (combining 1 trip + 0.5 days for each municipality online).
Timeline – 18 days

Deliverable 9- Final report (max. 15-20 pg)
– Prepare a final report including recommendations for scaling up shock responsive social protection at the local and national level
Timeline – 2 days (including preparation of reports/ suggestions)

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in  social sciences and humanities, public policies; development studies, economic, public administration, communication or a related discipline
• Have at least 10 years of proven experience in planning, assessing, designing and evaluating social protection policies at central and/or local level;
• Experience in shock responsive social protection, local social planning and emergency response, and especially working with children, youth and women is an advantage.
• Demonstrate experience in engaging and partnering with different key stakeholders especially at the local level , and abilities to influencing and building ownership and capacities;
• Excellent writing skills in English and Albanian language and ability to synthetize complex information, prepare training modules and policy and advocacy briefs;
• Flexibility in working arrangements.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

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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.