Senior Social Protection Design Consultant Child Grant Programme (CGP), Damascus, Syria, 80 working days in 6 months (Remote & In-country)

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For every child, an advocate.

UNICEF Syria was established in 1970 and has been working with partners to help empower children to fully claim and enjoy their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF works with partners across Syria to deliver supplies, services, and expertise in areas of Child Protection, Education, Health, Nutrition, Water, Hygiene and Sanitation for every child. UNICEF also provides humanitarian assistance when needed.

Syria continues to face one of the most complex emergencies in the world. Unprecedented humanitarian needs are compounded by displacement inside the country and across its borders, extensive destruction of civilian and social services infrastructure, devastating impacts on the economy, and most importantly, the breakdown of the social fabric that stitched the country together for decades.

Today, 90% of people in Syria live in poverty, most are unable to make ends meet or bring food to the table. Families have had their resources depleted, with limited employment opportunities, skyrocketing prices, and shortage of basic supplies. For most people, the current socio-economic challenges represent some of the harshest and most challenging circumstances they have faced since the beginning of the crisis in 2011.

The February 2023 earthquakes in north Syria and Türkiye have added agony to an already catastrophic situation, increasing the strain on services, causing displacement, and inflicting widespread damage. Many families lost their main breadwinner due to death or injury, at a time when the economic situation was already dire, resulting in millions of people unable to meet their basic needs.

In 2024, 16.7 million people need humanitarian assistance[1]. This is the highest number of people in need ever recorded in Syria since 2011. The number of children in need – more than 6.5 million – has increased by seven per cent in the past year alone. This is largely due the ongoing conflict, continued displacements, the unprecedented economic crisis, deepening poverty, and unemployment. The COVID-19 pandemic, the hike in price of commodities triggered by the overall global economic situation and the impact of sanctions are further compounding the dire situation.

For information of the work of our organization, please visit our website: UNICEF Syria  

 

Background on the Assignment:

Every child in the Syrian Arab Republic has the right to equitable and adequate social protection and basic services, such as health, education, nutrition, WASH, and child protection.  The Social Policy team in UNICEF Syria Country Office focuses on four key areas – social protection, cash transfers, public finance and general financing for children, and child poverty. In these four priority areas, UNICEF Syria CO provides different levels of technical assistance and support to national counterparts ranging from system strengthening, capacity building, policy analysis and evidence generation, and advocacy with particular focus on social protection systems, large-scale cash-based transfers (both humanitarian and non-humanitarian), and public finance management.

UNICEF Syria is currently implementing two humanitarian cash transfer programmes namely the Integrated social Protection Programme for children with Disability (ISP-CWD) and Cash transfer for Basic Needs Programme (CTBN). The programme combines regular and unconditional cash transfers with case management services to facilitate the referral of children with disabilities to available social services and increase their social inclusion.

The ISP- CWD programme was launched in 2016 and was implemented in 8 governorates Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Al Hassakeh, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Tartous and Lattakia and has reached over 45,000 children with severe disabilities with regular, unconditional quarterly cash transfer of $120 (per child) and case management services. Currently, the programme is being implemented in 7 governorates, Rural Damascus, Aleppo Al Hassakeh, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzor and Lattakia targeting children with severe disabilities and has reached 10,600 children during 2024.

For the Cash for Basic Needs: by 2021, UNICEF shifted its basic need response from the provision of in-kind assistance (winter clothes) to the provision of cash, in line with UNICEF commitments to the Grand Bargain. With the shift to cash assistance, UNICEF successfully reached to more than 235000 families with their children between 2021-2024 and addressed the numerous challenges encountered with the in-kind response, especially in terms of timeliness, quality and satisfaction of beneficiaries.

On 8 December 2024, Syria witnessed a monumental political shift with the fall of the long-standing Al-Assad government. In response to this new context, UNICEF in Syria is working on developing information and strategizing supportto the national social protection reform to aid Syria’s recovery and transition.

UNICEF aims to enhance the social protection of vulnerable children in targeted governorates through provision of multi-purpose life-saving cash assistance, complementary nutrition packages, integrated case management services and social behavior and community engagement.

Through the planned integrated programming (Cash plus social protection), UNICEF will be addressing both immediate financial hardships and longer-term nutrition and protection needs for vulnerable children, allowing for tailored interventions that prioritize children’s optimal development, safety and well-being, while promoting resilience within families and communities.

 

How can you make a difference? 

The key objective of this consultancy is to develop an operational design and a programme architecture of a Child Grant Programme (CGP) targeting 0-5 years old children.

Specific Objectives

1. Initiate a consultative process with stakeholders (internal and external) to develop a conceptual proposal for a comprehensive cash plus child grant programme.
2. Explore different design options to develop a CGP in Syria. The options should also identify enabling factors, potential bottlenecks, challenges and possible ways to overcome them.
3. Develop guidelines for the operational design of the CGP, including guidelines for implementation and Standard Operating Procedures, with plan for costing, human resources, delivery/ operation and coordination mechanism.

 

Scope of the Work

The consultant will collect, analyze and present information from desk review and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders in Syria. The desk review of existing child grant programmes around the world (particularly in developing countries and countries with fragile and emergency context) should help identify the factors that enabled the programme success and how challenges were overcome. The desk review should consider assessing the options and political acceptability of building a flexible, shock responsive child grant that would respond to increased needs due to natural hazards and/or political crises/ security situation; for example, earthquake affected IDPs and returnees impacted by the Syrian crisis. The desk review should also include documents/models that were/ are being used by similar kinds of ongoing programme in the region.

The consultant will conduct a stakeholder analysis, including interviews with concerned policy makers, UNICEF staff, NGOs, development partners to have a better understanding of the current social protection/ cash transfer interventions in Syria and their willingness to potentially be engaged in the future, other development partners should also be visited. The consultant will also explore different options, challenges and opportunities for initiating a child grant.

The Cash Plus CGP should consider a design that covers targeted children from 0-5 years old and will provide incentives to both households and service providers to enhance children’s outcomes, addressing:

1. Demand-side constraints at household level, linked to behaviour and social norms; and financial barriers to get access to social services.
2. Supply-side constraints on the other side linked to the availability and provision of social services to support children and their families/caregivers. Special attention should be given to enhancing the linkages for effective coverage of available services i.e. health, nutrition, education, and services for children with disability.
3. The Program will include a basic set of opportunities and services, which could gradually improve over time.  The programme would be comprised of four components: (i) cash transfers paid directly to households with children aged 0-6 years old; (ii) referral/ services linking children with health, nutrition, education and disability related services as needed; (iii) communication and social mobilization to provide information and promote behavior change at household and community level; and (iii) periodic monitoring and evaluation at varying levels (demand side and supply side).

Key Deliverables

1. An inception report responding to the needs of the ToR. The inception report will elaborate on the scope of the desk and literature review and the tools for the key stakeholder analysis. The inception report will need to include the methodology and tools to be used for the data collection and analysis, key questions for the stakeholder interview/consultation and the timeline of activities to be implemented.
2. A Programme Design Document that includes conceptualization, feasibility and scalability of a CGP programme, as well as operational considerations. The Design document should include an architecture of a 5 years CGP and clearly outline the different stages/phases from the initial stage to the evaluation stage with the scope of the activities and results that need to be achieved for each of the stages. The overall programme architecture should include programme approach and strategy, workflow, key operational parameters, monitoring mechanism, and evaluation.
3. A feasibility and scalability assessment of the proposed CGP. The assessment shall consider both technical and operational feasibility. The assessment report shall summarize the result of the analysis and identify scalability.
4. A six month work plan for UNICEF to setup, rollout and initial stage of implementation of the programme
5. A policy brief with a set of recommendations for UNICEF and other development partners on how to support the government to implement a pilot child grant programme and a PowerPoint presentation on the overall approach, strategy, design options and costing

 

Quality assurance: All reports will be validated by the Social Policy section of UNICEF- Syria. During the filed mission/ onsite work, weekly debriefing meetings (virtual or in person) will take place to assess how the field mission objectives are being met. The consultant will share with UNICEF a timeline of activities in the inception report which will be followed up on and discussed periodically, if required.

 If you would like to know more about this assignment, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:

 ToR FOR CONSULTANT_CGP (final) VA.pdf

 

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

Minimum requirements:

I. Academic qualifications:

Advanced university degree or equivalent in public policy, economics, social policy, development studies, political science, or related field.

II. Work experience / Technical competencies:

• At least 10 years hands-on experience with designing and implementing social protection large scale interventions and cash transfer programmes in both emergency and non-emergency contexts.
• Experience with conducting needs assessment, supporting preparedness, humanitarian needs, market functionality assessments, price monitoring, and feasibility assessments.
• Design of HCT Humanitarian Cash Transfers interventions including risk assessment, mitigation and monitoring, programmatic design (targeting, benefit level, payment frequency and modality), operational model (including selection of payment mechanism, data management, data protection, etc., Monitoring and Evaluation M&E including Post Distribution and Monitoring (PDMs), payment verification, third party monitoring and programmatic monitoring.
• Oversight and quality assurance of implementation including coordination, supportive monitoring, identification of bottlenecks and troubleshooting of solutions.
• Capacity building of stakeholders including government, civil society, payment service providers and UN staff.
• Understanding of the humanitarian context in MENA is a strong advantage, experience in protracted crises is an asset.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written).
• Experience working and coordinating with cash working group, national government actors on coordination or system strengthening (e.g., improving implementation capacity though transfer of knowledge or skills; implementation through national systems; transfer of emergency programme beneficiary information to government) is a plus.

• Substantial demonstrated experience with planning, design and implementation of social protection, policies and legislation including social assistance, and/or social insurance.
• Proven track record in some of the following areas:

• High-level policy analysis and advice: development of national strategies, policies and plans, development of regulations and by-laws, development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks for national social protection policies.
• Experience with working on Social Protection Management Information Systems.
• Systems and programmes: Design of protocols and tools, including beneficiary outreach, targeting, registration, payments, monitoring, referrals, coordination, communications, data systems/ management information systems/ social registries.
• Shock responsive social protection (including focus on climate and disaster risks): SRSP assessment, design and/or piloting and assessment of SRSP programmes; information dissemination and communication (knowledge sharing and advocacy); design and/or piloting of shock responsive social protection programmes, analysis, and development of legal, regulatory and/or policy frameworks.
• Cash Plus programme design and implementation (linking social protection programmes with complimentary social services, strengthening social welfare workforce, facilitating multi sectoral collaboration);

 

III. Language requirement: Fluency in English is required, Arabic language (is desirable)

 

IV. Competencies:

For every Child, you demonstrate..

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

 

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Applications through UNICEF’s Talent Management System (TMS)
2. CV and Cover letter describing your qualifications and past experiences (maximum 2 pages), which very clearly indicates your current indicative daily fee rate in USD (Note: contracted daily fee will be contingent upon assignment scope and duration, final agreed rate will be negotiated with requesting office at time of contracting)  Consultants need to send their quote in a separate document
3. At least 3 References from previous Direct Supervisors

Shortlisted applicants may be invited for further technical assessment. Final recommendation will be made based on “best value for money”, i.e. the hiring section/office shall normally select the individual who quoted the lowest fee from among the candidates who are assessed as suitable for achieving all tasks on time, as per the criteria stipulated in this ToR, and based on the outcome of the evaluation/assessment conducted.

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.

We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, including paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

General Remarks:

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.