SHORT-TERM INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL CONSULTANCY for NEEDS ASSESSMENT, STANDARDS AND TRAINING DEVELOPMENT AND AWARENESS-RAISING ON MOBILE LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN THE EARTHQUAKE-AFFECTED CITIES

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The devastating Kahramanmaras-centered earthquakes of 6 February 2023 have left children and their caregivers in a precarious position, requiring urgent legal support. To provide mobile legal aid services to earthquake-affected populations, ensuring access to justice and empowerment through legal awareness, UNICEF, the Ministry of Family and Social Services (MoFSS) and the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (UTBA) have established the initiative “Improving the Lives of Children through Enhancing Responsive Child Protection Services and Support in Emergencies”, funded by the European Union. With regards to the foregoing aims of the mentioned project, UTBA and UNICEF seek 2 (two) consultants to conduct needs and capacity assessments in 14 cities (each consultant to conduct field visits in 7 cities for 2 days in each city), develop child safeguarding standards and standard operating procedures, develop and deliver training programmes based on the developed standards, and draft content for awareness-raising materials for the implementation of the mobile outreach activities to enhance legal assistance services in the 14 earthquake-affected cities.

For every child, inclusivity

Background: Background information can be found under ToR.  ToR_IPA EQ_A.3.1-A.3.2-A.3.4-A.3.5-clean.docx

How can you make a difference? The purpose of this assignment is as follows: 

1. Conduct a needs and capacity assessment in 14 affected cities to inform the implementation of mobile legal support operations for outreach to vulnerable populations.

2. Develop child-friendly standards, standard operating procedures (SoPs), and safeguarding principles for mobile legal counselling units (mobile support units (Yolda Adli Yardım Servis Aracı – YASA/ Legal Aid on Wheels – LAW).

3. Develop training programmes for lawyers based on the developed standards, and deliver training to at least 300 professionals in 10 training sessions.

4. Develop informative legal awareness-raising materials tailored to children, caregivers, and frontline professionals.

 ALL INPUTS SHOULD BE DEVELOPED IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL CHILD JUSTICE STANDARD

 The Assignment will be composed of the following tasks: 

1. Rapid Capacity, Needs, and Location Analysis in 14 Cities (A.3.1)

As a preparatory initiative to guide the implementation of the mobile outreach activities and other complementary actions, the Consultant will conduct a Capacity, Needs and Location analysis in close collaboration with UNICEF and UTBA. The analysis will benefit from the experiences of the current LEAP Programme (referenced above). Target cities include Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Adıyaman, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Adana, Elazığ, Ankara, Antalya, and Mersin.  

The Consultants will conduct field missions to the target cities (each consultant to visit 7 cities for 2 days each) (meeting with local Bar Association administrations, lawyers, AFAD and partner agencies) to assess the capacity, needs and potential service locations, encompassing the following tasks:  

• Conduct an assessment of the available and required human resources for delivering mobile legal support to affected populations.

• Evaluate institutional organization capacity and needs of local Bar Associations for mobile outreach.

• Identify the required standards on the child safeguarding principles and guidelines for lawyers and support staff, and the action points for counselling and referral to existing specialized and statutory services in close collaboration with partner agencies currently providing specialized services to affected populations.

• Identify common legal issues and case types affecting children and their families post-earthquake within the LEAP programme and free legal aid system.

• Assess training needs for legal professionals and other relevant actors to be taken part in the mobile legal counselling outreach operations.

• Map and prioritize locations (e.g., container sites, neighbourhoods, etc.) for legal counselling interventions, ensuring accessibility for displaced and vulnerable populations; and, based on the mapping, prepare a detailed Outreach Plan for all the destinations where mobile legal assistance will be provided.

• Identify specific numbers and types of informative materials tailored for children, caregivers and relevant professionals.

• Draft a Capacity, Needs and Location Analysis Report based on the above findings.

2. Development of Standards, Child Safeguarding Principles, and SoPs (A.3.2)

Guided by the findings of the Capacity, Needs and Location Analysis Report, in close collaboration with UNICEF and UTBA, the Consultants will develop a set of minimum standards tailored for the delivery of mobile and on-site counselling to the affected populations, with a specific focus on children, which will include the following tasks: 

• Define child-specific arrangements for mobile legal support units.

• Draft Child Safeguarding Guidelines for legal professionals and support staff to be used during legal counselling session in the mobile units.

• Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for legal counselling that explain referral mechanisms to the existing specialized and statutory child protection services, ensuring a multidisciplinary approach.

3. Development and Delivery of Training Programmes (A.3.4)

The Consultants will develop a training package on the developed SOPs, guidelines, principles, tools and materials for equipping in total 300 lawyers and other support staff (such as drivers, security officers etc.), who will be providing mobile/on-site legal counselling to the affected populations, with a particular focus on children and their caregivers. The tasks of the Consultant for developing a training programme will include the following:  

• Develop a 2-day face-to-face training curriculum for lawyers and support personnel separately, based on the developed SOPs, guidelines, tools and materials, incorporating adult-learning techniques by;

• visually engaging presentations, relevant videos, and infographics and other relevant visual materials
• group activities and discussions as much as possible
• pre-post-test, quiz and assessment questions.

• In addition to the content on the developed standards and SOPs, include broader theoretical and practical information and enrich the content with the most up-to-date data, legal discussions and regulations, primary and secondary legislation, national and international guidelines and jurisprudence, if necessary.

• Develop scenarios for online modules to be decided later in discussion with UTBA based on findings of the Analysis Report.
• Participate in 10 sessions for the training of at least 300 professionals, including lawyers, drivers, security personnel, and other relevant actors, and deliver the designed training content.

4. Development of Age-Appropriate and Context-Specific Legal Awareness Materials (A.3.5)

As per the Capacity, Needs and Location Analysis, the Consultants will develop informative materials tailored to children, caregivers and relevant professionals, catering to various age groups and professional needs, subject to the following deliverables: 

• Draft easy to read information and messages for the information materials to be designed targeting children and caregivers to educate them on their rights and available legal remedies in case of rights violations.
• Draft messages and texts for the information materials to be designed targeting legal professionals about the legal support services available for affected populations, with a particular emphasis on children and their caregivers.

Tasks		Deliverables	Language	Estimated time of delivery
1	Rapid Capacity, Needs and Location Analysis in 14 Cities (A.3.1)	Rapid Capacity, Needs and Location Analysis Report with Outreach Plan	TUR/ Brief summary in ENG	30 June 2025   (20 days)
2	Development of Standards, Child Safeguarding Principles, and SoPs (A.3.2)	Child Safeguarding Guidelines   and   SOPs with referral pathways	TUR/ Brief summary in ENG	31 August 2025  (8 days)
3	Development and Delivery of Training Programmes (A.3.4)	Final Online and Face-to-face Training Module Content	TUR/ Brief summary in ENG	30 September 2025  (5 days)
		Delivery of 10 face-to-face training sessions in total	TUR	October 2025-March 2026  (10 days)
4	Development of Age-Appropriate and Context-Specific Legal Awareness Materials (A.3.5)	Messages and text to be used on the information materials (brochures for children&caregivers and brochures for relevant professionals)	TUR	31 October 2025  (2 days)
Total number of days (per consultant)				45

*Delivery dates are tentative. A detailed time plan is required together with the technical proposal.  

Duty Station:  Please see TOR.

Supervisor:  Please see TOR.

Estimated Duration and Cost of Consultancy:

Duration: The contract shall commence on the date of signing and remain in effect until the successful submission of all deliverables. The consultancy is expected to require a total of 45 working days, which will be scheduled during the initial phase of the assignment. The consultancy period will span from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. 

Estimated Cost of Consultancy: Applications shall include a detailed financial proposal that elaborates on daily costs based on the completion of above-mentioned deliverables, including a total sum demanded. All costs, including travel, accommodation, administrative costs, etc. shall be covered by the contractor and should be included in the financial proposal as a separate heading and broken down into details of accommodation and travel costs in line with UN DSA rates. The candidate is required to specify their daily rates and the total amount as per the number of anticipated working days for each deliverable in the financial proposal and provide the breakdown of the lump sum amount as well as incidentals of each deliverable in TRY. 

Payment: UNICEF will issue a contract in TRY. The payment will be done in instalments upon submission of the deliverables as per the above list and will be executed in TRY. 

Payment Schedule: Please see TOR. 

Reservations: Please see TOR.

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

Qualifications:  

• A minimum of bachelor’s degree in law; possession of a higher degree will be considered a significant asset.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience as a lawyer admitted to a bar association in Türkiye.
• A minimum of 5 years of solid expertise in the field of children’s rights, child protection and human rights law.
• A minimum of 2 years of proven experience in drafting needs analysis, SOPs, training curricula and informative materials in service provision for vulnerable populations, particularly children in EU or UN-funded projects.
• Familiarity with UN/UNICEF programming and reporting processes and working and collaborating with lawyers, Bar Associations and UTBA and social workers, psychologists and other relevant actors on children’s rights will be considered an asset.
• Good command of Turkish and English.

Skills and personal traits:  

• Sensitivity to and awareness about ethics regarding human and child rights issues, different cultures, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction and gender roles, disability, age, and ethnicity.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work closely with national and international actors under tight deadlines and to facilitate the coordination of a process.
• Computer literacy.

*After the selection process the consultant will be expected to complete the mandatory UNICEF AGORA Trainings.  

Application and Selection Criteria

Please note that the assignment can only be held by an individual consultant. Applications should be submitted in English and should include: 

• Financial proposal using the Financial Proposal Template, Financial Offer IPA EQ A.3.1-A.3.2-A.3.4.docx
• Most recent CV and
• Sample of relevant work developed by the consultant.

The submission deadline is 20 March 2025 by 23:59 hrs Türkiye time. Financial proposals should be submitted in separate folders from the remaining documentation. After the technical evaluation, the financial proposals of qualified candidates will be evaluated. The technical evaluation will be completed based on the attached technical evaluation criteria. 

The applications will be evaluated from the technical and financial point of view. Technical aspects will be evaluated using the criteria outlined in the below matrix:

Criteria for technical evaluation	Max points
Having a minimum of bachelor’s degree in law	Max. points: 10
Having a minimum of 3 years of experience as a lawyer	Max. points: 10
Having at least 5 years of solid expertise in the field of children’s rights, child protection and human rights law	Max. points: 15
Having at least 2 years of proven experience in drafting needs analysis, SOPs, training curricula and informative materials in service provision for vulnerable populations, particularly children	Max. points: 10
Having UN experience, especially EU-UN funded projects and UNICEF Programming & Reporting	Max. points: 10
Having experience in working and collaborating with lawyers, Bar Associations and UTBA and social workers, psychologists and other relevant actors on children’s rights	Max. points:  15
Maximum total points	Max points: 70

The financial proposals will be opened only for the candidates that reach or exceed forty-nine (49) points out of maximum seventy (70) points. Thirty (30) points will be awarded to the candidate that presented the lowest fee for the services requested. The remaining financial offers will receive proportional points ([lowest bid/bid] x 30 points). 

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.