Consultancy Assignment, SITAN Consultant, UNICEF Eritrea

UNICEF ERITREA

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTORS/ CONSULTANTS

Background and Rationale:

The 2013-2016 Country Programme (CP) cycle is entering its third year of implementation and Eritrea Country Office (ECO) is undertaking preparatory work towards the development of the UNICEF – Eritrea Country Programme for 2017-2021 starting with the Country Programme Document (CPD) preparation process.

The current CP is designed and implemented under the GoSE - UN Framework of Strategic Partnership Cooperation Framework (SPCF), which is prepared in lieu of United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), for the same period (2013-2016), with the overall goal of supporting national development efforts through explicit focus on equity and gender equality. The ECO Country Programme Document (CPD) 2013-2016 that was approved by the Executive Board in 2012 has five key pillars: Health and Nutrition, Basic Education, Water Sanitation and Hygiene and Child Protection which are underpinned by Advocacy and Partnerships for Children as a cross cutting theme forming the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) that has been signed by the Government of State of Eritrea (GoSE) and UNICEF for the period of 2013-2016.

Over the past two years, UNICEF has implemented its first half of CPAP through the modality of Rolling Work Plans in close collaboration with national government in a challenging country context which has been compounded with a number of issues particularly the no-war-no-peace relationship with Ethiopia, UN sanctions and embargoes, high costs, limited funding, scarce opportunity for evidence generation and government policy requiring travel permits for access to the field by UNICEF/UN staff. Nevertheless, the CP continued to support realization of the rights of children and the difficult operational environment has enriched the ECO team with a wide range of good practices and lessons learned to be carried forward in making pragmatic adjustment for the current country programme cycle and in designing the next CP.

Since the time of formulation of the current Country programme in 2012, there have been notable developments emerged globally, regionally and nationally particularly the 2014-17 UNICEF Strategic Plan and its results, the post 2015 agenda including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ESAR Regional Priorities. In addition, the overarching GOSE’s National Development Plan (NDP) had been under development at the time of the country programme preparation in 2012. Very recently, the GoSE shared the preliminary version of NDP with the UN systems, which ECO will be using as one of the sources in the CPD development for formulating the Country Programme strategies so that UNICEF’s programmes are in line with the GOSE priorities. Furthermore, there have been few significant publications finalised during the period of 2013-2014, for example the report of Eritrean Population and Health Survey (EPHS) (2010), EPI Coverage Survey (2013), Community Mapping Report of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) (2014) reflecting the changing situation of children and women in the country. The efforts towards the SPCF Mid Term Review (MTR) is ongoing with the expected availability of the final report by July 2015.

The ECO’s CPD development will be informed and guided by overall country context and situation of children and women, national priorities, regional and global commitments. For this purpose, ECO will undertake an analysis of the situation of children and women (SITAN) to systematically examine the country situation in light of the updated data and information in the country will the SITAN will also extract lessons learnt and best practices from the current CP. Since the UNICEF Programme Policy and Procedure requires a new or updated situation analysis of children and women (SITAN) to be conducted in every Country Programme cycle. The 2012 situation analysis for Eritrea is still in a draft report version. It is believed that the SITAN will be able to support ECO to determine effectiveness and relevance of the current strategies that the ECO has been applying vis a vis the changing situation of children and women in Eritrea. In this regards, the SITAN will identify approaches and strategies that need to be strengthened or introduced to accelerate progress being made by GoSE in its five year national development efforts.

Against this backdrop, it is timely for ECO to prepare SITAN in 2015 in preparation of the new CP by updating the draft SITAN produced in 2012 with additional data and information available on the country. The SITAN report will be used as a key document in the CPD development process for the CP 2017-2021.

The SITAN and its deliverables will be undertaken by the team comprising of an international consultant as team leader and national consultant as team member with the support from the UNICEF Eritrea.

1. Purpose:

The SITAN’s primary purpose to analyse socioeconomic, financial, and policy situation of children and women, to identify the country’s priority challenges to fulfil children’s rights and make recommendations for future actions, programme interventions, and policy directions.

The SITAN recommendations need to provide solid bases for decision-making and selecting appropriate courses of actions during the 2017-2021 GoSE and UNICEF.

Country Programme of Cooperation.

2. Objective of the consultancy

In collaboration with UNICEF team and working closely with the national consultant, the consultant will undertake the analysis of children and women in Eritrea addressing the purpose and specific objectives as mentioned in the above sessions.

The analytical approach and the documentation of the final report has to be in line with the UNICEF’s Guidance on Situation Analysis of Children’s and Women’s Rights and draw on various data sources.

3. Scope of the consultancy

Under the guidance of Deputy Representative and in close collaboration with Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, the consultant will:

• Review the draft ECO SITAN 2012 report.

• Review key documents of the concerned sector including national policy, relevant strategies and plans to identify challenges facing women and children in Eritrea (UNICEF will compile all available documents/publication for desk review);

• Identify available data, information and data sources including publication of the government on policy, strategies, legal and reports including budgetary information

• Determine gaps in data and information and to try to fill the gaps in consultation with the national consultant

• Engage different stakeholders including in the government and among partners as well as key UNICEF section staff

• Review additional documents and available data as identified throughout the process and start analyse key aspects of every sector for SITAN;

• Undertake a series of analyses as per the UNICEF’s Guidance on Situation Analysis of Children and Women (causality analysis, role pattern analysis, capacity gap analysis, analysis of enabling environment and validation analysis)

• Prepare the draft SITAN report updating on the draft 2012 SITAN based on the above analyses (taking the structure of the sample SITAN reports provided by UNICEF)

• Revise the SITAN report incorporating comments and recommendations made by UNICEF

4. Scope of Analysis

It is expected that the SITAN improve the understanding of the current status of children’s and women’s rights in the country and the causes of shortfalls and inequities, as the basis for recommending actions. Along the same vein, SITAN process itself with inclusive participation of key stakeholders particularly national counterparts will strengthen national and sub-national capacities to monitor the situation of children and women, principally regarding vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and how their specific rights are being met. SITAN will eventually strengthen the knowledge base to enable assessment of the contribution of development partners.

In order to address the above purpose and objectives, the scope of analysis of SITAN process entails:

• Trends analysis of key indicators of situation of women and children, analysis of inequalities by various dimensions, analysis of determinants, barriers and bottlenecks of situation and inequalities,

• Role pattern, capacity gap analysis, including UNICEF’s comparative advantage

• Analysis of the programme environment including key risks and opportunities

• Review of programmatic response including who is doing what where

• Based on the analysis recommend programme and strategic priorities for UNICEF and partner.

The detailed description of the above analytical approaches can be found in the UNICEF’s Guidance on Situation Analysis of Children’s and Women’s Rights which can be accessed from UNICEF Eritrea upon request.

5. Methodology

The SITAN main methodological approach is to review and synthesis of available data which will comprise of document review, quantitative and qualitative analysis of existing data and information. The SITAN process shall not involve the collection of primary data. It should however draw on available data and reports such as situation analyses reports, previous annual review reports, studies, surveys, assessments and evaluations and should contribute to evidence in three core areas:

• Situation of the women and children, including an analysis of inequalities and bottlenecks.

• Country context and risk and opportunities in the program environment including an update of the country risk library and enterprise risk management.

• UNICEF’s comparative advantage, key partnerships, programme and management performance to date and lessons learnt.

The list of key documents and publications to be reviewed can be found in Annex1.

Another major dimension of SITAN methodology is having consultations with key stakeholders from governmental departments, partner institutions, and sister UN agencies which upon synthesizing alongside the information from document review will provide complementary and updated information. Annex 2 depicts the list of stakeholders the consultant will need to engage with.

6. Work Schedule and Deliverables

The international consultant will commence the assignment in mid- June 2015 and complete it no later than the end of September 2015. The SITAN process is split into four phases as shown in the tentative work plan outlined below. The proposed schedule may require some adjustment in light of changing programme context.

Phase I: Desk Review and Preparatory Work – 5 days (offsite home-based)

Tasks and Activities

• Review the key documents including the SITAN 2012 (to be provided by UNICEF) to identify challenges facing women and children in Eritrea;

• Review the UNICEF’s Guidance on Situation Analysis of Children’s and Women’s Rights and other sample SITAN reports

• Identify data and information necessary for SITAN;

• Prepare for consultations and meetings with the UNICEF programmes and partner departments on in collaboration with the national consultant

Deliverables

• The inception report with a draft outline of the SITAN report with details of areas for focus and in-depth analyses (which is an expansion of concept note submitted along with the application for the assignment)

• Draft work plan of the assignment with indicative time line of key milestones

Phase II: Consultations, data gathering, analysis and developing conceptual frameworks – 15 days (onsite in Asmara)

Tasks and Activities

• Jointly with the national consultant, meet with different stakeholders, including in the government and among partners as well as key UNICEF section staff (UNICEF will facilitate meetings as and where needed)

• Undertake field trips to collect additional data as required (UNICEF will facilitate travel permit and transportation if needed)

• Review additional documents and available data and analyse key aspects thereof for SITAN taking the UNICEF Guidance on SITAN

• Collect any further information needed and available; determine and summarize what key data needed may not be available and communicate these findings back to the UNICEF team for determination on follow-up;

• Compile, collate and analyse the information and data gathered

• Prepare conceptual frameworks for each sector (Health & Nutrition, WASH, Basic Education, Child Protection) in consultation with UNICEF colleagues,

• Develop a draft of SITAN based on the conceptual frameworks (capturing causality analysis, role pattern analysis, capacity gap analysis, validation analysis)

Deliverables

• A summary of available data and analysis of data gaps;

• A proposal on how to address the information gaps;

• A draft of the conceptual frameworks for each sectors;

• A further developed version of SITAN draft report incorporating outline of conceptual framework

Phase III: Preparing draft of SITAN report- 25 days (offsite home-based)

Tasks and Activities

• Prepare draft SITAN report for circulation and comments and present the draft to the UNICEF Programme staff

• Consultation with UNICEF team by email, phone or skype as needed

• Integrate the comments received

• Present the final draft report to the programme team

Deliverables

• A final draft of the Situation Analysis of Children and Women Eritrea

7. TIMELINE AND KEY MILESTONES OF SITAN

The indicative time line and key benchmarks of the SITAN are as follows:

8. Quality Assurance Mechanisms

At Country Office level, under the overall guidance of Deputy Representative, the Research and M&E Committee of ECO will undertake quality assurance process as per the office’s SOP for Management of Research, Studies and Evaluations.

The inception report and draft report are to be reviewed by the Research and M&E Committee. Furthermore, ECO will seek for assistance from Regional Office Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Section for technical guidance and quality assurance support throughout the SITAN process.

9. Official Travel Involved:

This consultancy is for a total of 45 days (30 days off site and 15 days in Asmara).

10. Contract Supervisor:

The supervisor of this assignment is the Deputy Representative of UNICEF Eritrea.

The consultant is expected to closely work together with national consultant and in collaboration with all professional staff of UNICEF Eritrea:

11. Type of Supervision that will be provided:

The supervisor with the UNICEF team will ensure the consultant’s compliance with the TORs and progress being made as per the agreed work plan, and provide regular feedback through face to face meetings, phone calls, and emails.

12. Consultant’s Work Place/Any facilities to be provided by office:

• The Consultant will work at UNICEF office while he/she is performing on site activities.

• UNICEF will provide a desk and internet access according to the UNICEF’s IT regulations.

• UNICEF will cover economy class round trip air ticket from his/her home country to Asmara and Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) while his/her stay in Asmara.

13. Nature of ‘Penalty Clause’ to be stipulated in Contract:

Penalties for Unsatisfactory Performance or Incomplete Assignment: Final payment of fees for this assignment will only be effected upon satisfactory completion of services to UNICEF’s satisfaction and certification to that effect by the Supervisor of this assignment.

14. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

1. 35 % of the payment is to be made upon completion of Phase I

2. Second and final payment 65% is to be made upon successful completion of

Phase III

15. Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, development studies), Economics/Statistics or related fields relevant for the assignment

• At least 10 years of research and other relevant professional experience

• Excellent facilitation and coordination skills

• In-depth knowledge of children’s rights, including CRC, CEDAW and other international legal instruments the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), World Fit for Children (WFFC), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

• Knowledge and Demonstrated experience with Human Rights Based Approach to Programming (HRBAP)

• Institutional knowledge of the UN and UNICEF

• Proven experience in writing analytical papers on children and gender issues

• Fluency in English.

• Knowledge and understanding of statics, economics, laws, and polices

• The consultant will be asked to submit 2 samples of previous similar work produced and at least 3 references.

How to Apply:

Interested and suitable candidates should ensure that they forward their applications (a cover letter, CV, and signed P11 form which can be downloaded at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc ), quoting the indicative fee range with reference: SITAN Consultancy by cob 09 June 2015 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

All applications should include a 2-3 page Concept Note on how he/she plans to approach the assignment. Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Annex 1 Documents for desk review

The below is the list of some publications to be reviewed by the consultant and UNICEF will make sure sharing with the consultant when he/she is on board. However, the analytical process will not limit to these documents only and additional documents are to be reviewed as they emerge throughout the process.

• Strategic Partnerships Cooperation Framework (2013-2016)

• Country Programme Document (2013-2016)

• Contry Programme Action Plan (2013-2016)

• Situation Analysis of Children (2012) (2007)

• Reports on Strategic Moment of Reflection (2014)

• Country Office Annual Reports of ECO (2012, 1013, 2014)

• National Indicative Development Plan (2014-2018)

• Eritrean Population Health Survey/DHS reports (1995, 2002, 2010)

• Health Sector Strategic Development Plan (2013-2016)

• Report of Health Management Information System (2012-2013)

• National Education Policy

• Gender Education Policy

• Adolescent Development Policy

• Adolescent Development Strategy

• Basic Education Statistics (2013)

• Comprehensive National Child Policy

• Education Sector Development Plan (2013-2017)

• Eritrea Universal Periodic Reports (2012, 2013, 2014)

• Essential Education Indicators (2013)

• FGM Mapping Study Report

• Out of School Children Study (draft report)

• EPI Coverage Survey (2013)

• Food Security and Nutrition Survey (draft report)

• Emergency Obstetric Care Study (draft report)

Annex 2 Major stakeholders for consultation

The below is the overall list of some stakeholders to be consulted by the consultant and UNICEF will facilitate necessary arrangements. The detailed list of respective personnel by name/title will be provided by UNICEF upon confirmation of the interview. However, the consultation process will not limit to this list and additional stakeholders are to be added as they emerge throughout the process.

• Focal points from Ministry of National Development

• Focal points from Ministry of Health

• Focal points from Ministry of Land, Water and Development

• Focal points from Ministry of Education

• Focal points from Labour and Human Welfare

• Focal points from National Union of Youth/Women

• Focal points from UN agencies

• Sectoral Focal points from UNICEF

Attachments:

ToR, SITAN Consultancy, UNICEF Eritrea.docx

[ ]

66 kB