Home-based Consultancy to support the development of a regional monitoring and evaluation framework for universal progressive home visiting services for young child wellbeing (45 days)

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For every child, results

As a follow up to the Multi-country evaluation recommendations, as well as with a view of enhancing the reforms and advocacy for Universal Progressive Home Visiting (UPHV) services, the UNICEF Regional office for Europe and Central Asia is looking for a consultant to provide support for strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of UPHV services across the region. In particular, the Consultant will develop a common, simplified and practically oriented M&E framework, that includes performance measures for monitoring the universal progressive home visiting service delivery and tracking progress against key desired outcomes for children and families. 

The present consultancy will support the work under two large UNICEF regional projects:

– “A project to advance social inclusion and the equitable distribution of opportunities for children from ethnic minorities and children with developmental difficulties in six countries of the Western Balkans and Moldova” funded by the Austrian Development Agency  aiming to advance the social inclusion of the most vulnerable children, including through improving access to health and social services; and

– a project to mitigate the impact of COVID -19 on the lives of children and their families, funded by the EU aims to ensure continuity of essential ECD services for children and families in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in six countries of the Western Balkans – Albania, Kosovo*[1], Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. It will provide a basis for further strengthening the national home visiting services to ensure accountability for reaching out to the most vulnerable children, including in the context of COVID-19.

The framework aims to promote a more coherent approach to the process of monitoring across countries and ensure that the implementation of the UPHV model, as well as the higher-level results for children and families are adequately captured and assessed. The framework will also help UNICEF Country Offices and national stakeholders in developing sound national information systems or strengthening existing health information systems with additional indicators on home visiting to support routine evidence generation for home visiting system development, management and accountability at all levels.

Ideally, the framework needs to be designed to address monitoring and evaluation needs at three main levels: 1. Individual home visitor, 2. facility/service level, and 3.  system level. The Monitoring and evaluation framework shall allow for measuring both universal and progressive elements, as well as the key thematic areas of quality universal progressive home visiting service delivered as part of the primary health care system including. In addition, it shall be able to capture, monitor and measure some newly emerged service adaptations in the context of COVID-19, like the provision of tele-home visits.

The outcome measures shall reflect achievable results and shall be attributable to the home visiting service alone. Additional higher-level impact indicators related to children and families to which the home visiting services are contributed may be also included.

The M&E framework shall build on existing frameworks for assessing performance of the primary health care systems and the UNICEF Regional Recommendations for Home Visiting. 

The framework shall:

• be flexible enough to allow for contextualization in accordance with the goals of the countries’ home visiting services and priority areas/issues addressed, the local context and the respective Theories of Change.
• focus on outcomes that are measurable, achievable and can be attributed to the home visiting services,
• reflect the key thematic areas where the HV services aims to promote a positive change for children: including maternal health and wellbeing, attachment and bonding, child health and growth, nutrition and breastfeeding, responsive caregiving and quality of parent-child relationships, stimulation and early learning, safety and security, and identification of children at risk of developmental difficulties and support for early intervention.
• allow for routine collection of data (to the extent possible), including building on data that is already collected through existing Information management systems or is available through other sources (existing health information systems, other administrative sources, or regular surveys implemented at national level like MICS, EU- SILC, or other).

Contractual arrangements:

• Duration: The contract is expected to last for 45 days between July and December 2021. 
• Duty Station: The consultant will be home-based and no travel is expected to take place. All consultations and trainings will take place remotely. 
• Payment: Payments will be made as per the below, upon timely and satisfactory delivery of outputs:
  • September 2021, 50% of the value of total consultancy fee after the provision of the following deliverables: a draft simplified monitoring and evaluation framework for home visiting services, including key indicators, definition of the indicator, data collection methodology, periodicity/timing of measurement and after the consultative meetings with the selected COs.
  • December 2021: 50% – after the provision of the final framework and a brief practical guidance to guide the process of country contextualization of the framework and its implementation.

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

• Advanced university degree in a relevant field – public health, medicine, education, psychology, other relevant fields.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in development or implementation of M&E frameworks for monitoring and performance assessment of primary health care systems, and/or monitoring and evaluation of programs in support of early childhood development. An expertise in development of M&E framework for home visiting programs for young children and families is considered an advantage.
• Strong understanding and in-depth knowledge of theoretical and practical aspects of home visiting programs for young children and families. A knowledge of the specific context in Europe and Central Asia will be considered an advantage
• Strong understanding of primary health care systems design, functioning and monitoring, particularly in the region.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills, capacity to synthesize, structure and clarify complex issues.
• Proven experience of delivering capacity building.
• Fluency in English is a minimum requirement.  Familiarity with some of the languages of ECA region will be considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.

To apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit:

1. Letter of interest, including your approach to the assignment and proposed fees (daily) to undertake the above TOR. Please note that applications without a proposed fee will not be accepted.
2. A CV and/or Personal history form (downloadable from http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc). Alternatively, if a candidate profile in the UNICEF e-Recruitment System is available, you may download it and submit it as part of application.

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.

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[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence