Romania: National Consultant (part-time) to provide technical assistance in development and use of on-line tools (with focus on AURORA) in the benefit of children’s welfare

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, opportunities.

 

How can you make a difference?

BACKGROUND

For ensuring prerequisites for every child to reach her or his potential, UNICEF promotes the scale-up of the Minimum Package of Services (MPS) as the mandatory social service package delivered by public local authorities in all communes, towns and cities. While the MPS concept includes the proactive intervention of several professionals, including social worker, community nurse, school mediator, etc., it heavily relies on the integration of their work, presupposing among others, also ensuring a unique entry point for beneficiaries of social services. In practice, this is facilitated by use of common instruments, including online tools and data base. One of such online tools is Aurora.

Aurora is a software developed by UNICEF that has evolved from more than 7 years of development and testing. The software encapsulates the methodology that ensures a comprehensive assessment of vulnerabilities of children and families by community professionals. The methodology is based on a grid of indicators that is applied unitary for all children and across all communities, ensures the planning and delivery of integrated services to increase the impact of social protection, health and education policies for all children and their families. UNICEF worked together with the Romanian Government, especially the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions (NARPDCA) and the methodology was transposed in the Governmental Ordinance 691/2015. More recently, the NARPDCA in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection (MLSP) and Ministry of Communication and Informational Society, are working for incorporating Aurora in the National Informatic System for Adoption “SINA”[1], within a project implemented between 30.12.2019 – 30.12.2022.

JUSTIFICATION

UNICEF Romania continues to use Aurora in the benefit of new modelling projects[2] and assist with smooth integration in SINA. At the same time, UNICEF plans to develop further and support use and/or interoperability with existing instruments (including Aurora) with new digital software, in the benefit of children’s welfare and social inclusion of most vulnerable categories of population.

In this sense, UNICEF is looking for specific technical assistance to complement work of UNICEF Specialists in various programmatic areas whether at national or local level.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The scope of the consultancy is to provide technical assistance at various levels for the use of Aurora (including training and support for new users of the software), for its integration in software developed by Romanian counterparts, for ensuring interoperability with other new digital tools or system concerning child rights. Moreover, technical support may include documentation of lessons learned, knowledge management and horizontal cooperation, implying possible use of Aurora also in other countries.

 

GENERIC AND SPECIFIC TASKS

The generic task of the consultancy is to contribute with:

• Practical assistance for the end users of Aurora and other online tools
• Technical assistance for scaling-up Aurora as part of the national roll-out of the MPS and EU Child Guarantee, including inter-operability with other digital tools and systems
• Support for knowledge management around online tools and systems developed, tested and scale-up in the benefit of children

 

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

• University degree in Social/Political Sciences, Statistics, Information technology or related field
• At least 5 years of experience in relevant field
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Romanian and English
• Good command in working with EXCEL, SPSS, STATA or other software for data analysis (R, Python)
• Proof of use of data presentation techniques
• Previous experience in working with UN Agencies and/or various structures of the Government and/or the Parliament of Romania
• Experience in writing methodologies, normative guidelines, research papers, analytical documents, policy papers and notes, project and program documents, studies, etc. is an asset.
• Analytical and conceptual ability; communication skills;
• Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization;
• Availability for work within the proposed time frame;
• Availability to travel in country, to the beneficiary districts, if necessary.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

 

IMPORTANT! Presentation of financial offer: The applicants are requested to present the financial offer in GROSS Fee per day in Romanian Lei Financial bid_Aurora.docx, considering an estimated workload of ~100 days annually.

 

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.

 

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.