Consultancy – Technical support to phasing out of Technical Support Hubs for Child Friendly Spaces, Beijing, China

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, care

Starting with 40 child friendly spaces (CFS) in Sichuan in 2008, in the past decade, CFSs have grown from an emergency response to become an integral part of communities and a space providing child protection and welfare services.  The successful inclusion of the CFS model as the prototype for community-based child protection and welfare services in the current National Plan of Action (2011-2020) (hereafter NPA) signified a major achievement of the NWCCW-UNICEF joint initiative and exemplifies UNICEF China’s program model of “pilots to policy to result at scale”.

Today a great number of Children’s Places (name used for CFS in NPA) have been established across the country.  However, the quality of those places varies considerably depending on the understanding of the CFS concept, as well as the technical and financial capacities and know-how of the local authorities and implementing agencies.  The biggest challenges remain the lack of technical know-how on the operation and management of Children’s Places in line with CFS principles and standards, the paucity of community-based services needed to support vulnerable children and ensuring that the child protection component of the CFS is not neglected.

With that being said, as reflected in the 2016-2020 Country Program Action Plan between the Government of China and UNICEF, NWCCW and UNICEF have shifted the program focus towards quality assurance and supporting the development of institutional and human resource capacity within the country to accompany the massive scale up of Children’s Places.  This has been done through the establishment of five provincial Technical Support Hubs (TSH) in Sichuan (July 2016), Guangxi (November 2016), Chongqing (June 2017), Hunan (June 2017), and Shaanxi (July 2017).  Drawing on local expert knowledge, these hubs provide quality technical assistance and coordination, including training, monitoring, quality assurance, and data gathering, to support the “child-friendliness” of Children’s Places, which serve children up to the age of 18 years

How can you make a difference?

In 2016, IKEA Foundation approved UNICEF China’s three-year funding proposal on the establishment and operation of four provincial Technical Support Hubs (TSH) in Guangxi, Chongqing, Hunan, and Shaanxi.  UNICEF received the funding at the beginning of 2017.  We received a no-cost extension for 2020 and will receive another one to wrap up the project until end June 2021.  As the contract of the current staff member covering the implementation of the project cannot be extended, the Child Protection Section is looking for a national consultant to help us wrap up the project.  The purpose of the assignment is to bring the project to a good end working closely with the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), our project management partner, and NWCCW, and contribute to the end of project report to IKEA Foundation.

For more details, please refer to the TOR –  Job Vacancy – TSH consultant for VA.docx

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

• Minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in the public welfare sector, including child protection and related to community-based child protection mechanisms in China.
• Experience in donor report writing.
• Experience in managing baseline surveys.
• Current knowledge, understanding and interest in child protection issues and policies in China and internationally.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong organisational skills to promote smooth project management.
• Strong research and writing skills to support knowledge management on child protection issues.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Work experience with the UN or other international development organisations is an asset.
• Fluency in English and Mandarin, both written and spoken.

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.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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:

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.