Consultancy Title: Consultant for study on impact of COVID 19 on child marriage

 

 

LOCATION/DURATION:

Duration:  All the work will be done remotely with virtual meetings with the Child Protection team of UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office. If the situation allows, a validation meeting could be organized.

Location: Remote, Home-Based

Off-site working days:  41 working days

 

BACKGROUND:

Child marriage is a human rights violation constituting an extreme form of violence against girls and a deterrent to development. Although both boys and girls are subjected to the practice, girls are disproportionally affected. Child marriage has grave and devastating implications for girls that can be life-threatening. Although it is a global phenomenon, the prevalence of child marriages is higher in developing countries due to numerous factors such as poverty, gender inequalities and adverse social and cultural norms. According to recent statistics, in developing countries, one in every five girls is married before the age of 18 and one in every 9 girls is married before reaching 15.

 

According to UNICEF, the world is home to 650 million child brides, of which 40 million child brides are in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The scale of child marriage in the MENA region is close to the global trends with 1 in 5 girls has been married before the age of 18 and 1 in 25 before the age of 15. In recent years there have been 700,000 child brides every year in the MENA region. The prevalence of child marriage varies within the region, from a high of one in three in the Sudan and Yemen, to a low of 1 in 50 in Tunisia.

 

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recognizes Gender-Based Violence (GBV) as a global health concern. One of the Fund’s transformative results targets is ending GBV including harmful practices by 2030. As part of UNFPA and UNICEF’s joint work to eliminate child marriage, the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage (GPECM) was launched in 2016 in 12 of the most high-prevalence or high-burden countries. The Global Programme was built to capture the complementarity of the work of UNFPA and UNICEF towards eradicating child marriage and uses a range of strategies, working with multiple partners at the national, regional, and global levels. UNFPA ASRO and UNICEF MENA are working relentlessly in addressing child marriage in the region through the Global Program, supporting different country office programs and interventions to curtail the practice of child marriage.

It has been proved that child marriage interventions based on empowering girls, keeping them in school, and tackling social and cultural norms around child marriage, would reduce the child marriage cases by 60 million between 2020 and 2030.  If this model is disrupted for one year, the number of child marriages averted will be reduced by an estimated 7.4 million. At the beginning of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) as a public health emergency of international concern due to the global spread of the virus. Most of the countries imposed restrictive measures to curb the infection spread including social distancing, prohibiting mass gatherings, schools’ closure, and – in some cases – complete lockdown of cities. Researches expect the impact of COVID-19 restrictive measures and policies on the implementation of child marriage interventions to be grave. Additionally, COVID-19 has adverse implications on the economy, particularly for low-income countries where child marriage practice is more prevalent. Since poverty is a key driver of child marriage, cases of child marriages are expected to increase in vulnerable and poor communities. In recent statistics, the disruption of efforts to end the practice caused by COVID-19 is expected to cause an increase of 13 million additional child marriage cases in the next decade.

 

Child marriage and its drivers are complex and vary within and across countries. There is not enough evidence on the impact of the pandemic on child marriage in the MENA/AS region. Therefore, there is a need to generate more evidence – in the region and across countries – on the drivers and the consequence of COVID-19 on the practice of child marriage as well as the effectiveness of the programming interventions to end child marriage. 

 

 

OBJECTIVE:

 

The aim of this consultancy is to produce a regional analysis of contributing factors to changes in rates of child marriage during COVID-19. Additionally, the Consultancy will capture the impact on child marriage programming in the MENA region along with documenting good practices and programmatic interventions being implemented to curb the impact of COVID-19 on child marriage. The analysis is expected to take an overall regional lens with few case studies/examples from six countries: Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Djibouti

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT:

 

Outputs

 

The Consultant will have to develop and submit a report on the impact of COVID-19 on child marriage and child marriage programming in the MENA Region. The report should cover the following:

 

1. Overview of child marriage and related issues in the region
2. Identify the implications of COVID–19 on child marriage prevention and response in the region
3. Identify any documented changes or trends in child marriage since the COVID-19 pandemic
4. Identify contributing factors to changes in the rates of child marriage during COVID-19 in the six targeted countries
5. Identify good practices in child marriage programming during COVID-19
6. Propose recommendations and entry points for child marriage programming during a crisis such as COVID-19

Questions: 

The following questions are expected to be answered within this brief:

 

1. How have COVID-19 infection prevention measures affected the implementation of child marriage programs/activities?
2. What is the evidence of increasing or decreasing child marriage rates due to COVID-19?
3. What are the factors contributing to increasing or decreasing cases of child marriage during COVID-19?
4. How did UNFPA and UNICEF country offices and other CSO’s reprogram child marriage activities? 
5. What are the adaptive strategies for child marriage programming during COVID-19?
6. Which national counterparts and stakeholders have the UNFPA and UNICEF country offices worked with to address child marriage during COVID-19?
7. What services related to prevention of and response to child marriage existed in each of the six countries and how has COVID-19 affected the availability of and accessibility to these services?
8. What are the emerging good practices in providing a response to child marriage during COVID-19?

Methodology

The consultant will conduct the analysis at regional level and focus on Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Djibouti.

 

The following data collection methods are expected to be used to collect information

1. Desk review
2. Key informant interviews with service providers, local CSOs/partner organizations, women’s groups etc.
3. Online surveys or WhatsApp polls or other virtual modalities with community leaders, adolescent girls (if possible), religious leaders and youth/SRHR focused organizations.  Country offices of the six selected countries will assist the consultant to identify the different local groups and organizations

4. One-on-one semi-structured interviews with Child Protection or GBV Specialist/ Gender Officer/ Humanitarian Officer in UNFPA and UNICEF country offices, as well as in identified CSO’s/INGO’s

 

KEY DELIVERABLES:

 

	Key Deliverables	Timeline	Payment %
1	Proposed outline for the study to be shared with UNFPA-UNICEF for review and inputs Final study outline based on inputs from UNFPA-UNICEF	5 days (from contract start date)
2	Submit data collection tools for the FGDs and semi-structured interviews e.g. interview guide. UNFPA-UNICEF will review and provide feedback in a one-week time.	5 days
3	Data collection (Desk review, FGDs, interviews) to be completed	24 days
4	Draft Report to be shared with UNFPA-UNICEF for inputs	8 days
5	Presentation of key findings and good practices	4 days
6	Submission of final report	2 days	100%
7	Payment- lump sum upon completion:  UNICEF will make payment in full upon successful completion of the contract.

 

 

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS (IF APPLICABLE):

 

The Consultant to do regular check in calls and email on the progress or challenges while conducting the study for follow up with the UNFPA-UNICEF team 

 

The consultant will report to the UNICEF CP Specialist in MENA Regional Office.

 

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

1. Education:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in public health, the social sciences or other relevant field related to violence against children and women, especially in emergency context
• A first-level university degree with relevant combination of academic qualifications and experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree with an additional 2 years of experience.

2. Work experience:

Minimum 5-7 years of progressive humanitarian experience; at least 2 of which should be field-based or in emergency contexts.

 

3. Technical knowledge:

• Strong knowledge of GBV in emergencies programming;
• Experience working with conflict-affected communities, including with children and communities;
• Experience working with other sectors on integration;

• Ability to collect, collate and analyse data in an efficient and effective manner;
• Analytical, methodical and precise style of writing;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills;
• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking;
• Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals;
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment;
• Demonstrates leadership or supervisory skills; coordinates group activities; experience in a leadership or supervisory role an asset.

• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships;

• Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives;
• Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments;
• Previous experience with online content development preferred;

• Previous experience with UNICEF preferred.

4. Language:

• Fluency in English required. Arabic is an asset.

 

Payment Schedule:

 

12.        PROPOSED PAYMENT SCHEDULE; By Deliverable

 

Lump sum upon completion- UNICEF will only make payment in full upon successful completion of the contract.

 

 

EVALUATION PROCESS:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application.
2. Financial quote as lump sum for professional fees, and lump sum for travel/administrative/subsistence, if applicable.
3. CV.
4. Examples of previous, relevant work as applicable
5. Proposed methodology/approach to managing the project.
6. At least 3 Referees
7. P 11 form (which can be downloaded from our website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_53129.html ).

 

Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

 

“UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.”