Individual Contractor: Development of a Programme Guidance Package: Conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding in WASH – WASH, PG,NYHQ/Remote Based, Req#543671

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Vacancy Announcement:  

Title:  Development of a Programme Guidance Package: Conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding in WASH

Section/Division/Duty Station: WASH/PD/NYHQ

Duration: 80 days over a period of 6 months

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

More than 800 million children live in 58 fragile contexts globally, including more than 220 million children living in 15 extremely fragile contexts. Of great concern is the prediction that more than 80 percent of the world’s poorest people could be living in fragile contexts by 2030, further widening the gulf of inequity. [i]  Children in fragile environments often lack adequate access to water and sanitation and become prone to risks of morbidity, mortality, and malnutrition, which also contribute to low rates of school attendance, triggering them into a vicious cycle of chronic poverty. Without safe WASH services, children’s rights to nutrition, health, protection, and education are at risk.

Particularly in fragile settings, water could become a direct source of conflict or an indirect threat. Continuous population growth, unsustainable economic development, increased water demand, and climate change may exacerbate water scarcity, further heightening the risk of disputes over water arising both locally and between riparian countries, especially in already fragile contexts. However, if managed sensibly, water could also play the role of a connector than a divider. WASH interventions could be leveraged to address underlying causes of conflict and to strengthen social cohesion, but such opportunities are rarely pursued, much less realized. Where such attempts are made, robust consultation with other non-WASH actors is critical.

UNICEF is a champion in delivering WASH-based peacebuilding efforts, which often serve as an entry point for UNICEF and other partners to bring in additional services for children and for conflicting parties to pave the way for reconciliation and cooperation. In the same line, UNICEF leads the Global WASH cluster to ensure humanitarian response effectiveness and link humanitarian and development coordination. In 2019 UNICEF launched the global advocacy strategy Water Under Fire, which explicitly highlights the opportunities to more strategically and systematically leverage WASH services for conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

When delivering WASH services where tensions between communities are high or where relations between government and civil society are strained, WASH actors must continually analyse the conflict dynamics and the two-way interaction between intervention and context to ensure that WASH interventions do not cause harm or potential for conflict or tension. This will require consistent monitoring for unintended consequences linked to the intervention and the creation of mechanisms to track and deliver institutional learning.

Lack of conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding capacity in the WASH sector reflects a shortfall in training and institutional weaknesses in actively applying conflict sensitivity in WASH sector planning processes and specifically promoting peacebuilding in programming. Successful completion of the development of the analysis and programming guidance tools will play a crucial role in filling the existing capacity gap in the WASH sector and the cluster at large. Furthermore, the guidance package will be adopted in a series of capacity-building training.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

The consultant/s will produce:

UNICEF Programme Guidance package for Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding and WASH for UNICEF staff and local, national and international partners designing, implementing and funding WASH programmes and policies. The Progamme Guidance for WASH, Conflict Sensitivity & Peacebuilding for the use by WASH sector across humanitarian, development and peacebuilding actors to guide WASH planning and implementation to ensure interventions are conflict sensitive and risk informed, contribute to prevention of conflict in areas affected by fragility, and where possible and feasible contribute to peacebuilding and sustaining peace. The package will contain conflict analysis guidance and tools tailored to integrate WASH perspectives and stakeholders, tools for conflict-sensitive and peacebuilding planning and programming in WASH, guidance and suggested approaches for WASH programme adaptation to integrate conflict-sensitivity and peacebuilding objectives, and guidance and tools for monitoring conflict sensitivity of WASH interventions and WASH contribution to peacebuilding results;

The UNICEF Programme Guidance package for Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding and WASH training will specifically cover:

• Fundamentals of UNICEF approach to conflict analysis and guidance for WASH sector
• Basics of applying a conflict analysis to the design and implementation of WASH programmes
• UNICEF approach to conflict sensitivity and detailed guidance and tools for application in WASH
• UNICEF approach to peacebuilding and guidance and suggested entry points and potential programming approaches for WASH
• UNICEF approach to programming in fragile settings, including programming approaches, partners and operational adaptations for application in WASH
• The tools and guidance for monitoring for conflict sensitivity of humanitarian and development WASH programming
• Tools and guidance for Design, Monitoring and Evaluation of effective peacebuilding-focused interventions through WASH

The guidance package will help to explore how WASH-centered analysis and programming could address key risk factors associated with conflict and fragility, both directly and indirectly, and will serve as a companion piece to UNICEF multi-sectoral Programme Guidance on Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding. The tools will help to fill that gap from a diagnosis of the problem to a detailed discussion of potential interventions and monitoring.

Under the supervision of the Senior Emergency Advisor WASH and in close coordination and collaboration with Fragility and Peacebuilding Specialist, CERP the WASH Cluster, and the CO programming teams, the consultant is responsible for the following deliverables:

1. Inception report drafted [end of first two weeks]: a desk review and compilation of existing tools, guidance and good practice around WASH, conflict sensitivity, and peacebuilding. This should include overview of the impact of conflict and violence on the functioning of the WASH services and programmes, including the implications on access to water, sanitation health and hygiene; the ways in which the WASH programmes impact conflict either positively or negatively, including local governance, youth participation, education, and innovation; the capacities of the WASH programmes and of different WASH stakeholders to respond to the effects of the crisis, conflict, and types of violence and the abilities to mitigate its effects. Based on the desk review, develop proposal for the structure of the Guidance Package & workplan. Hold first reference group meeting to seek feedback on the inception report.

[End of First Month] Conflict Analysis Guide: considerations for WASH that will:

• Identify and map out types of violence and impacts on the WASH sector and services
• Conduct a comprehensive desk study of existing WASH (e.g., WASH sector plan) and conflict/violence analysis documentation, assess the relevance, and identify gaps
• Design a WASH-centered comprehensive conflict and violence analysis process and set of tools to support data gathering and analysis by UNICEF and partners
• Design guidance and tools for adolescent and youth participation in WASH conflict analysis

[End of Second Month] Developing a Guidance Package and planned programme design and adaptation:

• Identify field examples/ case studies to illustrate in the guidance package
• Design the guidance tools based on the conflict analysis, existing conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding toolkits and WASH documentations

[End of Third Month] Monitoring programme implementation and impacts:

• Request feedback from select CO programme teams (i.e., based on periodic project reviews, project reporting, midterm evaluations and situation monitoring), if/how WASH programmes are incorporating conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding angles, whether programmes are having the anticipated effects, and if that effect is making a positive difference in the overall situation.
• Design guidance and tools for monitoring and evaluation of conflict sensitivity in WASH and contributions to peacebuilding.

[End of Forth Month] 2^nd Full Draft incorporating feedback received in the first round

[End of Fifth Month] Organize WASH-centered Peacebuilding Analysis and Programming workshop to present and validate the guidance package and seek feedback

[End of Fifth Month] Final Full Report:

• Submission of the final report based on comments from the consultative process with CO programme teams, partners and key stakeholders in the WASH cluster.

Qualifications

Education

• Advanced university degree in International Relations, International Development, Programme Management, Public Policy, Public Administration, WASH, Peacebuilding/Conflict Studies or related fields.  (*A first University Degree combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree in a relevant field)
• The individual should be highly proficient in a range of PC/web applications, including but not limited to: MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook

2) Work experience

• A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience
• Demonstrated experience in programme design, development of guidance and tools for monitoring and evaluation of interventions at an international level (specific experience in peacebuilding programme design highly desirable)
• Previous experience working for UNICEF, the United Nations or other international organizations

3) Competencies

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English.
• Strong organizational, planning, and analytical skills
• Strong research and writing skills

Requirements:

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principle