UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for an individual consultant to provide consultancy on Child Protection and HIV sensitive Disability Parenting (Open to Zimbabwean Nationals only)

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, safety!

UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights. 

The current UNICEF-Government of Zimbabwe Country Programme of Cooperation (2016-2020) aims to support Zimbabwe to sustain and build upon the gains achieved for children during the 2012-2015 Country Programme of Cooperation. The programme focuses on improving the quality of social services, increasing access to services, and helping to build national and sub-national capacities to provide low-cost, high-impact interventions for all children, especially the most vulnerable.

For more information about UNICEF Zimbabwe please click here

You can also access and explore all new UNICEF vacancies and create job alerts via the UNICEF Zimbabwe website link below:

https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/work-us

How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to hire an innovative individual consultant to provide consultancy on Child Protection and HIV sensitive Disability Parenting.

Consultancy Terms of Reference

Section	Child Protection
Purpose	Facilitate designing of a disability sensitive parenting package for children and adolescents with disabilities including those living with HIV for rollout by Child Protection CP and HIV partners and organisations of parents/caregivers of children with disabilities and caregivers of children living with HIV and disabilities
Location	Harare based
Duration	180 days
Start and end dates	1 August 2021 to 31 December 2021
Reporting to	Chief Child Protection

 

Background

Within the National Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (NAP for OVC) framework UNICEF CO has been supporting the capacity building and scaling up the implementation of parenting related initiatives to strengthen child protection and safeguarding for OVC in Zimbabwe informed by results of a study on “Mapping and Analysis of Parenting Initiatives in Zimbabwe and Review of Global Evidence – 2017”.   These initiatives include strengthening the Champions of Child Protection (CoCP) Initiative that has been adapted from the Plan International’s Global Champions of Change Model for prevention of violence against children and adolescents. Two major outputs that are being supported have been the design of CoCP Parenting Curriculum and CoCP Parenting Training of Trainers Manual for Community Childcare Workers (CCWs).

 

An organisation of Parents of Children with Disabilities (CwD), Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) has existed as a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) with networks of parents in almost all provinces in Zimbabwe.  The organisation provides an opportunity for its members to exchange information, provide peer support, initiate some projects such as care centres, capacity building on access to services and advocacy for disability inclusive programming for their children.  The CSO has partnered with UNICEF in previous programming cycles to address some needs of children and caregivers.  The partnership met its objectives and ended well.

Through Partnership with JF Kapnek Trust, Child Protection Section has been providing some support towards prevention and response to violence against children with disabilities (CwD).  The intervention has strengthened capacity building of some caregivers on child protection as well as identifying and referral for specialist services being offered for CwD, home visitations for provision of counseling and referrals among other services.  Child Protection section has also initiated some support to Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association through emergency COVID-19 response and child protection and the SSFA submission is being finalized.

 

HIV Section

Financial and technical support has been provided to Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) to develop the capacity of Primary Counselors in sign language and HIV to enhance care, treatment and support for children, adolescents and young people with speech and hearing impairments and other disabilities. With the knowledge and skills acquired, the trained PCs are working with community leaders care givers and Village Health workers to identify children with disabilities in their communities and refer them for relevant services. The plan is to roll out the capacity building to all health facilities, but funding is a major challenge.

Technical support has also been provided to Africaid, a CSO partner jointly supported by HIV and Child Protection Sections, to integrate disability in the care, treatment and support of adolescents and young people living with HIV through its peer led Zvandiri Model. The integration of disability included screening of children for hearing, eyesight, speech and other physical disabilities as well as provision of relevant support to caregivers/parents and ensuring adherence to ART. Training guidelines and monitoring tools were developed and continue to be used by trained community based workers.   

 

In line with UNICEF’s leave no one behind agenda, Child Protection and HIV Sections are strengthening parenting of children and adolescents with disabilities and special parenting needs through designing  standardized tools to build the capacity of parents and community cadres..  As part of the office wide expression of interest and application for disability inclusive programming Child Protection and HIV sections included reviewing and designing parenting initiative for children and adolescents with Disability including those living with HIV. A consultant is required to facilitate this initiative with support from Child Protection and HIV sections.

 

UNICEF received a catalytic grant for disability inclusive programming and Child Protection Section has some activities that were included in the multi-sectorial proposal to design some model initiatives for strengthening intersectional disability inclusion in community level service delivery and Parenting.   The Consultant will be engaged for a period of 6 months to provide technical support to implementing partners to design and pilot disability inclusive tool kits for capacity building in intersectional disability inclusion and disability inclusive parenting of children and adolescents. Due to limited funding the consultancy will not be supporting the rollout but the expected deliverables are providing technical support for designing and piloting tool kit comprising of (ToT manual, group facilitation guide, and peer to peer parental guide for parents)  and a full report for lessons learnt and strategy for scaling out of  the pilot.  The pilot will be used to catalyze resource mobilization efforts for rolling out the intervention in the next country programme that begins in 2022.   

Overall Purpose

Facilitate designing of a disability sensitive parenting package for children and adolescents with disabilities including those living with HIV for rollout by Child Protection CP and HIV partners and organisations of parents/caregivers of children with disabilities and caregivers of children living with HIV and disabilities.

ASSIGNMENTS: The Consultancy will:

I. Produce a report on review of current initiatives in relation to their ability to address parenting needs of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities (CAwD) including those living with HIV who have increased risk of disability.

Practical work includes

• Conducting a review and analyse the current parenting initiatives focusing on gaps for CAwD including those living with HIV in consultations with relevant organisations including but not limited to UNICEF CP and HIV partners as well as organizations of parents of CAwD. 
• Conducting consultations with children and adolescents with disabilities including those living with HIV, caregivers of CAwD, caregivers of, children and adolescents living with HIV and  with disability, on parental guidance, needs and gaps.
• Conducting consultations with various community cadres among them Community Childcare Workers (CCWs), Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) Village Health Workers, Young Mentor Mothers, Primary Counselors,  CoCP facilitators, Adolescent Disability Ambassadors  on capacity gaps in supporting parents of children with disabilities including those parents with children living with HIV and  with disability.

2. Designing of tools for disability inclusive parenting model for capacity building of caregivers and community cadres on parenting of CAwD.

Practical work includes:

• Producing a package of  a  disability inclusive ToT manual  for training facilitators of  parenting clubs, young mentor mothers and  parents support group leaders,  group facilitation guide, and peer to peer parental guide for parents of CAwD inclusion to strengthen existing initiatives and models. 
• Producing a ToT manual for Training of Community Cadres on disability inclusive services provision for CAwD including those living with HIV and at increased risk of developing disability.

3. Support pilot roll out of the disability inclusive parenting capacity building model for community cadres through UNICEF supported HIV and CP CSO partners.

Practical work includes

• Coordinate the parenting work of 4 CSO partners selected to pilot the disability inclusive parenting tools with caregivers as well as training of community cadres
• Document lessons learnt and recommendations for scaling up

Practical work includes:

1. Supporting CSO partners recipients of disability inclusive parenting grant to pilot the tools

Produce a report on the piloting experience of partners with recommendations for scaling out.

Description of expected deliverables and payment schedule

Tasks/Milestone:	Deliverables/Outputs:	Timeline	Payment Schedule %
Consultant presents concept of understanding of assignment and proposed work plan	Inception report	2 August 2021
Consultant reviews existing tools from selected organisations and maps out gaps in disability inclusiveness of parenting models in meeting needs of CAwD including those with HIV and capacity of community cadres in intersectional disability inclusion.	Report on Review and Analysis of gaps in parenting of CAwD including those living with HIV and gaps in capacity of community cadres for intersectional disability inclusion with recommendations for strengthening	12 August 2021
Consultant presents draft packages of tools for training of community cadres such as Community Childcare Workers, Community Adolescent Treatment supporters, Young Mentor Mothers and Primary Health Counsellors and Caregiver Peer Mentors in intersectional disability inclusive services and parenting support for caregivers of CAwD including those with HIV.	Draft packages of tools for capacity strengthening of community cadres in intersectional disability inclusion comprising of ToT Manual for use by selected CSOs, Group Facilitation Guide for cascading training to community cadres and Facilitation Guide for peer to peer caregiver parenting support in parenting of CAwD and  those with HIV	31 August 2021	30%
Consultant produces final draft and workplan to support piloting of disability inclusive parenting of CAwD including those with HIV and capacity building of community cadres in intersectional disability inclusion by selected CSO partners	Final packages of capacity building tools and workplan to support piloting organisations in intersectional disability inclusion and parenting of CAwD	30 September 2021
Consultant facilitates and supports organisations to operationalize the tools	Summary report of commencement of  pilots including workplans and expected results to be achieved for each partner.	31 October 2021	30%
Consultant compiles and presents draft report for discussion and inputs for proposed scale out of disability inclusive parenting programme and capacity strengthening of community cadres in intersectional disability inclusive service provision.	Report on piloting experiences and lessons learn in disability inclusive parenting and intersectional disability inclusion pilot with recommendations for adjustments.	30 November 2021
Consultant produces and presents final project report, lessons learnt report and scaling up strategy.	Final report and scaling out strategy document.	31 December 2021	40%

 

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

• Master’s degree in relevant fields including Social Sciences, Social Work, Health and Education disciplines
• A qualification in disability will be an added advantage.
• More than 5 years’ experience in Disability work.
• Ability to engage in meaningful consultation with children and adolescents with different types of disabilities
• Strong coordination skills
• Strong report writing skills
• Expertise in developing capacity building tools
• Experience in HIV and related work
• Creative, Innovative and ability to demonstrate use of technology in parenting needs for special groups.
• Languages English and minimum of 2 local languages (Shona and Ndebele preferable)

For more information refer to the attached ToR  ToR Child Protection and HIV sensitive Disability Parenting ToR.pdf

Other Consultancy Costs and Payment Modalities

Competitive market rates will apply. 

If interested and available to undertake the consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical and an all-inclusive financial proposal (detailing professional fees, DSA, airfare etc where necessary).

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:

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