Consultancy: Establishment of Community of Practice for Social Protection in Kenya - Nairobi, Kenya

Background and Justification

 The concept and practice of Social Protection as a tool and instrument for poverty reduction, economic growth and development has rapidly gained global popularity particularly in the last decade with many developing countries slowly embracing it as a strategy for fighting poverty and reducing vulnerability amongst their citizens. This has been evidenced by increased governments’ spending and investment in the sector which in turn has also had significant positive effects in socio-economic development and livelihood improvement of the communities.

The main objective of Social Protection is to help cushion the poor and vulnerable members of the society from the hard socio-economic ‘risks’ and ‘shocks’ and to being able to prevent them from falling deeper into poverty situation, while at the same time boosting their resilience to such shocks and risks through the provision of an income support or regular social transfers.

Kenya, like many other countries across the globe, has boldly embraced Social Protection in its bid to fight poverty and vulnerability amongst its citizens and as a way of promoting equity and social inclusion. The right to social security has been enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution (2010) and as thus stated in Article 43 (3) 1 (e) “Every person has a right to social security ……….. [And] the State shall provide appropriate social security to persons who are unable to support themselves and their dependents”. The creation of the State Department for Social Protection under the MEACL&SP in 2013 was a bold step to firmly establish the Social Protection sector in the country.

Social Protection in Kenya, according to the National Social Protection Policy (NSPP), has been undertaken through three main pillars of Social Assistance, Social Security and Health Insurance.  This has also been undertaken by different agencies, both State and non-State actors across the different sectors of the Country. Prominent amongst these programmes are the four Cash Transfers (CTs), National Safety Net Programmes (NSNP) under the Social Assistance pillar.

The Social Protection Sector in Kenya has grown very rapidly especially after the introduction of the Cash Transfer programmes on 2004. This has not only been quantitatively in terms of increase in the number of beneficiaries and actors in the sector but also qualitatively in terms of knowledge, skills and capacity development. This is spurred by the fact that the Social Protection sector, at both local and global level, is very dynamic and prone to the development of new ideas and concepts that shape and continue influence the design and implementation of Social Protection interventions.  

To keep in sync with these new developments and changing dimensions, the Government of Kenya (GOK) has invested heavily in training and capacity building of its staffs at both local and international levels for the efficient delivery of the Social Protection goals and objectives. This in return has created a pool of skilled Social Protection practitioners who are specialists in various aspects of Social Protection implementation such as Designing of SP programmes, MIS development, M & E, payments and targeting.

Despite all these achievements, we still witness weak linkages and low coordination across programmes and sectors with no formal and interactive platform in the Country that brings together these various skills and specialties and be able to proactively harness and tap into this wealth of knowledge; building synergy and mentorship to the newly emerging Social Protection practitioners, aggregating to a more robust, vibrant and efficient Social Protection system for the Country. 

In view of the above therefore, the Government has set out to establish a Community of Practitioners (CoP) for the Social Protection actors in Kenya. The main objective of this organization will be to provide a forum for sharing of knowledge and skills, exchange of information, mentorship and sharing of best practices in Social Protection. This will help in enhancing coordination, building efficiency and visibility in the sector and of the programmes.

UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Kenya would like to engage the services of an experienced and competent Consultant to undertake the process.

Scope of Work

Goal and Objective

Under the supervision of the Social protection Specialist the objective of the consultancy is to support the Government in the establishment of an efficient and inclusive national Social Protection platform for the Social Protection practitioners herein referred to as “Community of Practitioners” (COP). 

This consultancy will work closely with the Social Protection Secretariat to create a functionally comprehensive and dynamic platform that is not only responsive to the local environment and Country Social Protection needs but also accommodative to and interactive with the global niche in a self-sustaining manner. 

RWPPCR/IRs areas covered

Assignment links with RWO outcome 6: By 2018, social protection mechanisms and systems for vulnerable children and adolescents are integrated, adequately resourced, coordinated and sustainable in regular and emergency situations, output 1:  sources leveraged and strategies developed for a nationally owned, integrated social protection system linked to child vulnerability and UNDAF Outcome 2.4 Social Protection: By 2018 social protection policy and strategies ensure government’s effective leadership role, sustainability of achievement, and promotion of innovation and learning; and the social protection systems are adequately resourced, devolved, well-coordinated, effective, efficient and sustainable

 Broad objectives of the assignment are;

• To share and exchange knowledge and promote learning in the inclusive three pillars of social protection in Kenya
• Generate new knowledge through the exchange programs and participation in review forums
• Enhance purposeful commitments of organizations to take action from the Social Protection Conference week 2015  Call for action and the implementation matrix

Specifically, the consultant will perform the following activities/ tasks :

The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks:

1. Initiation

• Defining the purpose, goals, vision and mission for the Community.

2. Mapping

• Identifying the potential membership and the audience; individual and corporate, local and international.
• Developing a list of people in the practice.
• Establishing the current status of Social Protection practice in the Country and the linkages, existing and missing, including the county levels.
• Building a list of literature and key documents in Social Protection.

3. Design

• Defining the activities for the Community.
• Explore  appropriate and efficient technologies to be used
• Defining the group processes in the development of the Community.
• Governance and the guiding principles.
• Defining the linkages, interaction, and information protocols.

4. Legal framework:

• Ensure that all the necessary legal requirements for the CoP are met and put in place.

5. Recruitment:

• Defining the criteria for membership,
• Responsibilities and duties of members,
• Code of conduct of the CoP that are attached to membership,
• Levels /cadres of membership,

6. Launch

• Rolling out the CoP to a broader audience, including civil society Organizations, line ministries, academia, media and community members over a period of one year (2016/2017) to ensure buy-in and sustainability.

Sustainability

The consultant will work closely with the Social Protection Secretariat to set up a coordination framework through the community of practise which is to strengthen dialogue and communication across the social protection sectors.  The framework envisages to reduce fragmentations, gaps and strengthening learning and best practises.

The Social Protection Secretariat will continuously hold the coordination meetings with the  stakeholders as stipulated in the guidelines the consultant will have developed 

Design conditions and Work relationships 

All the activities above shall be undertaken through a consultative process with the Social Protection actors in the Country

• The report should show results of the mapping – the various actors in the Social Protection sphere with their categorization, linkages and gaps; the institutional arrangement, legal framework and sustainability

Deliverables:

Deliverables (dates will be adjusted based on recruitment timeline)

Duration (Estimated # of days )

Timeline/Deadline

Schedule of Payment

1. An approved inception report detailing the entire process, with the methodology and work plan.

10

15^th September 2017

1^st instalment of 20%

ii)                   A draft mapping report with various social protection actors included

15

5^th October 2017  

2^nd Instalment of 40%

3. The establishment of CoP, its operationalization ( ToR for the sub groups and groups with elaborate membership defined, coordination materials)
4. Facilitated the launch of the CoP

20

25^th October  2017

3^rd  Instalment of 40%

5. A final, Government approved final report documenting the CoP operations and handover documents to the Government

15

10^th November 2017

TOTAL person days

60 days

N.B.

• • • • Payment is on satisfactory completion of deliverables duly authorized by the Supervisor of contract.
• Specific deliverables of acceptable quality must be submitted at the planned times. 
• Performance will be evaluated considering quality of deliverables, consultation with stakeholders, timeliness of deliverables of and comprehensiveness of work as defined in the terms of reference.
• The consultant is expected to carry out the documentation process in accordance with professional communication  development standards

Required qualifications, desired competencies, technical background and experience

(Consult with HR on this prior to signing off on the TOR)

The consultant should have the following skills and qualifications:-

• At least a master’s degree in social sciences, economics, communication or any other relevant area.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional practical experience in designing, conducting reporting and documenting projects, programmes, or interventions in the area of Social Protection.
• Proven ability to handle technical matters with excellent organizational and interpersonal skills and  good communication skills
• Proven experience in working with the Government and the development Partners will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience in coordination will be an added advantage