Individual Contractor to support UNICEF Albania Office in the implementation of child protection program (7 months)

Hire an Individual contractor to support UNICEF Albania Country Office in the implementation of child protection program (7 months)

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.

UNICEF Country Office (CO) in Albania recognizes the strong linkage existing between children's rights and internet safety. Being a country with the lowest internet connection rates in Europe in the recent past, Albania has witnessed a substantial rise in internet utilization, especially among the young population. Internet provides tremendous opportunities for personal development, but also can reinforce inequities among children and lead to harmful consequences and risks to their safety and well-being (online bullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, etc.). Therefore, UNICEF will provide continuous support to the Government of Albania and involved stakeholders to establish and operationalize strategies and policies to strike a balance between providing access to modern internet communication technologies and the benefit they offer to children and young people, while minimizing risks and potential harm, making the Internet a safer place for all.

During past years, UNICEF CO succeeded in initiating a number of fundamental shifts in Albanian legislative, institutional and technical capacity base, with a view of enhancing the national response to the harmful phenomenon of child abuse and sexual exploitation in the virtual space. UNICEF's key role in advocating, lobbying and assisting the Government of Albania's participation in the Abu Dhabi Summit on Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) facilitated the country's commitment to the Declaration and Principles of Action by Governments adopted at the Summit.

UNICEF Albania's multi-year program "Safer and Better Internet for Children and Young People in Albania", which started in May 2017, funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children is geared towards a comprehensive response to online violence and aimed at supporting the implementation of the National Action Plan on safer Internet for children in Albania. UNICEF has undertaken significant interventions including: bringing about solid evidence-based understanding of children's usage of the Internet; comprehensive assessment of legal, normative and institutional framework as well as available human resources; consolidating and completing fundamental legal acts for children with bylaws to guide the implementation of legal provisions; enhancing cross-sectorial collaborations between government-Civil Society Organizations- Industry; building key stakeholders' capacities in preventing and responding to violence online cases; supporting children, adolescent and youth to act as peer educators and change makers.

How can you make a difference?

Under the general guidance of the Child Protection Specialist, the contractor will be accountable to plan, implement and monitor the planned activities for the duration of the contract, through maintain strong relations with respective state and civil society/non-governmental stakeholders to ensure their engagement, commitment and solid ownership of the process as well as active internal coordination within UNICEF CO, to ensure that cross-sectorial nature of interventions addressing VAC Online is maintained.

Activities include, but are not necessarily limited to the following tasks:

• Closely follow-up the overall capacity building process for child protection work force, in collaboration with the UNICEF partner civil society organizations, State Agency for Child Rights and Protection and University of Tirana social science faculty;
• Advance the work with the Ministry of Interior to prepare a specific capacity building costed plan for the police officers dealing with children's protection and investigation of violence against children, also online.
• Ensure that technical support is provided to the ongoing UNICEF led process of translating child rights legislation and key normative provisions into a child accessible format/language;
• Roll-out implementation of the dedicated communication/dissemination plans for the two UNICEF commissioned assessments: 1) On children's experience online (national study) and 2) assessment of policy/legal framework and human capacities available to address children's safety online.
• Advance, in collaboration with municipality of Tirana, international experts and other related stakeholders, the implementation of safe/family friendly Wi-Fi in public spaces in the capital city.
• Prepare periodic reports on the VAC online project (March and June more specifically) in collaboration with the UNICEF child protection team.
• Regularly follow up on ongoing activities, conduct project related field missions and monitoring visits, document and report on VAC Online project implementation and quality of outputs produced;
• Regularly meet with relevant project partners: state and non-state counterparts, CSOs, contractors (individual and institutional), youth groups, to provide technical assistance, expert advice, feedback to various aspects of VAC Online project, as well as around particular activities implemented by different actors;
• Develop and maintain up to date project implementation work plan(s) based on the review of on-going and planned activities and partnerships, available publications and reports, and other relevant documents related to VAC Online project.
• Closely communicate and follow up with a supervisor; keep contact with other sections within UNICEF regarding organization of activities and with relevant technical counterparts at both central and local levels, CSOs and other development partners active in the field of VAC Online;
• Perform other duties as required within the above topic.

The key deliverable and timeframe are as below:

Deliverable 1 - All modules of the child protection work force in-service training curricula (currently being reviewed by Terre des Homme and University of Tirana Social Science Faculty team) are updated and finalized in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. Duration: February-July 2019   Completion Date: May 2019

Deliverable 2 - A specific capacity building and costed plan with the Ministry of Interior to support the law enforcement (police officers) groups to address and investigate the cases of violence against children, including online. Duration: February - March 2019 Completion Date: March 2019 (or earlier)

Deliverable 3 - Monitor that the specific set of materials/tools for the child friendly legislation are finalized by a dedicated international consultant, are discussed and agreed with partners and submitted to UNICEF by early March 2019; Technical expertise and leadership is provided to advance the process of producing the materials and prepare rolling-out activities throughout the country. Duration: February - September 2019  Completion Date: March 2019 for tools and materials

Deliverable 4 - Dissemination/communication plans are implemented in line with the agreed timeline and stakeholders.

Duration: February-September 2019 Completion Date: based on the work plan agreed with the Supervisor

Deliverable 5 - A specific and costed action plan to establish and roll-out a "friendly Wi-Fi" project in the capital city in collaboration with the Municipality of Tirana. Monitoring and technical support to ensure implementation of the plan. Duration: February-August 2019 Completion Date: September 2019 (within this: costed draft plan by end February 2019)

Deliverable 6 - Two periodic narrative reports for the Safe Internet project are drafted. Duration: monthly Completion Date: By March 2019 and by June 2019

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

Key expected qualifications

• Advanced university degree in Human Rights, Law, Social Sciences, Management, Social/Public Policy, Social Work or any other relevant discipline;
• Minimum of 5 years of practical experience in project management preferably in Child Protection or very similar domain;
• Experience of working around policy, legislation, procedures/protocols and structures related to child (online) protection;
• Experience in provision of technical support to key national government agencies such as the Ministries of Justice, Interior, Social Welfare, Innovations etc.;
• Analytical capacities - proven examples to synthesize information and relate action to results;
• Fluency in both speaking and writing in English and Albanian;
• Communication and computer skills - proven examples from previous work experiences;
• Experience of working with UNICEF or other UN Agencies will be an advantage.

Work related requirements:

• Availability to work full-time with UNICEF as indicated in the current ToR;
• Flexibility in responding to office needs.

The applicants must submit to the UNICEF Albania office for review:

• Curriculum Vitae or United Nations Personal History Form (P11);
• Letter of Interest specifying the relevant experience with similar type of assignments (max 300 words);
• Financial proposal - The financial proposal shall specify the monthly fee requested for the tasks described in the current ToR and based on the full-time office based work schedule envisaged. The financial proposal shall be submitted in local currency (ALL).

Technical evaluation will be performed through a desk review of applications and face-to-face interview. The selected candidate is expected to start the assignment by Monday 4^th February 2019!

Other Administrative issues

UNICEF will regularly communicate with the contractor and provide feedback and guidance and necessary support so to achieve objectives of the work, as well as remain aware of any upcoming issues related to the performance and quality of work. UNICEF will provide with relevant documents and available research; contacts and lists of relevant technical people to work with, constant guidance and feedback in relation to contractor's work.

The consultancy is office-based and full-time (eight hours x five working days per week). UNICEF will provide desk, chair and upon approval by Representative - UNICEF laptop with UNICEF access to e-mail, Intranet and internal network.

The work will require local travels which will be arranged and covered by UNICEF. Prior to starting the assignment, the selected candidate must undertake the on-line Security in the Field training (to be provided by UNICEF).

For any question you might have during the application process you can contact contact Elvana Pernaska, HR Associate in UNICEF Tirana office, email: epernaska@unicef.org

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 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

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