Individual National Consultancy to Support Preparation of the Situation Analysis of Children and Women in Uzbekistan Report (SitAn 2019)

The objective of the SitAn is to provide an updated, comprehensive, child-right based and equity-sensitive analysis of the situation of children and women in Uzbekistan. The exercise will help to understand the causes of and linkages between issues related to children, especially the most disadvantaged including inequities. It will also highlight the capacities, gaps and bottlenecks in the country’s human, economic and organizational resources and structures to address such issues in an inclusive manner.

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.

Background

In 2016, UNICEF Uzbekistan CO updated an internal Situation Analysis of Children and Women in Uzbekistan (SitAn) report that was developed in 2014 to provide a timely rights-based and equity-focused analysis of the situation of children and women in Uzbekistan. The updated SitAn (2016) report and its findings were extensively used to guide planning and programming of UNICEF and its partners and served as a key input to the development of the new Country Programme of Cooperation between the Government of Uzbekistan and UNICEF for 2016-2020.

In April 2016, the Government of Uzbekistan and UNICEF signed the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) 2016-2020. The new Country Programme is comprised of the following programmes: Child Health and Wellbeing, Quality Learning for All, Child Protection and Cross Sectoral (i.e. M&E, Social Protection, Communication). Due emphasis was given to mainstreaming cross-cutting principles and strategies, including but not limited to, gender equality, human rights and equity approach to programming.

In 2018, the Country Office has revised its results framework for cooperation with the Government as part of the Strategic Moment of Reflection (SMR), that has included a more focused approach to key programming priorities in line with changing enabling environment and institutional framework.

While the current Country Programme is coming to its last years of implementation, there is a growing need to provide UNICEF and its partners with an updated analysis of evidence on situation of children and women, particularly the most vulnerable, to inform better programme decisions and guide policy advocacy and partnership efforts including for the development of the Programme Strategy Notes and the new Country Programme Document (CPD). The findings of the SitAn will also contribute to the development of the new UNDAF framework (CCA and UNDAF report) in Uzbekistan.

In line with UNICEF's renewed global commitment to equity and gender, there is also increasing need to extend the SitAn by strengthening the analysis on gender and key cross-cutting issues such as on situation of adolescents and youth, children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

In addition, UNICEF, its partners and other stakeholders conducted a number of major research, studies and evaluations since 2016 that provided new evidence that could be used to strengthen and broaden existing SitAn with up to date evidence on the situation of women and children.

It is expected that the Situation Analysis of Children and Women in Uzbekistan will be conducted by an international consultant paired with a national consultant.. In view of the above, UNICEF Uzbekistan CO is seeking the services of an individual national consultant to support the development of the SitAn report.

 Objectives

The objective of the SitAn is to provide an updated, comprehensive, child-right based and equity-sensitive analysis of the situation of children and women in Uzbekistan. The exercise will help to understand the causes of and linkages between issues related to children, especially the most disadvantaged including inequities. It will also highlight the capacities, gaps and bottlenecks in the country's human, economic and organizational resources and structures to address such issues in an inclusive manner.

Scope and focus:

The conceptual framework for this SitAn is based on national and UNICEF global priorities and influenced by the latest findings of sectoral and cross-cutting issues. Report must include in depth analysis and review of:

Macro Environment. Provides the comprehensive geographical, demographical, cultural, socio-economical, etc. overview of Uzbekistan country context. This also include review of the current governance structure and the administrative and data frameworks.

Thematic Areas. The exercise will adopt an integrated, cross-sectoral approach that takes a holistic view of the child and women from a right-based perspective. In this framework, the key thematic areas of SitAn will be structured by rights and should include among others (to be further refined in consultation with UNICEF):

• Right to Survival and Development: Infant, child and maternal mortality; Maternal, new-born and child health; Nutritional status of children; Children and HIV/AIDS; Children with disabilities; Environmental impact on maternal and child health, Water and sanitation issues affecting children, Adolescents Mental Health, ECD.
• Right to Education and Development: Coverage of pre-school; Enrolment, attendance and drop outs in basic education; Quality of pre-school and basic education; Performance and assessment in basic education; Inclusive education.
• Right to a Protective Environment against Abuse, Violence and Exploitation: Children at risk of, or subject to, all forms of abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation; Children without parental care and in institutions; Children in contact with the law; Child labour; Children without birth registration, Children from migrant families.
• Right to Participation: Child and youth participation mechanisms in community and institutional settings (inclusiveness - avoiding inequities - and authenticity - avoiding tokenism and manipulation); Child and youth participation in family decision-making; at risk adolescents and positive citizenship.
• Rights to Social Security: Children - either through their guardians or directly - have the right to help from the government if they are poor or in need, universal child benefits; social protection of vulnerable and low-income families, public finance for children.

Cross-cutting approaches

The following approaches/analysis should be given due consideration and applied throughout the report.

Equity and Gender. The exercise will be equity-focused. It should consider relevant disparities/inequities and their effects on child and women rights fulfilment among disadvantaged and excluded groups in each thematic area. To this extent, different drivers of inequity will be identified and analysed including: low income; geographical location (rural, remote, disaster-prone areas); ethnic origin; gender; age; physical and mental conditions (disabilities; HIV/AIDS), special conditions (children in institutions, in contact with the law); others. This is a preliminary list of drivers of inequity. The SitAn is expected to validate such list and add others that might arise during the analysis. 

Risk Informed Programming: In line with UNICEF Guidance on Risk-Informed Programming (GRIP), child-centred risk analysis should be elaborated in situation analysis (SitAn) of children's and women's rights. This will allow not only to identify the areas where children are most deprived, but also those in which they are disproportionately exposed to various shocks and risks.

The Human-Rights Based Approach (HRBA) will be applied across thematic area, with its three steps: 

1. Causality analysis including the analysis of immediate, underlying and root causes;
2. Role pattern analysis, examining duty-bearers and right-holders;
3. Capacity gap analysis, analysing the capacity of all concerned duty bearers.

Methodology

The study will consist of four key phases:

1. Inception phase, including:

• In-depth desk-review of all available sources (please see Annex A);
• Preliminary discussions with the commissioning team to facilitate an in-depth common understanding of the conceptual framework, identifying data gaps, refining research questions and adjusting methods, tools and sources.

1. Main data collection phase, including:

• Additional desk-review of any other relevant source identified during the inception phase
• To conduct in depth interviews with relevant UNICEF programme sections and/or key stakeholders on changes in trends, data and situation in the programming environment
• Finalize outline/structure for SitAn report based on consultations

1. Analysis and reporting phase, including:

• Following the completion of the fact-finding stage, the analysis should be developed in constant interaction between the researchers and the commissioning team to allow full alignment of the research exercise with the desired scope and focus of the analysis.
• A draft report should be submitted for discussion and validation by UNICEEF.

• The final report should be submitted incorporating feedback suggested.
• The policy brief should be developed based on and incorporating the key findings and recommendations from the SitAn report

1. Application of (SitAn-informed) Human Rights Based Approach to Programming (HRBAP) to guide CPD development

• To participate in CPD prioritization workshop. To support workshop planning and implementation and contribute with SitAn major findings and analysis.
• To facilitate HRBA workshop(s) with UNICEF programme sections to undertake the causal, role pattern and capacity gap analysis of the country programme priorities identified during the CPD prioritization workshop and informed by SitAn.
• To document the findings of HRBA analyses and submit drafts for review.
• To finalize HRBA analyses based on the feedback provided and add to SitAn report (as a separate Annex).

Ethical Considerations

Ethical concerns should be of utmost importance in determining the research methods and their implementation. The consultant(s) is expected to adhere to the UNICEF procedure for ethical standards in research, evaluation, data collection and analysis, as of 1 April 2015 (CF/PD/DRP/2015-001). Researcher(s) need to specify potential ethical considerations, approaches and review processes in their proposal and inception/final reports. If needed the consultant will have to complete the online training on Ethics in Evidence Generation provided by UNICEF. 

Management

The national consultant will work under overall supervision of UNICEF M&E Specialist and under the guidance of the International SitAn consultant. The national consultant will support the adaptation of the design, the implementation of the data collection phase, and quantitative and qualitative analysis of primary and secondary information, especially when in national language, by bringing in specific expertise and knowledge of the local context and facilitate interviews/workshops, as required.

Timeline & Deliverables

The assignment timeframe is 60 working days in the period of May-September 2019 distributed as follows:

Resource requirements

The final budget will be set based on the "best value for money" principle. The consultancy will be paid upon acceptance of deliverables as per the schedule above.

Required qualifications and areas of expertise:

• Advanced degree in social sciences (statistics, economics, sociology, etc.);
• At least 2 years of experience in policy and data analysis and report writing on development issues;
• Proven experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis;
• Experience in applying the Human Rights Based Approach to Programming is an asset;
• Previous experiences in facilitating trainings/workshops is an asset;
• Previous experience working for UNICEF or UN agencies is an asset;
• Fluency in English and Russian. Fluency in Uzbek is an asset.

The candidates are requested to submit CV/Resume that should include details of specific experience with similar assignments in the past, experience in facilitating trainings/workshops, experiences in data collection/analyses and any other relevant evidence. Only shortlisted candidates will be further considered in the selection process. 

Procedures and Working Conditions

The consultant will work from home however will be required to attend meetings in UNICEF as required. If travel will be scheduled, travel expenses will be covered by UNICEF according to its procedures. UNICEF Country Office will make available all relevant documentation and reports to the consultant. The consultant needs to be proactive, search for and use all available data from various sources. 

Reservations

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if deliverable(s) incomplete, not finalized or for failure to meet deadlines. UNICEF will reserve copyright of all developed materials and own primary data collected through this assignment. The materials cannot be published or disseminated without prior written permission of UNICEF. UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. The contractor must respect the confidentiality of the information handled during the assignment. Documents and information provided must be used only for the tasks related to these terms of reference. UNICEF undertakes no liability for taxes, duty or other contribution payable by the consultant on payments made under this contract.

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.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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