Consultancy: Child Protection - To contextualise UPSHIFT in Dadaab and Kakuma/Kalobeyei Refugee Camps, 6.5 months

Position/ Assignment Title

To contextualise UPSHIFT in Dadaab and Kakuma/Kalobeyei Refugee Camps

Location of Assignment

Dadaab and Kakuma/Kalobeyei Refugee Camps and surrounding areas, Garissa and Turkana Counties, Kenya

Duration of contract

6.5 months (P2/P3)

Start date and End date

15 January to 31 July 2020 (90 days)        

Estimated Budget

45,107 USD

Reporting to:

Chief, Child Protection

Background and justification

Kenya is the fifth largest asylum country in Africa and the eleventh biggest asylum country in the world. The population of refugees and asylum-seekers in Kenya at the end of August 2019 stood at 479,194 persons. The refugee situation in Kenya is marked by a high degree of encampment in refugee camps (84%), in which most of the total population of refugees and asylum-seekers is in Dadaab (44%) and Kakuma (32%)/ Kalobeyei Settlement (8%) respectively (Garissa and Turkana counties); while only 73,693 (16%) refugees are in urban areas[1].  

Both refugees and host communities struggle to find a sustainable route out of poverty. For refugees, humanitarian assistance remains the main source of income and employment[2]. Meanwhile, host communities are challenged by frequent droughts, floods and famines and the depletion of grazing fields over time, affecting pastoralism. On the other hand, an informal economy, based on trade and services and partly fuelled by remittances has also emerged within and around the camps, providing additional incomes to the most entrepreneurial among refugees and host communities.  

The opportunity ahead is to enable more refugee and host community households to move out of poverty, to lessen dependence on humanitarian assistance, to strengthen existing self-reliance efforts and help foster new ones. The Partnership between the Government of Netherlands, ILO, UNHCR, UNICEF, WB and IFC (PROSPECTS Partnership) aims to contribute towards this transformation and to expand livelihoods for refugees and host communities, with special attention to young people, by increasing access to education skills development and livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities.

In view of the above, UNICEF Kenya Country office (UNICEF KCO) initiates an UPSHIFT programme to heighten skills and create opportunities for the most disadvantaged adolescents in refugee camps and surrounding areas. Through UPSHIFT, participants will gain valuable transferable skills – including problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and leadership, and will be empowered to identify challenges in their communities and create entrepreneurial solutions to address them. Young people learn to generate new ideas and turn these ideas into solutions that meet social needs in their communities.

To this effect, UNICEF KCO intends to recruit a consultant to adapt the modular UPSHIFT curriculum to the Kenyan context and train mentors accordingly.

UNICEF KCO, in collaboration with UNDP, is also leading a national Generation Unlimited (GenU) Youth Challenge from November 2019 to June 2020.  The Global GenU Youth Challenge aims to inspire young people with brilliant ideas, but without the resources, to bring them to life. It targets in and out-of-school youth aged 14– 24 years in approximately 10 counties in Kenya, especially most marginalized young people such as those in humanitarian settings, those living with disabilities and those living in informal urban settings.  As GenU and UPSHIFT are intrinsically linked to each other, the consultant will also closely collaborate with the UNICEF KCO Gen U team and the Gen U Manager, who are currently running the challenge throughout the country[3].

Scope of the work

The main objective of this assignment is to guide UNICEF KCO on how UPSHIFT can be integrated and contextualised in the PROSPECTS programme with regards to adolescents from Dadaab and Kakuma/Kalobeyei refugee camps and surroundings.

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Chief of Child Protection and the technical supervision of the Child Protection in Emergencies Officer.

Based on the adapted curriculum, the consultant will also train mentors from both refugee camps and surrounding areas to create a pool of core mentors and ensure the effective implementation of UPSHIFT.

Achieving the above will require the consultant to:

• Map existing initiatives (PROSPECTS or other mentorship and related programmes, market studies etc. in Kakuma/Kalobeyei and Dadaab) 
• Conduct stakeholder consultations with PROSPECTS partners, key Government and NGO stakeholders, and young people in the camps and host communities to inform the contextualisation of UPSHIFT
• Based on the assessment findings, revise the UPSHIFT curriculum to contextualise it for Kenya and embed it in PROSPECTS
• Train mentors on UPSHIFT
• Guide and support mentors for the first round of UPSHIFT cycles in Turkana and Garissa
• Draft a brief guidance document to advise implementation of the UPSHIFT programme over the next four years – identifying further opportunities, gaps, targeting and recruitment. The guidance report should also make recommendations on how to create linkages between UPSHIFT and other aspects of PROSPECTS, including education and other skills development initiatives and suggest a road map for UNICEF KCO to embed and expand UPSHIFT within PROSPECTS
• Conduct a follow-up mission during the mentorship programme
• Collaborate with the Gen U team and the Genu U Manager

Under the overall guidance of the Chief, Child Protection, and the technical support of the Child Protection in Emergencies Officer, the consultant is to achieve the below outputs/deliverables:

Outputs/Deliverables: 

Required qualifications, desired competencies, technical background and experience

Education

The consultant should:

• Have an advanced degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Education, Youth Work, Economics, Law or related fields 
• Demonstrate excellent written and spoken English

Relevant Experience

The consultant should have:

• At least 2 years of experience with UPSHIFT or other social innovation/entrepreneurship/mentorship programmes for young people - preferably in different contexts. Experience in the application of such programmes in a displacement context is an advantage. 

• At least 2 years of experience in adolescent/youth skills development programmes, preferably in development or humanitarian settings. 

Additional Knowledge

The consultant should demonstrate understanding of:

• Child protection programming and working with vulnerable adolescents /youth
• Adolescent/youth skills development programming
• Refugee settings

Skills

The consultant should demonstrate to possess the following skills:

• Strong Analytical skills
• Demonstrated excellent drafting skills in English
• Facilitation skills
• Flexibility and teamwork

Application

Interested candidates are required to submit technical proposal within the deadline.