Terms of Reference

Child Protection Home Based Consultant

Child protection / SGBV Unit

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a Child Protection Home Based
Consultancy thin the Child protection / SGBV Unit under the protection Pillar at the
Regional Bureau Nairobi.
The UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights
and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless
people. An unprecedented 79.5 million people around the world have been forced from
home. Among them are nearly 26 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of
18. Responding to the protection needs of children is a core component of UNHCR's
protection mandate.
The two Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the East and Horn of Africa, namely the
East Africa Community (EAC) and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
jointly comprise ten Member States: Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia,
Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Collectively, these countries host the largest
refugee and internally displaced populations in Africa - 82% of whom are women and
children and are also affected by high levels of forced displacement and mixed movements,
both within and outside the sub-region.
In recent years, efforts have been undertaken by the EAC and IGAD to address forced
displacement, migration management and child protection in a coordinated way. These
efforts have consistently been supported, individually or collectively, by the Regional Child
Protection Network (RCPN) – a regional coordination forum comprised of UN agencies and
NGOs (DRC, LWF, IOM, IRC, Save the Children, World Vision International, Plan
International, ICRC, UNHCR and UNICEF) which aims to strengthen the child protection
response in refugee and IDP operations, as well as in situations of mixed movements.
Over the past two years, a number of different workshops, forums and roundtables have
been held across the region focusing on the inclusion of refugee children into national
systems and either on establishing or reinforcing existing mechanisms to strengthen crossborder
child protection mechanisms in the region. The most recent workshop, organized in
Nairobi on 6th and 7th November 2019, was organized to follow-up on previous initiatives
and provide a forum for the two RECs to share good practices, identify opportunities for
closer collaboration and discuss how to address the critical gaps and challenges identified in
responding to the needs of refugee and migrant children. The workshop led to the
development of a draft roadmap on strengthening national child protection systems and
cross border collaboration to respond to the needs of migrant and refugee children in the
East and Horn of Africa “herein after the Nairobi roadmap”. The purpose of this consultancy
is to support the RCPN to follow up on actions agreed in that roadmap with a focus on
inclusion of refugee and migrant children into national child protection system and child
friendly procedures for children in mixed movements. This consultancy remains even more
relevant in the context as the COVID 19 pandemic as those populations might be at risks of
stigmatization and left out of the national response plans.

Title: Child Protection Consultancy on inclusion of refugee and migrant children into National
Child Protection System in the EHOA
Duty Station: Home based with travel to selected operations
Duration: until 31 December 2020
Contract Type: International Individual Consultant
Closing date: 13 July 2020
Start date: ASAP

Organisational context

The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) identifies “the appropriate economic, social and
cultural inclusion of refugees” as a local solution pending a durable solution becoming
available; and commits states and relevant stakeholders to “contribute resources and
expertise, including technical guidance on legal and institutional frameworks that foster the
peaceful and productive inclusion of refugees and the well-being of local communities”.
This overall ambition of inclusion is consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal
commitment to ‘leave no one behind’, to which UNHCR has committed to contribute. The
current consultancy supports this agenda by progressing joint efforts by UNHCR and
partners to promote and support inclusion of refugee and migrant children in national child
protection systems, and to strengthen those systems - amplifying and strengthening the work
done to date jointly by UNICEF, Save The Children, IOM and UNHCR in East Africa to
promote inclusion of refugee and migrant children. This work generated two key publications:
a mapping of child protection systems in refugee-affected contexts: Bridging the
Humanitarian-Development Divide for Refugee Children in Eastern Africa and the Great
Lakes Region; and a synthesis of learning from efforts to strengthen inclusion: Inclusion of
Refugee Children in National Child Protection Systems: Guidance for Practitioners in East
Africa and the EAC IGAD roadmap on strengthening national child protection system for
refugee and migrant children and cross border collaboration with the support of the RCPN.
The consultancy will be led from UNHCR’s regional Bureau based in Nairobi in partnership
with UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), IOM regional Office
and Save The children regional office and other RCPN partners. UNHCR and UNICEF
Regional Office will also work in collaboration with the two HQ Divisions in UNHCR funding
the initiative: The Division of Resilience and Solutions, and the Division of International
Protection; as well as with UNICEF Child Protection section at HQ level.

The position

UNHCR is seeking to hire a consultant to follow up on commitments made by UNHCR,
UNICEF, IOM, Save The Children and RCPN partners to promote and support inclusion of
refugee and migrant children into national Child Protection systems and cross border
collaboration, in accordance with the outcomes of the November 2019 workshop mentioned
above. Overall the consultant (under the lead of UNHCR and UNICEF) will provide support
to the RCPN to follow up on the regional initiatives focusing on inclusion of refugee and
migrant in national child protection systems and cross border collaboration.

The consultant will report to UNHCR and will coordinate the project with an advisory
committee including UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, Save the Children, IGAD and EAC and key
members of the RCPN. They will provide regular updates on the project to the RCPN as
required/appropriate.

Duties and responsibilities

Specifically, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Generation and sharing of knowledge to inform further action
• Desk review /Mapping of Regional Economic Communities legislations and policies to
identify provisions on child protection and inclusive of children in Mixed Movements in
the East and Horn of Africa.
• Organize a regional level workshop in Nairobi with RCPN members and the RECs
(EAC and IGAD) to review the implementation the roadmap and identify the milestones
towards the end of 2020 (pending the COVID 19 restrictions – remote meetings and
bilateral discussions will be organized if physical workshop are not possible).

2. Coordination of road-map implementation
• Facilitate/support EAC and IGAD member states in finalizing their country plan at
national level through meetings with the support of strategic child protection partners
and share it in the above regional workshop to discuss cross border implications in
collaboration with EAC and IGAD Secretariat (or virtual workshop pending COVID 19
restrictions).
• Develop a monitoring framework to assess progress against roadmap and EAC and
IGAD framework for collaboration.
• Develop and implement a mid-way webinar and an end of year webinar to share
ongoing learning with key stakeholders, including in other regions.

3. Drafting and report writing
• Document the process undertaken by partners to implement the Nairobi roadmap, and
the learning and results generated. Compile these in a report, together with learning
and recommendations for next steps including a contribution to RCPN joint publication.
• Input into global tools on child protection systems under development by UNICEF and
UNHCR.
• Participate in a global level workshop on child protection systems strengthening.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional
experience required

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

Education:
● University Degree in International Law, Human Rights, International Development,
International Relations, Political or Social Science.

Work Experience:
● 10 or more years of experience in humanitarian programming, including field
experience.
● Demonstrated expertise in child protection, including on social system workforce
strengthening and case management.
● Ability to exercise sound judgment in a politically sensitive and potentially insecure
environment.
● Interagency leadership and coordination.
● Ability to build and maintain key relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders,
including government and civil society partners and community members, while
remaining politically neutral.
● Proven ability to conceptualize, innovate, plan and execute ideas in national contexts.
● Extensive experience in research and analysis.
● Demonstrated ability to write clearly and succinctly for both technical and non-technical
audiences.
● Excellent written and spoken English.
● Experience in writing practical, reader-friendly guidance is an asset.
● Capacity to speak and write in French is an asset.

Location

The successful candidate will be home-based.

Conditions

The consultancy is for six months and the start date is in July 2020. It is a full-time role with
working hours starting from 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday (40 hours per week) and may
involve travel to approximately two field operations pending COVID -19 restrictions.

To apply

Interested applicants should submit their letter of motivation, Personal History Form (PHF),
writing sample and CV indicating Child Protection Home Based
Consultant in the subject of the email.

APPLICATIONS RECEIVED WITHOUT PHF FORM SHALL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Personal History Forms are available at PHF Form / Supplementary Sheet.
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and
opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal
opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.
Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of
race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender
identity.

Please note that UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process
(application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing, training or any other fees).

Closing date: 13 July 2020 (midnight Geneva time).