Individual National Consultancy to Provide Technical Assistance to Strengthening the Child Protection System in Viet Nam
Hanoi
- Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
- Location: Hanoi
- Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
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Occupational Groups:
- Children's rights (health and protection)
- Protection Officer (Refugee)
- Closing Date: Closed
Technical support to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), Ministry of Education (MOET), Ministry of Health (MOH) and selected NGOs in strengthening the sectoral and inter-sectoral interventions and institutional capacity in providing child protection services and social work development.
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.
For every child, Child Protection
Background:
Despite important progress in socio-economic developments, Viet Nam continues to face increasingly complex social issues, including high numbers of cases of neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence against children, children in conflict with the law, drug abuse, domestic violence and human trafficking.
In response to this, UNICEF has advocated and supported the Government of Viet Nam to build and strengthen the child protection system, as interpreted in the National Programmes on Child Protection. The Law on Children (2016), for the first time, regulates the three-tier child protection services system to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children (VAC). In addition, Decree 56/2017/ND-CP introduces child protection case management procedures to increase the quality of multi-sectoral interventions and responses, yet, does not explicitly define the roles of education and health systems - the primary "eyes and ears" of children’s daily well-being and safety.
Despite of the progress made in the policy and legal framework, Viet Nam is facing challenges in providing multi-sectoral child protection services and establishing professional workforce for child protection in welfare, education and health sectors. There are no professional competency standards of child protection workers to provide and monitor the quality of service delivery. The sensitive and complicated issues of child abuse and violence are addressed by para-professional and untrained workers at the commune level.
In addition, Viet Nam lacks an inter-sectoral mechanism (in both practice and legal framework) to coordinate professionals in relevant sectors in handling a child protection case. International research of Child Death Reviews indicates that inter-sectorial collaboration is an essential characteristic of Best Practice outcomes for children’s care, safety and protection.
As part of the wider effort in strengthening the child protection system, UNICEF has advocated for and supported the government to strengthen the child protection workforce and to promote multi-sectoral child protection services, demonstrated by the institutionalization of the pilot of the integrated child protection services into the National Programme on Child Protection 2021-2025. UNICEF in its current CPD gives priority to advocating for specialized child protection services and enhancing child protection workforce in the welfare, health and education sectors. The support is focused on the development of an inter-sectoral and sectoral mechanisms in handling VAC cases, specialized professional competency standards for child protection workers and competency-based specialized child protection training programmes.
Against this background, UNICEF has contracted international consultants to provide technical support to MOLISA, as a leading agency for coordinated child protection services, and MOET and MOH in defining the roles and responsibilities of these sectors in child protection and development of professional standards for child protection workers that are based on these defined roles and responsibilities, followed by specialized training programmes for managers and frontline workers in welfare, health and education sectors and CSO organizations.
Purpose and Objectives:
The consultancy aims to provide technical assistance to MOLISA, MOET, MOH and selected local NGOs in strengthening the sectoral and inter-sectoral interventions and institutional capacity in providing specialized child protection services by relevant sectors.
Specifically, the national consultant is expected to provide support to UNICEF and line ministries as follows:
1. To help facilitate meetings and provide technical advice to the development of professional competency standards for child protection workers in respective sectors of the welfare, health and education and competency-based specialized (advanced) training programmes;
2. To help facilitate and provide technical advice to the development of national inter-sectoral protocol and sector-specific protocols for the health and education sectors and other standards and guidelines, and policies in handling child protection cases;
3. To provide support and technical advice for the development of guidelines, polices and sublaws to guide the implementation of the National Programme on Child Protection 2021-2025 with a vision to 2030, and the National Programme on Social Work Development, 2021-2030.
Specific Deliverables as attached 
Consultancy Notice on social work and CP in sectors.pdf
Management and Reporting:
The Child Protection Specialist (Exploitation) will supervise, provide available reference resources, facilitate the communication between the consultant and relevant stakeholders, providing technical inputs and day-to-day support to this consultancy. The Chief of Child Protection Section will provide overall technical guidance and approve the intermediate and final products.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Qualifications and Experience
- Advanced Degree in social work, child welfare, child protection or related field;
- At least ten years’ professional experience in the field of child welfare, child protection and/or social work;
Knowledge, Skills, and Competencies
- At least five years’ professional experience in strengthening the child protection workforce, including the development and facilitation of training programmes on child protection;
- Demonstrated specialist knowledge in the field of child protection training and curriculum development;
- Excellent knowledge on and understanding of the child protection system in Viet Nam;
- Strong knowledge on the legal framework of child protection in Viet Nam;
- Work experience with UNICEF or another UN agency and in Viet Nam is preferred;
Languages
- Strong writing capacity and communication skills in English and Vietnamese.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
Assessment criteria:
For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:
a) Technical Qualification (max. 100 points) weight 70 %:
- Advanced Degree in social work, child welfare, child protection or related field, 10 points.
- At least ten years’ professional experience in the field of child welfare, child protection and/or social work, 15 points.
- At least five years’ professional experience in strengthening the child protection workforce, including the development and facilitation of training programmes on child protection including demonstrated specialist knowledge in the field of child protection training and curriculum development, 20 points.
- Excellent knowledge on and understanding of the child protection system in Viet Nam, 15 points.
- Strong knowledge on the legal framework of child protection in Viet Nam, 15 points.
- Work experience with UNICEF or another UN agency and in Viet Nam is preferred, 10 points.
- Strong writing capacity and communication skills in English and Vietnamese, 15 points.
b. Financial Proposal (max. 100 points): weight 30 %
The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.
The Contract shall be awarded to candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the verification interview if needed.
Submission of applications:
Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply and upload the following documents to the assigned requisition in UNICEF Vacancies: http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/:
a. Letter of interest/confirmation of availability and CV;
b. Technical proposal which clearly explains the outline on how to deliver the tasks and deliverables (preferably less than 05 pages);
c. Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments (if available).
d. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel, accommodation and any other costs for this assignment.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
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