Early Childhood Development Advocacy Consultant

Background of the project 

The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is a global network of over 18,000 individual members, affiliated with more than 4,000 organizations from 190 countries with representatives from UN agencies, International and National NGOs, donors, governments, universities, schools, and affected populations working together to ensure all persons the right to quality education in emergencies (EiE) and post-crisis recovery. As INEE is a network hosted by its membership, the IRC hosts the INEE Secretariat.

The INEE Early Childhood Development (ECD) Working Group aims to improve outcomes for young children in humanitarian and fragile settings by providing resources and capacity-strengthening opportunities to support quality and responsive  ECD programs, practices, and policies for children and families affected by crises.

Scope of Work:

The Early Childhood Development Advocacy Consultant will develop a brief that contributes to raising awareness and advocates for the importance of providing early childhood development in acute emergencies.  The brief will highlight the role ECD (can) play in supporting young children and their caregivers to foster healthy development and help communities and countries recover from crises, particularly in cases when acute emergencies exacerbate existing protracted crises, which is often the case.

This consultancy will include four key areas of work:

●        Conduct a desk review to collate evidence on the enablers and challenges regarding the provision of ECD in acute emergencies. This should include a brief mapping of the different audiences and stakeholders involved in the decision-making and provision of ECD.

●        Identify and interview key informants with voices on the importance and value of providing  ECD in acute emergencies (which could include beneficiaries of ECD in acute emergencies programming).

●        Develop an advocacy brief that presents the current situation, a statement of purpose, and a call to action/recommendations for different stakeholder groups.

Deliverables:

●        Work plan and the timeline for deliverables.

●        Brief outline proposal for discussion.

●        Literature review matrix and a folder containing consulted resources.

●        List of potential interviewees and selection criteria.

●        Interview guide.

●        Draft document and final brief version (approximately ten pages).