Individual National Consultancy to Provide Technical Assistance to Strengthening the Child Protection System in Viet Nam

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. UNICEF Viet Nam is one of more than 190 offices of the United Nations Children’s Fund globally and part of the United Nations system in Viet Nam working in close collaboration with all UN agencies in the country. Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF has a universal mandate to promote and protect the rights of all children, everywhere – especially those hardest to serve and most at risk. UNICEF’s mission in Viet Nam is to make sure every child in the country is healthy, educated and safe from harm, therefore having the best start in life and a fair chance to reach her or his full potential and benefit from the country’s prosperity. We believe children have a right to live in a more equitable society, where their voices are heard and needs met as a matter of priority in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. More information on what we do in Viet Nam is available at https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/ 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 protocol 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 is advocating and supporting the government to strengthen the child protection workforce and promote multi-sectoral child protection services by institutionalization into the National Programme on Child Protection 2021-2025. UNICEF in 2020-2021 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 development of an inter-sectoral protocol and sector-specific protocols in handling VAC cases, professional competency standards for child protection workers and competency-based training programmes. Against this background, UNICEF has contracted an international consultant 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 training programmes for managers and frontline workers in welfare, health and education sectors and mass organizations. Purpose and objectives: The consultancy aims to provide technical assistance to MOLISA, MOET and MOH in strengthening the sectoral and inter-sectoral interventions and institutional capacity in providing 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 and provide technical advice to the development of professional competency standards for child protection workers in respective sectors of welfare, health and education and competency-based 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 in handling child protection cases;
3. To provide support and technical advice to the development and implementation of the National Programme on Child Protection 2021-2025 with a vision to 2030.

Specific tasks, deliverables and timeline: as attached  Consultancy Notice child protection system strengthening.docx Methodology: The consultant is required to work closely with UNICEF, the international consultant, MOLISA, MOET and MOH in all steps of the consultancy. The consultancy will primarily be home-based. Given changeable availability of government partners, this assignment necessarily allows a degree of flexibility to the timeframes to enable UNICEF to remain agile and responsive to the needs of MOLISA, MOH and MOET.  It will involve a combination of home-based desk reviews, as well as regular email, telephone, Skype/Zoom discussions with UNICEF and participation in relevant technical and advocacy meetings/workshops as required.  Management and reporting: The Chief of Child Protection Section will provide overall technical guidance and approve the intermediate and final products. 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.  Performance indicators for evaluation: Timeliness, inclusion of and response to UNICEF, MOLISA, MOET and MOH comments, quality of services will be rendered. The performance evaluation is conducted upon the completion of deliverables according to timeline as mentioned above. Qualification/specialized knowledge and experience: The national consultant should have the following qualifications to effectively carry out the proposed tasks:

• 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;
• 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;
• 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) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. Assessment criteria: Applications will be evaluated technically and points are attributed based on how well the proposal meets the requirements of the Terms of Reference using the guidelines detailed below. Technical evaluation: 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

Financial evaluation: 30% The Contract shall be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores. 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/

1. Letter of interest and confirmation of availability;
2. Technical proposal which clearly explains the outline on how to deliver the tasks and deliverables (preferably less than 5 pages);
3. Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments (if available)
4. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel and accommodation cost for this assignment as per work assignment.
5. CV/P11 form (UN Personal History Form)

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

Tags: UNICEF