UN Children’s Fund,International Consultant Jobs in Rwanda

If you are a committed, creative
professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children,
the
world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been
working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s
survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines
for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good
water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the
protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded
entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations
and governments.

Purpose of the Assignment

1. Background and Context

The Government of Rwanda (GoR),
with support from UNICEF Rwanda and other stakeholders, is exploring expansion
of the design of VUP [1]
Public Works (PW) programmes (social protection programmes), to increase
efficiency and effectiveness of the programme, as well as to enhance the gender
and child sensitiveness of Public Works. The Government of Rwanda / Ministry of
Local Government (MINALOC), in partnership with UNICEF, have identified
prominent child-sensitive social protection options to enhance the positive
impacts and mitigate any negative impacts of the flagship VUP social protection
programme on the poverty and vulnerabilities of young children in Rwanda. The
options include: 1. Establishment of Worksite Crèches (for the youngest
children aged 6-24/36 months); 2. Expanded public works – Development of new
types of public works by identifying options for caregivers with young children
to remain and perform their public work activities within their community.

In addition, the GoR and partners
are exploring how to better link Public Works programmes with national
Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (ECD) priorities (expanding child
sensitive social protection programmes). In order to enhance child sensitive
social protection, and to promote the linkage and integration of social
protection, nutrition and Early Childhood Development and Family (ECD&F)
programmes, a pilot project has been established in two districts in Rwanda
commencing in September 2015. The pilot was launched to:

• Explore expanded public works options model aiming at
  ensuring regularity of payment, flexibility of public works and
  diversification of PW jobs available including possibilities to support.
• Establish mobile crèches in public works sites for
  caregivers of young children.
• Explore possibilities to Integrate nutrition-specific
  interventions into child sensitive social protection projects.
• Improve understanding of potentials to better link
  diverse ECD&F services with public works.

The pilot is implemented within
period of September 2015 – December 2016 and intends to include 160 poorest
households into expanded public works projects, up to 240 children of participants
in public works into mobile crèche, with further 100 children covered by
nutrition-specific interventions package. The pilot being implemented within
the catchment area of a comprehensive ECD&F programme, has the potential of
improving the overlap in targeting of the poorest households with other
ECD&F interventions. The pilot also models the application of a household
profiling tool at the beginning and end of the project cycle.

2. Rationale
of the Evaluation

The Child-sensitive Social
Protection Project pilots expanded public works and links them with ECD and
Nutrition-specific interventions in order to model integrated approach to
supporting child development outcomes and graduation from poverty of the poorest
households in Rwanda. The project has four main output results: 1 Mobile Crèche
model is developed and supports delivery of ECD services to VUP/Public Works
participants in two selected pilot Districts; 2. The expanded public works
model is developed and benefits selected VUP beneficiaries in two pilot
Districts; 3. Programme evaluation and costing analysis document developed to
inform scaling up of the two child-sensitive social protection options; 4
Nutrition-specific interventions implemented for children aged between 6 and 23
months. The project intends to explore the following assumptions: regularity of
available public works and linked payments will improve the socio-economic
status of poorest households with children. The flexibility of public works,
combined with provision of livelihood skills, and the availability of services,
including nutrition and ECD will lead to improved child care and child outcomes
and will increase the ability of households to diversify income and increase
investment in child care, nutrition and health of the children.

3. Objectives

The primary objective of the
evaluation is to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and
sustainability of the proposed design of the operational/implementation model
applied in the pilot, and to document effects of integrated interventions on
the well-being of the households against project objectives. The evaluation
will systematically document lessons learned, evaluate the programme, identify
mitigation measures, and test the project logic model. The final evaluation has
the following specific objectives:

4. Scope,
Focus and Evaluation Framework

The evaluation will cover three
sectors in the two Districts mentioned above. The end line evaluation, will
cover the implementation period September 2015-November 2016. The evaluation
focus will be on the direct
beneficiaries of the implemented pilot, including participants
in the piloted expanded public works, caregivers whose children attend mobile
crèches, households/caregivers of children receiving nutrition intervention
package and an additional number of households, if required, benefitting from
other interventions within the ECD&F programme. The evaluation shall
specifically involve beneficiaries who previously participated in the baseline,
quantitative study where possible. In addition to project beneficiaries, the
evaluation will focus on government
staff at District and Sector level directly engaged in the project
including, social affairs officers, community health workers, as well as
implementing partners engaged in implementing different aspects of the project.
The evaluation will be guided by OECD/DAC evaluation criteria of relevance,
effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability and impact.

Detailed evaluation framework
building on the already developed draft evaluation questions will be refined in
line with UNICEF Equity focused-Evaluation approach following the key
evaluation domains ((to be further developed during the inception phase of this
consultancy): Programme
impact; Programme relevance; Programme effectiveness; Programme
efficiency[1]**; Sustainability; *Documentation
of success stories***

[1]
NOTE: The Evaluation of efficiency and sustainability of the project will
benefit from the costing analysis implemented through another consultancy.

Structure of the
Evaluation Report:
To be determined following the reporting guidelines.

5. Methodological
Approach & Process, Expected Output

The evaluation will include
combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.

The quantitative method will include analysis of the available
household profiling data collected throughout the cycle of the programme (start
and end), as well as data on nutritional impacts on children derived from the
nutrition-sensitive interventions. The household profiling data are collected
by the project implementing partner following the household profiling questionnaire
developed for the project. The data are collected for households engaged in the
expanded public works (240) and a control sample of up to 80 households who are
not engaged in expanded/flexible public works but are engaged in classis public
works, and have similar characteristics (Ubudehe category 1) [2].
The nutrition-sensitive intervention data are obtained from the child
measurement data collected routinely within the project, as well as from the
household profiling data. The quantitative data will be analysed and presented
in the evaluation report in a manner that demonstrate the demarcation between
baseline and end line values for impact analysis purpose.

The qualitative component will include observation, interviews and
focus groups with programme beneficiaries and identified main stakeholders
within the programme as well as review of the available programme documentation
and implementation reports. The qualitative component will be developed in
cooperation with UNICEF, CARE International, MINALOC/LODA and Imbuto
Foundation. The consultant will work closely with MINALOC/LODA, and will
consult with the District and Sector social protection staff team in the field
and Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme team at central level.

Data collected during the
evaluation, particularly quantitative data collected through household
profiling tool will be disaggregated by sex, number of children in the
household, disability status and gender of the household head. The efficiency
of the project will be evaluated based on the costing analysis of the project
already implemented for the purpose of replication and scaling up.

6. Major
Tasks, Deliverables & Timeframe

Tasks

Expected Deliverables

Estimate Timeframe

Documentation and best practices
review and consultations with the main stakeholders to adjust proposed
methodology for summative assessment and draft evaluation framework

Inception Report

October 2016 –

Review of the evaluation tools

Evaluation tools

October-November 2016

Summative/end-cycle evaluation:
field work, data analysis and report development

Draft Final evaluation report

November-December 2016

Presentation of the final draft
report to the wider team of social protection

Draft final evaluation report.

December

Consultations with main
stakeholders and dissemination

Revised Final evaluation report

December 2016

Development of the summary
briefing document containing main conclusions and recommendations

Briefing Note

December 2016

7. Stakeholder
Participation

The consultant will work
independently and under guidance of the Chief, SPR, the Social Policy Research
Specialist and Social Protection Specialist UNICEF Rwanda. The consultant will
work in close collaboration with key stakeholders in the project, including
CARE International, MINALOC/LODA, Imbuto Foundation, the District and sector
social affairs staff in the field and VUP team at central level. A technical
team to guide and provide inputs into the evaluation where applicable will be
created and will comprise the main stakeholders within the project.

8. Ethical
Consideration/confidentiality

Adequate measures will be taken
to ensure that the process responds to quality and ethical requirements as per
UNICEF Evaluation Standards. As per United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG)
Standard and Norms, the consultants should be sensitive to beliefs, manners and
customs and act with integrity and honesty in relationships with all
stakeholders. Furthermore, consultant should protect the anonymity and
confidentiality of individual Information.

9. Qualifications and
requirements

The International Consultant
should have:

· MA degree or PhD in Public
Policy, Public Health, Economics, Gender and Development Studies, Social
Development, Sociology or other relevant fields

· At least 4 years with proven
experience in the fields of evaluation, research and analysis

· Good understanding of Rwandan
context an asset, in particular of social protection sector in Rwanda

· Strong analytical and writing
skills

· Ability to produce deliverables
in due time and with quality standards

· Proficiency in computer
applications and statistical software (such as SPSS, Stata and NVivo)

· Fluency in written and oral
English, French will be an added asset

· Strong interpersonal and
communication skills

10. Terms
and conditions:

· Period: October – December 2016
for the estimated number of maximum 50 days

· Travel arrangements: if the
(international) consultant is not based in Rwanda, UNICEF will provide airfare
ticket by the most direct flight in economy class in accordance with current
rules and regulations.

· On-field (in-country) transport
and travel costs: UNICEF will provide on-field (in-country) transport and Daily
Subsistence allowance (DSA) as per UNICEF rules and regulations.

· Payment conditions and
currency: Payments will be made based on deliverables (in $USD).

· UNICEF reserves the right to
withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if
work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

· All materials developed by the
consultant will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt
and modify them in future.

11. Supervision

The evaluation will be supervised
by Chief, Social Policy and Research and with close guidance from the Social
Policy Research Specialist and Social Protection Specialist.

How to apply:

Financial proposal should provide
a budget and timeline, using the table below and should be expressed as a lump
sum per deliverable (inclusive of travel and living costs while in Kigali):

Deliverable (used
deliverables defined in chapter 6)

Number of person days

Delivery date

Costs

Please indicate your
ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of
reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if
applicable). Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be
considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity
and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male
candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including
persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.

Qualified individuals are
requested can apply using the link below:

https://secure.dc7.pageuppeople.com/apply/671/gateway/Default.aspx?c=app…