Consultant: Multi-sector assessment of the prevention, investigation, and response mechanisms to address online child sexual exploitation and abuse in the Eastern Caribbean

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, protection

How can you make a difference? 

Location:              Remote

Duration:             70 days

Start Date:           3 June 2024

End Date:             30 September 2024

BACKGROUND:

The Internet, mobile phones and other electronic media provide children and young people with levels of access to information, culture, communication, and entertainment that was not available two decades ago. Globally, children and young people tend to become early users of the Internet and are often far ahead of their parents and other adults in terms of use, skills and understanding. The Internet, particularly social networking and other interactive media, provides new social spaces that did not exist when today’s parents were children. Young people are pioneers, occupying online spaces in ways that adults often cannot imagine. These spaces can be immensely creative but can also expose children to dangers. The Internet and associated technologies have made abusive images of children easier to create and distribute, and provide significant new opportunities for abusers to access and make contact with children and young people online and subsequently – offline.

The #WePROTECT Children Online Global Summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Cameron in December 2014, aimed to strengthen global efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation. It brought together representatives from more than 50 countries (law enforcement agencies and Ministries of Interior and Justice), 20 leading technology companies (including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft), ten international and national NGOs (including ECPAT, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, INHOPE, the Internet Watch Foundation etc.), Interpol, Europol, UNICEF, UNODC and the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. Participating countries signed up to a Statement of Action committing to take global action to identify and protect victims; remove child sexual abuse material from the Internet; strengthen cooperation across the world to track down perpetrators; and build global capacity to tackle the sexual exploitation of children online.  Several strategies and tools were developed subsequently to guide other countries undertaking similar work.  One such document is the model National Response Plan which highlights key mechanisms that should be in place for a comprehensive response.

The UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area is supporting the governments of the sub region in developing programmes to address the key challenges for the countries’ fulfillment of children’s rights, especially for the income-poor and disadvantaged.  In this regard, the Office has a Multi Country Programme of Cooperation with the governments of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands. Adopting the global approaches taken to address online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA), UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area seeks to conduct an assessment of the current mechanisms in place to address OCSEA in selected countries within the region.

Despite the existence of strong legislative and policy environment to protect women and children, the implementation of laws, policies and programmes remains uneven and significant gaps still exist, especially in relation to OCSEA. Child online protection covers a wide range of issues and actors, including: ICT companies (to regulate and protect children from harmful online content), media (to raise awareness about the risks of online abuse and how to protect children), child protection system, including hotlines/helplines (to identify, report and respond to cases of child online abuse), the education system (to prevent, identify and refer cases of child online abuse), and police (to respond to cases of child online abuse and to enforce existing laws). Police training institutes have an important role to play to train the police in how to respond to child online crimes. Teacher training institutes have to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and skills to respond to cases of child online abuse.  There is no single individual or agency that covers all of these areas. There is therefore a need to canvas the multi-dimensional field of child online protection in order to identify key actors, and identify the most strategic, high impact interventions needed to address gaps and challenges.

PURPOSE/SCOPE OF ASSIGNMENT:

Goal and Objective:  Under the supervision of the Child Protection Officer, the consultant will conduct an assessment of the current prevention, investigation, and response mechanisms to address online child sexual exploitation.  The consultant will also produce recommendations which will lead to concrete strategic actions to enhance child online protection in 5 eastern Caribbean countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis. The report will act as a scorecard to be presented to key stakeholders in a regional workshop with ICT private sector operators, government representatives and civil society members and used to inform the development of model Inter-agency National Response Plans for each country.

This assessment is key to supporting and achieving baseline information for 2024 AWP activity 2.1.3 VAC Legal and Policy frameworks – Support Governments’ legal and policy framework to combat VAC (corporal punishment of children in schools and penal institutions, CSE technology enabled) and related CSIs.

The assessment will seek to address but will not be limited to the following questions:

Existing interventions

1. What legislative and policy measures have been taken?  How are they enforced? How effective are they?
2. What prevention programmes are being implemented, and how can these be strengthened?
3. What response services have been set in place? How are service providers providing support to child victims of online abuse, and how can this be strengthened?
4. What is the role of the related industries (ICT, financial services…) in impeding these crimes?

For each of these, as relevant, specify actors (government, civil society organisations, private sector, etc.), strategies, target groups, their role and capacities, strengths, gaps and challenges.

Strategic high impact interventions

1. What are the gaps and weaknesses in existing legislation, law enforcement, prevention and response systems, and how can these be strengthened?

For each of these, as relevant, specify actors (government, civil society organisations, private sector, etc.) their roles and strategies.

2. Where are the opportunities for high impact interventions? Which ones could be supported by UNICEF, taking into account the organisation’s comparative advantage and existing initiatives?
3. What regional partnership could UNICEF engage in?  (for example, with the private sector or multi-country regional initiatives already supported by other development partners.)

ACTIVITIES & TASKS:

The consultant would be required to:

• Collect information, map and assess existing interventions carried out by key actors to prevent, investigate and respond to online child protection issues affecting children.
• Analyse capacities and bottlenecks in addressing online threats to children: review legislative frameworks, ICT industry protocols and approaches; analyse capacity gaps and bottlenecks in law enforcement, justice and social welfare sectors and child protection systems, including law enforcement agents, prosecutors, judges, social workers, teachers, media, ICT providers, etc. This analysis will identify current challenges, policy and practice.
• Based on this analysis and discussions with experts from different disciplines involved in child online protection, identify priorities for high impact interventions to improve the child online protection situation and propose concrete recommendations to prevent and respond to online child protection issues.
• Co-facilitate a regional workshop with ICT industry and government representatives to present the findings and recommendations of the assessment.  The overall goal of the workshop will be to (i) increase knowledge and build a common understanding amongst industry and government on global best practices, international norms and industry standards; (ii) to identify gaps in law and policy and definition of roles and responsibilities in current national frameworks against international best practices; and (iii) to provide a forum in which industry and governments can discuss how to improve or strengthen their modes of working together.  Government representatives will be supported to develop a multi-sector action plan to protect children online.

WORK RELATIONSHIPS:

The consultant will be under the supervision of UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Child Protection Officer. The consultant will also work closely with the Child Protection Specialist, representatives from the Education sector and ICT Associate who will provide technical guidance as necessary.  In countries where UNICEF has a field office, the consultant will work with the UNICEF Programme Coordinators who will provide support in addressing bottlenecks in information gathering and scheduling interviews.

Since the purpose of this assessment is to get a snapshot of the current situation and to identify high priority interventions, the methodology will use an iterative approach and the cross-checking of qualitative information. This will be done by triangulating different sources of information and methods, such as review of secondary sources, interviews with different key informants, and expert consultations/stakeholder consultations. Consultant will have to familiarise himself/herself with UNICEF’s Ethical research guidelines.

METHODOLOGY:

The methodology consists of the following methods:

Review of existing legislation, policies, regulations, studies and data on child online protection in the Eastern Caribbean: The review of secondary sources should be comprehensive, based a review of sources through the Internet and by identifying additional sources from key stakeholders and experts.

Key informant interviews with stakeholders and experts.

Expert consultations should be organised at the beginning of the assessment process to collect inputs from stakeholder groups on the purpose, scope and design of the assessment and to gather initial information and sources of information, as well as names and contact information of additional experts and stakeholders.

Stakeholder meetings should be organised after the completion of the assessment to present and discuss the findings of the assessment and to prioritise interventions for a roadmap for follow-up.

OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES: WORK ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW:

Key Activities/Tasks	Deliverables/Outputs	Duration (Est. Days)	Due Date
Conduct desk review of existing legal and policy frameworks and systems in each country and identify key stakeholders	Inception report   including data capture tools and stakeholder/key informant  listing	20 days	7/1/2024
Collect information, map and assess existing interventions carried out by key actors to prevent, investigate and respond to online child protection	Draft Report including scorecard	40 days	8/26/2024
Analyse capacities and bottlenecks in addressing online threats to children and make recommendations	Final Report including roadmap	10 days	9/9/2024
Co-facilitate an online regional workshop with ICT industry and government representatives to present the findings and recommendations of the assessment.	Final Report including roadmap	5 days	9/25/2024

PAYMENT SCHEDULE:

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed deliverables which receive satisfactory quality review.  In general, individual contracts shall not allow for fee advances. However, a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value may be authorized by the Approving Authority in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE / QUALIFICATIONS:

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• A master’s degree in international development, Social Work, Psychology or other related Social Sciences.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience conducting research, analytical and report writing skill.
• At least 5 years in developing, managing, monitoring and evaluating programmes in the field of child protection in general or child online protection in particular.
• Capacity to ensure deliverables are produced within the specified timeframes.
• Knowledge and experience of Eastern Caribbean contexts and working in the Eastern Caribbean.
• Fluency in English (Oral and Written)

For every Child, you demonstrate UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

EVALUATION CRITERIA: The technical evaluation will be considered in accordance with the following information:

Technical Proposal: 75 points

1) Overall Response (15 points):

1. Understanding of, and responsiveness to UNICEF requirements
2. Understanding of scope, objectives and completeness of response
3. Overall concord between UNICEF requirements and the proposal

2) Experience (30 points):

1. Relevant experience and qualifications
2. Professional expertise, knowledge and experience with similar projects, contracts, clients and consulting assignments

3) Proposed Methodology, Approach and System (30 points):

1. Quality of the proposed approach and methodology
2. Quality of proposed implementation plan, i.e., how the bidder will undertake each task, and time-schedules
3. Risk assessment – recognition of the risks/peripheral problems and methods to prevent and manage risks/peripheral problems.

Financial Proposal: 25 points

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS:

The consultant will be home-based and use his/her own computer equipment and communication devices.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE:

Before commencing work, a consultant shall submit a statement of good health and take full responsibility for the accuracy of that statement, including confirmation that he or she has been informed of the inoculations required for the country or countries to which travel is authorized. Consultants shall assume all costs that may occur in relation to the statement of good health.  Consultants are required to certify that they are covered by medical/health insurance.

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.

RECOURSE:

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant. Performance indicators against which the satisfactory conclusion of this contract will be assessed include: timeliness/quality of submission and responsiveness to UNICEF and counterpart feedback.

TITLE RIGHTS:

All materials created by the Contractor which bears a direct relation to, or is made in order to perform, this contract and any intellectual property rights thereof, including but not limited to patents, copyright and trademarks, shall be jointly owned by UNICEF and the Contractor. At the request of UNICEF, the Contractor shall assist in securing such property rights and transferring them to UNICEF in compliance with the requirements of the law governing such rights. Any third party usage shall require written permission from both parties.

TRAININGS:

Consultants, even those working from home, must complete the following online courses prior to signature of contract.  All certificates should be presented as part of the contract:

• Ethics and Integrity at UNICEF
• Prevention of Sexual Harassment & Abuse of Authority
• Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA)

Consultants must complete the following course before commencement of any travel on behalf of UNICEF.

• BSAFE Security Training

Any consultant who is issued a UNICEF email address (exceptionally) must complete the following courses no later than 30 days after signature of contract.

• General Information Security Awareness Course
• Fraud Awareness

HOW TO APPLY:

Apply via UNICEF jobs website here no later than 24 May 2024. The application package should include the following:

1. A cover letter
2. Detailed curriculum vitae
3. A proposal stipulating all-inclusive fees, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable.
4. A sample of similar work

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.

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 (Consultants). Consultants 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.

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 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.