Home-based: Workforce Wellbeing Consultant (28 working days) – Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

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, care.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Attention to workforce wellbeing is critical to support the health and wellbeing of staff and, in turn, to ensure that staff have the capacity to support children, caregivers, and families most effectively. The mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of service providers and other staff may be influenced by environmental stressors, including personal and family exposure to emergencies, as well as workplace factors, such as exposure to participant distress, workload, and organizational functioning. The UN has prioritized an expansion of workplace mental health support and this area of work is highlighted in the Global Mental Health Advocacy Roadmap for 2024-2025. UNICEF is committed to strengthening its approach to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the MHPSS and multisectoral workforce employed by implementing partners and other agencies in Europe and Central Asia. This entails a multipronged approach including provision of direct wellbeing support to frontline staff, training for managers and supervisors, as well as guidance to organizations for the development of internal policies to support staff wellbeing, and therefore to ensure a more sustainable and tailored approach to staff care. Importantly, the current consultancy is not focused on wellbeing of UNICEF staff, but rather that of UNICEF implementing partner organizations and of the helping workforce in Europe and Central Asia more generally.

UNICEF MENA has initiated development of a Frontline Staff Wellbeing Training Package. The current consultancy will build upon this package by adapting content for the Europe and Central Asia region and adding additional modules. Specifically, new content will include guidance for development of organizational policies to support staff wellbeing. This guidance should outline a participatory approach that organizations can take to develop an internal staff wellbeing policy tailored to the needs and preferences of their staff, with specifications for everyday and emergency scenarios. The guidance may consider factors contributing to wellbeing such as workload, work hours, safety and security, benefits, activities and resources to benefit staff wellbeing in the workplace and externally, practices to acknowledge achievement and involve staff in decision-making, professional development and growth, training for mangers/supervisors, etc. This consultancy will also entail development of an additional module consisting of tailored guidance for use by UNICEF country offices to support the wellbeing of implementing partner agencies. This may include specifications for partnership agreements, such as budgeting considerations, areas in which UNICEF will provide technical support, etc. Both modules will be informed by desk review and data collected from key informant interviews and/or focus group discussions with country program and implementing partner colleagues.

Scope of Work

To strengthen UNICEF’s approach to supporting the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of the MHPSS and multisectoral workforce in Europe and Central Asia, the consultant will be responsible for the following scope of work:*

*Please note that this ToR does not include focus on the wellbeing of UNICEF staff and consultants – this is outside of the scope of this consultancy.

1. The consultant will review an existing frontline staff wellbeing toolkit designed by UNICEF in the MENA region, including guidance for managers/supervisors, and adapt materials for use in the Europe and Central Asia region (in collaboration with MENARO and ECARO MHPSS colleagues).
2. The consultant will then develop additional modules for this toolkit focused on 1) development of organizational staff wellbeing policies and 2) guidance for supporting implementing partner wellbeing, through below activities:
3. The consultant will conduct a desk review of existing best practices concerning organizational policies designed to support worker wellbeing, in both development and emergency settings, with a focus on the Europe and Central Asia region, to informed development of toolkit modules.
4. The consultant will also gather input from UNICEF country office and implementing partner colleagues (e.g., through focus group discussion; key informant interviews; survey) to inform the development of toolkit modules.
5. The consultant will develop a module focused on strengthening the capacity of supporting agencies to develop their own staff wellbeing policies using a participatory approach, including guidance note and training materials.
   1. The module should include needs assessment and monitoring and evaluation guidance and tools.
   2. The module should include guidance for development of policies for everyday use and for use in emergency contexts.
   3. The module should include tailored guidance for child protection/social service workforce.
6. The consultant will develop a module focused specifically for use by UNICEF country offices in supporting the wellbeing of implementing partner staff (e.g., guidance to inform inclusion of dedicated budgeting and activities to support staff wellbeing in partnership agreements), to a guidance note as well as tools for supporting partners in developing their own staff wellbeing policies.
7. Following review by regional and country office colleagues, the consultant will address feedback and update both modules.
8. The consultant will conduct an online learning session for regional and country level UNICEF colleagues including an overview of the review and the toolkit modules developed.
9. The consultant will share final package of materials including a brief consultancy report summarizing steps taken, lessons learned, and areas for future development.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone	Deliverables / Outputs	Timeline / Deadline
Develop a brief inception report outlining workplan and methodology, for approval by supervisor	• Inception Report	1 working day; By 03 May 2024
Review the existing frontline staff wellbeing toolkit designed by UNICEF in the MENA region, including guidance for managers/supervisors, and adapt materials for use in the Europe and Central Asia region (in collaboration with MENARO and ECARO MHPSS colleagues).	• Adapted curriculum	5 working days; By 27 May 2024
Conduct a desk review of existing best practices concerning organizational policies designed to support worker wellbeing, in both development and emergency settings, with a focus on the Europe and Central Asia region and gather input from UNICEF country office and implementing partner colleagues (e.g., through focus group discussion; key informant interviews) to inform the development of toolkit modules.	• Report summarizing desk review and data collection • Transcripts of focus group discussion/key informant interviews	7 working days; By 27 May 2024
Develop a module focused on strengthening the capacity of agencies to develop their own staff wellbeing policies using a participatory approach, including guidance note and training materials.	• Module materials, including guidance note and training materials	5 working days; By 15 June 2024
Develop a module focused on supporting the wellbeing of implementing partner staff for use of UNICEF country offices (e.g., guidance to inform inclusion of dedicated budgeting and activities to support staff wellbeing in partnership agreements).	• Module materials, including guidance note	5 working days; By 15 June 2024
Conduct an online learning session for regional and country level UNICEF colleagues including an overview of the review and the toolkit modules developed. The consultant will revise modules in line with feedback provided.	• Learning session conducted	2 working days; By 30 June 2024
Share final package of materials including a brief consultancy report summarizing steps taken, lessons learned, and areas for future development.	• Final package of materials, including consultancy report	3 working days; By 15 July 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

28 working days between April and July 2024.

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be remote/home-based with no travel foreseen.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 28 working days to undertake this assignment.

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

• Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, or other related field.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of experience in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in development and humanitarian contexts.
• Expert knowledge of workforce/staff wellbeing and evidence of associated experience.
• Experience (remote and in-country) supporting a diverse range of UN agencies, NGOs (international and local), academic institutions, governments in the area of workforce wellbeing, MHPSS, child protection, health, education, etc.
• Strong knowledge of MHPSS and workforce wellbeing in the Europe and Central Asia context, including the Ukraine emergency response is highly desirable.
• Experience developing MHPSS toolkits and training modules.
• English is a requirement.
• Ukrainian and/or Russian is an asset

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most marginalized children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family 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 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:

Please include a full CV and a Cover Letter in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered. 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.