Re-Advertise: National Consultant for Enhancing Community Engagement and Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms for Red Crescent Society’s Youth Organization in the Islamic Republic of Iran #573766

This national consultancy will propose new strategies for community engagement, awareness raising, feedback, and accountability to affected populations by studying existing systems and strategies in other countries and Iran and aims to systematize the process of engagement and receiving consultation and feedback from adolescents, young people, and other people affected by a humanitarian situation.

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. 

UNICEF, for every child

Community engagement, receiving feedback from the community, and accountability to affected populations during humanitarian situations are at the core of the humanitarian response. The humanitarian sector has made significant progress in recent years, with evidence of continuous interaction between organizations and communities. Recent agency-specific and system-wide reforms have sought to deliver a more responsive and people-centered approach to humanitarian action.

As described in UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children, feedback mechanisms are essential in ensuring that the views of affected populations are heard, respected, and responded to in all aspects of programs and responses.

The Red Crescent Youth Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran and UNICEF plan to take measures to strengthen the capacity of the affected community to participate in humanitarian situations and improve the mechanisms for receiving opinions and feedback with a focus on adolescents and youth engagement. They also intend to use a participatory, flexible, and modifiable approach to the feedback and needs of local communities, especially through empowering adolescents and young people and the local community, monitoring the successful implementation of interventions and improving access to information and essential goods, and to strengthen the capacity IRCS’s YO respond, namely in social and psychosocial interventions, in humanitarian situations.

Therefore, as part of the cooperation between UNICEF and YO,  UNICEF and YO intend to hire a national expert consultant to strengthen the existing mechanisms for adolescent and youth engagement and their community engagement skills in times of crisis, enabling social and psychosocial interventions in humanitarian situations.

Scope of the Work

Accordingly, it will strengthen the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines, and the referral system, by creating safe, confidential, and child-friendly communication methods, utilizing innovative and digital-based solutions (if necessary), developing an AAP toolkit, conducting training, and supporting the trial/test implementation of the project in two selected provinces (to be chosen by the YO).

Therefore, it is necessary for the consultant, to conduct desk review on similar experiences in other countries and formative studies through consultation and holding training and consultation sessions with experts and volunteers of youth organizations in the provinces, to develop strategies to strengthen the capacity of experts and volunteers of Youth Organizations to engage, empower and encourage communities to participate, provide consultation, feedback and develop a training toolkit and monitoring tools needed by the Youth Organization for reporting and referral to relevant institutions for follow-up.

The consultant must also consider innovative digital and technology-based solutions (if necessary) to engage the communities and design feedback mechanisms for and with volunteers and experts in the organization. The consultant must ensure that the proposed strategies and mechanisms are not a separate system parallel to other Youth Organization’s participation and feedback structures and are linked to existing systems.

Therefore, in implementing this plan, the consultant must apply the basic principles of the IASC and UNICEF’s humanitarian response guidelines for engaging people affected by humanitarian situations, feedback, and response. Accordingly, the consultant needs to ensure the IASC and UNICEF’s Accountability to the Affected Populations (AAP) Framework and the seven principles are addressed.

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

The consultant should possess the following qualifications:

• Fluency in Farsi language
• Advanced university degree in social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, social development, development studies etc.) and/or Community development.
• At least 6 years of solid professional experience in design and implementing humanitarian response including CPIE, AAP programming, and/or child safeguarding.
• Knowledge and experience in PESA and case management and design of referral pathways are required.
• Proven experience in conducting capacity-building trainings; 

Previous working experience with UNICEF/UN and Red Crescent Society’s Youth Organization (YO) in the Islamic Republic of Iran is an asset.

Conditions of Work

• The consultant shall use her/his own facilities to manage the work.
• All deliverables need to be approved by YO and UNICEF before payment.
• Consultancy fees include the costs of travel, inter alia, flight tickets, accommodation, and any other travel expenses, if any.

How to apply:

A technical proposal that includes:

• A detailed plan and timeframe in Farsi for the study, implementation of different phases, a brief proposal for utilizing innovative and ICT-based solutions, a training schedule,
• CV of team lead and technical team members

A financial offer which contains the following information:

• Fee for services– based on the deliverables in the Terms of Reference (calculating all affiliated relevant costs, including tax and insurance for the project team, as relevant)
• Wherever possible, indicate the itemized cost of the travel (air tickets etc.)

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

  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. 

Remarks:  

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.