TOR-Consultant- Online Awareness-Raising Material Development

Job Number: 527085 | Vacancy Link

Locations: Africa: South Africa

Work Type : Consultancy

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, [Awareness]

Background and Justification

 Violence against children is widespread in South Africa. Research has found that a third of young people (35.4%) reported having been the victim of sexual violence at some point in their lives, 15.1% of children had been the victim of neglect and 34.8% of children had been the victim of physical abuse. Such violence far too often has deadly consequences – research into the causes of child deaths found that 85% of unnatural infant deaths were caused by abandonment, while older male children were disproportionately vulnerable to being killed because of interpersonal violence with other males.

Technology and digital space can be used for delivery of a range of services to children promoting learning and development. While many opportunities for learning, recreation, play and socialization are provided by these new technologies, they may also increase the risks for abuse and exploitation of children. The dangers confronting children online include cyber bullying, child pornography, online sexual exploitation, cyber stalking, access to illegal material, online abuse in all its forms, online gambling for children and a network for child sex tourism and trafficking. By its nature, the Internet remains complex to regulate.

UNICEF and the  global community  are recognising the importance of creating online safety awareness  to children, parents, communities, duty bearers and digital space entities to work together to ensure that meaningful and appropriate programmes are developed to protect children online whilst maximizing opportunities for ICT usage as well.

SA is a country of contrast, children still face wide socio-economic inequalities and high rates of violence and other risks and therefore it is important for all duty-bearers to realise what opportunities exist for children, especially online and how to meet those in South Africa whilst ensuring that children are safe in the digital space.SA has excellent laws and policies. However, the gap between legislation and implementation remains wide and services are not well connected.

This consultancy will develop online awareness raising  materials and a toolkit, utilising the Child Protection Advocacy package that  UNICEF has developed. The package will be adapted  to SA context to ensure social and cultural sensitivity and relevance. The developed material and a toolkit will align to global trends and platforms in the cyber space, international instruments and national legislation and the network of ICT platforms available in SA.It will consider duty-bearers and stakeholders who use IT to communicate and share a information with children, such as government departments, civil society organisations, religious and traditional leaders, ordinary community members etc.

The consultancy will review available research in the country on online usage, and safety for children. It will engage with children in order to ensure that the material and toolkit developed is child-friendly and will prioritize children in the development and training guidelines to  ensure that childrens become active participants in creating  the digital  citizenry the  country is envisaging whilst  their safety  is optimised.

Scope of Work

Goal and Objective:  Under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist develop content relevant online material and toolkit to be utilised to create awareness on ICT vulnerability and to provide safety information on measures / tips to navigate the impact of risks that are there online.

The consultant is expected engage end users of the material and toolkit, review available literature, develop the package of material and toolkit for duty-bearers and one for children including simplified guidelines.

2) Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: This work will contribute to the achievement of Output 3.1  » Acknowledge, political will and resources leveraged for the elimination of violence against children, and tools developed for the country and communities to enhance awareness and an enabling environment for reporting VAC: Prevention and Response to Violence Against Childrens

 Activities and Tasks:

     a.Review available literature: The consultant will conduct a literature review and peruse numerous on-line research conducted              globally and in South Africa to findings[NA1]  and recommendations on knowledge and skills gaps in this area to identify content              relevance to awareness-material required and produce a research findings report to be shared with the Section: Child Protection.

Conduct three focused interviews with representatives of duty-bearers across the sector prior to the development of the package of material and toolkit. This will include one session with government officials, one with civil society and one with parents and caregivers.

Conduct two focused interview sessions with children, one with school going children and the other one with out-of-school children to solicit their view on online vulnerability and safety.

Develop the package of material and toolkit for duty-bearers and for children accordingly. The consultant will develop material for awareness-raising on online and offline vulnerability that children face, including appropriate content to promote safety of children online. The material developed should be easy to adapt to local context in accordance with provincial variations.

Develop simplified guidelines on using the material and toolkit: The consultant will develop guidelines that will be used to capacitate government, civil society organisations, journalists, traditional and faith-based leaders, children and other members of the community on online awareness-raising. The guidelines must be translated into three official languages. It must be holistic, easy to understand and target different groups. It is important for the consultant to develop concrete briefs as awareness-raising material on online safety across different platforms.

 5.Outputs/Deliverables/Payments:

Deliverables	Duration (Estimated # of days or months)	Timeline/Deadlines	Schedule of payment
1. Report of recommendations of existing research findings.	3 weeks after signing  the contract	30 November 2019	20%
2. Focused interviews report (duty- bearers and children)	1 months	31 December 2019	20%
3. a) Awareness-raising material booklets for adults and children and toolkit in the form of flyers, posters andonline filters. b) Guidelines on using the materials and toolkit. (all tested)	2 Months	28 February 2020	30%
4.  Final report with testing findings and recommendations	1 Month	31 March 2020	30%

 6.Required Travel:

  The consultant will travel within South Africa when required.

 Payment Schedule

 Payment to the consultant will only be done upon satisfactory completion of each deliverable as per outlined deliverables.

 Desired competencies, technical background and experience

An advanced University degree or Diploma in IT, Law/International Relations, Public Policy, Development Studies, Social Sciences or related, with 5-8 years of experience working within digital space or conducting research in the field;

Outstanding IT knowledge including analytical skills, including strong ability to analyse, integrate and summarise information in the digital space;

Knowledge and ability to  navigate digital platforms;

Excellent writing skills in English, including a demonstrated ability to draft clear, concise  reports;

Good computer skills, including familiarity with search engines and academic databases;

Ability to work independently and to ensure high-quality deliverables;

Administrative issues

 The consultant will primarily be operating from his/her own office, using  her/his own office resources and materials in the execution of this assignment. Meetings will be conducted with the consultant on a regular basis (at least every 2 weeks)  with the Child Protection Specialist and the Senior Programme Associate to update on progress and if necessary adjust the timelines and work plan accordingly.The consultant will also meet with members of the Steering  Committee on Online Research: Disrupting Harm that UNICEF SA is conducting together with government under the guidance of Innocenti.

 Conditions

All travel is by most economical fare and reimbursement as per UNICEF policy,

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.

Estimate of any travel costs required for the consultancy will be included in the contract, in line with UNICEF travel cost guidelines, and will be paid on reimbursement basis on the basis of actual costs incurred

The candidate selected will be governed by, and subject to, UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.

 How to Apply

 Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit their application to the following link: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=527085 by 31 October 2019

This notice will also appear on http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/, http://www.unicef.org/southafrica, UN Job List, UN Jobs.

Only South African Nationals, candidates who have permanent residence, temporary residence and/or valid work permit for the duration of the contract will be considered.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in ZAR) to undertake the terms of reference above (including admin cost if applicable).

Applications submitted without a fee rate will not be considered.

We invite you to watch a short video on the system on how to apply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePgDIQ9RVYs&feature=youtu.be 

If you have not been contacted within 1.5 month of the closing date please accept that your application was unsuccessful. Regret emails will be sent only to shortlisted/contacted candidates.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from South African nationals, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation

 UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Closing Date Thu Oct 31 2019 16:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)