Consultancy, Justice for Children in the Caribbean Data Focus, LAC Regional Office, Panama City, Panama [4 months]

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 fulfil 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 promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide.

The UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office is based in in Panama, operating in 36 territories, including 24 country offices.

UNICEF works to put the rights and well-being of the most disadvantaged children at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children.

For information of the work of our organization in the LAC Region, please visit our website: UNICEF LAC Region

For every child, justice

A wide range of national data collection and analysis from the child justice system, are required to form a subregional understanding of justice for children in the English and Dutch Caribbean countries. Information assessment can serve as an invaluable resource for policymakers, child justice professionals and other members of the social workforce working to protect children, prevent conflict with the law, and improve access to justice. To build more evidence-based justice for children programming in the Caribbean, it is necessary to assess the situation and information of children and adolescents in contact with the justice system, and those in conflict with the law.

In response to this need, the UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in collaboration with UNICEF Offices in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean will assess the availability of data regarding justice for children. UNICEF support should aim to contribute with governments to have administrative data on juvenile justice and prioritize information according to their needs, using available global standard indicators as a reference. While there is a global manual for measurement of juvenile justice indicators, adapting information and making data collection and analysis more fit to the Caribbean needs and reality is necessary.

The strengthened data will provide evidence to inform governments and UNICEF of the current level of administrative data maturity. This will be done by assessing their efforts and capacity to collect, collate, analyse, transfer and report on administrative data on justice for children at a national level. Country assessments and data baseline should also contribute to improve policy and programmatic responses for children in conflict with the law, including monitoring and impact of interventions aimed at amplifying access to justice.

The UNICEF offices in the region have prioritised the ending of violence against children, recognising this as critical for the fulfilment of all child rights.

Job Context

The UNICEF Regional Office will provide support to countries through a consultancy to produce an assessment of administrative data on Children in Conflict with the Law in the Caribbean. This baseline exercise will provide important insights regarding the nature of juvenile justice facilities, populations, environments, and practices such as the use of custodial and non-custodial sentencing.

How can you make a difference?

The Consultant Will Be Expected To

1- Provide an objective baseline and follow up of the administrative data system on justice for children for Caribbean countries.

2- Consult and inform key stakeholders about relevant aspects of administrative data on justice for children and build consensus on the current state (assessment/diagnosis) of the administrative data system on justice for children and needed improvements.

3- Multi-stakeholders (such as police, public prosecutors, the judiciary, social welfare and corrections institutions and other institutions providing service or intervention to children) roundtables focus on data collection and analysis.

Country assessments should generate a plan for the strengthening of the administrative data system and will include aspects such as:

i) Legal and normative framework for justice for children’s data and statistics.

ii) Data infrastructure and resources.

iii) Functioning of the database system on justice for children.

iv) Completeness of justice for children’s data.

v) Data storage and transmission.

vi) Standardized data and practices on justice for children.

vii) Administrative data quality assurance, and

viii) Data access, dissemination, and use.

Specific Tasks

The Assignment Will Include

1- Develop a methodology and work plan for the assignment. This should include a proposal of basic mapping of the baseline indicators in pre-selected Caribbean countries (Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago) with a focus on the UNICEF core juvenile justice indicators (with participation of the relevant stakeholders, especially from UNICEF HQ, LACRO and Caribbean COs).

2- Elaboration of a preliminary report with the assessment of administrative data systems on juvenile justice for the Caribbean including:

i) Types of data being collected, including relevant indicators

ii) Instruments used to collect this data, including legislative parameters and quality control

iii) Data system flows, including systems/methods/feedback mechanisms

iv) Data integration, interagency sharing and use

v)Data infrastructure and resources

vi) Data use and dissemination

In the case of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat. St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Turks and Caicos Islands it is expected only a revision of data from secondary sources.

3 – Elaboration of a final report with recommendations for improvements for the administrative systems in the Caribbean (reference: https://data.unicef.org/resources/assessing-administrative-data-systems-onjustice-for-children/).

4- PPT.

5- Presentation of the PPT and final results of the consultancy during the Child Protection Regional Meeting in October 2022.

Expected Results

1- Methodology

2- Report of assessments of administrative data systems on juvenile justice (conflict with the law)

3- PPT and presentation

Deliverables

Work plan and methodology for the assignment.

Duration: 5 working days, expected delivery date: 12 August 2022

Preliminary report with the assessment of administrative data systems on juvenile justice for the Caribbean.

Duration: 25 working days, expected delivery date: 16 September 2022

Final report with recommendations for improvements for the administrative systems in the Caribbean.

Duration: 10 working days, expected delivery date: 12 October 2022

PPT and participation in the LAC Regional Child Protection workshop.

Duration: 4 working days, expected delivery date: 17 October 2022

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

Education

Advanced university degree in social sciences, law or related fields.

Experience

• A minimum of 10 years professional working experience in the social or legal sectors of international development.
• Knowledge of the Caribbean region.
• At least 5 years of demonstrable experience working on justice for children.
• At least 7 years of demonstrated experience working with children’s rights.
• Previous work experience with UNICEF will be considered an asset.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Other Skills And Attributes

• Demonstrated excellent skills in verbal and written communication.
• Demonstrated ability to work virtually and establish virtual working relationships with many partners.
• Able to work effectively in a multicultural environment.
• Ability to clearly define objectives and plan activities.
• Fluency with ICT tools such as email, Teams, Skype, Zoom.

Supervision: The consultant will work under the supervision of the UNICEF LAC Regional Adviser, Child Protection.

Workplace: This is a home-based remote consultancy. The consultant will need to provide his/her own premises, equipment, materials, tools and resources for this consultancy. The consultant will be required to have access to Teams/Skype/Zoom to facilitate the communication required during this assignment.

Duration: this consultancy has an estimated duration of 4 months, and the expected start date is 8 August 2022.

How to Apply: Application should be submitted online and should include: Resume, Cover Letter and Financial proposal. Qualified candidates are requested to submit daily and monthly fees in their financial proposal.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) and the following core competencies: Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness, Works Collaboratively with others, Builds and Maintains Partnerships, Innovates and Embraces Change, Thinks and Acts Strategically, Drive to achieve impactful results, and Manages ambiguity and complexity.

To view our values and competency framework please visit the following links: Our Values and Our Competencies.

UNICEF 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.

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.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

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.