Consultancy, Justice for Children in the Caribbean, 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

In general, the justice system comprises various stakeholders with responsibility to protect the rights of children and youth and make decisions in their best interest, including those who enter the juvenile justice system.

Caribbean countries are at various stages in terms of building and consolidating a justice system for children and there is a growing need to ‘build’ knowledge, capacity (in terms of human and financial resources) and deepen the understanding on the importance of the work force raining.

While a skilled workforce in justice for children is essential for carrying out all necessary actions starting from preventing conflict with the law, through trial to reintegration support, building capacity of the justice system also includes ensuring that judicial actors are knowledgeable on fundamental child rights standards and obligations to ensure and deliver quality child friendly investigations and procedures for children who are victims or witnesses. To date, investigations within justice institutions have consistently found that children often experience a repressive, de-humanizing and non-rehabilitative system of punishment that is administered with insufficient regard to their psychosocial needs and long-term development. [1]

To consolidate justice systems for children it is also important to ensure stronger implementation of child protection laws and policies, increase technical, human, and financial resources, and integrate preventive and response services. In this regard, UNICEF will elaborate a clear strategy paper on international standards, particularly with respect to the age of criminal responsibility, applying and giving emphasis to non-custodial measures, and ensuring procedures and mechanisms to provide adequate and friendly access to justice for children to support advocacy efforts. As a contribution to build capacity of justice systems and to address relevant gaps in policy and normative in the Caribbean, UNICEF Regional Office will support pre-defined country offices to consolidate their advocacy strategies and provide a training programme on justice for children.

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.

[1] Inter-American Development Bank (2016) Crime and Violence in Jamaica

Job Context

Support advocacy and capacity building strategies needed to improve and promote justice for children in the Caribbean, focusing on necessary policy and normative changes as well as in existing knowledge gaps. Advocacy will be supported through the development of and strategy paper that should include, ensuring the age of criminal responsibility be increased to at least 14 years of age, detention as a last resort measure and encourage the use of diversion, according to international standards.

How can you make a difference?

Products To Be Developed

1- A strategy paper on Juvenile Justice for advocacy purposes based on evidence of a qualitative assessment carried on with relevant stakeholders for the Caribbean countries engaged in this exercise, including:

• Specific recommendations for advocacy strategies to address political challenges and positions with regards to the age of criminal responsibility, child diversion measures and non-custodial sentences.
• Key messages on these issues for social media, and public communications.

2- Develop a training programme for the justice system workforce, as part of a capacity development strategy through:

• A review of the current training programmes, the knowledge gaps and requirements/ based on a brief diagnosis of the situation of juvenile justice. This would include a review of i) the actors (ministry of justice, police, public prosecutor’s office, judicial branches, use of diversion measures/ non custodia/ custodial sentences) and their role (including mechanisms and structures for coordination); ii) basic legislation; iii) some of the procedures (police, investigation, court); iv) the training that is currently available, and where/how it is delivered.
• An outline of basic recommendations of areas for improvements in terms of necessary reforms to count on the necessary specialization of the justice system in terms of justice for children. This will serve as added guidance on issues such as non-custodial and diversion measures, child centred investigations, court procedures, and ‘new’ areas such as migration and justice. Contents will be developed in consultation with country offices.

Specific Tasks

The Assignment Will Include

1- Develop a work plan and methodology for the assignment. This should include participation of the relevant stakeholders, especially from UNICEF LACRO and Caribbean COs, at relevant points.

2- Draft strategy paper for advocacy purposes/papers and outline of the training programme (based on review/assessment).

3- Final strategy paper for advocacy purposes/papers with recommendations and key messages for public communication, social media and decision makers.

4- Final training programme outlined with recommended strategies for knowledge building to overcome gaps in specialization.

5- PPT and webinar to share results.

Expected Results

The following results are expected at the end of the consultancy:

• Advocacy guidance, paper and messages on justice for children for the English Caribbean countries according to the issues defined.
• Training programme for the workforce on justice for children for the English Caribbean countries.
• PPT and webinar.

Deliverables

1- Work plan and methodology to produce: i) a training programme on justice for children for the workforce of Caribbean countries (including testing with justice operators focus groups) and ii) advocacy strengthening strategies on preidentified relevant issues.

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

2- Draft training programme on justice for children for the Caribbean countries (defining targets and core and complementary contents)

Duration: 20 working days, expected delivery date: 16 September 2022

3- Draft strategy paper for advocacy purposes with key messages for public communication, social media and decision makers and paper.

Duration: 10 working days, expected delivery date: 14 October 2022

4- Final training programme and advocacy guidance, paper and messages.

Duration: 15 working days, expected delivery date: 18 November 2022

5- PPT and webinar.

Duration: 3 working days, expected delivery date: 29 November 2022

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

Education

Advanced university degree in social sciences or law, ideally connected directly with justice for children.

Experience

• A minimum of 15 years professional working experience in the social or legal sectors of international development.
• Knowledge of the Caribbean region.
• At least 10 years of demonstrable experience working on justice for children with a focus on juvenile justice.

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.
• Previous work with UNICEF will be considered an asset.
• 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, and in close collaboration with the leads in four Caribbean country offices (Belize, Guyana and Suriname, Eastern Caribbean Area, and Jamaica).

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.

Travel: In coordination with the supervisor, the consultant may travel to Belize, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Travel will be covered by UNICEF as per policy.

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.