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For every child, an opportunity...

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The national consultant will support the UNICEF Country Office in Viet Nam in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of humanitarian cash transfer (HCT) programs in response to Typhoon Yagi and subsequent floods in Northen Mountain Provinces of Viet Nam. This role involves coordinating with various stakeholders, including local government, local communities, NGOs, and governmental agencies, cash working group, service providers and UNICEF programme sections to ensure effective delivery of UNICEF supported humanitarian cash assistance that meets the needs of affected populations in a timely and effective manner, to be in line with UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children (CCC) in Emergency.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:

In response to Typhoon Yagi and subsequent floods and storms, and upon the requests from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support affected provinces, UNICEF has been providing critical and life-saving support to the government of Viet Nam to prepare for, take early action, and respond to the emergency.  Against this backdrop, and with the increasing request from the government about cash support in response to Typhoon Yagi and subsequent floods, UNICEF Viet Nam has been working with VDDMA/MARD to roll out the UNICEF supported humanitarian cash transfer in affected provinces of Viet Nam.

Worldwide, cash transfers in humanitarian settings are increasingly seen as an efficient, cost-effective and timely means of strengthening resilience of affected communities facing a shock.  Through cash support, the affected communities coping mechanisms will be supported towards eliminating the need to resort to negative coping strategies with often have long-term negative impact on the well-being of families and children.

UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children (CCC), the core UNICEF policy and framework for humanitarian action, upholds the use of unconditional and unrestricted humanitarian cash transfers (HCTs) to ensure that children and their families will have access to financial assistance to help them meet their basic needs in a dignified manner and according to their own priorities. Where markets are functional, the provision of humanitarian cash transfers has been demonstrated to be an effective mechanism to promote well-being of families, stimulate the local economy and speed up recovery and reconstruction efforts.

Due to the need to ensure a timely and effective response to the current emergency, it is necessary to recruit an HCT consultant to enhance UNICEF’s capacity to respond effectively and timely to key commitments in delivering cash support to affected communities. 

The Consultant will be required for 75 working days over the period of 5 months from 3 January to 30 June 2025.

Purpose and Objectives:

The Consultant will support UNICEF to effectively carry out planned humanitarian cash transfer programmes through leading the information, coordination, implementation, monitoring at local levels in Northen Mountains provinces including but not limited to Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Cao Bang. Technical support includes beneficiary data collection, coordination with local government, CWG, NGOs, local communities and UNICEF service providers such as financial service provider, third party monitoring at the local levels of affected provinces, monitoring and follow-up of grievances.   

Summary of Key Functions/Accountabilities:

1. Provide technical support to UNICEF in planning, implementation and monitoring of HCT as per payment plans.

2. Coordinate UNICEF HCT response at the national and local level, including strengthen UNICEF accountability to affected populations (AAP).

3. Reporting and documentation of project implementation and good practices.

Location:

The consultant is expected to work from home, have meetings virtually and/or at UNICEF and partner offices, and conduct regular field trips to the project provinces, including the northern mountain provinces including but not limited to Yen Bai, Lao Cai, and Cao Bang. The consultant should be flexible in staying long duration in different project location as per requirement.

Tasks:

Task 1:  Provide technical support to UNICEF in planning, implementation and monitoring of HCT as per payment plans;

- Keep updated on HCT response to Typhoon Yagi being implemented by government, UN agencies, INGOs and local NGOs

- Participating in the Cash Working Group co-ordination meetings and UNICEF Emergency Management Team meetings as required;

Task 2: Coordinate UNICEF HCT response at the national and local level, including strengthen UNICEF accountability to affected populations (AAP)

- Coordinate with UNICEF, financial service provider, local government, and related stakeholders to ensure timely distribution of HCT,

- Support the coordination for the baseline survey, payment verification and post-distribution monitoring to be conducted by the 3rd party service provider contracted by UNICEF.

- Work closely with local authorities and partners on targeting, data collection and registration processes, distribution plan, communication, and monitoring.

- Undertake field visits to monitor programme implementation and provide technical assistance to targeted provinces as requested and collect and report disaggregated data on beneficiaries (if necessary).

- Liaise with relevant local authorities and community leaders to ensure community participation and awareness on HCT support programme by UNICEF.

- Provide technical support in collecting and handling grievance and complaint at the field in accordance with UNICEF SOP and procedures.

Task 3: Reporting and documentation of project implementation and good practices

- Prepare and submit timely reports on program progress, challenges, and recommendations to senior management and donor agencies.

- Collect data and provide inputs to reports per the UNICEF Response Plan and UN Joint Response Plan.

- Document best practices and lessons learned for future programming.

Methodology:

The Consultant will be supervised by Social Policy and Governance Officer, UNICEF Viet Nam. The Consultant will however work on a regular basis with relevant UNICEF Sections, Government partners, UN Agencies, CWG, service providers as well local government and communities.

Travel:

The consultant is expected to travel to northern provinces including but not limited to Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Cao Bang (tentatively 6 trips, each trip about 3 days). The consultant will need to organize own travel, including accommodation and transportation. UNICEF will pay the daily subsistence allowance as per UN-approved rate. The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN DSS Basic and Advanced Security certificates, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance with hospitalization and repatriation coverage. The dates for the travel will be determined in consultation with the Social Policy Officer and the Country Office.

Management: 

The consultancy is to be supervised by UNICEF Social Policy Officer under the overall guidance of Chief of Social Policy and Governance Section. The consultant will work in close collaboration with the colleagues from SPG and programme sections of UNICEF.

Full TOR with deliverables as attached  TOR for SPG consultancy on field HCT coordinatior.pdf

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

Minimum Qualifications required:

Disciplines: Bachelor in international development, social protection, social science, rural development, emergency management or other relevant areas.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

- University degree in international affairs, international development, social sciences, public policy, or having DRM/DRR profile and good knowledge of cash transfers and/or social protection.

- A minimum of 2 year working experience in disaster risk reduction and/or disaster risk management, cash-based programming in emergencies, humanitarian cash transfers (HCT) programme implementation, adaptive social protection, shock-responsive social protection.

- Familiarity with the concept and practices of social protection in emergencies.

- Field experience relating to social development programs in Northern Mountain Provinces especially in ethnic minority communities is an asset.

- Experience in multi-stakeholder co-ordination and facilitation.

- Good computer skills (MS Word, Powerpoint, Excel);

- Fluency in written and spoken Vietnamese and English is required.

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. 

Assessment criteria:

For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:

a) Technical Qualification weight 70 points:

1.1 Educational background: 20 points

- University degree in international affairs, international development, social sciences, public policy, or having DRM/DRR profile and good knowledge of cash transfers and/or social protection.

1.2 Relevant working experiences: 50 points           

- A minimum of 2 year working experience in disaster risk reduction and/or disaster risk management, cash-based programming in emergencies, humanitarian cash transfers (HCT) programme implementation, adaptive social protection, shock-responsive social protection.(20)

- Familiarity with the concept and practices of social protection in emergencies .(10)

- Field experience relating to social development programs in Northern Mountain Provinces especially in ethnic minority communities is an asset.(10)

- Experience in multi-stakeholder co-ordination and facilitation . (10)

b) Financial Proposal (Maximum 30 Points)

All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.

Financial proposal should be all-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel and any related costs for the assignment.

The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates

who have attained a minimum 50-point score in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

The contract will be awarded to the candidate with the highest total score, based on these criteria, ensuring that the selected consultant possesses the necessary educational background, relevant experience, and technical skills.

Submission of applications:

a. Letter of interest/CV;

b. Three references of relevant previous assignment(s);

d. Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including consultancy fee, travel and any other relevant costs for this assignment.  

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.