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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. 

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Early detection and intervention can prevent death or disability, and enable children to reach their full potential. Türkiye demonstrates strong political will in establishing early detection and early intervention services.

For every child, inclusivity

Background: 

The 12th National Development Plan, prioritizes improving and scaling-up Early Childhood Development (ECD) services for the youngest children aged 0-8. To operationalize set targets with UNICEF support country developed a National ECD Strategy and Action Plan for 2024-2028, which currently is under the government approval.

The future actions target development and operationalization of a sound Early Detection of Disability and Intervention Program that includes early identification and early intervention; provision of services; parental support and monitoring and evaluation.

In 2024 UNICEF initiated support to the key line ministries in development of the cross-sectoral Model for provision of effective early childhood services in selected ECD demonstration areas in Ankara, Bursa, Mersin and Kahramanmaras. With UNICEF support an intensive capacity building programme enabling health, child development professionals in provision of quality early identification and early intervention services has been initiated. The Ministry of Health protocols on child development introduce an International Guide for Monitoring of a Child Development (GMCD) as a standard tool to be used by primary health care professionals. Considering the number of health professionals to be trained in next few years, to increase coverage with training and increase efficiency of capacity building process development of the comprehensive online GMCD training course is critical.

Understanding an urgent need in establishing and providing comprehensive support to children with developmental delays, difficulties, and/or disabilities and their families during the critical early years nation-wide, UNICEF was requested to support in enabling development of the GMCD online course to further increase the effectiveness and efficiency of ensuring timely identification and appropriate care for children with developmental difficulties.

How can you make a difference? 

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide technical support in development of the comprehensive online GMCD training course.

The consultancy requires strong technical expertise and an understanding of early childhood development, early identification and early intervention and strong knowledge of GMCD tool.

The consultant will work to conduct:

1. Prepare an inception report with suggested architecture of the online GMCD course, taking into consideration its use and administration.
2. With permission of the copyright holder and in consultation with authors of the GMCD instrument and UNICEF develop the GMCD online (digital) course.
3. Develop a detailed user and administrator guide.
4. Test the course with at least 10 professionals and finalize the course in line with user recommendations.

The local individual institutional consultancy shall work under the guidance of the UNICEF ECD Manager. The contract will be effective from the date of signing until successful submission of the deliverables, which are estimated to require a total of 85 working days covering a period of 7 months.

* All deliverables as per the scope of work must be satisfactorily completed and accepted by UNICEF TCO to facilitate payment. Delivery estimated working days are tentative.   Deliverables are contingent upon approval by the supervisor.

Duty Station: The assignment will be home-based, with online meetings as necessary. The consultant will work in close coordination with the UNICEF ECD Team.

Supervisor: ECD Manager, UNICEF Türkiye Country Office

Estimated Duration and Cost of Consultancy:

Duration: The contract will be effective from the date of signing until the successful submission of the deliverables, which are estimated to require a total of 85 working days which will be planned during the initial working days. The consultancy is spread within 7 months from September 30, 2025 to April 30, 2026.

Estimated Cost of Consultancy: Applicants shall present a detailed financial proposal that elaborates on daily costs based on the above-mentioned programme and deliverables, including the total sum demanded. All costs, including administrative tools, communications, etc. shall be covered by the consultant within daily fee.

Payment: UNICEF will issue a contract in TRY. The payment will be done in instalments upon submission of the deliverables as per the above list and will be executed in TRY.

Payment Schedule: The payments will be made upon the delivery of outputs. In case of any unexpected delay(s) in the estimated time frame (approval process, force majeure, etc.), the duration of the assignment might be extended subject to the same conditions and mutual will of the parties.

Travel Requirements: The assignment will be home-based. The consultant will work in close coordination with the UNICEF ECD Team and other programme teams, as required.

Reservations: UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the contract and/or withhold all or a portion of payment if the rules and the regulations regarding confidentiality, ethics and procedures of UNICEF and the partners are not followed, the performance is unsatisfactory, or work/deliverables are incomplete, not delivered or fail to meet the deadlines.

The consultant must respect the confidentiality of the information handled during the assignment. Documents and information provided must be used only for the tasks related to these terms of reference.

The assessment report and deliverables will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF is free to adapt or modify them in the future, in consultations with copyright holder. The consultant may not use the data, products or seek endorsements for their own purposes, nor license the data to be used by others, without the written consent of UNICEF.

Candidates are required to specify their daily rates and the total amount as per the number of anticipated working days for each deliverable in the financial proposal and provide the breakdown of the lump sum amount for each deliverable as well as incidentals of each deliverable in TL. It is up to the team how to divide the number of working days within the team.

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

Qualifications:  

• Advanced degree in Developmental Pediatrics, Medicine, Child Development or Public Health.
• Proven experience in providing consultancy services in area of developmental pediatrics and early interventions;
• Minimum 10 years of teaching and training experience in developmental pediatrics, provision of early identification and early intervention services.
• Knowledge of global policies and frameworks in developmental pediatrics and provision of early detection and early intervention services;
• Substantive training experience in developmental pediatrics.
• Experience in development of online training courses.
• Experience in using GMCD tool and being a Certified GMCD trainer is a requirement; experience in development of the GMCD tool is an advantage.
• Excellent analytical thinking, training, report writing and communication skills.
• Previous experience in implementation of relevant or similar consultancy work would be an asset;
• The consultant(s) should be fluent in spoken and written Turkish and English. 

Application and Selection Criteria

Applicants are expected to submit to UNICEF the following documents:

1. Financial proposal  Financial Template_GMCD Online Course.docx
2. CV
3. Technical proposal. The minimum content for the technical proposal is:

• Methodology
• A sample of relevant previous works, including developed materials and reports in the past
• Risks and mitigating measures (with risks related to ethical issues clearly spelled out)

Financial proposals should be submitted in separate folders from the remaining documentation. After the technical evaluation, the financial proposals of qualified candidates will be evaluated. The technical evaluation will be completed based on the attached technical evaluation criteria. The applications will be evaluated from the technical and financial point of view. Technical aspects will be evaluated using the criteria outlined in the matrix below:

The financial proposals will be opened only for the candidates that reach or exceed forty-nine (49) points out of maximum seventy (70) points. Thirty (30) points will be awarded to the candidate that presented the lowest fee for the services requested. The remaining financial offers will receive proportional points ([lowest bid/bid] x 30 points).

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.