Organization: UN Children"s Fund
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 13 Aug 2015
Background
Around the globe, women and children, girls in particular, are threatened by violence. During conflict, exposure to violence increases due to forced displacement, separation of families and communities, and weakened or destroyed infrastructure that erode the social and legal protections in place during times of stability. The result is an escalation in violence against children and women, including sexual violence. Conflict situations and other emergency settings also exacerbate incidents of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) that children and women are exposed to in times of peace and stability, such as domestic violence.
Over the past two decades, a series of global policies, guidance, standards and tools have been developed by UN agencies, NGOs and other partners to facilitate improved prevention and response to GBV in emergency contexts, and the international community increasingly recognizes the need to prioritize collective action to address GBV in emergency settings. This recognization is demonstrated by the recent Call to Action to End Violence Against Women and Girls in Emergencies (CtA) that was launched by the UK in 2013 and by governments and local and international NGOs that support country level and/or global level programming that includes a focus on addressing GBV in emergencies (GBViE). The CtA is the first-ever, high-level global platform to mobilize and coordinate efforts to transform the humanitarian system to address violence against women and girls in emergencies as a priority from the very onset of an emergency, rather than as an afterthought. UNICEF is a key actor in the CtA as a protection mandated humanitarian agency and co-lead of the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) along with UNFPA.
Since January 2014, the CtA has been led by the US State government (BPRM and OFDA) under the auspices of “Safe from the Start: Preventing and Responding to GBV from the Onset of Emergencies.” As UNICEF works to move its commitments under the CtA forward, the organization has made prevention and response to GBViE one of four cross-sectoral targeted priorities in the organization’s new Gender Action Plan (GAP) 2014-2017. The new GAP is integrally linked to UNICEF’s Strategic Plan (SP) and provides a clear programmatic focus on the gender equitable results that UNICEF aims to achieve across all seven result areas of its SP.[1]Strengthening the collection of GBV-related data is an essential part of bolstering systems for the prevention of and response to GBV in emergencies and is a key priority in the UNICEF GAP.
The Gender-based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS) was created to provide GBV programme managers with one simple system to manage their data on reported GBV cases, including through a safe and ethical sharing of reported incident data. Effective utilization of the GBVIMS can also assist service providers to better understand reported GBV cases they receive in order to: adjust their programming to more effectively respond to the needs of survivors; aggregate data to analyse wider trends and threats; and enable safe sharing for improved inter-agency coordination on GBV data collection.
[1] See Output d: indicators on GBV-related coordination and programming (P6.d.2 and d.3).
Over the past five years since the system was introduced, the inter-agency GBVIMS Steering Committee—comprised of UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF and the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—has continued to design, test, refine, and implement components of the GBVIMS in humanitarian contexts throughout the world.
In 2012, UNICEF, on behalf of the GBVIMS Steering Committee, established a GBVIMS Surge Team, comprised of two consultants who are supported by UNICEF. Since then, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNHCR have expanded and supported the implementation of the GBVIMS, including through expanding the GBVIMS Surge Team by ensuring that each agency (UNICEF, UNFPA, UNHCR and IRC) have at least one team member that is part of the overall GBVIMS Surge Team. Over the past three years, the GBVIMS Surge Team has significantly contributed to the implementation of the GBVIMS tools in humanitarian and post-conflict contexts in various countries including Liberia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Nepal, Mali, Niger, Guinea, Central African Republic and Nigeria. Remote and in-person support and technical backstopping have been provided by the Surge Team to respond to requests that are made by GBVIMS users and/or service providers operating in emergency contexts.
The GBVIMS Surge Team has been instrumental to the development of the “next generation” of the GBVIMS system (GBVIMS+) as part of the work that UNICEF and partners are embarking upon through the development of PRIMERO – Protection-related Information Management for Emergency Response Operations – which is a software application that will help partners with case management, including to securely collect, store, manage, and share data for GBV and other protection-related incident monitoring for improved programmatic response. Over the next year, with support from UNICEF HQ and the GBVIMS Surge Team, the GBVIMS+ component of PRIMERO will be piloted in up to 3 countries.
Against this backdrop, and to continue to generate progress against the Core Commitments to Children (CCCs);[1] the SP and GAP, UNICEF is recruiting an information technology consultant to be part of the GBVIMS Surge Team. This member of the Surge Team will ensure that the GBVIMS Steering Committee has dedicated information technology capacity to support the PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ development and piloting. Among other things, this position, will also reinforce the UNICEF CtA commitments and the UNICEF SP and GAP.
Purpose
The purpose of this contract is to ensure that the GBVIMS Steering Committee, including UNICEF, has dedicated capacity on information technology to reinforce the PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ development and country level roll, as well as a system for rapid trouble shooting as PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ implementation issues arise in emergency-affected countries.
Duty Station
The consultancy will be home-based with significant travel to emergency-affected contexts. Countries for support and roll-out missions will be determined through country-driven demand, consultation with country GBV working groups, a predetermined set of eligibility criteria already in use by the inter-agency GBVIMS team, that is being adapted based on the Syria+, South Sudan+ and on-going cyclical crises in the Sahel.
[2] Namely, CP Commitment 1 (Coordination): *Effective leadership is established for both the child protection and GBV areas of responsibility, with links to other cluster/sector coordination mechanisms on critical inter-sectoral issues;*and CP Commitment 5 (Programming): *Violence, exploitation and abuse of children and women, including GBV, are prevented and addressed.*Timeframe
The duration of the contract will be for 120 days including a combination of home-based and remote technical assistance and field deployments.
Estimated Start date: 21 August 2015 End date:15 July 2016
Expected results/outputs
The Consultant will work in close consultation with the UNICEF GBV Specialist in Emergencies and with other colleagues within the child protection section including PRIMERO Business Analyst. The UNICEF GBV Specialist in Emergencies will provide overall guidance to the PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ Lead /Technical Analyst and work directly with the GBVIMS inter-agency Coordinator based at UNFPA in New York, and with the inter-agency GBVIMS Steering Committee.
The consultant will provide support for the finalization of PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ training materials, user manual, roll out guidelines, etc. in order to facilitate the implementation of the new system, and will be responsible for delivering training to GBVIMS users where the PRIMERO/GBVIMS + module will be rolled out. The Consultant will provide on- and off-site field support to the PRIMERO/GBVIMS+ roll-out process, with a focus on conflict-affected contexts.
The consultant’s deliverables will be completed on an ongoing basis throughout the duration of the consultancy.
The major duties and responsibilities of the consultant will include:
*Please see expected results in attached chart.
Key skills, technical background, and experience required
Education:
- Master in public health, social work, political science, human rights and international law or other related degree, or equivalent programming experience;
- At least 5 years of mid-level programme management experience, preferably including at least 2 years implementing a GBV program in a humanitarian context, including experience in case management
- Experience developing and facilitating workshops;
- Experience in database development, usage and management;
- Demonstrated capacity to analyze data/statistics for humanitarian operations;
- Excellent Computer skills: MS Word, Excel, Access and database software, including in depth knowledge of pivot table/chart and data analysis;
- Strong understanding of browser-based applications, interfaces, workflows, role-based access
- Linux skills
- Understanding of the AWS and/or Azure cloud deployment and leveraged services
- Windows skills in order to manage local and roving deploys
- Understanding of CouchDB: admin interface, NoSQL nature, replication, and deployment
- Strong understanding of data security, system monitoring and maintenance
- Demonstrated organizational skills: the ability to work independently and productively, with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment;
- Flexible work attitude: the ability to work productively in a team environment and independently, and to handle requests or issues as they arise;
- Demonstrated understanding of issues related to confidentiality, data safety/security and other ethical concerns related to the sharing on sensitive data between humanitarian agencies;
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to successfully and effectively liaise with people in a wide range of functions in a multi-cultural environment
- Fluency in English and French strongly preferred
How to apply:
How to Apply
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to <**pdconsultants@unicef.org>** with subject line: “GBVIMS+ Deployment Lead Technical Analyst, Consultancy”by**13 August 2015, 5:00pm EST.**
Applications must include:
- Cover letter,
- CV, and
- P11 form (http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc)
- Indicate where you heard about this advertisement
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.
NOTE: Files should not exceed 5.0MB limit
UNICEF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
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