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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.
For every child, safety.
UNICEF is engaged at national and local levels to support efforts aiming for the education process during the Covid-19 epidemic to continue to provide inclusive and quality education for all children. The already ongoing investment at community level of UNICEF in modeling projects should be used as an opportunity to develop and test adequate methodologies and procedures for a safe reopening of schools, which can be used for scale up at national level.
UNICEF and several partners are active in Bacau County supporting the transition of vulnerable children from lower secondary to upper secondary in 55 school units (35 lower secondary schools and 20 high schools). This project started as of 2019 and has now to adapt some of the interventions to support the education process in those schools in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic.
How can you make a difference?
Purpose National Consultant to provide assistance and guidance for 55 school structures units in Bacau County to prepare and ensure the schooling process in compliance with the SARS COV2 prevention measures
Location Bacau County, Romania Office/online
Duration 3 months
Start date 8 June 2020
Reporting to Jointly to Education Specialist and Health Specialist
Justification
The generalized return to school expected to happen in September 2020 has to comply with the recent legislation provisions that are meant to minimize the risk of SARS Cov2 virus transmission. At the same time, a limited number of classes (8th grade and 12th grade) will briefly open for (voluntary) preparation for and the holding of end of year exams at the beginning of June 2020. This is a new type of challenge for the school system and requires adapted, practical and efficient solutions contextualized at the level of each school to ensure the maximum level of protection against virus transmission in school and potential spread in families and communities across the country.
Purpose
Public health experts recruited at local level in Bacau or close areas to provide direct, practical and contextualized support for the 55 schools units (including all the school and pre-school structures) to develop their local procedures and process to ensure that the measures for virus transmission are implemented and observed and the education process can continue in a safe environment and at reasonable quality. To learn from the local challenges and to solve practical issues and to monitor and document the approach for various types of school infrastructures to use this knowledge to support the same process at national level ahead of the more general school reopening in September 2020.
Major duties and responsibilities
The consultants are expected to start with an intense self-learning process guided by UNICEF Specialist on Education and Health to be up to date with all the legal requirements and national and international practice in relation to schools functioning in the context of Covid 19 epidemic. Based on this they will develop a short methodology with a check-list of conditions to be implemented at the level of schools. Using this check-list the consultants will schedule and implement a programme of visits in the respective schools to work with the school management and staff, local authorities and parents of children to develop the local plan for schools functioning. The plan should include but not be limited to:
- identification of all the school structures that are deemed to be reopened from each school entity.
- Establish the procedure of drop-off, triage, access, seating, access to toilet facilities, procedure of tacking breaks for children in schools, eating, learning all in compliance with rules to prevent virus transmission
- Present the measures to all school staff and parents
- Test the implementation of the measures with volunteers before the official start of school and adjust measures to be implementable at scale in September
Expected results and deliverables:
- List of school and pre-school buildings that will be reopened to host education activities
- Template plan and individualized plans for 55 schools units and the buildings that will reopen to host education activities
- Template presentation for school staff and parents
- Template Monitoring Plan for schools to track how implementation of plans work or not
- Guidelines with prevention measures adapted to various local situations
- Summary of lessons learned collected from supported schools in Bacau and recommendations for the county
- Recommendations for the national reopening plan (with different scenarios taken into consideration for different school structures/buildings (large, small, etc.)
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- Public health experience, preferable graduate of health university with experience in epidemiology and knowledge of the local context of Bacau County
- Previous experience working with county public health department is a strong asset Availability for part-time work for 3 months starting with 10 June 2020
- Capacity to travel in Bacau County to all the schools included in the programme
- Proficiency in spoken and written Romanian is a must, knowledge of English is considered an asset
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
View our competency framework at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
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 to become a part of the organization.
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.
General conditions: Procedures and Logistics
- Applicants are requested to submit:
- Resume/CV
- letter of intention, outlining the experience and qualifications, including a proposal of a short work methodology for the consultancy limited to 5000 words
- financial offerFinancial template_Apr 2020.docx, specifying the requested gross daily fee, taking into consideration that the consultant will be responsible for paying all his/her due income taxes as per Romanian legislation.
- Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Education Programme Specialist and in close collaboration with the Health Specialist. Decision-making is limited to methods of work and prioritizing project activities in accordance with established weekly/monthly work-plans.
- All the costs related to the travel to Romania and inside Romania will be covered by the Romania UNICEF office based on a plan that will be agreed with the consultant
- Payments will be made per deliverables
- Note: consultant will sign health statement prior to taking the assignment and the designation form will be completed.
Remarks:
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
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.
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