Key Weaknesses Identified by a Number of Research Studies Include

Terms of Reference: Human resource development Gap Analysis of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affgairs, Local Councils and other Line Ministries - Improving Child Welfare Service Delivery in Sierra Leone

1.  Background

Sierra Leone has transitioned from a post complex emergency situation to the development phase. To build a protective environment for children, the country is moving away from the post emergency modus of project implementation for specific groups of children towards a more sustainable systems approach in child protection. Findings from several research studies conducted on the child protection system in Sierra Leone, indicate that many of the current approaches, laws and guidelines influencing child protection work have been shown to have limited impact or have met challenges in meeting the needs of the local context.

Key weaknesses identified by a number of research studies include:

·  gaps between the formal and informal systems;

·  problems with the relevance of a legal and regulatory framework adapted from the British model to the local context;

·  lack of co-ordination between child protection actors and service providers:

·  Lack of attention given to prevention and a tendency to respond using narrow issue based approaches that fail to addresses the complexity and multi-dimensional nature of child protection concerns.

·  Lack of accountability on the part of many actors involved in child protection.

As first step towards strengthening the child protection system in Sierra Leone, UNICEF supported the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs (MSWGCA) develop a Child Welfare Policy to support the strengthening of child protection system. This Child Welfare Policy represents a significant shift in how child protection is approached in Sierra Leone. The policy aims to prevent and respond to protection concerns by providing more effective support to families and communities through a sustained systems approach. The completion of this policy demonstrates the on-going commitment and willingness of the Government to adapt to the changing needs of communities, families and children and is also part of the PRSP (Agenda for Prosperity), as well as the MSWGCA five years strategic plan of 2012.

2.  Purpose and Rationale

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs (MSWGCA) to undertake a human resource capacity gap analysis. Specifically it aims to review the roles and responsibilities of the Ministry staff, including social workers, probation officers and Local Councils’ staff at national, regional and district levels to ascertain the capacity gaps that hinder the fulfillment of their obligations towards children.

3.  The scope and focus

The analysis will focus on the capacity of the MSWGCA to manage the following functions:

1.  Oversight and coordination responsibilities for the implementation of the National Child Welfare Policy, the Child Rights Act and other related laws and policies as multisectorial approach with linkages within the Ministries Directorates, Agencies, as well as Local Councils, private and civil society organizations.

2.  Social grants relating to children.

3.  The Child Protection Committee (CP-COM) at national, regional and district levels- functioning and input.

4.  Establishment and strengthening of community driven initiatives (such as the Child Welfare Committees) that reach the unmet right of vulnerable children in hard-to-reach communities.

5.  Monitoring and evaluation capacities and requirements, including data base on child right violations cases.

Specific tasks

a.  Identify number of staff by category, evaluate their skills level, and resources available;

b.  Ascertain current and optimal workload of staff to meet national, regional and district level responsibilities, and the National Strategic Plan of the MSWGCA 2012, the Child Justice Strategy, the Child Welfare Policy and other related policies.

c.  Estimate demand and projected demand for services with increasing number of vulnerable children and expected increase in maintenance and foster care support and other children in alternative care as well.

d.  Identify staffing, skills and equipment resource gaps at national, regional and district levels to meet demand for services;

e.  Ascertain how job descriptions should be revised and developed in national, regional and district staffing organogram based on the current Child Welfare Policy;

f.  Make practical recommendations to decentralize services from national to regional and district levels;

g.  Review MSWGCA budgets and calculate human and equipment resource gaps to address staffing and skills gaps;

h.  Finalise recommendations to meet gaps in consultation with MSWGCA, and workplan to address the gaps.

4.  Stakeholder participation

The Technical Working Group (TWG) will be reinstituted to provide support and guidance to ensure the achievement of the objectives in the contract are met. The TOR of the current TWG will be reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Social Welfare and its development partners.

5.  Accountability

The Director of Children’s Affairs in the MSWGCA will be the direct supervisor of the consultant working through the TWG. UNICEF will work closely with the Ministry and the consultant to provide regular feedback to CP-COM and UNICEF. UNICEF will provide technical guidance and support to the consultant in collaboration with the MSWGCA and will approve the intermediate and final product.

6.  Process Description

STEP ONE: ESTABLISH PARTNERSHIP WITH GOVERNMENT AND NGO STAKEHOLDERS IN CHILD PROTECTION

a.  Identify specific people in various departments of the MSWGCA and other ministries who will participate in the gap analysis assessment.

b.  Begin communications regarding the objectives of the assessment, clarification of expectations, process to be followed, and the way forward;

c.  Identify Child Welfare Policy implementation development plans/Human Resources expert with country specific information, and an in depth knowledge of government salary scales, job descriptions and staff development plans;

STEP TWO: CONDUCT DESK REVIEW TO OBTAIN BACKGROUND INFORMATION

a.  Review the Ministry’s Strategic Plan of Action, Child Welfare Policy, Child Justice Strategy, national referral protocol, Monitoring and Evaluation framework and other relevant assessments, reports and documents.

b.  Review existing staffing structure and job descriptions of all the directorates in the MSWGCA, and how they link with each other.

STEP THREE: PLANNING AND LOGISTICS ARRANGEMNTS, AND FINALISATION OF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

a.  Finalise self-assessment questionnaires for the national, regional and district context.

b.  Workout detailed logical framework of activities and budget breakdown for capacity gap analysis

c.  Develop rough format for final report

STEP FOUR: NATIONAL LEVEL INTERVIEWS

a.  Make logistical arrangements for interviews with national level individuals;

b.  Develop interview list approved by TWG team;

c.  Interview selected individuals at the national level;

d.  Compile and analyze information; adapt process and tools, as appropriate, based on the information received, and prepare report analysis on national gaps, and plan for regional visits.

STEP FIVE: NATIONAL LEVEL CONSULTATIONS ON EXPECTED SERVICE PROVISIONS FOR CHILD WELFARE POLICY AND HR ISSUES;

a.  To further commitment and buy-in and to maximize time and logistical resources, invite Child Protection stakeholders to a one-day meeting;

b.  Facilitate the meeting for maximum participation which will allow the team to use the general forum to conduct a survey of the current HR situation related to child welfare, identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as verify the process for data collection and make adjustments if necessary.

c.  Present findings from national consultations and plan for regional visits, and provide opportunity for feedback on national level consultations.

STEP SIX: ARRANGE LOGISTICS FOR CONDUCTING REGIONAL AND CONSTITUENCY LEVEL INTERVIEWS

a.  Select sites with assistance from the MSWGCA, TWG, UNICEF and other stakeholders. Select districts from among areas in the country with strong child protection structures/services and areas considered to have weak structures/services for implementation.

STEP SEVEN: CONDUCT INTERVIEWS WITH REGIONAL AND district INDIVIDUALS

a.  select individuals at the regional and district level using developed questionnaires. Interview key MSWGCA, Local Council staff including social workers, Family Support Unit, Chiefs, etc.

STEP EIGHT: ANALYZE DATA FROM INTERVIEWS

a.  Compile and analyze information from the stakeholder meeting, all the interviews, as well as from reviewed documents.

b.  Prepare a user-friendly presentation to share preliminary data with the MSWGCA, UNICEF, TWG, other development partners, other line ministries, and other stakeholders involved in child protection.

STEP NINE: SHARE INFORMATION WITH RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS

a.  Hold a meeting with the MSWGCA, UNICEF, TWG, CP-COM and other stakeholders preliminary information and recommendations from the assessment.

b.  Finalize the gap assessment report and disseminate according to agreements reached.

7.  Terms and Conditions

1.  The consultancy will take approximately 65 working days over a period of 3 - 5 months.

2.  MSWGCA to appoint senior Ministry focal person to guide and support process.

3.  Submission to include cover letter, CV, and 1-2 examples of previous work.

4.  Submissions for to include proposed working schedule, budget, breakdown of consulting fees, living and logistics costs and flight tickets (economy) where appropriate.

5.  Funding is available under IR 3.1 using non-grant resources

8.  Qualifications

Institution/ Consultancy firm:

·  with proven capacity in undertaking Organisational capacity gap analysis;

·  ability to work with various stakeholders like high ministry officials, donors and grass root organisations;

·  strong communication capacity in written and spoken English

·  strong capacity in facilitating meetings with various stakeholders with different levels of capacity

9.  Timeframe

Start of consultancy: March 2014, the duration of the consultancy will be for approximatey 60 days, starting as soon as possible.

10.  Terms of payment

·  Payment will be done on deliverables (25% for each deliverable).

·  International return travel from the consultant’s home country to Freetown (economy class), time for work outside country, and return to Freetown for finalisation/validation

·  DSA for travel in country.

·  Transport costs to and from the airport.

11.  Deliverables

·  Work schedule breakdown including time in and out of country

·  Detailed Methodology and schedule of visits;

·  Report on key mandate of MSWGCA, current capacities, and identified gaps looking at national priorities and stragies, existing coordination, structure, staffing and training, resources and available knowledge.

·  Approved framework for layout of HR Capacity Gap Analysis

·  Validation meeting with key stakeholders (including Powerpoint)

·  Final capacity gap analysis, costed implementation plan and M & E framework

12.  Source of funding

Non-grant funding

13.  Technical criteria and Relative Points for Evaluation of Submissions

Technical Criteria / Technical Sub-Criteria / Maximum Points
Overall Response / Completeness of Response
Overall concord between request for proposal requirements and proposal / 10
10
Maximum Points / 20
Company and Key Personnel / Range and depth of experience with similar projects
Number of customers, size of project, number of staff per project
Client references
Key Personnel: relevant experience and qualifications / 10
5
5
10
Maximum Points / 30
Proposed methodology and Approach / Project Management, monitoring and quality assurance process
Technologies used, and compatibility with UNICEF / 10
10
Maximum Points / 20
Total Maximum / 70

Prepared by: Mohamed Sannoh, Systems Consultant Date:

Through: Matthew Dalling, Chief Child Protection

Gopal Sharma, Deputy Representative

Approved by: Roeland Monasch, UNICEF Representative

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