Consultancy; Mapping and Capacity Gap Analysis of Social Service Workforce to Prevent... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Botswana

Summary : Consultancy; Mapping and Capacity Gap Analysis of Social Service Workforce to Prevent and Respond to Violence against Children

Deadline : 24 May 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 32909755

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND
Matsitama Road, Plot 27 Gaborone Fax: 3951233 Attn: Tuduetso Kelapile - Communication Officer Tel: 3951909 or 3952752 ext. 102
Botswana
Email :tkelapile@unicef.org
URL :http://www.unicef.org/

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Consultancy; Mapping and Capacity Gap Analysis of Social Service Workforce to Prevent and Respond to Violence against Children. Gaborone Botswana.

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.

Background and Justification

The "social service workforce" is broadly used as an inclusive term referring to a variety of workers (paid and unpaid, governmental and nongovernmental) that contribute to the care, support, promotion of rights, and empowerment of vulnerable populations served by the social service system. The social service workforce is dynamic and context-specific.

Around the world, vulnerable populations face innumerable challenges. Children and families suffer limited access to education, health care, or income. They can face displacement, trauma, and family separation. They are exploited, abused, neglected and are affected by violence in various forms. When individuals and families are not fully able to cope on their own, broader systems of support are often necessary. The people who staff these systems, social service workers, para social workers, community development workers and other frontline workers help to ensure that effective prevention and support services reach those who need it most. It is against this background that a strong social service system with a well planned, developed and supported social service workforce must be in place.

In Botswana, the Children's Act was enacted in 2009. The Act strategises promotion of physical, emotional, intellectual and social development and establishment of structures to provide for the care, support, protection and rehabiliation of children. Since its inception, significant efforts have been underway by the Department of Social Protection under the Ministry of Local Goverment and Rural Development to ensure that the social workers are on board, trained and skilled to coordinate their efforts to identify, respond and refer victims of violence. Most of the Child Protection structures as enshrined in the Act are in place but need further review and monitoring.

At the district level both the Child Protection and Social Protection systems rely upon the same cadre or workforce for implementation of services. Delivery of social assistance instruments such as cash transfers, livelihood support, psycho social support, case management and coordination with multiple stakeholders in large locations sometimes encompassing two to three villages rests on one social worker. Hence it poses a huge challenge on the part of this workforce to do justice to their expected role.

In short, although there is recognition that there are not nearly enough social workers to meet the growing needs of women and children affected by violence, poverty, or vulnerability, there is also a need for more clarity on the type of investment that must be made in the Social Service Workforce to achieve the role set for them and how their positions can be rationalised for optimum performance of their roles.

The Government of Botswana through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Department of Social Protection, with support from UNICEF, has agreed to initiate a mapping exercise to assess the capacity of the social service workforce to identify strengths and gaps, assist country-level action plans towards strengthening the skills of the workforce service delivery system and establish mechanisms for long term support.

In 2018, the Social Service Workforce Baseline Study was completed by the Botswana Country Office. As a next step forward, workforce mapping to create and analyze a baseline of information and data on the status of the social service workforce in Botswana to guide and assist country-level action plans to strengthen the social service workforce is imperative. The Social Worker's Toolkit was also drafted and is in the process of finalization by the Department of Social Protection with technical support from UNICEF. These documents will ultimately help to address the question of whether the current workforce system is adequate to address the needs of vulnerable children and families, and if not, will help identify approaches to fill in the gaps.

The proposed assignment requires a full time consultant, who will visit district locations, gather information, follow up with government and other partners for inputs and finalization of information and report.

Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist and in harmony with established global indicators of workforce strengthening, this assignment will:

§ Provide a basic overview of the context for workforce planning, including:

§ Relevant policies and regulations related to the social service workforce, including statutory frameworks

§ Financial and other resources currently dedicated to hiring, employing and training social service workers

§ The number of social service workers inclusive of frontline workers of other ministries, para social workers, community developments workers available per 100, 000 children, according to type (governmental and non-governmental) and vacancy rates where available

§ Certification, registration and/or licensing requirements and practices required for governmental and non-governmental social workers

§ Provide a basic overview of the context for workforce development and training, including:

§ Availability of different levels of education, training, and field placements/practice learning

§ Workers' perceptions of availability and accessibility of ongoing professional development opportunities

§ Provide an overview of the context for workforce support, including:

§ Workers' perceptions of challenges and opportunities, supervision and career paths

§ The presence, role, size and effectiveness of professional associations

§ Identify implications and recommendations for social service workforce strengthening to be integrated into national action plans.

§ Activities and Tasks

The purpose of this assignment is to support mapping and assessment of the social service workforce. A process will be undertaken to engage a Technical Working Group (TWG) at the national level under the leadership of the Department of Social Protection in developing the full scope of the process. The TWG will also hold meetings to discuss preliminary findings and recommendations for strengthening and advocating for the social service workforce. The Group will support the work of the consultant to facilitate information gathering and presentation from this process in a final report.

Under the supervision of Child Protection Specialist and support of the TWG, the consultant will be responsible for carrying out the following:

1.

1. Prepare data gathering plan including finalization of data gathering tools based on the feedback from the TWG

§

§ Present the draft mapping tools for review by TWG

§ Facilitate engagement of TWG members including representatives from key entities involved in planning, producing, accreditation of tools and trainers involved in capacity building of social workforce, managing, and supporting the country's social service workforce, for example relevant government institutions, civil society and non-profit organizations, universities, professional associations, bilaterals and multilaterals

§ Support TWG to host the first meeting, preparing presentations and information as required

§ Finalize mapping tools and data gathering plan based on TWG's feedback, identifying roles and responsibilities of TWG members in providing assistance with data gathering

§ Oversee and carry out data collection and data analysis

§

2. Support data collection as per the TWG plans, follow up discussions with key stakeholders as needed to fill in any gaps in data

§ Data cleaning and analysis, maintaining organized database to be shared with TWG

§ Review and refine preliminary data analysis, charts and tables as needed

§ Distribute draft data to the TWG prior to meeting to validate the data

§ Hold follow up meetings with Key Informants (KIs) and groups of social service workers to review and validate the data, also obtaining their initial ideas on recommendations for inclusion in the report

§ Support and facilitate TWG meetings to review preliminary country level data and identify recommendations for strengthening and advocating for a future workforce strengthening strategic framework or action plan

3.

3. Preparation of final workforce mapping report

§

§ Incorporate feedback into a first draft analysis report for review by TWG

§ Integrate feedback to prepare second draft of report for review by TWG

§ Finalize report for dissemination

§ Work with TWG on dissemination plan and identification of detailed next steps

The Consultant will primarily report to the Child Protection Specialist. All meetings, follow ups will be planned with the CP Specialist. Partners as part of the TWG will be consulted and followed up from time to time as may be agreed during the TWG meetings.

Deliverables

Duration

(Estimated # of days or months)

Timeline/Deadline

Schedule of payment

Result 1: Preparation of data gathering plan including finalization of data gathering tools based on TWG feedback

25 working days

End June

25% of the payment

Result 2: Completion of data collection and data analysis resulting in preparation of initial findings for review by TWG and a draft database

55 working days

Mid September

40% of the payment

Result 3: TWG m

Documents

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