The Education Section, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office is seeking an individual consultant to provide support in activities relating to gender equality and Early Childhood Development (ECD) and some documentation tasks.

• Gender Equality: support to countries leading research and programs on School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV), and assist coordination of two UNGEI working groups on SRGBV and Marginalisation.
• ECD: support ongoing workplans for the ARNEC ECD and Peacebuilding working group;
• Additionally, drafting donor reports and other key documents as well as support the Regional Education Network Meeting.

Work Assignment:

This assignment will focus primarily on three areas of Education: Gender Equality, Early Childhood Development and documentation and drafting support for donor reports and other key documents for the Education team.

On Gender equality, the assignment will involve supporting efforts to strengthen capacity in gender equality in education at both regional and national levels. Regionally, this will entail support to coordination of two working groups that have been launched by the EAP UNGEI network, one on SRGBV and the other on Marginalization. Tasks will focus on continued strengthening of partnerships, working closely with UNGEI partners and monitoring workplans for the groups. SRGBV will be a significant focus area for UNICEF and UNGEI in 2015 and continued technical support for documentation of knowledge and programming related to good practices for SRGBV in participating EAPRO countries will be needed. The assignment also includes follow ups on a recently held Regional Gender Forum. At the national level, in 2015, UNICEF with and through the UNGEI partnership will be working to build gender capacity in many countries including PNG and Myanmar, and support and assistance with coordination and data analysis for these two countries and other countries will be needed.

ECD work will involve providing continued support to the coordination of the ARNEC ECD and Peacebuilding Working Group. The assignment will also involve providing support to the monitoring and strengthening of joint collaborative activities with ARNEC.

Other responsibilities include providing coordination support to the Regional Education Network Meeting to be held in 2015, and to provide drafting, editing and proofreading support to donor reports and other Education related documents and knowledge products, in collaboration with the KM Officer in the team.

The percentage of time needed to support these tasks are as follows:

Gender Equality: 40%

ECD: 40%

Other tasks: 20%

End Product:

Payment will be made against submission of satisfactory deliverables.

• September 2014 Inception Report and Work Schedule Outline
• October 2014 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC), Organisation of relevant UNGEI Meetings and WG Side meetings and Attendance at the EAP ECD Scales workshop in Bangkok.
• November 2014 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), participation in preparatory calls and meetings for ARNEC Conference
• December 2014 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), Coordination of ARNEC Side Meeting on ECD and PB, Trip report from participation in ARNEC conference and Draft outlines for donor reports
• January 2015 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), Drafts of donor reports , Participation in planning meetings for Education network meeting, and Organisation of relevant WG side meetings
• February 2015 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), Completion of donor reports , Status update and Engagement in preparations for the Education network meeting
• March 2015 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), Support for the Education Network meeting; rapporteuring as needed and Brief report from the Education Network Meeting
• April 2015 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs), Support for UNGEI GAC reporting and Follow ups from the Education Network Meeting.
• May-August 2015 Status Update on WG coordination and support for UNGEI and ECD (including partnership with ARNEC and support for EAPRO CCWGs) and Support preparations for ECCE Forum in Malaysia
• August 2015 Final Consultancy report outlining key recommendations for UNGEI and ECD WGs

Estimated Duration of Contract: September 2014 – August 2015 

Official Travel:

The consultant will work in UNICEF premises. Travel may be planned to support coordination and analyses in the areas mentioned above: Gender equality and equity, ECD, and donor reports, in 4-5 countries in the region. At this point, travel is foreseen for Philippines, Singapore, Lao, Myanmar and Indonesia during the period of the contract. Travel to other countries may be added when needed. Possible travel to Port Moresby and other provinces in PNG.

• University degree in social sciences with relevant work experience
• Minimum 3 years relevant professional experience, ideally in education and development coordination and communications
• Previous experience working with inter-agency and cross-sectoral networks; especially in the fields of Gender and/or Early Childhood Development, Peacebuilding/Conflict Analysis or related fields
• Excellent inter-personal skills and previous experience communicating with partners at different levels
• Demonstrated ability in work planning and report preparation
• Demonstrable skills in professional high quality writing in English
• Native English speaker or equivalent fluency and accuracy
• Experience working in the East Asia Pacific region desirable
• Familiarity with the UNGEI network desirable
• Experience working for a United Nations organisation an asset

Interested candidates are requested to submit CV or P-11, full contact information of minimum 2 references, availability, proposed monthly professional fee, and all-inclusive travel cost (a return economy class ticket plus other incidentals) to/from Bangkok in USD, if applicable, by 21 September 2014 to < hrbangkok@unicef.org >.

----------------- Only short listed candidates will be notified. -----------------