CONSULTANT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARD COUNSELING & TRAINING

Duty Station: Dhaka, Bangladesh (with field visits)

Contract Duration: 06 Months

Number of Vacancies: 1(One)

Contract Type: Contract with E-ZONE.

Contract Start Date: 15 November, 2023

Reporting to: Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) Specialist, SBC Section, UNICEF Dhaka

A. Background and rationale

There are approximately 34.3 million adolescents (17.6 million males and 16.8 million females) in the 10- 19 years age group in Bangladesh. Constituting close to 20 percent of the population, this group holds a significant potential to accelerate the country’s growth and development as every year, an additional two million young people come to an age, to join the workforce. The youth employment profile suggests a strong outward migration from agriculture into industries, services, and international migration, with the average earnings of young people substantially lower than for adults and a large majority ending up in non- formal employment. Accelerating the results in advancing the rights of adolescents and youth in Bangladesh continues to be hampered by lack of knowledge, belief system, and inequitable access to information and essential basic services. The key deprivations of children and adolescents are also affected due to hindrances and underlying challenges of beliefs, attitudes, and entrenched social norms that strongly influence behavioural practices which need to be addressed through creating an enabling environment and improving the response mechanism.

Bangladesh successfully moved from a low-income country (LIC) to a lower-middle-income country (LMIC) in 2015 and met the United Nations criteria1 to graduate out of the least developed countries (LDC) in 2018. Bangladesh has made impressive progress in advancing child rights over many decades.

Improvements include a decline in under-five mortality, a reduction in childhood stunting, an increase in attendance in primary and secondary schools, an increase in birth registration, and an increase in access to safe drinking water and toilets. Bangladesh’s continued commitment to children is evidenced in the Eighth Five-Year Plan in which the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals also forms an important part.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been closed for more than one year, affecting more than 40 million children, adolescents, and young people. As of mid-September 2021, following more than 18 months of closure, schools across Bangladesh reopened. The longer children are out-of-school, the higher the risk that they will drop out, which negatively impacted the lives and opportunities of children, depriving them of their rights and undermining human capital development in the country.2 The most disadvantaged will pay the highest price as they will be least able to continue learning. In addition, over 2.7 million beneficiaries of school feeding programmes will miss important nutrition intake, increasing their chance of malnutrition.3 For children with disabilities, the pandemic is devastating given their greater likelihood of having an underlying health condition and exclusion from distance learning programmes. It is estimated that around 20 percent of children from primary education are at risk of severe learning loss that may trigger dropout and repetition

Girls’ education is significantly affected by the COVID-19 as girls are likely to do more household work and are at higher risk of being subjected to violence, sexual exploitation, and abuse, without access to any psychosocial support. The plan of GoB to enroll one million out-of-school children in non-formal education has been delayed, while 800,000 boys and girls been enrolled in the non-formal education programmes of GO & NGO, and learners in skills and adult literacy programmes, are at-risk of never re-enrolling. UNICEF Bangladesh is therefore, supporting to plan and implement a project name “Empowering Out of school adolescent girls and young women with market-driven occupational skills, transferable skills, and job placements” in 8 districts. Implementing agencies collected information to identify and profile out-of- school children per location, set targets, manage data/information for effective implementation, and track progress to measure results according to specific indicators within the results framework.

The Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) section of UNICEF plays a significant role to engage youth and adolescents, enhance their capacity, to motivate them to adopt positive behaviour and practices, create demand for services, and to undertake context-specific interventions for greater results. A baseline study is being implemented to know the Knowledge Attitudes, Practices and Beliefs of adolescents/young people and key stakeholders4 about the getting education, alternative learning opportunities, skill development and job opportunities of adolescent girls within age range of 15 to 24 years. The insights will also unpack the behavioural drivers of the adolescents and key stakeholders related to life skills and alternative learning skills for job opportunities for adolescents including those disabilities and who are living in any other difficult condition. Followed by the baseline SBC and counseling packages will be developed to address the behavioural drivers and motivate key stakeholders. Therefore, Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) section intends to hire an experienced technical expert/ consultant to develop a standardized Counseling Training Package/ module on the life skills issues including alternative career pathways for adolescent particularly girls from marginalized communities and to conduct ToT for implementing agencies.

B. Purpose Objectives and expected results

This project ‘Empowering Out of School Adolescent Girls and Young Women with Market Driven Occupational Skills, Transferable Skills and Job Placements’ is being implemented by CSO and NGO partners in selected districts and catchment areas. The implementing agencies are supporting to create an enabling environment and enhance optimal enrolment of adolescents/young people in the intended services, and to improve their participation in the trainings and skill building opportunities. This project also intends to enhance the interpersonal and life skills of adolescent girls, and it is expected that trained and skilled providers will be counselling adolescents and young people on the life skills issues and different career opportunities pathways, and how the young people can enroll/access the project services and to seek support.

The purpose of this assignment is to develop a standardized Counseling Training Package/ module on the life skills and alternative career pathways for adolescents particularly girls from marginalized communities. This counselling package has to be developed based on the desk review of the existing packages and the evidence generated on the Knowledge Attitude, Practice and Beliefs (KAPB) issues that are influencing the behaiours of young people, their caregivers and key stakeholders.

The specific objective and the expected results of this assignment is therefore:

• To conduct a desk review, analyse gaps and develop the draft Training Package based on the existing counselling packages/module on the life skill and career pathways issues for adolescents and young people
• Conduct field testing of the Package and finalisation of the standardised counselling training Package/ module for out of school adolescents/ young people covering life skill issues including alternative career paths
• Conduct Training of Trainers (ToT) for implementing partners to build capacity of core trainers thus they can cascade the training for capacity building of the counsellors

The key deliverables of the assignment are given below, and there might be a modification based on the research findings and desk review.

• Inception Report including approach note on the understanding of the assignment, modalities and key steps of implementation and action plan with timeline
• Desk review Report based on Rapid Assessment findings and Mapping of existing resource documents/modules; i.e. training packages or counselling module on life skills and ALP or career opportunities for adolescents
• Draft Counselling Training Package/ module on life skills and ALP issues/contents
• Field testing approach note, tools (Pre and post test of participants during field testing training to track the output of the training) and utilisation guide of the module, and field testing report
• Finalised Counselling Training Package/ module on life skills and ALP related contents
• Final Completion report

E. Consultancy Cost:

• The consultant will get remuneration of 300,000 BDT (maximum) per month as a consolidated package based on deliverables and experience.
• The consultants required to travel outside to the duty station, prior approval will be required, then travel costs and DSA will be provided at 25,000 taka/monthly.

F. Qualification requirement of the company/institution/organization

• The Consultant should have 10 years or more experience in developing training courses/module and conducting capacity building training for government and NGO partners.
• Understanding and experience of social and behaviour change programming, adolescent development and empowerment, community engagement (CE) interventions.
• Experience in applying participatory training methods, life skill training and capacity building for adolescents and young people.
• The consultant should have skills of working as training facilitators who have at least 5 to 10 years of experience in training facilitation for high level government and NGO partners, good understanding on Social and Behaviour Change (SBC), and communication skills.
• Experience of working with UN agencies and INGOs
• Strong analytical and report writing skills both in English and Bangla
• Must be able to work/operate legally in Bangladesh

G.Administrative Issues:

• The consultants will report to the SBC Specialist, UNICEF and submit the deliverables outlined under-reporting requirement.
• For payment by E-Zone on due time, the Supervisor will forward the certified attendance sheet and confirmation of receiving expected deliverables for the respective period.
• Consultant will be responsible to pay all taxes as per government rules and regulations.

This position is open for Bangladeshi Nationals only. All candidates, irrespective of gender, religious and ethnic backgrounds can apply for the vacancies.

The UN Agency prides itself as fostering a multicultural and harmonious work environment, guaranteed by a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected consultants will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Candidates with the required profile and proven experience, who meet these qualifications, are invited to submit their application in English clearly mentioning the Job Title along with a meaningful cover letter, updated CV, recent PP size photographby email to:

jobs.un@e-zonebd.com

Last Date of Application: November  08,  2023

No phone calls please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. All applications will be treated according to the merit and with strict confidentiality.

C. Description of the Assignment

The Consultant is expected to develop a standardized Counseling Training Package/ module on the life skills issues including alternative learning pathways (ALP) for adolescent particularly girls from marginalized communities. The detailed scope of work and the deliverables been mentioned below:

Scope of Work under the assignment: Key Tasks and deliverables

The consultant will report to SBC section and has to closely work with both SBC and Education team to ensure the quality of the contents of the training package, field testing and finalisation. The person is also expected to collaborate with implementing NGOs/ CSOs to gather existing modules, to field test and to finalization of the