Individual consultant to conduct a SitAn on Children living with Disabilities (Open to Nationals of Guyana only)

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Background/Context

The Government of Guyana and its partners are focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, within the context of the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030. Guyana’s real GDP growth in 2022 is 56 per cent. Guyana’s long-term development strategy -the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040, reflects principles of a ‘green agenda’ within safe and secure borders and highlights the need for resilient development for all. It is based on the delivery of quality social protection education and health care, new economic opportunities, justice, and political empowerment while protecting the environment. Guyana requires significant human capital development and institutional strengthening in all sectors.
The Social Protection and Inclusion Programme in Guyana aims at supporting the achievement of Government of Guyana’s priorities for children with disabilities, under the leadership of Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. It also supports the realization of UNICEF strategic goal area 5: Every child, including adolescents, has access to inclusive social protection and lives free from poverty; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). ; the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Article 4 & 261 and the sustainable Development Goal number 10 which calls for reducing inequalities in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status within a country. This SDG (10) supports the realisation of SDG 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8.
Persons with disabilities can be exposed to additional vulnerabilities and may have different needs to persons without disabilities. The 2002 National Population Census of Guyana recorded 48,419 persons, or about 6.4 percent of the total population, living with some form of disability. At the time of the census, approximately 88 percent of disabled persons were 15 years and over and the remainder below age 15 years. The Census also found that there were also slightly more females living with a disability as compared to males. A survey undertaken in five rural regions between 2016 and 2018 found physical/mobility disability to be the most prevalent category of disability, followed by visual/seeing disability, hearing/speech disability, and learning/cognitive disability.

These Terms of Reference are for a local individual Consultant to conduct a Situation Analysis (SitAn) on children living with disability in Guyana. This SitAn will utilize a rights-based, gender sensitive, equity-focused and risk informed approach and will provide an accurate understanding of the current situation of children living with disability in Guyana, which is critical to inform (primarily) national strategies for at-scale programming. Secondarily, this SitAn will also inform the mid-term review of the Government of Guyana-UNICEF Country Programme – 2022-2026 inter alia prioritizing and programming for children with disability. The Government of Guyana – MoHSSS is partnering with UNICEF to conduct this Situation Analysis on Children with disabilities.

Scope of Work

This Situation Analysis on Children with disabilities will be conducted in the 10 administrative regions of Guyana and will assess key issues affecting children with disabilities. It will examine inputs, achievements, and bottlenecks across all sectors, within the context of age-groups identifying those barriers that prevent children with disabilities from benefiting from interventions and services. By adopting a people-centred approach, the Situation Analysis is expected to identify some noticeable gaps in cross-fertilization between stakeholders that work with/for children with disabilities. Given the importance of gender roles and relations between girls and boys, such considerations will be incorporated as an analytical approach to highlight gender disparities. The scope of the SitAn is further defined below. The SitAn will:

1. Assess key issues affecting Guyana’s children with disabilities and the findings will inform relevant analyses and the preparation of position papers and other supplementary documents.

2. Examine internal or external economic and other shocks (conflict, natural hazards, climate, environment, etc.) affecting children with disabilities.

3. Inform strategic actions, to address inequities among children with disabilities.

The Situation Analysis on children with disabilities will consider, to the extent possible, the different types of disabilities and children in all settings) as it seeks to answer the following questions, among others:

• Which rights of children with disabilities are unfulfilled and why?
• Where are children with disabilities located?
• What forms of deprivation and exclusion do they face? What are the determining factors/bottlenecks and underlying causes that give rise to and perpetuate their exclusion?
• What are the immediate, underlying, and structural barriers and bottlenecks to children with disabilities accessing and utilizing basic social services and other critical resources and why?
• What risks (conflict, natural hazards, climate, environment, etc.) exist that are likely to affect the patterns of deprivation and exclusion of children with disabilities, exacerbate or create barriers and bottlenecks and why?
• What existing social, institutional, and political factors (e.g., social norms, institutional capacities at all levels of government, accountability and coordination mechanisms, policy, and legal frameworks) impede or could potentially support the creation of an enabling environment for the realization of the rights of children with disabilities?
• Have the ‘drivers’ of inequities that affect children with disabilities changed over time? If so, how has that been accomplished? If not, why not? Does the policy environment proactively address disparities and deprivations among children with disabilities through legislation, policies, and budgets? What gaps are there in policy response and implementation?
• What capacities exist at national, sub-national and community levels for children with disabilities to participate in analytical processes that examine the causes and consequences of shortfalls and inequities and to what extent are children with disabilities involved in such efforts and with what results?
• What programme interventions and resource mobilization and allocation options should be considered in the future, to address specific dimensions of inequity and pervasive vulnerabilities among children with disabilities?

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Desired

• Previous work experience with the United Nations System.
• Experiential knowledge of the Guyana context.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

   Terms of Reference SitAn on CWD.pdf

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. 

Remarks:  

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. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.