Technical Assistance for Training of Trainers on Social Work and Child Protection, and Development of Selected Child Protection National Policies

UNICEF Viet Nam is looking for international consultant to provide Technical Assistance for Training of Trainers on Social Work and Child Protection, and Development of selected child protection national policies

1. Background
Over the last two decades, Vietnamese society has undergone radical economic, social and political changes. During this period, the standard of living of the Vietnamese people has generally improved, and significant progress has been made in combating poverty. However, economic growth has been uneven, and significant segments of the population have yet to benefit fully from economic development. As in many countries, the shift to a market economy has resulted in an increased gap in living standards, rapid urbanization, family break-ups, and the erosion of traditional values, all of which have contributed to increased number of abandoned, neglected, abused and exploited children.
Over the past years, the government of Vietnam has demonstrated its commitment to improve the legal and policy framework for child protection. A number of legal normative documents, programmes and other initiatives were developed to protect children from abuse and exploitation. However, the approach to date has been largely issue-specific and vertical in nature. In Vietnam, there is not yet a national strategy on child protection. The children issues have been tackled through the issue based policies and programs such as the National Program #19 to address the issue of street children, working children and sexually abused children or the Decision # 130 to respond to the issue of  women and children trafficking. The country does not yet have a comprehensive, integrated system for preventing and responding to all children in special circumstances, and there is not a comprehensive frame work for all aspects of child protection.
Social work is not recognized a profession in Vietnam that results in the insufficient social assistance for vulnerable people, especially children. There is a lack of trained social workers. Child protection work is provided largely by people who are trained in other disciplines rather than social work or untrained people. At local levels, the system relies heavily on untrained officers and volunteers who are not trained or paid by the Government.

In order to address the above challenges, the Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has in one hand developed a child protection strategy and a national target program for the period of 2010-2015 to provide comprehensive responses to the children issues and in another hand tries to strengthen the existing capacity of the system to provide child protection services.
The MOLISA has requested UNICEF to provide technical support for:
- Conducting two regional training courses on social work and child protection for key staff of MOLISA and DOLISA of all provinces
- Development of key national policies on child protection, including the Child Protection Strategy;  National Target Program on Child Protection 2011-2015; and Circular on Procedure and Interventions for Protection of Children in Cases of Child Abuses

The development of above documents will contribute to strengthening the legal framework and processes moving toward a more integrated, system-building approach for child protection. The enhanced capacity of child protection officers through the training and guideline provision will also increase professionally and effectively the responses to child protection issues.

2. Purposes and Objectives
The consultancy will provide technical support to MOLISA and UNICEF in strengthening the legal framework on child protection and increasing capacity of staff of MOLISA and DOLISA on of child protection in understanding and delivering child protection work. The consultancy has following special objectives:
- To conduct two training courses for about 130 MOLISA/DOLISA staff on child protection and social work.
- To support MOLISA in the development of the Child Protection Strategy, a National Target Program and the Circular on Procedure and Interventions on Cases of Child Abuses (referred shortly as Circular on Child Abuse Interventions) through providing technical recommendations and inputs to draft documents.

3. Methodology and technical approach
The international consultant will provide technical support to MOLISA through:
Conducting the two training courses on child protection and social work for MOLISA/DOLISA staff, including the compilation of the training materials.
Provision of technical recommendations and inputs on the outlines and for improving the drafts of the Child Protection Strategy, National Target Plan on Child Protection, and the Circular on Child Abuse Interventions.

4. Activities, Task, deliverables and timeframe

Activity 1: Conduct Training on Child Protection and Social Work

Task 1     Develop a 2-week training outlines and objectives; and compile training materials by reviewing existing materials and writing additional materials in close consultation with UNICEF and MOLISA (5 days at home).
Deliverable 1     Training outlines and objectives; and training materials developed and submitted to UNICEF and MOLISA.

Task 2: Conduct two training courses on child protection and social work (10 days in Hai Phong, and HCMC).

 Deliverable 2     About 130 people trained on basic knowledge and skills on child protection and social work.

Activity 2: Support for the development of Child Protection Strategy, National Target Program, and the Circular on Child Abuse Interventions:

Task 3 Provide technical inputs for development of the Child Protection Strategy, the National Target Program on Child protection and Circular on Child Abuse Interventions through reviewing, providing comments and technical inputs for improvement of the draft outlines and documents, including written comments and inputs and presenting at technical meeting with MOLISA, and other government counterparts (21 days with 12 days at home and 9 days in Ha noi).

Deliverable 3    Concrete comments and inputs provided for the improvement of the Child Protection Strategy, the National Target Program on Child Protection, and Circular on Child Abuse Interventions.

5. Qualifications and experience required:

The consultant should have the following qualifications to effectively carry out the proposed tasks:
Advanced academic qualification in child protection and social work;
Very good capacity in programming on the area of child protection, including the experience on development of child protection strategy and national plan of action;
Strong experience in child protection and social work education and development of training manuals;
Excellent knowledge and understandings on role and functions of social work and social work services the international context;
Good working experience and familiarity with UNICEF visions and programming on child protection;
Experience in working with the Governments. Previous experience working Vietnam is preferred;
Knowledge of the child protection situation in Viet Nam as preferable;
Excellent writing skills in English.

Interested candidates are kindly requested to submit the following information:
Letter of interest
Proposed budget and fees
CV/P-11 form

Please indicate the title of the assignment on the top left corner of the envelop or in the subject box of the email as “CP 05 – Technical Assistance for Training of Trainers”. Submission should be sent to the following address:

Chief of Operations
UNICEF Viet Nam
81 A Tran Quoc Toan, Ha Noi – Viet Nam

Or email: [email protected]

Closing date for receipt of proposals: 2 November 2009

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