National Consultant for Technical Support to Develop Early Warning Systems in Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria (Remote)-5 months

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. 

For every child, an advocate

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children’s rights in partnership with the government, civil society, children, and families.  UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally – click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria: https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/

How can you make a difference? 

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Approximately one in two children in Nigeria is below the age of 15, and the country has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. However, 10.2 million children are out of school at the primary level and 8.1 million are out of school at the junior secondary level, with the majority of these children being from northern zones. While a convergence of factors contributes to these challenges, from inadequate investment in education to insufficient infrastructure and poor learning outcomes, these are exacerbated by continued risks to children’s safety. Attacks on education were first officially reported in 2014 when 276 girl children were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno state followed by other similar attacks localized within the northeast. An increase in school-targeted abductions of learners and teachers from 2020 until now, paired with the spreading of attacks and abductions to most other zones, leaves families wary to send their children to school.

In addition to safety concerns, schools are also vulnerable to the increasing and increasingly frequent impacts of climate change. Nigeria scores 8.5, among the highest countries globally, on the Children’s Climate Risk Index, meaning that they are exposed to and highly vulnerable to climate and environmental shocks. In Nigeria, these manifest as wildfires and extreme heat across the country, wind erosion, deforestation, drought and desertification in the North and flash and seasonal flooding especially in the South and some northern states.

The education system must be able to provide all children a conducive environment for learning, which means that they must have the systems and capacity in place to identify, communicate and respond to risks in order to prevent or minimize—to the greatest extent possible—any harm which could befall to children, teachers and the surrounding community. According to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, such systems, known as early warning systems (EWS), are critical for enhancing disaster preparedness and effective responses and minimizing harm. Nigeria’s education system similarly recognizes their importance for the operationalization of the country’s Minimum Standards for Safe Schools, calling for mechanisms that enable cooperation between school personnel and local authorities to identify and communicate signs of emerging hazards and enhance disaster risk management.

UNICEF is providing ongoing support to government and communities to improve the safety and security of school environment for learning for all children, through crisis responsive plan, coordinated response, budgetary provisions, systemic capacity, and sensitization. A key priority for the school, local and state level is the establishment of mechanisms and channels for early warning to strengthen communication and cooperation among local and school stakeholders, including Education in Emergencies actors, school-based management committees (SBMCs), local leaders, and community councils, and others.

UNICEF Nigeria Education Section has begun supporting school-level actors to train them on localized early warning systems and, at the same time, has conducted a desk review of existing global guidance on early warning systems, along with a preliminary identification of risk indicators. UNICEF is now seeking the support of an individual consultant, based in Nigeria, to work closely with field offices, state and local authorities, school- and community-level actors, and other relevant stakeholders to develop, test, and refine functioning early warning systems that address multiple types of hazards. The goal of this activity is to support the state and school level to have a system in place for risk identification, monitoring of how those risks change overtime, warning communication, and response/mitigation measures.

Scope of Work:

To achieve the above, this consultancy will:

Work closely with national and state-level networks, including the Education in Emergencies Working Group (EiEWG) and the state safe school steering committees, along with community groups, to conduct hazard mapping and prioritization.

Develop, in consultation with these actors, a list of indicators/warning signs indicative of the identified risk factors, and a tool to be used by schools, communities, and states to monitor risks and trends over time.

Support the states and communities to establish methods for regularly using the tool to collect and analyze information and funnel it to the necessary responsible agencies and actors.

Work with SBMCs, head teachers, local education authorities, SUBEBs, the EiEWG, and others to map the available communication, mitigation, and response measures and develop a clear process for enacting them. This will include identifying how information from the monitoring tool will be funneled to the necessary responsible agencies and actors, as well as clearly outlining which actions the various departments, agencies, and offices (e.g., Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, police, etc.) are responsible for taking, in which cases, and how.

Identify any gaps in the available response capability and support states to develop plans to fill them.

Develop a set of action-oriented messages for SMS, Whatsapp, radio, and other channels that clearly communicate to local stakeholders (e.g., school and community members) the risk that has been identified and instructions on how to protect lives and assets.

Conduct field visits, observation of emergency drills, and focus group discussions at the school, LEA, and state levels to pilot test and collect feedback on the monitoring tools, communication channels and response mechanisms, with particular attention to effectiveness, timeliness, disability and gender inclusiveness and local relevance.

Draft a report of the findings, present the findings to the local and state level teams and support them to devise and enact a plan to fill any remaining gaps for full operationalization of the early warning system.

Document the above process into a guide book with clear steps, lessons learned, tools and templates for replicating/establishing early warning systems in other states and communities.

* Please note: all raw materials, documents and products developed in relation to this assignment will be considered property of UNICEF. Nothing is to be presented, published or shared without the prior written consent of UNICEF Nigeria, specifically the Chief of Education.

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

• A first degree in Education, disaster management, emergency response, child protection, or other related field is required.  
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in any of the above-mentioned disciplines.
• Experience in participatory processes and community stakeholder engagement.
• Experience in establishing early warning systems, school safety and security issues, community communication mechanisms or other systems related to emergency management.
• Demonstrated comfort and experience working with school and local stakeholders as well as government officials.
• Extensive knowledge of culturally relevant communication in Nigeria, especially in northern Nigeria. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English. 

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

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

 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 for ensuring 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.