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UNICEF is the world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, ...
Background and Justification
The concept and practice of Social Protection as a tool and instrument for poverty reduction, economic growth and development has rapidly gained global popularity particularly in the last decade with many developing countries slowly embracing it as a strategy for fighting poverty and reducing vulnerability amongst their citizens. This has been evidenced by increased governments’ spending and investment in the sector which in turn has also had significant positive effects in socio-economic development and livelihood improvement of the communities.
The main objective of Social Protection is to help cushion the poor and vulnerable members of the society from the hard socio-economic ‘risks’ and ‘shocks’ and to being able to prevent them from falling deeper into poverty situation, while at the same time boosting their resilience to such shocks and risks through the provision of an income support or regular social transfers.
Kenya, like many other countries across the globe, has boldly embraced Social Protection in its bid to fight poverty and vulnerability amongst its citizens and as a way of promoting equity and social inclusion. The right to social security has been enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution (2010) and as thus stated in Article 43 (3) 1 (e) “Every person has a right to social security ……….. [And] the State shall provide appropriate social security to persons who are unable to support themselves and their dependents”. The creation of the State Department for Social Protection under the MEACL&SP in 2013 was a bold step to firmly establish the Social Protection sector in the country.
Social Protection in Kenya, according to the National Social Protection Policy (NSPP), has been undertaken through three main pillars of Social Assistance, Social Security and Health Insurance. This has also been undertaken by different agencies, both State and non-State actors across the different sectors of the Country. Prominent amongst these programmes are the four Cash Transfers (CTs), National Safety Net Programmes (NSNP) under the Social Assistance pillar.
The Social Protection Sector in Kenya has grown very rapidly especially after the introduction of the Cash Transfer programmes on 2004. This has not only been quantitatively in terms of increase in the number of beneficiaries and actors in the sector but also qualitatively in terms of knowledge, skills and capacity development. This is spurred by the fact that the Social Protection sector, at both local and global level, is very dynamic and prone to the development of new ideas and concepts that shape and continue influence the design and implementation of Social Protection interventions.
To keep in sync with these new developments and changing dimensions, the Government of Kenya (GOK) has invested heavily in training and capacity building of its staffs at both local and international levels for the efficient delivery of the Social Protection goals and objectives. This in return has created a pool of skilled Social Protection practitioners who are specialists in various aspects of Social Protection implementation such as Designing of SP programmes, MIS development, M & E, payments and targeting.
Despite all these achievements, we still witness weak linkages and low coordination across programmes and sectors with no formal and interactive platform in the Country that brings together these various skills and specialties and be able to proactively harness and tap into this wealth of knowledge; building synergy and mentorship to the newly emerging Social Protection practitioners, aggregating to a more robust, vibrant and efficient Social Protection system for the Country.
In view of the above therefore, the Government has set out to establish a Community of Practitioners (CoP) for the Social Protection actors in Kenya. The main objective of this organization will be to provide a forum for sharing of knowledge and skills, exchange of information, mentorship and sharing of best practices in Social Protection. This will help in enhancing coordination, building efficiency and visibility in the sector and of the programmes.
UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Kenya would like to engage the services of an experienced and competent Consultant to undertake the process.
Scope of Work
Goal and Objective
Under the supervision of the Social protection Specialist the objective of the consultancy is to support the Government in the establishment of an efficient and inclusive national Social Protection platform for the Social Protection practitioners herein referred to as “Community of Practitioners” (COP).
This consultancy will work closely with the Social Protection Secretariat to create a functionally comprehensive and dynamic platform that is not only responsive to the local environment and Country Social Protection needs but also accommodative to and interactive with the global niche in a self-sustaining manner.
RWPPCR/IRs areas covered
Assignment links with RWO outcome 6: By 2018, social protection mechanisms and systems for vulnerable children and adolescents are integrated, adequately resourced, coordinated and sustainable in regular and emergency situations, output 1: sources leveraged and strategies developed for a nationally owned, integrated social protection system linked to child vulnerability and UNDAF Outcome 2.4 Social Protection: By 2018 social protection policy and strategies ensure government’s effective leadership role, sustainability of achievement, and promotion of innovation and learning; and the social protection systems are adequately resourced, devolved, well-coordinated, effective, efficient and sustainable
Broad objectives of the assignment are;
Specifically, the consultant will perform the following activities/ tasks :
The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks:
Sustainability
The consultant will work closely with the Social Protection Secretariat to set up a coordination framework through the community of practise which is to strengthen dialogue and communication across the social protection sectors. The framework envisages to reduce fragmentations, gaps and strengthening learning and best practises.
The Social Protection Secretariat will continuously hold the coordination meetings with the stakeholders as stipulated in the guidelines the consultant will have developed
Design conditions and Work relationships
All the activities above shall be undertaken through a consultative process with the Social Protection actors in the Country
N.B.
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