Ghana: National Individual Consultant - Develop a Strategic Plan for the Department of Community Development

Organization: UN Children's Fund
Country: Ghana
Closing date: 06 Apr 2017

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. 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, foundations and governments.

Purpose of the Assignment

The Department of Community Development (DCD) was established in 1948 through an Administrative regulation 28 (1942) and was called the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development. In 1980, the Department was separated from Social Welfare by a Presidential directive. It is a key decentralized department under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). The vision of the department is to empower communities to be functional and vibrant, working together for their own development. The DCD's mission is to promote and ensure improvement in the living standards of people in the rural areas and disadvantaged sections of the urban communities through their own initiatives and their active participation in a decentralized system of administration.

In line with its mandate, the Department of Community Development performs the following functions:

To provide Technical and Vocational Education and training to the youth to create wealth, reduce poverty and lessen rural-urban migration of the youth;

Providing Community education and mobilization;

Providing employable and sustainable skills to the youth;

Training local artisans for community initiative projects;

Training rural vulnerable women in entrepreneurial and Home Management Skills.

2.To facilitate the development of Community Development policies and strategies;

Assisting Communities to undertake self-help initiated development projects.

To set standards and targets in Community Development fieldwork and Technical & Vocational Education & Training (TVET).

To support development communication in behaviour and social change;

Training change agents for rural development;

Supporting extension services to Government and non-Governmental organizations; and

Conducting mass education campaigns,

To monitor and evaluate Community Development work and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)

In line with its mandate therefore, the Child and Family welfare policy approved by cabinet in 2014 ascribed to the Department of community Development the responsibility to implement behavior and social change as a key component of the child protection systems strengthening. Thus, the DCD with offices at the regional and district levels are the lead agency responsible for social mobilization of the communities to be engaged for social and behavior change using the child protection community engagement tools such as the Child Protection Toolkit.[1] The department carries out its activities in partnership with other Government and Non-Governmental Organisations.

With the inclusion of the new mandate to lead in behavior and social change for child protection, the Department will use as a leverage for development and therefore child protection will be the entry point into communities. Thus, with the changing development dynamics, the department of community development intends to develop a strategic plan that will help provide the needed framework for the organisation to deliver their various programmes within their mandate. This includes their role to deliver on the behavior and social change for child protection programme. The department has not had a strategic plan since 1951 and currently pursues its organizational objectives within the broad MLGRD Sector Medium Term Development Plan (SMTDP) 2014 – 2017) which does not provide the specific guidance to the department in terms of their result areas. The department has therefore requested the support of UNICEF to develop a strategic plan.

Methodology

The processes leading to the development of the strategic plan is to be consultative, collaborative and participatory with opportunity given to relevant stakeholders to make inputs into the process at any given stage. This is because, there are also several key stakeholders; both Government and non-Governmental organizations as well as civil society organizations who play or are expected to play specific roles in support of the work of the department of community development. The process should take into account, relevant legal and policy documents related to the Department of Community Development. These include the recently approved Child protection policies; Child and family welfare and Justice for Children, the sustainable development goals and the national development framework but not limited to only these documents. The strategic plan should also draw from the lessons learnt from previous strategic plans if available and the consultant would do well in reviewing other strategic plans from other countries and learn from models that have worked elsewhere. The process will be led by the consultant who will use the inputs of stakeholders to develop the required materials.

The coordination work for the development of the strategic plan will be undertaken by the Department of Community Development.

Assignment Tasks

Undertake a situation analysis of the Department including a desk review of other assessments and gap analysis possibly undertaken in previous years or through key informant discussions, other relevant documents relating to the department and submit an inception report. The report will include a brief of the analysis undertaken of the department, an overview of proposed methodology in the TOR and a detailed work plan to implement the assignment. The inception report should also indicate proposed approach to developing the strategic plan including a proposed outline of the strategic plan.

The expert will facilitate consultative meetings and workshops with the stakeholders/actors to build consensus and to ensure effective and efficient collaboration with the Department of Community Development. A minimum of two national consultative meetings/workshops are expected. These are required to be held in different locations of the country (yet to be determined but probably one in the Northern sector and the other in the South) to ensure the participation of sub national level stakeholders across the country. Bilateral discussions with some key agencies and individuals is encouraged. The consultation should aim to identify key result areas as per the mandate of the Department, develop strategic outcomes and objectives. Other relevant components of the strategic plan include but not limited to a strategy for achieving the strategic objectives and key results, a results and resources framework for the plan period and a monitoring and evaluation framework for monitoring progress of implementation

Based on the inputs received from the stakeholder consultations, the consultant will prepare and present a first draft of the strategic plan to the management of the Department of Community Development and UNICEF for inputs/comments. The comments/inputs received will be used to review the draft strategic plan in readiness for validation

Facilitate a maximum of two validation workshop with stakeholders who have contributed variously to the strategic plan for their final approval.

With inputs from these validation workshops, work to finalize the strategic plan for submission

The finalized Strategic Plan must include:

A comprehensive programme roadmap for the next five years presenting the programmatic direction, goal, strategies to be adopted in line with the mandate of the Department.

A results framework with an implementation plan to demonstrate the implementation process for this Strategic Plan and the key results to achieved.

A resource and financial framework showing the financial requirements, and overall budget required to implement the 5 Year Strategic Plan

A monitoring and evaluation framework for tracking progress

Expected Deliverables

Activities/Tasks

Deliverables

Timeframe

1) Prepare an inception report including a brief assessment of the Department from the desk review, overview of proposed methodology in the TOR, work plan for the assignment and a proposed outline of the strategic plan

Submit an inception report including a draft outline of the strategic plan and a detailed work plan for completing the assignment

3 weeks after signing the contract

2) Facilitate at least 2 National consultation meetings along with bilateral meetings

Submit a narrative report on the consultations held highlighting key emerging issues for the strategic plan

3 weeks after submission of the inception report

3) Present a draft of the strategic plan to UNICEF and Management of the Department of Community Development for inputs/comments

Submit draft strategic plan for review

4 weeks after submitting consultation report

4) Facilitate Validation Workshop(s) with stakeholders for the strategic plan

Submit a narrative report on the validations

3 weeks after presenting the draft strategic plan

5) Use their inputs to finalize strategic plan document

Submit a finalized strategic plan document

3 weeks after validation meeting(s) held

Total number of days

16 weeks

Payment Schedule

The consultant will be paid fees based on expected deliverables:

Deliverable 1: 20%

Deliverable 2&3: 40%

Deliverable 4: 20%

Deliverable 5: 20%

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Organizational reform and development, child protection or other relevant field;

Years of relevant experience

At least 8 years relevant work experience in similar assignments of developing strategic documents undertaken by the consultant

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Experience in programmes for capacity-building, training and organizational development and reform is expected.

Facilitation of high-level strategic planning processes involving a wide range of stakeholders (previous experience in working with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana is a strong asset)

Knowledge and experience in supporting strategic planning processes in public or private institutions;

Ability to draft clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in written and oral form;

Excellent communication and drafting skills in English, both orally and in writing.

Exceptional analytical capacity and ability to pay attention to details in reporting and writing.

Strong interpersonal skills.

Capacity to deliver quality results under pressing circumstances

The candidate should have proven competencies in the following areas:

Communication skills including writing, strong facilitation and advocacy skills

Team work

Leadership

Planning and Organizing

To view our competency framework, please click here.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in GHS) to undertake the terms of reference above.Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

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