A4 UNICEF Blue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TERMS OF REFERENCE for supporting Advocacy, Visibility and Communication aspects of the EU Child Guarantee Programme 1 in Croatia ................................................................................................................................................................... 1. BACKGROUND UNICEF Country Office for Croatia (hereinafter UNICEF) is starting the EU-funded program as a part of the wider EU initiative called “Testing the Child Guarantee with the Aim of Ending Child Poverty and Social Exclusion for all Children in Europe”. The overall aim of the “Child Guarantee” program is to ensure that every child in Europe at risk of poverty has access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition. The objective is to thereby ensure progressive realisation of children’s rights. Such improvements will also contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy target of reducing the number of people affected by poverty by at least 20 million by 2020. The programme intends to reach the following specific objectives: EU-wide CG Programme framework developed and verified, under concrete and controlled circumstances, including its added value and costs and its potential to reduce child poverty and social exclusion at scale. Models of best practices will be identified and analysed in terms of their contribution to reduce child poverty and social inclusion. The primary focus will be on access to education, healthcare, adequate nutrition, decent housing and childcare for the most vulnerable groups of children and their parents. The Action intends to reach two main results: 1) National policies effectively addressing child poverty and social exclusion in relation to the most vulnerable and excluded children and their parents are identified, analysed and included in the EU CG Programme proposal and the National Child Poverty and Social Exclusion Action Plans. 2) Innovative and evidence-based models of services and interventions addressing the needs of the four target groups in the four implementing countries are developed, implemented, monitored, evaluated and assessed for inclusion into national Child Poverty and Social Exclusion Action Plans and the EU Child Guarantee Programme. The Action will be implemented at three levels: EU Level – a systematic review will take place in the form of a desk review of key, publicly available national policy documents and statistics. The findings of the systematic review will be collated and subjected to a meta- analysis to identify variables at the national and policy level that are correlated with success in the reduction of child poverty and social exclusion. This meta-analysis will build on the work done in Phase 1 of the Child Guarantee Project and would be a direct input for consideration during the formulation of National Child Poverty and Social Exclusion Plans. National Level – the Action will support authorities and other stakeholders in the four implementation countries and three policy development countries to carry out a deep dive analysis and develop a clear, concise and prioritized strategies and action plan on reducing child poverty and social exclusion. Learning across countries will be promoted to improve the planning tool, and to agree on the best model(s). The agreed model(s) will be proposed to the European Commission as a framework that would help countries to express their child poverty reduction strategic priorities and could be used as the (or one of the) enabling conditions for Member States to access child guarantee funding. Local level – in the four implementation countries, UNICEF will support the design, testing, monitoring and evaluation of appropriate country-specific innovative interventions which are effective in bridging the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of children and their families to existing social policies and programmes and, thus, contributing to the decrease of child poverty and social exclusion. 1 “Testing the Child Guarantee with the Aim of Ending Child Poverty and Social Exclusion for all Children in Europe” 1 In Croatia, UNICEF is implementing a pilot programme “Fulfilling the Child Guarantee for the most vulnerable children in the Medjimurje County” from July 2020 to August 2022 in 7 pilot sites (Nedelišće-Parag, Pribislavec, Mala Subotica-Piškorovec, Orehovica, Kotoriba, Podturen, Grad Čakovec-Kuršanec). The overall objective of the Child Guarantee programme is to ensure that children have access to and benefit from integrated, multidisciplinary, adequately resourced community and family-based support services, pre- primary-education and early childhood intervention. Some of key programmatic activities include: opening of community centres for families and children, technical support in developing social services in Medjimurje County, workshops for families, education of experts, opening of Centres for play, education and engagement of facilitators, ensuring the transportation services for children, developing a plan for two-year pre-school education of Roma children, developing a plan for standardization of methodology of cost calculations for all public kindergartens, equipping a cabinet for inclusive pedagogy at Faculty of Teacher Education etc (more details will be shared with a selected Agency). ABOUT UNICEF UNICEF is committed to changing the world for children, striving to protect their rights, improve their health and nurture their development. UNICEF works with governments, civil society organizations, and other organizations around the world to advance children’s rights to survival, protection, health, development and participation and is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The task of UNICEF in Croatia is to ensure that each child gets the support it needs to reach its full potential. The goal of the five years’ partnership between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and UNICEF is to increase the quality of life for the most vulnerable children in Croatia. UNICEF uses systematic, planned and evidence-based Communication, Advocacy and Fundraising strategies to promote child rights, mobilize societies, enable citizen participation, influence norms and attitudes and support the behaviours of those who have an impact on the well-being of children, their families and communities, especially the most marginalized. Working in partnership with the Government, civil society organizations, private sector and other partners, UNICEF uses a mix of Communication approaches which consist of: • Behaviour Change Communication: use participatory communication techniques and tools, to inform, influence and involve individuals and opinion leaders in adopting new attitudes and/or behaviours • Communication for Social Change: engaging and empowering communities to positively influence and/or reinforce social norms and social practices • Social Mobilization: engaging wide network of partners/stakeholders (e.g. civil society – non- governmental organisations, youth groups, community-based organisations) around a common cause • Advocacy: amplifying voices of girls and boys from marginalized groups to upstream policy dialogue to facilitate increased demand and accountability for quality services • Resource Mobilisation: fundraising from individuals via monthly and single donations; fundraising from corporations, small and medium businesses through partnerships and other models of engagement Audiences that UNICEF works for and with include: children, parents and caregivers, service providers including health, social, child protection, education and community-based workers, media and communication personnel, local celebrities, popular opinion leaders, national and sub-national level policy and decision makers, political and other influential leaders. 2 2. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES Aside from the programmatic response, ensuring that the programme is visible to key audiences is also vital. This is to demonstrate accountability and responsibility, as well as to inform key audiences about the progress achieved and lessons learned. The Advocacy, Communication and Visibility Plan will seek to raise awareness about the overall project, namely about the importance of access to integrated child protection, family support services, pre-primary education and integrated and coordinated early childhood intervention services. Moreover, the Advocacy, Communication and Visibility Plan will have the aim to inform, and ultimately inspire citizens in Croatia and across the EU about the Child Guarantee program and showcase how a comprehensive focus on children, including the most vulnerable can ensure a more just, inclusive and ultimately more prosperous Europe. The UNICEF Office in Croatia is seeking a Communication Consultancy Agency that will support developing and implementing a wide range of communication, digital and advocacy activities to efficiently and effectively implement the Advocacy, Communication and Visibility Plan of the Programme “Fulfilling the Child Guarantee for the most vulnerable children in the Medjimurje County” The Advocacy, Communication and Visibility Plan will be developed by UNICEF, following the EU Visibility and Communication Guidelines, but the agency will be asked to provide assistance in finalizing the overall communication concept and strategy, key messages, narrative, tactics, list of crisis Q&A and timeline of the project (please refer to the table of Expected deliverables for more details). These Terms of Reference define the scope, activities and expected deliverables