Individual consultancy to support the process of development of resource and references materials for facilitation of designing and conducting school-level simulation exercises (SIMEX)

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Background

The Government of Uzbekistan regards the preparation of communities for possible emergency situations and protection from disasters as a priority area. The existing policy documents define the different approaches to preparation of people for emergency situations, and one of these approaches, which is defined in the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan #427 (dated 07.10.1998), is on conducting SIMEXes for different groups of population. With regards to children, this normative document states that children should be trained on emergency preparedness at educational establishments, and all education institutions, including schools, should conduct SIMEXes on annual basis.

The school-level SIMEX helps to test the child's knowledge on correct actions in case of emergency, as well as, to develop positive attitude towards emergency preparedness among children and school staff. At the same time, school-level SIMEX helps school management to identify the gaps in school emergency preparedness, and work on enhancement of their emergency preparedness plans. With good SIMEX and practice, both children and school personnel would be able to react better to emergencies.

In order to ensure that schools conduct SIMEXes, the "School-based DRR guidelines", drafted by the experts of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MOES) and MOPE, recommends that each school should include SIMEX into their annual calendar of events. In general, schools in Uzbekistan usually conduct SIMEX either in April-May, when series of events are held within the "Month of Civil Protection" and/or in October, devoted to "International Day for Disaster Reduction". Usually, the designated staff from regional departments of the MOES facilitate school-level SIMEXes, as regional education departments have limited capacity to conduct such activities. Therefore, there is a need to enhance the capacity of education system staff on facilitation of school-level SIMEXes, which will allow them to design and conduct school-level SIMEXes without support of other agencies.

The Common Country Assessment of United Nations System in Uzbekistan found that there is no clear indication of availability of grassroots level drills, and recommends to develop system to organize periodic drills in schools. Therefore, the Multi-Year Work Plan for Cooperation Program between MOPE and UNICEF has an activity on supporting MOPE on development and testing of resource and reference materials for designing and conducting SIMEXes at school level, training of facilitators, and drafting scale-up plan at national level.

It is expected that with introduction of resource and reference materials for facilitating, designing and conducting school-level SIMEXes, the capacity of regional education departments on this area will be enhanced. At the same time, these materials will help to evaluate and test the existing emergency preparedness plans at school level and identify the shortcomings. The findings of SIMEX will help the school management to improve their emergency preparedness plans, and make proper changes as required.

The successful fulfilment of this assignment requires specialized expertise in conducting school-level SIMEXes and ability to analyze the findings. As fulfillment of this assignment requires allocation of additional resources (i.e. human and financial), neither the technical staff of MOPE nor UNICEF staff are able to perform the tasks specified in this TOR. Therefore, there is a need for external expert who can deliver quality product in a timely manner.

Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to enhance the capacity of educational system staff on facilitation of school-level SIMEXes. It is expected that with introduction of school-level SIMEX resource and reference materials, MOPE will have a team of trainers who can further train facilitators to support the SIMEXes in schools. Successful finalization of this assignment will also contribute to enhancement of overall emergency preparedness of education system and children in Uzbekistan, as it is articulated in UNICEF Country Programme Outcome 2.

Assignment Tasks

Objectives

The followings are the objectives of this assignment:

• Develop materials to train school-level SIMEX facilitators;
• Develop capacity of relevant staff of regional education departments on training of facilitators for school-level SIMEXes;
• Develop school-level SIMEX reference and resource materials;

Expected Deliverables

Timeline & Deliverables

It is expected that the consultant will deliver the following outputs by 31 May 2017:

• Inception report, which will define school-level emergency preparedness and role of SIMEXes (5% of total fee);
• Package for designing and conducting school-level SIMEX, as per Annex 2 of this TOR (35% of total fee);
• Materials for training of facilitators for school-level SIMEXes (20% of total fee);
• Training of trainers for preparing facilitators for school-level SIMEX from selected regional education departments (15% of total fee);
• Scale-up plan for school-level SIMEXes at national level (15% of total fee);
• Final consultancy report (10% of total fee).

In order to be able to deliver above outputs, the consultant is expected to perform the following tasks:

• Conduct desk-review of existing policies, programmes, and documents related to school-level SIMEXes, in order to develop inception report;
• Develop school-level SIMEX guidelines, intended for school management, with description of SIMEX objective, purpose, and step by step organizational procedures;
• Develop school-level SIMEX tools, as per Annex 2 of this TOR;
• Develop materials for training of facilitators of school-level SIMEXes, intended for regional education departments;
• Conduct training for staff of selected regional education departments on training of facilitators of school-level SIMEXes;
• Conduct testing of developed SIMEX materials in three selected schools based on the most common hazard in each region (tentatively in Kashkadarya, Samarkand, and Tashkent);
• Revise and finalize the materials, incorporating identified findings, collected feedbacks and comments during the testing;
• Facilitate the workshop for the Government partners to draft scale-up plan for school-level SIMEXes at national level;

Management

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Chief of Education Section in UNICEF Country Office, and in close collaboration with DRR Officer, as well as with identified national partners and government officials. All outputs of this TOR are subject for review of government partners and UNICEF DRR Officer.

Resource requirements

According to UNICEF policy, the final fee will be set up based on the "best value for money" principle. The consultancy fee will be paid upon successful completion and certification of deliverables by supervisor through bank transfer. Fifty working days are allocated for accomplishment of all tasks and deliverables within the period of September 2016 – May 2017.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

• Advanced university degree in social sciences or other related fields (would be verified through review of CVs and P11 forms);

Years of relevant experience

• At least 5 years of professional and relevant experience on emergency preparedness in education sector within past 10 years (would be verified through review of CVs and P11 forms);
• Proven previous experience on accomplishment of similar tasks (should be clearly stated in Cover Letter);
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English, knowledge of Russian would be an asset (verified by review of previous written work and interview);
• The interested candidates should submit a Cover Letter, a current CV and P11 form. The Cover Letter should include information on expected fee for the consultancy service, names and contact details of professional or academic referees. Moreover, the candidate should submit copy of one previous work, which is done on similar topic.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

To view our competency framework, please click here.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable). 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.

Procedures and Working Conditions

The consultancy will be home-based with instances of international and local travels. All travel(s) to will be arranged in accordance with UNICEF Travel Rules and Regulations.

The consultant will be responsible for any taxes that might arise because of this assignment and remuneration received by UNICEF, and UNICEF undertakes no liability for taxes, duty or other contribution payable by the consultant on payments made under this contract.

Reservations

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if deliverable(s) incomplete, not finalized or for failure to meet deadlines. UNICEF and MOPE will reserve copy right of all developed materials and own primary data collected during this assignment. The materials cannot be published or disseminated without prior written permission of UNICEF. UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. The contractor must respect the confidentiality of the information handled during the assignment. Documents and information provided must be used only for the tasks related to these terms of reference.

Annex 2: List of documents and tools that would be part of school-level SIMEX package

List of school-level SIMEX package

1 School-level SIMEX guidelines

Document, which will describe the objective, purpose, and different scenarios[1] for school-level SIMEXes. Moreover, this document should include instruction on application of tools, described below, and step-by-step organization of school-level SIMEX.

2 School-level SIMEX planning tool

This document should serve for proper planning of SIMEX by school management. This tool would provide information on scope of planned SIMEX, expected budget/supply requirements, timeline for exercise, scenario, information on expected audience/participants, and what coordination mechanisms are required.

3 School-level SIMEX role designation form

Tool that describes the expected roles of different stakeholders (school principal, school DRR Committee, teachers, students, parents, exercise facilitator, etc.)

4 Minimum action checklist for conducting school-level SIMEX

Checklist that provides information on required minimum actions for conductions of school-level SIMEX. This checklist should cover the preparedness phase for SIMEX, exercise stage, and post-SIMEX activities.

5 School-level SIMEX self-assessment form

This tool is supposed to help the school management to critically assess the school-level SIMEX, and identify the gaps.

6 School-level SIMEX evaluation and documentation form

This tool should help the school management to evaluate the findings of self-assessment and identify the actions for improvement of school emergency preparedness plan. Moreover, this document should help to document the resources used (both financial and logistic), lessons learned, observations, findings, and follow-up actions.

7 School-level SIMEX tracking form

Tool that helps the school management to record the information on SIMEXes conducted.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.