Senior State Consultant (Strengthening Child Protection Workforce) - International Development Agency

1. POSITION VACANT: Senior State Consultant – Strengthening Child Protection Workforce (SCSCPW), International Development Agency, Patna, Bihar

2. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND:

Our client is a respected, International Development Agency, that works across the globe to promote children's survival, protection and development.

Project Background:

Towards the end of 2017, two major decisions were taken by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) with an appointment of over 370 contractual child protection functionaries under each of 38 District Child Protection Units (DCPU). With this appointment, coupled with the existing three regular posting per districts, on an average each district will now have a team of around 14 core CP functionaries to support the structures and services on child protection. Simultaneously, the Selection Committee constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act – 2015, took a decision for simultaneous appointment of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) members across all 38 districts. All in all, 266 CWC and JJB members will have to be selected through the selection process. Thus, a total of 798 core functionaries under ICPS are urgently required to be trained on their role and functions under ICPS as well as under the Juvenile Justice Act – 2015.

In the year 2017, the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Government of Bihar along with IDA Bihar approached the Development Management Institute (DMI) to explore possibilities of collaborative work towards strengthening Child Protection (CP) mechanisms in Bihar, through Competencies Enhancement Programmes (CEPs) of CP functionaries.  Based on a mutual partnership, DMI has developed modules and identified trainers to support the DCP process in Bihar. Based on the current developments regarding the recruitment and the selection of CWC and JJB members, CEPs are to be conducted for about 800 CP functionaries across the state, as per the specific training needs.

The CEPs aim to bridge the gaps in the competencies (i.e. combination of knowledge, skills and attitude) between the requirements for the effective performance of the CP functionaries and their current attainments. The goal of the CEPs is, therefore, to help the CP functionaries improve their knowledge of child protection and development issues and develop appropriate personal and organisational skills for addressing such issues, with an attitude of promotion of child security and welfare. The CEPs will be designed for   potential as well as existing Child Protection functionaries, by adopting a common vocabulary across the CP functionaries.

The Senior State Coordinator would give the necessary impetus with support from DMI towards institutionalizing the training of different cadre within DSW, working primarily under ICPS structures.  S/he would be responsible for drawing a plan and its rolling out with support from the available systems and structures at the state as well as at district levels, besides engaging with the CSO’s and other academic institutions and Resource Persons. The emphasis will clearly be on establishing regular training packages towards cadre development in the area of child protection. In the process, DMI would design more appropriate courses for potential cadre joining child protection workforce in Bihar.

The Exit Plan as envisaged under TA Plan:
IDA’s support to the State Child Protection Society (SCPS) in strengthening ICPS has been of pivotal importance. While every component under ICPS gotten established, the progress was marred due to significant human resource gap. However, with continued support in the process of the recruitment of ICPS functionaries, from the beginning of 2018, almost 100%t functionaries got deployed and in the process of taking the mantle in discharging their duties as outlined. However, it will take some time before they are made fully accountable for the core functions as envisaged under ICPS. Anticipating the big workforce to be part of the SCPS, in the year 2017, IDA designed a tripartite arrangement for regular induction and capacity development of ICPS functionaries which is now ready to take on the responsibility to train core / allied CP functionaries. The current technical support would thus be subsumed within the institutional arrangement from the year 2019.

3. JOB DESCRIPTION/ RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting to the Director, DSW / Director, Development Management Institute, the following would be the key job responsibilities for the position:

Key Deliverables:

(1) Develop an institutional arrangement towards Capacity Enhancement Progamme (CEP) for mid-level functionaries under ICPS;
(2) Develop a plan for the Probationary Training of 370 newly recruited functionaries under ICPS;
(3) Support in developing Training Modules for Progressive Learning amongst child protection workforce in coordination with ‘Champion’s’ identified by DMI;
(4) Develop capacity development plans for CWC, JJB and all allied systems interfacing with the juvenile justice system;
(5) Develop guidelines for uniform functioning of all mid-level functionaries;
(6) Support in developing monitoring and reporting tools based on CEP.

4. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:

Qualification:
Applicants must be Post graduate/ Graduate and / or A law graduate with a desire to work on child rights issues.

Experience:
Minimum five years to eight years of experience working on child rights issues with an experience / exposure in training and capacity development.

Skills and Competencies:
(1) An excellent communication skill with a proficiency in Hindi and English is desired;
(2) Adequately trained and well versed with computer knowledge;
(3) An exposure of working with an academic and /or with judiciary at different levels is desirous.

5. NATURE OF ENGAGEMENT:

The SCSCPW shall be hired on a consultancy contract through Strategic Alliance Management Services P Ltd. (SAMS), a respected HR Agency.

6. PROFESSIONAL FEES:

Professional fees of the selected candidate shall be Rs. 1,00,000 per month for the period of the consultancy assignment. (Note: Subsistence, Mobility and Contingency support shall be separately provided, to address field travel and related costs incurred by the SCSCPW).

7. LOCATION: Patna, with need base travel to field.

8. DURATION: The consultancy assignment will be effective from the date of joining till December 31, 2018.

9. REFERENCE: SCSCPW

10. CONTACT INFORMATION:

Senior Consultant
Strategic Alliance Management Services P Ltd.
1/1B, Choudhary Hetram House, Bharat Nagar
New Friends Colony, New Delhi 110 025
Phone Nos.: 011- 2684 2162; 4165 3612
Email:  scscpw@sams.co.in

11. APPLICATION PROCESS:

Eligible candidates interested in this position are requested to apply to scscpw@sams.co.in with a cover letter, discussing their interest in and suitability for the position, along with an updated resume, giving details of three references, current cost to organization and expected compensation, by or before July 17, 2018.