Home-based: Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System/Digital Social Services Solution Systems Administrator

Terre des hommes (Tdh) is an independent, neutral and impartial Swiss organisation founded in 1960, dedicated to bringing about significant and lasting change in the lives of children and young people, especially those most at risk. We ensure their well-being and the effective implementation of their rights as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments. To make a difference, we focus our efforts on maternal and child health, children and young people in migration situations, and access to justice. We promote the active participation of children and young people to empower them. We advocate for their rights and support them in expressing their needs and interests. We work in fragile contexts and conflict zones, as well as in more stable environments. Terre des hommes works in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe on long-term humanitarian aid and cooperation projects. The 2021-2024 Tdh strategy stipulates that one of its ambitions for 2024 is to strengthen collaborations with international Swiss companies. As mentioned in the strategy, engagement with the private sector will allow Tdh to combine efforts and means to achieve a better impact in upholding children’s rights.

2. Context: 

Human rights abuses are widespread in the production of many of the world’s most commonly traded goods – from coffee, cocoa, and tea to timber products and palm oil. While progress has been made over the past couple of decades, child labour, violence, abuse and harassment in the workplace still exist in many of these supply chains. When we look at the issue of child labour alone, we see the magnitude of the problem. As part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders committed to take immediate and effective measures to end child labour in all its forms by 2025. The latest global estimates indicate that globally 160 million children are still in child labour, accounting for almost one in 10 of all children worldwide. COVID-19 has even more so threatened the progress made so far and has put more children at risk of underage work.

As stricter legislation and standards on corporate due diligence and human rights, consumer awareness, and increasing pressure fueled by the media is pushing companies to do more to limit the negative impact of their business activities, companies are forced to rebuild their business models to take account of the social good. In these efforts, the private sector has learned over the last years that simply prohibiting child rights violations in their standards and banning buyers and suppliers who commit or tolerate child rights violations in their supply chain has proven to be counterproductive. In fact, this often drives abuses underground, making them harder to detect and thereby perpetuating the problem.

A more holistic, multi-sectoral, innovative and sustainable approach is needed which capitalizes and strengthens local child protection systems and is embedded in the communities where these businesses operate. Such an approach focuses on prevention; continues monitoring, identification and remediation with the support of innovative tools; and working on sustainable solutions that tackle the economic, social and political root causes together with communities, civil society and governments.

In supporting a private sector company directly in the process of rethinking its business activities and proposing actions that protect children and allow for a better respect of children's rights, Tdh signed a partnership with a Swiss multinational to pilot a project to address child labour and other child rights violations within their supply chain. Tdh will develop, digitalize and pilot a holistic, multi-sectoral and integrated Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System (CRMRS) to identify and respond to child protection risks and concerns in the company’s supply chain in Uganda. Tdh will ensure the CRMRS aligns with, links up to, and strengthens the existing formal child protection system and informal community-based mechanisms. It thereby focuses on prevention, monitoring, identification and remediation through sustainable solutions. The pilot will be concluded by an evaluation and the development of guidelines for possible replication at larger scale.

PROJECT VISION – Children at risk of or affected by child labour, violence, neglect, abuse and harassment access their fundamental rights throughout the company’s supply chain.

• Objective 1. Strengthen or set-up community-based committees to raise awareness on child rights and child labour in the communities, to monitor local suppliers through individual household visits, and identify and safely refer or remediate children who are at risk or exposed to child labour, violence, neglect, abuse and harassment.
• Objective 2. Develop, digitalize and pilot an integrated Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation system to identify and respond to child protection risks and concerns in the company’s supply chain.
• Objective 3. Ensure children working and living on the supplier’s sites who are at risk or exposed to child labour, violence, neglect, abuse and harassment are identified and receive an effective, timely, multi-sectoral and child-friendly response from relevant service providers under the local child protection system working in a coordinated and accountable manner.
• Objective 4. Provide sustainable solutions for children and families which tackle the root causes by linking community-based committees with the formal child protection system to create effective and localized responses to child labour, supporting access to and strengthening education for children, and maximizing a living income for families.
• Objective 5. Develop guidelines for replication at larger scale and in other contexts.

3. Objectives of the Consultancy: 

We are looking for a consultant who will act as the Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System / Digital Social Services Solution Systems Administrator (Child Rights and Business) to support Tdh’s ambitions to contribute to a strengthened protective environment for children within the supply chain of the partner private sector company through a systems-approach to child protection and innovative responses including the digitalization of services. As the Digital Social Services Solution for the Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System, Tdh is opting to purchase Primero (CPIMS+) as a Software as a Service (UNICEF hosted). This consultancy will focus on the following strategic objectives:

• To contribute to the realisation of children’s rights in collaboration with the private sector partner and other stakeholders in and around the pilot project;
• To improve case management processes and practices to identified cases within the company’s supply chain in the pilot project area;
• To prepare, roll-out, deploy and provide systems administration for an innovative digital social services solution (such as Primero) for more ethical, secure and accountable information management of the Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System;
• To support the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of this pilot project through the use of the digital social services solution;
• To use the digital social services solution to increase reach, impact and scale of our interventions.

4. Scope of Consultancy and Specifics Tasks/Responsibilities: 

The System Administrator oversees the entire technical implementation of the digital social services solution. This role has the ultimate responsibility for the configuration, roll-out, deployment and maintenance of the digital social services solution implementation (incl. training endusers) for the pilot project; the data it carries (the consultancy has a contractual obligation to ensure the confidentiality of case information), and the case management work it enables. Furthermore, this role also supports the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of this pilot project through the use of the digital social services solution.

Specific Tasks/Responsibilities:

• Developing an implementation plan for the digital social services solution in this pilot project;
• Determining the hosting-technology deployment approach;
• Configuring the system in line with the workflows and forms of the Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System (and supporting the finalization of this if, when and where needed);
• Leading on the User Acceptance Testing and Verification process;
• Training endusers of the digital social services solution;
• Deploying the ‘go-live’ version of the digital social services solution;
• Acting as the Systems Administrator for ongoing maintenance and support of the digital social services solution;
• Supporting the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of this pilot project through the use of the digital social services solution;
• Participating in Project Steering Committee meetings when and where required;
• Adhering to Tdh’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct;
• Keeping confidentiality on case information as well as all information regarding the project and partnership between Tdh and the private sector company;
• Any other tasks in line with this Terms of Reference and as discussed with the supervisor.

Duration:

The consultancy will start on the 1st of March 2023 and cover 60 days over a period of 11 months*.* It is envisioned that (indicative):

• 25 days will be spent in the first 2 months for preparing for, rolling-out and deploying the digital social services solution (e.g. Primero, CPIMS+);
• 32 days will be spent spread out over the rest of the months for ongoing Systems Administration, maintenance and support, and supporting the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of this pilot project;
• An additional 3 days will be spent in the last month specifically for supporting the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of this pilot project.

Supervision: The consultant will be directly supervised by the Global Technical Advisor Child Protection Systems Strengthening and Digitalization of Services*.*

Location: The consultancy can be conducted home-based with the occasional travel envisioned (cost coverage through Tdh for visa, flight tickets, accommodation, on-site transport and per diem – based on Tdh’s per diem policy) to the pilot project location (Uganda).

5. Deliverables

• A detailed workplan for the consultancy;
• Implementation plan (incorporating: assessment and preparation, implementation planning, implementation, production support and maintenance) for the digital social services solution in the pilot project;
• Configured digital social services solution in line with the workflows and forms of the Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System;
• Finalized User Acceptance Testing and Verification process for the digital social services solution;
• Trained endusers of the digital social services solution;
• Deployed ‘go-live’ version of the digital social services solution;
• Implementated Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework (componnts related to the digital social services solution);
• Participation in Project Steering Committee meetings when and where required.

6. Requirements: 

It is important that the System Administrator has the following:

Previous experience:

• At least 2 years experience in working with Primero/CPIMS+ in a Systems Administration role
• At least 2 years experience on case management and child protection programming
• Demonstrated experience in implementing capacity building strategies for protection teams (experience in training design, delivery, coaching - preferably on Primero/CPIMS+)
• Demonstrated experience in technically leading on M&E processes
• Previous experience in setting up monitoring and other security measures

Technical knowledge:

• Strong technical understanding of digital platforms or ability to learn quickly in the use of technological tools such as Primero/CPIMS+ (how to deploy it, configure the system, etc.)
• Strong technical understanding of information management and data protection issues
• Strong technical understanding of the child protection systems strengthening approach
• Basic understanding of Child Rights and Business
• Strong interest in the use of new technologies and the ethical and methodological issues associated with them

Skills and competencies:

• Mastery and professional practice of Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and report creation
• Technical skills in social work, child protection and capacity building and team coaching in multicultural contexts and with private sector actors
• Communication, support and advice skills
• Strong autonomy is required, and the ability to organize and manage a large work flow efficiently with minimal supervision
• Listening, ability to work with colleagues from different sectors in a variety of multicultural environments
• Strategic thinking, openness to change, team spirit and collaborative approach

Languages:

• Good command of English (spoken and written)
• French would be an asset

Tdh Global Code of Conduct and Risk Management Policies:

• Fully complies with Tdh’s Global Code of Conduct and systematically reports any breach to the Code through the whistleblowing procedure: raises awareness within the Foundation on abuse and violence and the rights deriving therefrom, respecting the rights and dignity of children, members of the communities and our own Staff
• Commits to respecting Risk Management Policies including: Safeguarding Policies (Child Safeguarding Policy, Policy on the Protection against Sexual Exploitation and the Directive on Staff Misconduct at the Workplace), Safety and Security Policy and Anti-Fraud/Corruption and Prevention of the Financing of Criminal Activities Policies
• Commits to reducing the risk of abuse and harm by developing a culture of open and informed leadership within the organization and in our work with children and the communities in which we intervene in.

Along with the above, it will be considerd a plus if the System Administrator has the following:

• Technical understanding of the deployment infrastructure (i.e. servers, ip addresses, databases, local and cloud deployments)
• User-level understanding of Windows and Linux command line

How to Apply

Individual consultants are invited to please apply directly before 24 February 2023 by sending your application to roy.tjan@tdh.ch Only complete application will be considered which consist of:

• An updated CV
• A cover letter
• A financial offer based on a lump sum daily consultancy fee (in CHF)
• Contact of 3 references

This position is subject to funding and program requirements.