EXTENSION OF DEADLINE

CALL FOR EXPERT – TERMS OF REFERENCES

Function: Drafting of an Analysis on the current state of Centers for Social Work, with focus on the challenges in terms of legal, institutional and functional aspects

Place of work: Kosovo wide

Project name: Strengthening social service workforce to provide continued quality social services for most vulnerable children and their families

Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection in Kosovo – KOMF, established in 2011, is a coalition composed of 34 local and international NGOs working in the child protection field, with the joint mission to advocate and protect the rights of children in Kosovo.

KOMF supported by UNICEF and in partnership with USAID, is implementing the project “Strengthening social service workforce to provide continued quality social services for most vulnerable children and their families in Kosovo”. The project has four main objectives as follows: 1. Strengthen capacities of child protection and non-child protection front-line workers, to implement the Law on Child Protection, enabling provision of quality and sustainable protection services for children; 2. Strengthen capacities of social service workforce to provide quality social services for children; 3. Strengthen capacities of Municipal Directorates of Health and Social Welfare and CSWs on planning, monitoring, budgeting, and contracting of social services; 4. Increase awareness of decision makers, social workforce and wide public, on the importance of social work and provision of quality social services.

Considering the Government’s decision to transfer social services from the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers to the Ministry of Justice, and the decision to establish the working group for analysing the current state of the Centers for Social Work, based on the request for support from the Ministry of Justice, KOMF is publishing the Call for the recruitment of a local individual expert to draft an Analysis on the current state of Centers for Social Work, focusing on the challenges in terms of legal, institutional and functional aspects.

Background

Based on the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on Social and Family Services, municipalities are responsible for providing social services within their territory, according to the standards and policies of the Government or relevant ministries. Thus, municipalities are obliged to identify the needs for the provision of social services to the citizens of the municipality, to provide financing and to manage social services within the municipality. The Municipal Directorates of Health and Social Welfare are responsible for municipal social welfare issues and manage the Centers for Social Work. CSWs have a responsibility to provide social and family services to citizens in need. All municipalities in Kosovo (38) have Centers for Social Work.

The data from KOMF monitoring report shows that despite of the mandate of municipalities and CSWs for management and provision of social services, the capacities of municipalities to deliver quality social services continue to be limited. During the monitoring process conducted by KOMF, it has been observed that the Centers for Social Work are also facing serious difficulties, in terms of legal, institutional and functional aspects.

Since January 2023, social services have been transferred from the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers to the Ministry of Justice. In order to implement in the best possible way the social services reform and to address the needs of citizens, this analysis will serve as a baseline for reforming Centers for Social Works in terms of legal, institutional and functional aspects.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The purpose of this activity is to analyse and highlight the main challenges of the Centers for Social Work, in terms of legal, institutional and functional aspects. This analysis will as well identify and introduce the gaps and respective solutions and recommendations for a proper restructuring of these bodies within the process of the thorough social services reform in Kosovo. In addition, the analysis will propose the roadmap for the thorough reform of social services in Kosovo.

Supervisor: Project Coordinator

Start Date: February 2023

End Date: April 2023

Number of working days: 22 working days

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Master degree in Law, Social Sciences, Social Work, or other relevant disciplines related to the field, PhD is desirable;
• At least five (5) years of experience on legal and policy framework on social services, child rights, social protection in international and local context and in planning;
• Working experience with the Government, international agencies and donors in a legal expertise, advisory and capacity building role.
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills;
• Excellent writing and communication skills;
• Extended professional expertise and experience on drafting analysis and reports on children’s rights, social welfare and child protection;
• Working experience with the NGOs, international agencies, government, in frame of professional expertise, advisory and capacity building role;
• Excellent command of English language, in both speaking and writing.

All interested candidates are invited to send the below listed application documents via email, at; [email protected].

• CV;
• Portfolio (evidence of previous experiences) in the drafting of analysis and reports in the social field;
• Proposal of the methodology;
• Three references from previous employers;
• Financial proposal with the proposed daily and total fee (Gross). The financial proposal must include the statement of the validity of the proposal, at least four weeks from the submission date.

Deadline for submission:

The proposal has to be received by latest on February 19, 2023, by midnight. Proposals must be submitted in English language. Proposals received after the deadline or in other languages, will be not considered.

Please note that only the selected candidates from their documentation will be notified for the interview.

The selected expert will read and sign the service contract, together with the below listed documents: KOMF internal personnel regulations, child protection policy, policy against sexual exploitation and abuse and KOMF job description. the mentioned document constitutes the integral parts of the employment agreement between the employer and the consultant.