United States of America: Consultancy to support Review of Effective Interventions in Early Childhood

Organization: UN Children's Fund
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 29 Oct 2014

1.Background

The ECD section will be spearheading a review on “Effective Interventions in Early Childhood” with partners. The study of effective interventions in ECD is part of a proposed plan to better understand programmes for young children and families. Thereview seeks to answer the question “What do we know about effective interventions in early childhood for improving health, learning, psychosocial functioning and well-being?” This review will attempt to bring together packages of interventions as opposed to a single intervention, adding a unique value to this review. ECD by dint of its nature requires convergence and integration of programmes. However, the guidance on how programmes can come together is limited. This review will seek to assemble interventions in packages that allow for feasible integration while also addressing the systems that support them.

Thus, the review aims to examine effective interventions that improve health, learning, psychosocial functioning and well-being by addressing risk and promoting protective factors of effective interventions. The focus of the review will come from bio-behavioral (brain development and function) and socio-ecological perspectives. Towards this end, four main messages will be pursued:

1) Positive development as a function of interaction between biology and the environment.

2) A life course approach to identify interventions by sector and age of the child (and mother) that influence health, learning, psychosocial functioning and well-being.

3) child-centered approach to analyse effectiveness of interventions and synergistic messages across different constellations of interventions and

4) Single interventions that can impact multiple outcomes.

This review is being conducted as part of a larger set of work on bringing the latest science, programming evidence and scaling up of exemplars together in a series of papers. The work on this review constitutes 1 part of the overall effort.

Purpose

The proposed consultancy will provide research assistance and support in conducting a systematic review of reviews of the literature on Effective Interventions in ECD.

Activities and Deliverables

The main activities and expected results of this consultancy are:

1. Create a protocol for conducting the review

a. Identify the criteria for the selection of articles to be included in the systematic review

b. Develop search terms and identify search engines

c. Create a list of criteria for article screening and selection.

d. Record the process and justification used for defining the criteria

1. Data extraction

a. Articles will be coded based on their “quality” and “goodness of fit”.

b. With a focus on causal risk factors, the interventions that fit and the positive child outcomes

1. Documentation of protocol implementation

a. Written documentation detailing the steps of the literature review process

b. Maintain a reference list

1. Create Diagrams

a. Create a harvest plot to illustrate the results from the systematic review of reviews of effective interventions.

1. Coordinate input from lead researchers on the team

a. Facilitate the coordination of input from the researchers

b. Support the data extraction process

c. Schedule meetings and maintain a timeline for the completion of the work.

Duration

The consultant will be working during the period from November, 1, 2014 – January 31, 2015

Key skills, technical background, and experience required:

1. University degree in Social Sciences, Education or related fields. Doctoral degree preferred.
2. At least 5-8 years of proven mid-level experience in the area of ECD.
3. Previous experience in conduction literature searches for systematic reviews
4. Experience in authoring high quality publications in English
5. Deadline driven with a strong drive for results and ensuring timely delivery of quality products.
6. Work effectively through email, phone, and other means of communications.

Working arrangements:

The consultant will work remotely and will consult with UNICEF staff on a regular basis.

Reporting and supervision:

The consultant will work under the guidance of the ECD Senior Advisor and Chief at UNICEF NYHQ, and in collaboration with other lead authors.

How to apply:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV and P-11 form (which can be downloaded from the UNICEF website at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc) to pdconsultants@unicef.org with the subject line “Consultancy to support Review of Effective Interventions in Early Childhood”by 29 October 2014.

Please indicate your daily rate and availability to undertake the terms of reference above.

Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered.