Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
Despite its importance, high-quality and reliable information for reporting and decision-making on issues involving children living in alternative care is still lacking in many countries. In light of this, there is a need to develop tools and provide guidance to help countries strengthen their routine data collection systems to monitor the safety and well-being of children in such arrangements and for administrative record-keeping. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in exploring ways to better utilize existing administrative data for monitoring and reporting. Strengthening the quality and coverage of such records is therefore an important and useful investment. To begin addressing this, a first step for any country entails gaining an improved understanding of the existing administrative data system and its functioning, as well as assessing opportunities and investments needed to strengthen available information systems.
The Data and Analytics section is seeking a consultant to develop a diagnostic toolkit that can be used to assess the capacity of statistical systems to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate administrative data on children living in alternative care. The toolkit will allow countries to identify needed improvements and priorities for investment. ‘Alternative care’ in this context refers to residential care, family-based care (foster care and kinship care) and adoption.
Terms of Reference / Deliverables:
Scope of Work:
It is expected that the toolkit will be modelled after an existing tool on assessing administrative data systems on justice for children. The toolkit will need to take into consideration and build on other existing assessments and tools and its development will include consultation with stakeholders in an effort to coordinate and harmonize (where relevant and feasible) to avoid any duplication of existing/ongoing work by others. The primary focus of the toolkit will be on assessing the capacity and maturity of a country’s administrative system for routine data production and use.
It is anticipated that the toolkit will consist of a self-assessment questionnaire to be jointly completed by the relevant stakeholder institutions. The questionnaire should cover the following thematic components: Legal and normative framework for data and statistics on alternative care; governance and planning; data infrastructure and resources; completeness of data on alternative care; data transmission; standardized data and practices in relation to alternative care; administrative data quality assurance; and data use, demand and dissemination. The questionnaire should include an assessment of the extent to which a country collects data on a minimum core set of indicators for routinely monitoring some key aspects of alternative care (to be provided to the consultant).
The questionnaire will need to be accompanied by a detailed set of instructions outlining how the toolkit was developed, thematic components used for assessment, who should complete the questionnaire, scoring the toolkit and interpreting results. It will also need to include guidance on the recommended approach for completing the toolkit (e.g., stakeholder workshop agenda).
The consultant will also need to draft guidance/recommendations for countries that have completed the toolkit that outlines some concrete steps/strategies they can undertake to strengthen their data system and improve administrative data on children in alternative care.
The consultant is also expected to develop a maturity model for administrative data systems on alternative care, modelled and adapted after an existing maturity model on justice for children.
Application deadline is 24 August 2021.