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Consultancy: Development of awareness raising materials on the legislative framework on child online safety in South Africa

Job no: 545460

Position type: Consultancy

Location: South Africa Division/Equivalent: Nairobi Regn’l(ESARO)

School/Unit: South Africa

Department/Office: Pretoria, South Africa

Categories: Health

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, safety

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:

Technology and the digital space can be used for a range of services that promote children’s learning and development. However, while many opportunities for learning, recreation, play, and socialization are provided by these new technologies, they may also increase the risks for abuse and exploitation of children. The dangers confronting children online include cyber bullying, child pornography, online sexual exploitation, cyber stalking, access to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), online abuse in all its forms, online gambling for children and a network for child sex tourism and trafficking. By its nature, the internet remains complex to regulate.

UNICEF and the global community are recognizing the importance of creating online safety awareness to children, parents, communities, duty bearers and digital space entities to work together to ensure that meaningful and appropriate programmes are developed to protect children online whilst maximizing opportunities for ICT usage as well. Whilst South Africa has excellent laws and policies, the gap between legislation and implementation remains wide and services are not well connected. Furthermore, the public is unaware of the legislative framework, its implications and available remedies.

This consultancy will develop awareness raising materials, utilizing the Child Protection Advocacy package developed by UNICEF and contextualized to the South African context, highlighting the legal ramifications, restrictions and recourse platforms as outlined in various pieces of national legislation to address child online safety. It will consider content and messages for various audiences such as prosecutors, magistrates and independent lawyers, police officers, teachers, community stakeholders, families, and children, and ensure information is presented in clear, concise and child/user-friendly language that is free from legal jargon but also ensuring correctness to legal prescripts.

SCOPE OF WORK:

Goal and Objective: Under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist develop content relevant online material to be utilized to create awareness on the legal framework on child online safety addressing cyber bullying, child pornography, online sexual exploitation, cyber stalking, access to CSAM, online abuse in all its forms, online gambling for children and a network of tourism for child sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: This work will contribute to the achievement of

Output 4.1:“Government, civil society and communities are mobilized against abuse, neglect and violence against children”.

Activities and Tasks:

•  Review available literature: The service provider will conduct a literature review and peruse online research conducted in South Africa, all legislation and policies related to child online safety and reports on findings and recommendations on knowledge and skills gap in this area to identify content relevance to legal awareness-material required.
•  Conduct focused interviews with representatives of the judiciary, justice, education, social services, civil society and judicial private practice sectors prior to the development of the package of materials.
•  Develop the package of material for judiciary/ justice, education, social services, journalists, civil society, families and children accordingly. The service provider will develop material for awareness-raising on the legal framework, including its ramifications and remedies on online child safety. The material developed should be easy to adapt to local context in accordance with provincial variations. It must be holistic, easy to understand and target different groups. It is important for the service provider to develop concrete briefs as awareness-raising material on online safety across different platforms.
•  The package on legal frameworks must be adapted to be child friendly.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment: VA TOR Development of Awareness-raising materials on Child online Safety in SA.pdf

To develop content for relevant online material to be used as to create awareness on the legal framework on child online safety addressing cyber bullying, child pornography, online sexual exploitation, cyber stalking, access to CSAM, online abuse in all its forms, online gambling for children and a network of tourism for child sexual exploitation and trafficking.

The consultant is expected to:

Review available literature: The service provider will conduct a literature review and peruse online research conducted in South Africa, all legislation and policies related to child online safety and reports on findings and recommendations on knowledge and skills gap in this area to identify content relevance to legal awareness-material required.

Conduct focused interviews with representatives of the judiciary, justice, education, social services, civil society, and judicial private practice sectors prior to the development of the package of materials.

Develop the package of material for judiciary/ justice, education, social services, journalists, civil society, families, and children accordingly. The service provider will develop material for awareness-raising on the legal framework, including its ramifications and remedies on online child safety. The material developed should be easy to adapt to local context in accordance with provincial variations. It must be holistic, easy to understand and target different groups. It is important for the service provider to develop concrete briefs as awareness-raising material on online safety across different platforms.

The package on legal instruments and materials to use to be adapted to be child friendly.

Description of Assignment:

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

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•  An advanced University degree in Law/International Relations.
•  At least

5 years‘ experience in qualitative and quantitative research (data collection and analysis).

•  Strong analytical skills, including strong ability to integrate and summarize information in laws and policies.
•  Understanding of the legal framework in South Africa and practical application in the judicial system.
•  Strong organizational skills, ability to facilitate communication between key stakeholders and work independently in order to meet deadlines.
•  Experience and/or knowledge in conducting online focus groups/dialogues including working with children.
•  Excellent writing skills in English, including a demonstrated ability to draft clear, concise reports.

How to Apply:

Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit their application to the following link: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=545460 by

29 October 2021.

This notice will also appear on http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/, http://www.unicef.org/southafrica, UN Job List, UN Jobs

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in ZAR) to undertake the terms of reference above (including admin cost if applicable).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

Advertised: Oct 19 2021 South Africa Standard Time Application close: Oct 29 2021 South Africa Standard Time