Early Childhood Pedagogy and Child Care expert At Planète Enfants & Développement

Planète Enfants & Développement (PE&D) is an international NGO, expert on early childhood and dedicated to improving the living conditions of vulnerable children through five priorities:

● Protection Early Childhood,
● against Gender-Based Violence
● Young Women Professional Integration
● Family Development
● Maternal and Reproductive Health,

Our DNA? Working in partnership with beneficiaries and national and local actors, to strengthen their capacities and experiment new innovative and sustainable methodologies and services.

PE&D has been working in Cambodia for 30 years and implementing social services projects for garment workers for 3 years.

Starting from April 2020, PE&D is implementing in Cambodia the Community Based Day Care Center Project with the support of the Japan Social Development Fund under World Bank management. The total duration of the project is 4 years.

PE&D is looking for a qualified person to fill the consultant position of Early Childhood Pedagogy and Child Care expert.

The successful candidate is expected to be recruited in October 2021 and to work 12 full months.

1. BACKGROUND

Garment factories in Cambodia provide jobs to nearly 700,000 people, approximately 90% of whom are women. The sector accounts for $5 billion USD, or roughly 80 percent, of Cambodia’s total export revenue. Many garment workers travel long distances to work each day and some of them are considered to be migrant workers.

The Cambodian Labour Law (1997), Article 186, requires enterprises employing more than 100 women to either establish a daycare center on-premises for children between 18 and 36 months old, or to pay for employees’ childcare costs elsewhere. However, a 2017-2018 ILO assessment of factory compliance found that 72% (283) of factories are non-compliant. There are almost no operating on-premises daycares. Rather, factories usually pay minimal childcare allowances to workers.

In Cambodia, there are no public daycare services and very few functional factory daycare centers. Private daycare services are available and growing in urban areas but are not financially accessible for most garment factory workers. The average cost of private daycare in Cambodia is $100/month for 1 child, while a garment factory worker’s monthly base wage is around $180.Traditional Caregivers, typically illiterate grandparents, are often the only affordable childcare option. However, they are not well-equipped to provide adequate education, stimulation, and nutrition to young children.

IFC’s Tackling Childcare research shows that lack of childcare options can translate into higher employee turnover and absenteeism, lower employee satisfaction and productivity, and difficulty in recruiting top talent. This is because of the unavailability or unaffordability of care can affect parents’ choices regarding taking up paid versus unpaid work. This is a key concern for women as globally they perform 75% of unpaid care work.

Developing options for affordable childcare centers in Cambodia has the potential to reduce time spent on unpaid work and narrow the gender gap. This, in turn, could have a host of benefits, including women’s greater financial independence, ability to pursue wage-earning opportunities, and labour force participation. In addition, children who have access to early childhood education and care are more likely to perform well in school and to be healthier and more productive as adults. Hence, childcare can result in a win-win situation for employees and their children, employers, and economies.

This community-based childcare project will first focus on Kampong Speu province, as the area hosts a high concentration of garment factories whose workers live in their own communities and can participate in community-based services.

The project targets 625 garment factory workers and their children and families. The garment factory workers must be employees of participating factories at the time of application to join a CBCC and throughout enrollment.

2. Project Components

Component 1: Institutional Establishment of Community-based Childcare Centers

This component comprises two activities.

Activity A: Institutional Arrangements, Systems and Procedures

the project has already established relationships with every stakeholder to engage them in the project at different levels (Ministries, Provincial Representatives of Ministries, local authorities, communities, factories). It will arrange experts, contracts, and procedures to establish the framework of the CBCC services. The project staff has already been recruited during the first year.

The activity also drives the preparation of the CBCC Management Guidelines and the establishment of advisory committees (ACs) to hold each CBCC accountable for quality services.

Three ACs have already been established and construction of the first four daycare centers began in July 2021.

Activity B: Childcare Center Facility Preparation

This activity entails land acquisition – mainly by agreement of land use- and site preparation for CBCCs. It includes the hiring of a Design and Infrastructure Specialist. It also outlines standards and guidelines for CBCC construction and operation, including preparation of land use and building designs and facility costing, procuring construction firms, inspecting and certifying CBCCs for operation, outfitting the facilities, and phased-in establishment of CBCCs over 3 years.

Component 2: Capacity-Building of CBCC Workers and Families

The component articulates the different steps to build the capabilities of the project staff and actively participating stakeholders. To date, the training of the project staff has begun which must be completed by the ECCD expert.

The operational guidelines, which describe the educational curriculum of the CBCCs, are under construction but will have to be finished before the end of the project.

The ECDD expert will also outline the preparation of training materials for caregivers and managers, focusing on developing effective training and on-the-job coaching. To date, the training manual has been 90% completed and is in the finalization phase. The development of an e-learning system will also be set up to provide supplementary training materials for caregivers.

A local NGO, already identified, will be in charge of providing additional training courses to CBCC cooks and parents so that they can in turn offer the children nutritious food. Another local NGO will provide training for parents on financial management and child development. The activities of the two NGOs started in July 2021.

The component also outlines CBCC oversight training programs for advisory committees and local government representatives. Finally, this component also describes the physician’s role in temporarily conducting pediatric checkups and training CBCC staff in the attitudes and processes to be adopted in the event of illness or injury.

Component 3: Community-based Childcare Service Delivery

This component describes the overall CBCC system, floor plan, and monitoring.

CBCC plans have already been validated by the World Bank and the Ministry of Education. Work on the first 4 daycare centers began in July 2021.

Describes the organization of CBCCs, including human resources, business model, and financial management. It explains the enrollment activities and the selection of beneficiaries. The role of project staff to provide monitoring and coaching in the workplace is also highlighted.

The component also describes nutrition advice for enrolled children, the establishment of a reserve fund to secure the salaries of health workers, and a communication plan to guide demand for services.

Component 4: Project Management, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination

This component entails three activities: Project Management and Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination. This includes hiring a Project Manager, detailing the commitment of the Implementing Agency staff on project activities, outlining potential research partnerships with local organizations, and describing the plans for monitoring and evaluation, and disseminating lessons learned.

2.1. Early Childhood Pedagogy and Child Care Consultant responsibilities

The ECCD expert is recruited for finalizing the operational guidelines of the CBCC’s and the curriculum training of all the CBCC staff, train and coach the CBCC staff and the CBCC’s supervisors who will ensure the supervision alone after the consultant’s end of the contract.

1. Finalize the operational guidelines & training materials for the CBCCs;

2. Draft and implement an education program;

3. Recruit a pool of Khmer trainers;

4. Finalize the training for the project team and CBCC staff

5. Participate in the recruitment of the CBCC staff;

6. Organize and deliver the training for the Pool of Trainers and co-animate the training of the CBCC staff with the trainers.

7. Is present in the CBCCs to observe the work of CBCC staff and practice with them in order to ensure the good application of the training – Organize on-the-job training, if necessary ; train, overview and support the CBCC supervisors in their coaching

8. Monitoring the CBCC quality service provided (complete checklist and regular CBCC report)

9. Finalize the full content of an electronic Learning Platform in collaboration with the contracted service provider (design and management of the digital app);

10. Support the Project Manager to the intermediate and annual report

11. Participate, if needed, in any exchange on early childhood organized by PE&D

Coordination and Reporting

The CBCC expert will work closely with the project manager and the CBCC coordinator recruited internally by PE&D. The individual shall report to the project manager.

The detailled ToR are available under the link. https://planete-eed.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ToR_Consultant_ECCD_CBCC_08-2021-FR.pdf

Qualifications

The candidate for the ECCD Expert position should have the following qualifications:

● At least, 3 years of studies with a diploma in Education sciences, Early childhood, neurosciences or psychology
● At least 3 years of experience working in or with daycare centers / or for early childhood development.
● Experience in adult training
● Autonomy, rigor and capacities of innovation
● Familiarity with the southeast Asian context in early childhood and an experience in implementing childcare programs in development settings would be assets.
● Fluency in written and spoken English. Khmer or French would be an asset.

Type of contract: long term consultant

Duration: 12 months

Monthly remuneration: 2000 USD + bonus according to family situation+ health and pension insurance + 1 annual plane ticket.

Arrangement for health and retirement insurance are under responsibility of the consultant

Location: Kompong Speu province with frequent travels to Phnom Penh. Due to the current COVID 19 epidemic and travel restrictions, the person may work from a distance the first weeks.

The Consulant will be awarded based on a quality-based selection.