UN Partner Portal Call for Expressions of Interest (CFEI) Template

Support to the implementation of the 2021-2025 Kosovo Programme

By 2025, all boys and girls from conception to 10 years have access to and utilize quality integrated health, early childhood and education services and families are resilient and empowered to demand quality services in an inclusive care environment.

Project Location: Kosovo wide

Sector and area of specialization:

Early Childhood Development, with a focus on early childhood education and care, including inclusive early childhood education; maternal and child health; early childhood intervention; parenting support.

Project Background:

Early childhood forms a critical window of opportunity, where the quality of early experiences establishes the foundation for later brain development, behavior, and health throughout childhood and adolescence. A healthy start to life – enabled by access to quality health care, adequate nutrition, and a nurturing environment – yields significant returns for the individual child in terms of better health, sociability, improved capacity for learning, and enhanced future earnings as an adult. These returns are particularly significant for the most deprived and vulnerable children, who obtain the highest benefits from timely and quality ECD services.

That being said, available evidence shows a concerning stagnation in progress for key health, development, and education indicators for young children in Kosovo. Inequities remain substantial and have not decreased, disproportionately affecting children from vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly those from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities.

According to the 2020 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 16 children per 1,000 live births in Kosovo die before the age of five – the highest child mortality rate in the Western Balkans region and more than three times the European Union average. The data further show striking inequalities when it comes to children from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian minority communities, with an almost two times higher mortality rate – 27 children dying per 1,000 live births. The MICS data also reveal similar trends in immunization coverage; while 73 percent of all children are fully immunized, only 38 percent of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian children are fully immunized and thus protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. Inequities are also pronounced for key nutrition indicators: the proportion of children who are stunted under the age of five is 2 percent among children from the richest households and 9 percent among those from the poorest.

Opportunities for early childhood education and care are inexcusably low in Kosovo; by far lowest in the Western Balkans region- also in terms of attendance rates, where only 15 percent, less than 2 in 10, of children aged 3 to 4 years attend an early education programme. The most vulnerable groups in Kosovo are more often deprived of these opportunities, particularly children from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian minority communities (only 9 per cent attend any early education programme); children from the rural areas (8 per cent); children belonging to families from the poorest quintile (3 per cent compared to 42 per cent for those from the richest quintile), and children with disabilities.

MICS 2020 indicates that 3.5 per cent of children 2-4 years old have a functional disability in at least one of five domains. The percentage increases to 8 per cent for the age group 5 to 17 years (14 per cent for children of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities). The relatively high percentage of children with some form of functional difficulty in Kosovo points to concerns, especially when considering causes such as pre- or post-natal infant or maternal complications, insufficient early childhood education and care, and/or early exposure to adversities at home environment. This is confirmed by the strong social gradient, where, as shown above, the probability of having some form of functional difficulty is more than 50 per cent higher in children from ethnic minorities than in the general population.

Exclusion of children with disabilities is also perpetuated by the lack of a comprehensive policy framework and educational guidelines; non-inclusive educational environments, particularly in early childhood; limited-service capacities for the provision of inclusive education programmes; as well as limited availability of assistants and associated professionals for children with disabilities at facility and school level. As a result, only about 10% of children with disabilities manage to access the necessary services, as such health, education, and/or social services. Children with disabilities in Kosovo; therefore, constitute one of the most vulnerable sections of the population.

With the aim of addressing the remaining and emerging gaps outlined in detail in the previous section, UNICEF Kosovo will take a multi-sectorial approach to strengthening integrated early childhood development systems and services provided by those systems in Kosovo, mainly across the health and education sectors. This work will be supported through the existing civil society organizations (CSOs) that have experience in areas related to maternal and child health, early childhood education, early childhood intervention, Parenting support programmes, and early childhood development in general.

The direct beneficiaries of the project are estimated to be 70,000 children, girls, and boys, aged 0-5 years old, along with their parents. While the project at hand will take an inclusive approach to create a more equitable health care and education system for all young children in Kosovo, it will prioritize targeting the most vulnerable children, including those in economically deprived families; children from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian, as well as other vulnerable minority communities; and children with disabilities/developmental delays.

Expected Results

This partnership will contribute to the following UNICEF Kosovo programme results:

Outcome: By 2025, all boys and girls from conception to 10 years have access to and utilize quality integrated health, early childhood and education services and families are resilient and empowered to demand quality services in an inclusive care environment.

• Output One: By 2025, the Primary Health Care (PHC) system has increased capacity to deliver integrated and quality maternal and child health, nutrition, and wellbeing services, including early detection and interventions for children with disabilities, positive gender socialization and empower families to demand quality health care services.
• Output Two: By 2025, central and local authorities have strengthened capacities to design, implement and scale up quality, gender responsive early childhood and primary education services.

The Specific Expected results for this assignment are as follows:

1. The implementation of the Home Visiting programme is upgraded towards a progressive model, where more intensive levels of services are provided for at-risk children, including those with developmental delays and/or disabilities or exposed to maltreatment, and referral pathways are strengthened.
2. The Demand Promotion Plan for the three newly introduced vaccines (PCV, Rotavirus, and HPV vaccine) and the Routine Immunization is operationalized through rolling out activities, such as outreach campaigns, communication and awareness raising, including activities related to the education sector.Developmental monitoring and early identification of children with developmental delays is strengthened at PHC and ECE settings.
3. Family-centred early childhood interventions (ECI) for children with or at risk of developmental delays or disabilities are strengthened through the establishment of multidisciplinary ECI teams, including professionals from all relevant disciplines and sectors.
4. Strengthened capacities of service providers and administrators at ECE level for the delivery of quality early learning programmes in alignment with the new ECE curriculum and enhanced national frameworks and capacities for the implementation of continued professional development, quality monitoring and assurance in ECE settings.
5. Participation and engagement of children with disabilities in the ECEC settings is strengthened through the design and implementation of inclusive ECE models, capacity building activities, enhanced physical and learning environments.
6. Children with disabilities and their families will be supported with family and child-centred interventions that are targeted for their needs.

Positive parenting practices, with a focus on the most vulnerable families, is promoted through a wide range of parenting support interventions.

Other information

The UNICEF Kosovo Office has initiated this Call for Expression of Interest to identify CSO partners interested in collaborating and partnership to achieve the planned interventions on early childhood development, with a focus on early childhood education and care, including inclusive early childhood education; maternal and child health; early childhood intervention; parenting support, as specified above.

Partnerships with CSOs strengthen the capacities of national actors and communities to address development challenges in a sustainable manner and increase accountability of the civil society organization and other partners involved in the programme.

The transparent process will allow the identification of new partners or approaches; and for a comparative analysis of different strategies and costs to reach the desired results. Therefore, all CSOs with experience in the sectors and areas specified above are encouraged to submit a concept note providing a brief outline of proposed programmatic interventions to allow UNICEF to assess the potential for the partners to be included in the roster.

The concept note should provide a proposal of the intervention and summarize main areas of intervention. UNICEF especially encourages partners to highlight experiences in integrated and innovative approaches that support adolescents and youth in reaching their full potential through Mentorship and Training.

Required skills and expertise

• Relevance of the CSO profile to the 2021-2025 UNICEF Kosovo Programme, First Decade: Early childhood Development (Early childhood Education and Health) and to the achievement of the results outlined above.
• Registered and operational CSO
• Not be an entity named on any of the UN Security Council targeted sanction lists
• Have profile in UN Partner Portal.
• For CSOs not registered in UNPP, follow the link for registration

Request for clarification

If there is a need for clarification, please contact us at: prishtina@unicef.org

Consultation date: 18 October 2023 10:00am-12:00pm at UNICEF

Application deadline: 25.10.2023

Notification of Results: 15.11.2023

Attachments: Programme Strategic Notes (PSN) for 2021-2025 Kosovo Programme Document (KPD).

Is weighting relevant for the project: Yes

Selection criteria:

Sector expertise and integrated programme experience

Demonstrated experience and technical expertise of the staff on early childhood development, maternal and child health, early childhood education, early childhood intervention, and/or parenting support.

Weight of criteria: 25

Local experience and presence - Knowledge of the local context and challenges faced by the most vulnerable children - The CSO has already implemented projects in one or several of the identified areas and at the local level involving the most vulnerable children.

Weight of criteria: 25

Relevance of proposal to achieving expected results - Demonstrated strengths in results-based management - The CSO is promoting a results-based management approach, as reflected by recent activity results. Relevance of strategies proposed and innovative approach in view of attaining expected results.

Weight of criteria: 30

Project management - The NGO has the right expertise and institutional capacity to implement the project, respecting deadlines and ensuring the successful and sustainable implementation of the project.

Weight of criteria: 20

Link for apply: https://www.unpartnerportal.org/cfei/open/11936/overview