National consultant to support strengthening the Social Service Workforce in Tajikistan, 48 w/ds, Tajikistan (for Tajik nationals only)

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For every child, the right to protection,

In Tajikistan, child protection services are minimal and poorly linked to basic social services. The statutory child protection workforce is virtually absent, with existing social workers focused mainly on social payments and elderly care, leaving children in vulnerable situations without specialized support.

Recently, the Government has begun modernizing the social protection system to better meet population needs. The adoption of the Social Protection Strategy 2040 and the State Programme on Social Workforce Development up to 2030 highlights this as a national priority. Central to these reforms is building a strong, well trained social service workforce with a clear mandate to identify, prevent, and respond to risks. Without such a workforce, essential services cannot reach vulnerable children, families, and individuals, regardless of other system improvements.

UNICEF Tajikistan has been working closely with the leading agency—the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population—and international financial institutions, including the World Bank, to strengthen the social service workforce. This has been achieved through policy advocacy, the development of mechanisms and tools, the creation of competencies and modules, capacity-building for social workers, and awareness-raising interventions to address the protection needs of children.

These interventions require further support to ensure that UNICEF’s contributions are sustained and that social workers are available at community level to meet protection needs of children. Such support includes liaising with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to ensure that the necessary evidence is generated, that relevant policies are developed in line with the Tajikistan context, and that training modules and curricula on child protection, case management, and family support are created and incorporated into government re-training institutions. It also involves building effective linkages between social services, h...