ITP322: Social Protection for Sustainable Development

CONTENTS

The programme will combine theory with practice to provide participants with the knowledge to strengthen a sustainable national social protection system. This programme adopts the Results-Based Management (RBM) model as the monitoring strategy that focuses on performance and the achievements of results. RBM shifts the focus from activities and outputs to outcomes and impacts. The core modules of the ITP will include training in seven main areas:

1. Rights-based and life cycle frameworks for social protection systems,
2.  The design and implementation of social protection systems to ensure social inclusion,
3. Strengthening developmental impacts by integrating inter-sectoral initiatives to multiply social protection impacts and support the SDGs (“Social Protection Plus”), with a particular focus on decent and productive employment,
4. Enabling social protection to promote gender equality,
5. Financing and co-financing social protection reforms, expansion and integration, and
6. Monitoring and evaluating social protection systems to enable evidence-based change.
7. Social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons from the global crisis.

In addition, the ITP will innovate specific modules and training components to support the specific change programmes identified by partner country teams and will include three cross-cutting themes – (1) gender equality; (2) good governance, anti-corruption and integrity and (3) environment and sustainability.

THE PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

The programme consists of eight phases:

Ethiopia:

Ethiopia’s ITP Change Programme, the Nutrition-Sensitive Social Protection Initiative, aims to reduce malnutrition rates by improving linkages between the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) and nutrition initiatives and other complementary programmes, including water and sanitation (WASH) interventions. The programme will involve strengthening inter-sectoral coordination, creating opportunities for asset transfers and building human resource capacity. The change programme will employ evidence building approaches that continuously monitor activities and results, with feedback loops that enable learning-by-doing mechanisms to refine the delivery mechanisms and continually improve nutritional outcomes

Kenya:

Kenya’s ITP Change Programme, the Family Resilience Initiative, aims to strengthen resilience in cash-transfer recipient households by extending developmental support to the youth in participating households. The programme will target children aged 12 to 18 years old in beneficiary families with support including improved education opportunities, asset transfers, training and mentorship, referrals and linkages to other developmental initiatives. The change programme will pilot the model intervention in a progressively expanding number of counties, employing robust evidence-building approaches to monitor and improve results continuously.

Uganda:

Uganda’s ITP Change Programme, the Integrated Programme for Increasing Coverage of Social Protection, aims to strengthen all individuals’ security and resilience to socio-economic risks and shocks. The objectives focus on expanding coverage of social protection programmes among three key population groups: older persons (sixty-five years and above), adolescents and informal sector workers. For older persons, the change programme will build political commitment, strengthen legislative mechanisms and build evidence to scale up the SAGE programme. For adolescents, the change programme will integrate services to ensure better educational opportunities for adolescent girls and livelihoods opportunities for young women. The change programme will also build linkages and innovate instruments to ensure the social protection system reaches informal sector workers.

Tanzania:

Tanzania’s ITP Change Programme aims to build the nutrition sensitivity of the country’s social protection system to reduce malnutrition for children under five years in the poor and vulnerable households participating in the Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) Programme. Capacity development initiatives will strengthen the capabilities of government institutions scaling up the existing Equity Nexus initiative providing PSSN participants access to community-based nutrition services. The programme will promote behaviour change communication (BCC) on nutrition and shared gender roles to improve the nutrition status of PSSN beneficiaries. The change programme will incorporate robust learning-by-doing evidence building approaches to continually improve the effectiveness of the government’s integrated nutrition initiatives.

Zambia

The Zambian Change Programme aims to reduce poverty and vulnerability through seamless Social Protection Services, including Emergency Social Protection during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this aim, the Zambia ITP focusses on implementing the Single Window Services (SWS) in the country to deal with coordination gaps. SWS provide a “one-stop-shop” approach in the delivery of social protection and social security programmes. The SWS strive to improve coordination between the local level (responsible for service delivery) and the central/national level (responsible for policy development, planning, monitoring, and evaluation).

TIMETABLE

WHERE:

The training course in Sweden will be held in Stockholm. The two regional phases, one week per phase, will be held in East/Southern Africa Region. If travel is restricted, courses will be offered remotely.

WHEN:

Phase 3: June 2021.

Phase 5: November 2021.

Phase 7: June 2022.

TRAINING/PEDAGOGICS

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ITP adopts an e-Learning approach and offers a flexible online learning experience. The conveners adjusted the ITP’s schedule, so the participants can learn at their own pace, set individual goals, and align mentoring sessions with the country-specific context and project. Through relevant design and effective delivery, the online programme builds upon the integrated collaboration of Sida, Arbetsförmedlingen, EPRI, and social protection experts to convey complex concepts in the most comprehensible way. With virtual workshops complemented by a rich set of interactive elements, online discussions, and participatory activities, the ITP aims to provide the participants with realtime, applicable insights.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

Sida has mandated Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service) and the Economic Policy Research Institute to organise and execute the programme. The programme will be executed in partnership with Försäkringskassan (The Swedish Social Insurance Agency), Skatteverket (The Swedish Tax Agency) and Pensionsmyndigheten (The Swedish Pensions Agency). All international and Swedish lecturers, teachers and mentors have extensive experience within their respective expert areas.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR CHANGE

Before applying to the programme, each applicant should consult with their employer to ensure the appropriateness of their role in supporting the aims of the social protection change programme in their country. It is essential that the participant’s organisation supports the medium-term change programme as agreed by the national ITP steering committee. In the application form, the participants will need to explain how their work can potentially contribute to the success of the medium-term change programme and the overarching development goals in their respective countries.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

INVITED COUNTRIES

The following countries are invited: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

TARGET GROUPS

This ITP aims to include government officials and others who work at a strategic level on change in their organisations and for the public good. Participants can apply from ministries, government agencies and departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Participants must be able to participate in the reform processes in the social protection sector in their countries. They should have the power and resources to initiate and implement development projects that result in change furthering the goals of this ITP.

Qualifications are university or other post-secondary education and relevant work experience. Participants must be officially nominated by their own organisations and in some cases by authorities. Nominating organisations and the selected candidates must ensure their commitment to participate in all phases of the programme. A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed by the participant’s organisations and the Economic Policy Research Institute.

In order for the participants to be fully dedicated to the programme, family members are not allowed to accompany participants to the programme.

LANGUAGE  REQUIREMENTS

The training programme will be organised and conducted in English. Participants are expected to make both oral and written presentations. Candidates from countries where English is not an official language should do a language test with an official body in their home country. Proficiency in English shall be certified on the Application form.

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS

Good health and full working capacity are conditioned due to an intensive programme and international travel. It is therefore recommended that candidates undergo a medical examination before filling in the Medical statement in the Application form.

VISA

When travel commences again, participants are responsible for obtaining all visas necessary for their journey and stay during the training programme. The visa should be valid for the whole period in Sweden, and the passport should be valid for three months longer than the entry visa.

INSURANCE

In case of travel, all participants are covered by group insurance while in Sweden and on organised tours during the programme including the initial regional seminar and regional follow-up seminar. This insurance includes costs for medical care in the event of acute illness or accident. Medical and dental check-ups are not included. This insurance does not cover delays, lost baggage, or theft of personal property.

COSTS

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) will cover all costs such as tuition fee, board and lodging (single room including breakfast and all other meals), roundtrip economy flight tickets between the international airport in the participant’s home country and Sweden and the location of the regional seminars, some activities and local transportation within the programme.

Participants must pay for all visa fees, personal expenses and travel to/from the international airport in their home countries. The programme does not pay a per diem to participants. Neither the organisers nor Sida will finance the participant’s change project.

If you are interested in joining the International Training Programme for your country, please visit Sida’s application portal. To participate in the selection process, you must submit an English language certificate, a medical statement, and a letter of nomination. In case of questions regarding the process, you contact us on itp@epri.org.za. 

We will not consider applications submitted after the closing date. 

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 7 April 2021

SELECTION PROCESS

We will notify selected candidates by e-mail starting May 2021. Once selected, the candidate must confirm participation. The organisers will send a letter of acceptance to your organisations. Both the selected candidate and their organisation must confirm the commitment to participate in all phases of the programme and to support the work for the programme for change. We strongly encourage women to apply for the programme and strive for a gender balance among participants.