National Consultant for Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) Interoperability Enhancement at United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Duties and Responsibilities

• Background of the Assignment: The Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) in Kenya is a centralized, web-based platform designed to manage and track child protection data, aiming to support evidence-based decision-making and service coordination for vulnerable children. Its establishment aligns with Section 38(c) and (r) of the Children Act, 2022, which mandates the Directorate of Children’s Services (DCS) to maintain current records on child services and provide quarterly institutional reports. Despite its foundational role, CPIMS faces challenges in data quality, standardization, data flow, and resource availability, limiting its effectiveness in managing and responding to child protection cases.
• To address these issues, DCS is partnering with key stakeholders under the PLEAD II project—including UNODC, UNICEF, UNHCR, and the Joining Forces Alliance (JFA)—to enhance the system. The initiative aims to: Strengthen child-level case management and automate tasks;
• Harmonize case management forms to streamline workflows;
• Improve system efficiency by reducing redundancy in forms;
• Enhance data security and ensure compliance with protection standards;
• Enable accurate, timely reporting and analysis for informed programming and resource allocation;
• Facilitate data sharing among child protection entities; and Improve decision-making across national, regional, and county levels.
• Purpose of the assignment: The consultancy is intended to provide technical support for the assessment, improvement, implementation, and sustainability of the Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS), its Data Portal, and the associated eLearning platform managed by the Directorate of Children Services (DCS). The consultant’s role focuses on enhancing the system’s functionality, security, interoperability, and usage across all 47 counties, ensuring alignment with national child protection priorities, digital transformation strategies, and data protection legislation. While the consultant provides technical expertise, DCS will retain leadership in decision-making and coordination of government and stakeholder engagement through an established Technical Working Group. This consultancy is part of a wider initiative supported by UNODC, UNICEF, UNHCR, and JFA to strengthen Kenya’s child protection and justice systems through digital innovation and coordinated data management.
• Key objectives include:
• Enhancing CPIMS functionality for case management and data analysis.
• Strengthening interoperability with key government systems such as ESR, CCTPMIS, NICHE, ADOPMIS, CDMIS, JJIMS, NIIMS, judiciary systems, ODPP’s Uadilifu system, police OB, and CPIMS+/PRIMERO, among others identified by the Technical Working Group.
• Sustaining and developing the eLearning platform for widespread, ongoing capacity building.
• Providing ongoing technical mentorship and facilitating technology transfer to DCS MIS staff.
• Ensuring compliance with the Data Protection Act (2019), Children Act (2022), and international data privacy and child protection standards.
• Specific tasks to be performed by the consultant: Under the overall supervision of the Regional Representative in the UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA) and the direct supervision of the UNODC ROEA Head of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, and in close cooperation and consultation with DCS, UNICEF, UNHCR, JFA and other child justice actors, the consultant will perform the following substantive
• Duties and responsibilities: Development of an inception report The consultant will prepare an inception report which shall detail his/her understanding of the assignment founded on the terms of reference. The inception report will also provide detailed scope of the system audit as developed in consultation with all project partners, timelines and methodology to be applied for discussion with DCS and all partners involved in implementing this initiative.
• Conducting CPIMS Audit
• Conduct an evaluation of the CPIMS including a gap analysis, opportunities for enhancement as well as integration with partner systems and requisite infrastructure to maintain and roll out an enhanced system.
• The scope of the audit shall seek to meet the purpose of the assignment and be agreed upon in consultation with project partners. In addition, the scope shall include but not be limited to: Mapping and analyzing user experiences and requirements and identifying opportunities for enhancement such as unique identification of various subjects in the system.
• Information security risk assessment and review of internal controls and procedures including incident reporting, handling and system maintenance. 

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced university (Master or equivalent) degree in in Computer Science, IT, or Software Engineering or a related field is required. A first-level university degree in similar fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• Minimum of 5 years relevant work experience in Management Information System (MIS) development in Child Protection or criminal justice system, preferably with a strong understanding of child protection case management process is required.
• Experince with CPIMS or similar platforms is required.
• Experince in software development and system integration is required.
• Proficiency in Open Data Kit (ODK), Power BI, STATA, or SPSS is desirable.
• Experience in cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and system documentation is desirable
• Experience with low-resource/low-bandwidth deployment environments; mobile applications and open-source solutions; data visualization systems is desirable.