Closing date: 04 Mar 2016
Type of Contract: Plan International United Kingdom
Language: English (French, Spanish, Arabic is desirable)
Contract Length: 15 Days
Background:
Plan International is a non-religious, non-political and non-governmental child centered humanitarian organization, operating in 70 countries around the world and brings support to millions of children, their families and communities, in Africa, Asia, and South America. Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies, which respect people’s rights and dignity. Plan implements projects in child protection, health, education, water and sanitation, livelihoods, income generation, and cross-cultural communication including in emergencies.
Child Protection in Emergencies programming is intended to reach all children, adolescents, and youth – and often includes interventions up to age 25 and adult caregivers. However, in many responses practitioners often take a “bundled” approach, believing they will reach all children, adolescents, and youth through usual Child Protection interventions. Combined to this, there is a lack of gender analysis in the practitioners’ responses who fail to identify the specific needs of adolescent girls and boys. Practitioners often feel they do not have the:
Time or money to program specifically for adolescents who may need targeted activities to address their specific needs, especially in the case of girls’ needs (ex: reproductive and sexual health training, income generation activities, prevention of child labor/trafficking/recruitment, etc.).
Practitioners feel they do not have the expertise to design programming for adolescents’ boys and girls and feel they need “specialists” in order to develop specific interventions.
When practitioners take on a one size fits all approach, they often fail to meet the varied needs of adolescent’s in emergencies both girls and boys. Plan International has a unique opportunity to take the initiative in gathering evidence, building expertise, collecting lessons learnt, and to develop tools and guidelines to become a global leader in responding to the needs of adolescent girls and boys in emergencies. As such, Plan International has proposed several activities which are addressed by this project to improve knowledge and practice in adolescent in emergencies.
Aims of Consultancy:
In order to fill the critical gap and needs in terms of adolescent girls and boys in emergencies, Plan International needs to understand what this looks like, building from previous and current experience, learning from best practices and lessons learned collected from key stakeholders experienced in this subject and identifying Plan International potential added value in order to inform its emergency programmes and create technical guidance.
Scope of Work:
Under the guidance of Plan International the consultant will:
A) Conduct a broad mapping of the scale and coverage of adolescent girls and boys in emergencies programming with accompanying stocktaking report with the goal being to:
o What is understood as adolescents in emergencies programming in the humanitarian sector, what are their needs, and identification of gaps.
o Understand who the key actors are in adolescent programming (and specifically mapping key actors working on adolescent girls and boys programmes) and what do they do (types of activities, collect information on donors, staff structure, beneficiaries, partners, tools used, impact of interventions, etc.)?
o What methodologies (guidance, curriculum, manuals, tools, etc.) are available and used to work specifically with adolescents boys and girls and how these are adapted to working specifically (or exclusively in some cases) with boys and with girls
o How does the program identify participants (beneficiaries, volunteers, partners, etc.) and are there examples of gender based criteria used to identify the needs of girls and boys? Are these needs different and if so, how?
o How does the program ensure it is addressing adolescent needs? How does take into account and address specifically needs of boys and girls (impact evaluations, needs assessments, child participation, etc.)?
o What are the challenges to implementing a program for adolescents specifically? How these challenges are specifically applied to girls and to boys? Any lessons learned from past/present programs?
To conduct this report, the consultant will carry out desk review and conduct in depth interviews with key informants from Plan International and external stakeholders working in the field of Child protection and gender to better understand key aspects of programming, lessons learned and which areas still need attention – from a practitioner perspective (further research/evidence building).
B) Conceptualize what adolescents, especially adolescents’ girls, in emergencies means for Plan International, building on the findings from the above mapping. This should also include key recommendations for Plan International on next steps in operationalizing adolescents in emergencies programming.
Key Activities:
The consultant will be responsible for delivering on the following outputs:
· Develop a stocktaking tool for the mapping exercise: (1 day)
· A mapping (desk review) of program documents provided by Plan International (collected from Plan offices and partners prior to the consultancy) : (2 days)
· Desk review of adolescent girls and boys in emergencies programs, who are the key stakeholders (practitioners and donors), gaps, trends, best practices and lessons learned : (4 days)
· Develop questionnaire and conduct key informant interviews (internal and external) (Plan International, IRC, Care, Save, World Vision, Oxfam, etc.) : 4 days
· Based on the information gathered above (desk review, mapping and interviews), draft a stock taking report. This report should also include key recommendations and the conceptualization of what adolescents in emergencies programming means for Plan International : (4 days)
Key Products:
· (1) Stock tacking report on current state of scale and coverage of adolescent’s girls and boys in emergencies programming in the humanitarian sector. The report would also include key recommendations for Plan International.
Timeline:
The evaluation should be conducted within 15 days using the above-mentioned methodology. A draft report and presentation is expected two days before the final deliverable is due to ensure comments/edits are incorporated into the final report.
Selection Criteria and Submission Information:
It is expected that the consultant work together with technical experts within Plan International throughout the evaluation. It is understood that all data and information collected by the consulting team including final deliverables be submitted to Plan International upon the end of the contract before approval for final payment will be received. The consulting team will report directly to Plan International UK DRM Manager and the Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist at Plan International, and any guidance or support required will be coordinated through this contact.
The following criteria will be used to select the consultant:
· University degree in political science, sociology, international relations, anthropology, public administration, development studies, gender studies or other relevant fields.
· At least 5 years work experience in child protection in emergencies, both at conceptual and operational level.
· Experience in carrying out program evaluations and good analytical and report writing skills
· Experience in Emergency Child Protection (with particular focus on adolescent girls)
- A strong awareness of current issues in the field of gender and development/emergencies, and an understanding and familiarity with gender analysis approaches
· Fluency in English and any of the local languages spoken in the project locations is desirable
· High quality technical proposal submitted
How to apply:
The consulting team will be chosen through a panel of Plan International staff. All proposals should be submitted to:
Fabien Maitre-Muhl, Assistant Programme Officer, Fabien.Maitre-Muhl@plan-uk.org
Interested consultants must submit the following:
· Financial proposal inclusive of budget and detailed costs
· Work plan and proposed timeline
· Curriculum Vitae of lead evaluator
Submissions must be received no later than 4th March2016 and all members of the consulting team must comply with Plan International’s Child Protection Policy and accompanying guidelines/procedures:
Plan’s Child Protection Policy
Plan creates safe environments for children in all aspects of its work whether fundraising or program implementation, where children are respected, protected and empowered as their capacities evolve to contribute actively to the development of Child protection measures within Plan. Everyone who works with and engages with Plan has a responsibility to ensure that children are protected. Any consultant entering into agreement with Plan must adhere to its Child Protection Policy. All consultants visiting Plan communities must submit to a full background check.
Plan’s Child Protection Policy and Code of Conduct ensures that staff, associates, and visitors are clear about expectations placed on them to prevent and respond to child abuse and the consequences of failing to do so.
As such, Plan is requiring possible consultants to include ethical and child protection statements in their proposals detailing how such measures will be implemented during the data collection and assessment processes.