Conducting Child Protection Needs Assessment

Terms of Reference
Conducting Child Protection Needs Assessment in the Gaza Strip- Palestine

Short term mandate – External consultant
 

Background

Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh) is the largest non-governmental organization for children’s aid in Switzerland. It undertakes to support the most vulnerable members of society through child protection and Justice for Children projects. Tdh has been implementing developmental projects and emergency relief programs in 34 countries and currently has operations in Hebron, Bethlehem and Gaza. Its Delegation Office is based in East Jerusalem. Tdh has been implementing projects in the Gaza Strip since 1984. Tdh has had uninterrupted operational presence since 2009 with major focus on child protection, juvenile justice, hygiene promotion and livelihoods. 

Funded by ECHO, a partnership has been established by three agencies: Action Against Hunger, Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) and Terre des Hommes (Tdh). Under the partnership, the three organizations are implementing a project entitled” Fostering the protection of vulnerable groups (IDPs, women and children, farmers in Access Restricted Areas (ARA)) in the Gaza Strip through a multisectoral approach integrating protection, emergency preparedness, and response mechanisms and evidence-based advocacy.” Generally, the project aims at improving the resilience of specific target groups in the Gaza Strip, namely, female headed households, farmers in the ARA and working children and their families. The project has a planned duration of 10 months (March 01st 2017 to December 31st 2017). Part of Tdh activities is conduct child protection needs assessment.

Objectives of the Needs Assessment

Currently, there is a limited availability of baseline and updated data on child protection in the Gaza Strip. UNICEF conducted a Child Protection Rapid Assessment in October 2014.  The focus of that assessment was mainly on identifying and prioritizing child protection needs during and immediately after 2014 war. According to lead child protection actors (UNICEF, Tdh, Save the Children) there is a need to conduct a follow up child protection needs assessment to identify and prioritize the current child protection needs in the Gaza Strip. The child protection needs assessment will aim to:

     Produce information on key risks and vulnerabilities faced by children and protective factors available to them
     Identify the most urgent child protection needs
     Determine the protection risks and needs for children of the Gaza Strip
     Gain feedback from Key Informants on the current Child Protection response
     Propose a coherent set of priorities for strengthening the current responses- including geographical and programmatic areas of priority, provide some knowledge of where the main information gaps are.

The assessment will focus on the existing protection and reintegration services provided for children in need of protection services: Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Police Directorate, Ministry of Health, Child Protection Probation Networks, Protection Cluster, and Child Protection sub-Cluster.



Methodology and Data Collection Tools

The methodology will be participatory and child protection based, looking at issues both from a child rights, gender, and equity perspective. The assessment may be undertaken by conducting:
     Desk review
     Field visits
     Round tables discussion policy makers and service providers
     Focus groups discussion with different targets, including children and their families and service providers
     In-depth interviews with service providers
     Key informant interviews, including with children and service providers
     Questionnaire, to collect quantitative data from children and their families

Data collection tools can include, but not limited to, Child Protection Rapid Assessment Toolkit that was developed by the global Child Protection Working Group. The external consultant needs to develop other tools to collect the needed data, as necessary.

Main tasks of the International Consultant related to the assignment

     Communicate regularly with the Tdh staff, namely Gaza Head of Office and Tdh Country Representative in a timely manner.
     Review documents provided by Tdh and other relevant stakeholders and take into account suggestions and comments made by Tdh and other relevant stakeholders and based on those modify and update content of the document.
     Deliver documents and other deliverables on a timely manner as will be agreed on
     Maintain a neutral and professional approach during the review process and during the overall course of the assessment.
     Based on the comprehensive assessment findings, provide a comprehensive report with clear recommendations to service providers, including relevant ministries

Estimated duration of the contract

The contract of the assignment should be for minimum of 1.5 months, preferable 1st August to 15th September 2017.

Qualifications and Competencies

Education: Relevant Master’s degree in Social Work, Psychology or Social Policy, Public Administration, law or other related technical fields.

Skills and Experience:

-    At least 5 years international experience in conducting assessments in the area of child protection in humanitarian and development contexts.
-    Demonstrate expertise and experience on conducting similar assessments.
-    Excellent analytical, oral and written communication skills in English.
-    Experience in monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
-    Proven experience in conducting assignments in complex environments such as Gaza Strip
-    Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
-    Demonstrated experience in report writing.
-    Knowledge of the Gaza Strip context is a strong asset.

Guidelines to apply

Interested candidates are invited to send Technical and Financial Proposals to:
 

[email protected]

By 22th July 2017, at the latest; in the cover letter, candidates should indicate the daily rate by USD.  Consultants shall not be entitled to compensation related to the costs of preparing the proposals.


Applications received beyond this deadline will not be considered.


The evaluation of proposals and selection of the consultant will be made using the Quality and Cost Based Selection, with a total score calculated out of 100%, of which 70% is the weight of the Technical Proposal and 30% is the weight of Financial Proposal.


It is the policy of the Terre des hommes Foundation to protect children’s rights which includes the prevention of child abuse in all forms; neglect, physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Thank you for your interest in Terre des hommes.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.