Resource Development Consultant: Evidence & Action for Children in Armed Conflict

Grave violations against children in armed conflict, including the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups, remains a huge protection concern in many countries in Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia. There is a strong relationship between the support a child received from their family and effective prevention of recruitment or reintegration into the home. Both prevention of recruitment and reintegration support require directly addressing the child’s role within the family and the community, including the support the child receives from their caregivers, the interest and involvement their caregivers show in their upbringing, and the guidance families can offer young people in managing social relationships. These all impact the individual and their sense of belonging in the community and contribution to society more broadly.

Through a two-year initiative funded by OFDA, IRC will build on existing research and previous programming to develop and pilot an intervention toolkit for caregivers to promote reintegration following child recruitment by armed groups, as well as conduct research to explore the drivers of recruitment, in order to ensure that children, adolescents and their caregivers receive the appropriate support to address these drivers and promote reintegration at home and in the community. The end product is a family-based intervention toolkit that can be used by practitioners in the field. The intervention will be piloted and tested in two countries.

The consultant will develop a parenting curriculum to support caregivers to protect children and adolescents (8-20 years) from recruitment and promote their reintegration following association with armed forces or armed groups. The curriculum will be rooted in research findings from formative research with adolescents and caregivers and build upon learning from IRC’s existing parenting programming, including our Families Make the Difference curriculum, Safe at Home in the DRC,the SAFE curriculum in CAR and Nigeria, as well as a desk review of other parenting programs from partner agencies. Modules will be adaptable to contexts, gender and age sensitive, and founded on a good understanding of the specific needs of caregivers, girls and boys at risk or returning from recruitment.

The consultant will also develop a subsequent training package, including Monitoring and Evaluation and supervision resources, to train pilot countries on community engagement, facilitation and monitoring of the parenting curriculum.

Scope of Work

The IRC seeks to hire a consultant who will review evidence and learning around parenting interventions and children associated with armed forces or armed groups (CAFAAG) and develop an intervention curriculum and training package. The consultant will:

·Review internal and external learning on designing and implementing parenting programs, including the evidence generated by formative research in phase 1 of the project.

·Conduct a desk review of existing parenting programs and resources that are currently used by other agencies.

·Participate in a remote validation meeting with the technical reference group, IRC technical advisors and field staff to review the formative research findings and receive input from Child Protection actors on the proposed curriculum. Feedback generated during this consultation will be incorporated into the design.

·Produce a concept note/outline for the intervention toolkit based on the desk review and formative research that can serve as the basis for a facilitated discussion with the IRC project team. The format and content of this document should be agreed between IRC and the consultant but could include: a draft outline or decision-making tree/flow diagram of the curriculum through which the intervention will guide parents and families; descriptions of tools based on the review of evidence and learning; and key questions/areas of concern that need to be worked through.

·Produce a draft of the curriculum based on the input generated during the consultation meeting. Share the draft curriculum with the IRC SPARC Project Team and integrate their feedback into the final draft.

·Share key components of the final deliverable with the SPARC technical reference group.

·Possibility for a second phase in 2021 to finalize the resource after piloting.

The consultant will be responsible for regularly consulting with specialist technical focal points from the SPARC project team (VPRU and Research and Innovation (R&I) team), as well as selected field staff, to ensure the intervention responds to the needs and constraints of programs in crisis contexts, such as limited timescales, and gaps in staff capacity and resources.

Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the deliverables described below. The due dates provided in the table below are tentative and based on the current project work plan.

Please highlight any necessary changes to the timeline within your application.

Oversight of Consultancy

The consultant will report to the VPRU Technical Lead, with administrative support from the Research & Innovation Research Coordinator. The VPRU Technical Lead will oversee, guide and support the consultant in his/her work under the consultancy. This includes, but is not limited to, recruitment of the consultant with support from the Research Coordinator, and review and approval of drafts and other outputs. The specific responsibility of the Research Coordinator is to authorize consultation hours and tasks, approve of deliverables, and coordinate between the consultant and the larger SPARC Project Team. Additional technical guidance provided by the VPRU technical unit.