Aide et Action (India)
Aide et Action (India), a Not-for-Profit entity registered under Sec 25/8 of the Indian Companies Act 1956 (corresponding to section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013) is a development organization, working in the field of education.
At Aide et Action (AEA), we work with the vision of ‘Changing the world through education’. Our mission is to ensure access to quality education for the most vulnerable and marginalised populations, especially children, so they can take charge of their own development and contribute to a more peaceful and sustainable world.
Our programs are managed through our Offices in Bhopal, Chennai, Guwahati, Gurugram, Hyderabad & Patna. The following requirement is being placed to meet the emerging needs of our organization at the Guwahati Regional Office level.
POSITION: Consultant - Best Practice Documentation Lead
 
NATURE OF CONTRACT: Short-service Contract
 
DURATION OF ASSIGMENT: The duration of the assignment is expected for 75 days from September 2023 to November 2023.
 
Terms of Reference for Documentation of good practices on Alternative Care in 5 North Eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam)
 
1.BRIEF BACKGROUND:
Aide et Action in collaboration with the State Child Protection Society, Assam is implementing a project on ‘Strengthening Alternative Care Reforms in Assam’ with the support of UNICEF. Under this project, a documentation of good practices on Alternative Care in 5 states of Northeast i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam is planned to understand feasibility of Alternate Care as per JJ Act 2015 and Mission Vatsalya guidelines. 
 
Concept :
One of the guiding principles of the care and protection of children under the Juvenile Justice Act asserts that a child shall be placed in institutional care as a measure of last resort. In this spirit, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Model Rules framed there under accord priority to non-Institutional care in the rehabilitation and reintegration of children through Sponsorship, Foster Care, adoption and After Care in a family and community-based alternatives for care. The non-institutional care shall be subject to eligibility conditions and procedure laid down in the JJ Act and Rules thereof.
The Mission Vatslaya aims to support children through following modes of Non-Institutional Care:
  • Sponsorship: financial support may be extended to vulnerable children living with extended families/biological relatives for supporting their education, nutrition and health needs.
  • Foster Care: the responsibility of the child is undertaken by an unrelated family for care protection and rehabilitation of the child. Financial support is provided to biologically unrelated Foster Parents for nurturing the child.
  • Adoption: finding families for the children found legally free for adoption. Specialized Adoption Agencies (SAA) will facilitate the adoption programme.
  • After Care: the children who are leaving a Child Care Institution on completion of 18 years of age may be provided with financial support to facilitate the child’s re-integration into mainstream of society. Such support may be given from the age of 18 years up to 21 years, extendable up to 23 years of age to help her/him become self-dependent.
As a part of the ongoing efforts of Aide et Action to strengthen alternative care reforms in the state of Assam, a documentation of the good practices on deinstitutionalization is being proposed so that these can be replicated in the target districts of Assam. This would further enable SCPS Assam to implement deinstitutionalisation as a strategy and strengthen family-based care arrangements in the state.
Identification and documentation of good practices on Alternative care will be done in five (5) North East states viz. Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam.
For the purpose of this documentation, we will remain confined to a few forms of Non-Institutional Care i.e. Sponsorship, Individual Foster Care, Group Foster Care and Alternative Care. The focus will be only on Government aided sponsorship and Individual, group and community sponsorship under Private-aided sponsorship and Foster Care of children that are above 6 years of age and Government aided After Care to children who are leaving CCIs on completion of 18 years and receiving after care support to become self-dependent.
To know more about sponsorship & foster care, please click the below link
More about Sponsorship & Foster care
 
2. OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF CONSULTANCY
 
(i) Conducting desk review to understand the implementation of Alternative care in 5 NE States and its position in the legal framework, covering:
  • Different kinship care practices/arrangements across the globe
  • Extent to which national or state legislation, policies and schemes recognize and support Alternative care.
(ii) Understanding the reasons and context in which foster, group foster, kinship care etc. are used as an alternative care mechanism for children, including:
  • Situations under which children are placed in foster, group foster, kinship care etc. 
  • Motivation of families/relatives/ institutions to become caregivers in Alternative care arrangements.
  • Participation of children, caregivers and any other stakeholders in decision making.
(iii) Understand the experiences of children and caregivers in Alternative care and the factors that influence these experiences, including:
  • Specific needs of children and caregivers in Alternative care
  • Impact of Alternative care on the overall well-being of children
  • Children’s relationship with their caregivers and family members and integration of children into the Alternative care family
  •  Willingness of child and caregivers to continue foster care and kinship care arrangement
  • Protective factors that can influence positive outcomes for children in foster care and kinship care
  • Challenges that children and caregivers face in Alternative care
(iv) Understand the experience of Care Leavers as beneficiaries of After care facility in Alternative care
  • Use of Aftercare scholarship for education, employable skills and placement, as well as providing them places for stay to facilitate their re-integration into the mainstream of society.
(v) Insights and recommendations for better outcomes for children in kinship care, identifying:
  • Gaps in the formal and informal support services available to children and caregivers in Alternative care arrangements.
  • Mechanisms and structures to be in place to support children and caregivers in Alternative care.
3.SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSULTANT/FIRM/AGENCY
With support of the Aide et Action Guwahati office, the Best Practice Documentation Lead will be responsible for the overall completion and delivery of the situation assessment and best practice documentation which will comprise of:
  • Detailed situation assessment of Alternative Care in 5 Noth East States.
  • Atleast two best practices documentation/ case studies on Alternative Care from each State.
  • It is suggested that study should capture following groups and sub-groups:
  • Families already providing Kinship Care and/or Foster Care
  • Families who have listed their names for fostering and/or sponsorship
  • Families that are capable of Sponsorship and/or Foster Care
  • Care Leavers who have received After Care support to become self-dependent.
  • State mandated Child Protection Structures (SCPS/DCPU/CWC)
  • Local governance units or Community Based Organizations (like Panchayats etc.)
In the best practice/ case study documentation, it is expected that the qualitative analysis of the perception, attitude, resistance, consequences etc. faced by the respondents in adapting Alternative Careare highlighted. Regarding preventive sponsorship, the queries for groups E and F should include current identification and support mechanisms with need for support in extending preventive relief to families or children in need.
4.FINAL OUTPUT/DELIVERABLES
  • Situation assessment report of maximum 30 pages excluding annexures.
  • Minimum 2 best practices (foster care, kinship care, group foster care, independent living, and after care) documentation from each States on Alternative Care. A total of minimum 10 human interest stories per states, and representation of all categories as mentioned above.
5.CONTRACTUAL ARRANGEMENTS AND SUPERVISION
The Consultant will be hired under Aide et Action terms of contract and supervised by the Program Manager of Guwahati Regional Office solely for the purpose of delivering the above outputs, within the agreed time frame.
6.PAYMENT & SCHEDULE
  • The consultant shall be paid a consolidated fee not exceeding INR 3,75,000/- (@Rs. 5000 per day) for this assignment. This is inclusive of field travel cost, data collection cost and all other expenses.
  • Necessary taxes will be deducted at source wherever applicable.
Payment Schedule
Tranche
On finalisation of:
Percentage to be released
1
Inception report comprising:
Detailed Methodology
Sample plan
Action plan
Report outline
50
2
Field findings and draft report with best practices documentation
30
3
Final report after incorporating all feedback and relevant suggestions
20
 
Payment will be made after submission of Task based invoice and work report duly signed by Programme Manager.
 
DESIRED COMPETENCIES:
  • This position is most suitable for a communication professional who has worked on children’s issues and is familiar with North East India context.
  • Master’s degree, preferably in mass media/communication/journalism/development related communication studies
  • At least three years of full-time post-study work experience in communication, preferably on child rights/children issues
  • Experience of analysing qualitative data
  • Excellent writing and editing skills in English
  • Basic photography and computer skills
TO APPLY: Aide et Action is an equal opportunity employer. Aspirants/firm/agency who have the relevant qualification/competencies and consider themselves suitable are encouraged to email their updated profile/CVs along with two work samples to recruit.guwahati@aide-et-action.org by 31stSeptember, 2023 with the subject line: “Consultant- Best Practice Documentation Lead”.
Only short-listed applicants/agencies will be contacted further.
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