Ethiopia: Training Manual on Alternative Care of Children

CONSULTANT - CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Consultancy Title: Training Manual on Alternative Care of Children

Location: Eastern and Southern Africa Region

Contract Duration: TBD

Start Date: Immediate

Objective: The objective of the consultancy is to develop a training curriculum on Alternative Care to facilitate the capacity building of SOS staff, local partners, social workers and para social workers implementing activities related to Alternative Care in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Background:

The UN Guidelines on Alternative care for Children is the primary international umbrella document for working with children and young people that make up the SOS Children’s Villages target group. Understanding this key framework and its implications is crucial for the effective and quality implementation of our programs. Taking into consideration that alternative care within the region is mainly ad-hoc, uncoordinated and unsupervised, SOS CVI seeks to work with families, communities, governments and regional organizations to build their capacity to offer quality alternatives to children in our target group.

In support of this initiative, DANIDA CISU through SOS Denmark is funding the Community action for quality alternative care and protection programme in the 3 countries of Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania including Zanzibar. In accordance with SOS Children’s Villages International’s Strategy 2030, No child should grow up alone, the programme focuses explicitly on quality alternative care to children without parental care and on advocating for improved provision of appropriate alternative community care. A key aspect of the programme is Capacity development which is a precondition for the success of strategic service provision and effective advocacy. The intention is to;

1. Build professional and organisational capacity and skills among SOS staff to facilitate and advocate for efficient and effective alternative care and protection solutions in the communities.

2. Develop local core partners’ ability to mobilize the community and contribute to strengthening the community alternative care framework.

3. Develop the concept of para social workers by building the skills of principal and moral duty bearers (i.e. government officials and volunteers in the community) to perform their duties towards vulnerable children.

This consultancy is therefore expected to undertake the development of a training curriculum for both professionals and para professionals, informed by existing international and national legal and policy frameworks in the context of all the programme countries, lessons from other contexts and countries as well as available research, and in close consultation and coordination with the SOS national and regional teams.

Description of proposed activities & expected deliverables.

The consultant is expected to apply different methods of information gathering ensuring that existing experiences, knowledge, best practices and guidelines from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zanzibar and other countries are resourced to inform the development of the training curriculum.

Proposed Activities

Deliverable

Conduct desk/literature review

· Desk review highlighting key findings to inform and any examples of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), tools or training materials that can potentially be adapted from the 4 countries

Country level stakeholder Consultations

· Draft tool to guide stakeholder consultations

Meeting with national technical working groups on Alternative care where they exist

· Consultation workshop in each country with government officials at district and sub district level.

· Individual consultations with relevant representatives from Civil Society Organizations

Development of Regional training curriculum on Alternative Care

· First draft submitted to reference group that will consist of members from the regional PD team, IO, government representatives from the countries and the SOS national teams; edits incorporated into subsequent iterations.

· Final curriculum, for both professionals and para professionals

Supervision & reporting: The Consultant will be directly supervised, by Regional Alternative Care Adviser and will work in close coordination and engaging regularly with the SOS CV Alternative Care coordinators in the specific countries.

Qualifications: The candidate should possess the following:

• A Master’s degree in Sociology, Social Work, Child Rights, Public Health, or a related field. At a minimum a University degree in Social Work or related field.

• 7+ years of experience in programs focused on social welfare systems strengthening, OVC and/or child protection programming; experience with family strengthening programs, case management approaches and social welfare workforce capacity development preferably in the context of Africa.

• Demonstrated knowledge and technical capacity in child protection programming including an understanding of the issues facing separated children and families in vulnerable contexts;

• Experience in developing guidelines and manuals; ideal in alternative child care

• Experience working in partnership, leading multi-disciplinary teams in a productive manner, facilitation &consensus building skills. Ability to plan for and lead meetings, identify common goals and set and adhere to a shared vision and agenda. Ability to work with both government and non-government actors.

• Strong critical thinking and organizational skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English required. Track record of authoring or co-authoring gray and/or academic materials.

• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite, including Word and PowerPoint

Available Documents:

The person(s) carrying out this assignment must be well acquainted with the following key documents and reference has to be made during manual development process:

• Who We Are – Mission-Vision-Values of SOS Children’s Villages International

• The SOS Care Promise: Umbrella policy document for SOS Children’s Village International.

• Guidelines for The Alternative Care of Children: A United Nations Framework

• Moving Forward: Implementing the “Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children”

• Additional Approaches to Family Based Care (2009)

• Strategy 2030 of the SOS Children’s Villages Organisation

• SOS Children’s Village Manual

• Family Strengthening Manual (2007) and Policy Support Documents on Community Sustainability and Family Empowerment(Self-Reliance)

• Quality for Children - Standards for out-of-home child care in Europe

• UNCRC

• A Child’s Right to a Family: Position paper of SOS Children’s Villages International

• Child Rights Situation Analysis – Guidelines for National Associations

• The organisational structure and current programming of the respective National Association

• Advocacy and SOS Children’s Villages

• National Alternative Child Care Guidelines/Tools i.e. Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania

Application Instructions:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Technical proposal (maximum 3 pages) must include the following: (a) Capacity statement; (b) Proposed methodology – providing details to demonstrate clear understanding of the proposed activities and deliverables; (c) Details of the proposed numbers of days to complete each deliverable; (d) Work plan.
• CV including a minimum of 3 references
• Consultant’s Daily Rate (with supporting documentation)

Note: Please submit your application to: Eyob Berhanu Eyob.Berhanu@sos-kd.org by 19^th October, 2018.**