Organization: Terre des hommes Foundation Child Relief
Country: Lebanon
Closing date:
26 Aug 20181. Terre des hommes foundation
Created in 1960, the Foundation of Terre des hommes Lausanne (Tdh) mission is to come to the aid of children in need. It endeavours at all times to defend the rights of children, in times of war and natural disasters, or in less publicised situations of distress. Today, Terre des hommes Foundation is the largest non-governmental organisation (NGO) for children’s aid in Switzerland. Besides, Tdh has development projects and emergency relief programmes in more than 30 countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. This engagement is financed by individual and institutional donations. Over the last fifty years, Terre des hommes has developed in two core areas: healthcare and child protection. Every year, Tdh offers sustainable solutions and a better future for over one million children and their relatives by focusing on two levels:
- providing direct aid worldwide for children in need, whereby projects are carried out under our own management or in partnership with local organisations;
- as an ambassador for children’s rights in Switzerland and throughout the world, through campaigns that promote the fundamental rights of children or that denounce violation of these rights, in particular those contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN in 1989.
Tdh opened its delegation in Lebanon in 1977. After a few years out of the country, Tdh reopened an office in 2006 in South Lebanon to respond to the humanitarian needs generated by the 33-day war between Israel and Lebanon, and soon became the main child protection (CP) agency in the Southern Governorate.
Within the Syrian Crisis context, with a response being implemented since 2012, Tdh was able to provide in the past years a variety of services to the most in need population being both Syrian refugee and vulnerable Lebanese/Palestinian communities including Psychosocial Support (PSS) activities, case management, community based interventions around CP and gender-based violence (GBV), relief items distribution as well as capacity building of local government and civil society actors.
In the context of the Syrian crisis, Tdh has been implementing projects dedicated to Syrian refugees and host communities since 2012 in South Lebanon and since 2017 in Mount Lebanon and Beqaa.
Tdh is funded by the UNICEF Child Protection department, through a project entitled “Step Forward - الأمام إلى خطوة - Improved and equitable prevention of and response to violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect, including Gender-Based Violence, for children and women” from 1 March 2018 to 31 January 2019. In this framework, Tdh is providing a comprehensive package of services for vulnerable Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese children in order to enhance their well-being and to promote their social cohesion and resilience.
This project responds to two main outputs:
Output 3.2: Boys, girls and women at risk or survivors of violence have access to an integrated package of quality prevention and response services in most disadvantaged localities in Lebanon and Output 3.3: Children, families and communities in most disadvantaged localities have increased capacities to promote practices that protect them.
2. Background and Context
1.Child Labour (CL) in Lebanon
Child labor is one the most pervasive forms of child rights violations in South Lebanon, exacerbated by the effects of the Syrian crisis on refugee, displaced and host vulnerable families with limited access to livelihoods. In the South, in 2017 Tdh targeted around 300 children at high risk involved in worst forms of child labor, in Tyr and Saida areas. According to Tdh monitoring, 40% of them were engaged in agricultural work, 40 % were engaged in street based work and 20% were engaged in other type of work like working in a coffee shop, restaurants, and shops, or as a mechanic.
This research will put a focus on street children, as there are limited data available on this topic in South Lebanon but will also look in all forms of child labor in the South
The main literature resource on street based children is a research carried out in 2015 by ILO, SCI and UNICEF to assess the magnitude and profile of children living and working on the streets–– also known as street-based children (SBC). According to the study, there are four main driving factors that cause children to live or work on the streets of Lebanon: social exclusion, vulnerability of households, the influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon, as well as organized crime and exploitation of children.
According to this research, the type of work most prevalent among SBC is begging (43 percent), followed by street vending (37 percent). The remaining 20 percent of SBC are distributed over the seven other types of work which are shoe shining, labour services, portering, car windshield cleaning, scavenging, fortune telling, prostitution and infants carried by mother. Over two-thirds of SBC in Lebanon are male. Across regions in general, SBC gender reflects this division, except in Tripoli where 75 percent of SBC are male.
SBC originating from Syria amount to almost three-quarters (73 percent). Lebanese SBC made up 10 percent while the Palestinian SBC comprise of 8 percent. The remaining SBC are stateless or identified as other ethnic minorities residing in Lebanon, including the Dom, Turkmen and Arab tribes.
From a legal perspective, the Lebanese Penal Code criminalizes actions associated with begging, living and working on the streets. Law 422/2002 for the protection of children in conflict with the law and at risk also suggests that homelessness and begging are criminal acts.’[1]
Reports from Tdh field teams and protection partners operating in the South highlighted since 2016 the existence of concerning practices operated by municipal police officers towards children in street situations. Cases were reported of children being illegally detained in municipal premises and or being object of a variety of ill treatments such as verbal and physical assault, including head-shaving and beating.
The information gap concerns the need for specific data on the South and Nabattieh to inform programming, and which justifies for this research.
[1] UNICEF, 2012. Strengthening The Child Protection System In Lebanon.
2. Child Labour in Tdh Lebanon’s child protection portfolio
The project answers to the needs of the most vulnerable children. Child labor being one of the main concerns, since the beginning of its intervention, Tdh has implemented specific interventions to addres the specific needs of children engaged in labor, with a specific focus on street working children and children engaged in agriculture.
Tdh adopts a a three pronged approach:
- Working with the child: Provision of case management and referral to education (formal or non-formal), vocational trainings, mental health services, legal services, individual counseling, etc. In addition, children are provided safety tools to be protected during their work. Children and their families also develop a mitigation plan in order to identify, minimize and prevent any hazardous risks and discuss with the child and his family what are safety mitigation measures. In cases where
the family has not been identified, the child is referred to UPEL for further follow-up. The child is also involved in PSS activities, awareness raising through partners (on their rights, health and hygiene, risks for children working,…), and is also provided with a space where to relax.
Working with the family/ caregiver during case management and through the development of the mitigation plans. The family is also be engaged in positive parenting sessions
Working with municipalities and employers: Municipality officers are trained and then in turn raise the awareness of employers in order to improve the children employees’ working conditions.
A strong focus is set on supporting street based children in 2018. Tdh supports the local NGO Platform of NGOs of Saida in the setup of a Child Resource centre/ drop in centre in Saida. The drop in centre offers a space place for children in street situation to benefit from more dedicated care.
3. Objectives and expected results of the consultancy
To address the situations of working children, in particular those engaged in the Worst Forms of Child Labour, it is important for the Tdh delegation to know more about: the children themselves, the work they perform, the context in which they do it and how and why they came to this work.
The main objectives of the consultancy are:
To have a better understanding and analysis of the needs and dynamics in terms of CL in South Lebanon and Nabattieh – refer to section 4- Methodology for details
That subsequent findings and recommendations provide a basis for formulating action-oriented strategies and interventions
4. Methodology
It is agreed that a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches best lead to an understanding of child labour, complementing one another in interpretating a complex reality.
Tdh’s primary target group is working boys and girls. The study will address all type of work, with a specific attention to the working children involved in WFCL and more specifically the hazardous forms. Due to the link between juvenile justice and child labour, children at risk of being in contact with the law, and children who have been in detention and subsequently returned to their communities will also be considered.
It will be required that data are analysed taking into consideration nationality, age and sex where gender differences shall be accorded a place in both data collection and interpretation. A limitation, worth to note, might be some geographical/occupational mobility that would need to be taken into consideration. The report will also provide a categorization per industry/occupation/region/workplace/school.
A strong participant engagement will be expected including direct observations on the work place when possible, Individual interviews and conversations with the target group and key informants and focus group discussions, while incorporating other modes of data collection when required. The following target groups for FGDs and semi-structured interviews are recommended:
a) Children (both at-risk of working and working) and their parents/care-givers[2]
b) Governmental authorities: MoSA, MOI, municipal police
c) NGOs and UN organizations at local and national level: Platform Saida, ILO, Unicef, IRC
d) CBOs and community leaders (sheiks, teacher, etc.)
e) Employers and trade unions
Specific tools will be developed for each target group, ensuring that contents of tools enable triangulation of perspectives.
Availability of working children will be limited and will need to be well factored into the assessment timetable. Their identification will be facilitated through Tdh local partners already present on the field and/or through local organizations and through snowball sampling methods. Interviews and other discussions will also be organized in the premises of those organizations. Tdh team will also brief the consultant on which goals and objectives related to this assessment to share with the children, their families and the local authorities. Consent of the parents and of the children will be mandatory before conducting any data collection activity with them.
One objective being potentially to use later on the results of the assessment for awareness-raising purposes, the consultant might want to ensure the involvement of the parents, community members and youth throughout the process.
The research will be guided by the following ethical principles and considerations:
- · The consultant must respect the privacy of the persons met and seek their informed consent to participate in the research
- · The consultant must consider the level of vulnerability and protection status of the research targets and adapt their questions and attitude accordingly
- · Tdh has ‘the best interests of the child’ as its central theme of the research. This is to be interwoven into all aspects. If during the process the consultant becomes aware of a child in need of protection and/or assistance, ‘the best interest of the child’ takes precedent over the desired outcomes of the consultancy. This consultancy should not put any child in danger by involving him/her of parents in the assessments; and if a request is made for assistance or the consultant recognizes a risk, the appropriate resource agencies will be activated to assist the child when possible
- · All participants, both adults and children, will be asked to provide informed consent before participating in this research, and the information they provide will be treated confidentially (i.e. the no identifying information will be revealed in the report).
Location
The assessment will focus in the areas of Tyre and Saida in South Lebanon and Bint Jbeil and Nabatieh in Nabatieh Governorate.
The assessment will look at the following elements:
The working children:
- · Determine the locations with highest concentration of working children, with a focus on children in street situation
- · Make an estimation of the number of children working in worst forms of child labor.
- · Identify their age group
- · The causes and the pathways into child labour (push and pull factors)
- · The actual work that boys and girls do (type, location, number of hours, rates of pay, distance work/home- transportation issue), including some forms of hidden child labour have been identified in the concerned areas (i.e.drugs trafficking, forced recruitment for terrorism, sexual exploitation)
- · Their living and working conditions and the ones of their parents/care-takers, their socio-cultural context (considering the gender roles)
- · Their own perceptions of their work situations, their employers and the consequences on their work on their lifes
- · Whether some working children also attend school and their attitude towards school, their feelings about the schools on the areas assessed, level of school reached, reasons for leaving school
- · The availability and accessibility of the schools and resources
- · Whether, among those who do either work or attend school, how the choices were made and why, who made them, and whether subsequently the children are happy
· Whether the children working have been facing some issues with the justice already and what is the potential risk of eventually (re-)entering a labour situation
· What are the potential health issues associated
More specifically the detailed data to be collected can be found in annex 1
His/her family/care-givers:
- · Their migration history, if they work or not and the reasons/causes
- · Number of family members
- · The perceptions of the parents in terms of child labour and the causes for sending their children to work
The employers of the working child:
- · The perceptions of the employers regarding child labour
- · The relations of employers with working children and their parents
The environment and the communities:
- · Identifying local organizations that are in the areas and could work on child labour (for a further partners assessment done by Tdh later on)
- · Level of security, safety and acceptance
- · The roles of local authorities with regards to the employement and lives of working children in the concerned areas
- · What are the protection measures and mechanisms in place in the areas, what are the strengths and weaknesses ? Identification of previous projects in the concerned areas, their acceptance by various stakeholders and their impact
[2] When collecting information with children, the consultant will make sure to adopt methodologies which limit the risk of revictimizazion, adopt a do no harm approach and limits risk of bias and that both the parents and children agree and give informed consent for the child to talk
5. Deliverables: consultancy report
An inception report with the reviewed methodology, early elements from the desk review and data collection instruments
A consultancy report, without annexes shall be submitted to the Programme coordinator one week after the field work.
This report shall include at minimum and not exclusively:
- An executive summary (max. 4 pages)
- An automatic table of contents
- A list of annexes, glossary, tables, figures, pictures, graphs, maps, bibliography, annexes,…
- An introduction
- The presentation of the methodology, scope and limitations
- A background chapter (short)
- The main findings (including disagregrated data and qualitative data from interviews and FGDs)
- Detailed recommendations against the main objectives of the consultancy to support in building a Tdh strategy on child labor
- Conclusion
- Annexes: all tools, bibliography…
The report shall be written and submitted in English. The assessment will aim to reach actionable conclusions and interpretations using the SMART criteria making a full use of all the data collected.
6. Modalities of the consultancy
The consultancy will be conducted by an external consultant who will be supported by a Tdh recruited team composed of 1 assessment team leader and 2 data collectors, as well as 1 or 2 interns.
The consultant will be responsible for the entire assessment process:
- · Desk review
- · The development of the methodology, based on the methodology and tools developed by Tdh and UNICEF, the update of the research tools and their field-testing, based on tools previously developed by Tdh and UNICEF
- · Providing advice to the data collectors teams (1 team leader, data collectors, interns) which will have been recruited by Tdh beforehand
- · Organisation of meetings with INGOs
- · Drafting the report
- · The consultant will not have to go himself/herself to all locations but would need to oversee the entire assessment process ensuring the technical quality of the assignment. Likewise, once the interview settings have been established, the consultant will not be obliged to be part of all FGDs and interviews.
The Tdh assessment team will be composed of 1 national assessment team leader and 2 data collectors/encoders for supporting the data collection and entry, translation, supporting for the visits with national and local authorities and logistic arrangements.
The main focal point will be Ms Sophie Coelho, Program Coordinator. The secondary focal points will be Ms. Rawia Abadi, MEAL manager. Manager for methodologies and data entry and Ms Fatmeh Ardat, South Area Manager for the coordination with families and children.
Technically, the consultant will also have skype calls with the Child Labour Technical Advisor at HQ, the Regional Child Protection Advisor and the HQ Quality and accountability advisor to discuss and approve the methodology and the main aspects of the assessment.
In addition, the Child Safeguarding Policy (CSP) Focal Point will also ensure to give a briefing to the consultant and to ensure the respect of the CSP policy and the confidentiality throughout the consultancy.
Transportation will be organized to the consultant and translation will be done by Tdh staff. The movements of the assessment team will need to be well planned by the consultant upon arrival and discussion with the team while considering enough flexibility.
Hotel accommodation will be ensured by Tdh. The security context is calm in Lebanonand there are no particular risks for the consultant to conduct the assessment in the concerned zones and on the concerned forms of child labour.
4 days : Skype briefing, desk review of the available documents (project and reports) that could be informative for the consultant (see Annexes. The literacy about CL is really vast and a good priorization will be required. Review of Tdh proposed methodology and tools – submission of revised methodology to Tdh with the inception report. Home based.
(3 days):Review and validation of inception report by Tdh.
1 day: Travel from home to Lebanon, from Lebanon to home. Travel.
2 days: Workshop with the national team, confirmation the set-up of the national team supporting the consultant, training on the questionnaires for the data collectors. Tyr.
2 days : Meeting with the national stakeholders and International Organizations. Tyr, Beirut.
10 days : Field visit to assess pre-identified areas, support team in data collection and meeting with stakeholders including consultations.Validation workshops with key stakeholders. Tyr.
Tdh Data encoders to finalise any data entry if required
5 days : Report writing. Home based.
(7 days):Review by Tdh
1 day: Review of the report after having received Tdh’s feedback. Home based.
25 days: Total
Tdh feed-back will be sent to the consultant 7 days after the written confirmation of the report’s reception.
The workplan may be subjected to some adjustements according to the needs of the consultancy
7. Period, duration of the consultancy and tentative workplan
The consultancy will last 25 open non consecutive days and should start around 15 September and be finalized by 15 November. The data collection team will be recruited in time for this consultancy by Tdh.
The proposed workplan of the consultancy is as follows:
- Desk assessment of the available documentation on the current activities and projects implemented (from Tdh and online), identification of the methodology, development of the tools and review of the action plan. Reading of available reports on the subject.
- Field visit in Lebanon : meeting and interview with key Tdh staff, with external stakeholders engaged in CL, local authorities, local associations, target group, review of the questionnaires, confirmation of the national team set-up, training and overview of the team
- Preparation of the draft report and revision process
- Finalization and submission of the final report **
Tdh feed-back will be sent to the consultant 7 days after the written confirmation of the report’s reception.
The workplan may be subjected to some adjustements according to the needs of the consultancy
8. Terre des hommes Child Safeguarding Policy
Tdh Lausanne commits to best practice in Child Protection in the implementation of its projects, following its own Child Safeguarding Policy. Besides, in the event of partnering with local organizations, Tdh Lausanne ensures that they also develop and apply a Child Safeguarding Policy. In this framework and provided that the volunteers will be in contact with Tdh partners and beneficiairies, they will be requested to sign and follow Tdh Child Safeguarding Policy and will therefore be briefed accordingly.
9. Budget
The total cost of the consultancy should not exceed 12 500$, including consultancy fees, per diem, international flight ticket (if any) and accomodation.
Tdh applies its own consultancy rate of $ 420 per day, to be added to perdiem ($24 per day) during the field visit only. Accomdation should be managed by the consultant.
Tdh shall provide the consultant with on site transportation (including airport transfer) and translator if required, as well as an assessment team of 3 staff. Quantitative data encoding can also be supported by Tdh Lebanon MEAL team. The visa process will also be managed by Tdh.
10. Profile of consultant
Ø Proven technical knowledge and expertise on child protection and on Child labor
Ø Proven research and analytical skills, experience in leading situation analysis in NGO sector, in humanitarian and development contexts. Knowledge of the Syrian crisis preferred
Ø Experience with both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods in the frame of humanitarian and development projects
Ø Experiencie in using child- friendly methods, Child-friendly behaviour, language and a gender-sensitive approach
Ø Experience in leading an assessment team and of organizing their work
Ø Practical, flexible, structured and organized – excellent planning skills
Ø Excellent interpersonal communication skills Good listening and interviewing skills, be open to ‘unheard voices’, be friendly, non-judgmental and patient
Ø Excellent writing and reporting skills
Ø Excellent knowledge of English; Arabic would be a strong asset and highly prefered (a translator shall be provided if needed)
Ø University degree on social sciences or assimilated
Additional requirement:
Ø Clean Police background record
Ø Acknowledged similar consultancies with recognized organizations
How to apply:To be considered, interested and qualified consultants must submit the following documentation:
Curriculum vitae (max. 3 to 4 pages highlighting work experience and qualifications relevant to this evaluation)
Full contact details of at least two references from among recent clients
One sample evaluation report highlighting experience relevant to this evaluation
Financial offer
A technical offer comprising:
o Understanding of the objective of the assessment and the Terms of Reference (ToR);
o Outline of the methodology and tools proposed;
o A chronogram showing details for the realization of the assessment. The schedule proposed should include time for briefing and debriefing at the mission, and at Head Office as far as possible.
Please send your applications to Ms. Sophie Coelho: sophie.coelho@tdh.ch
Deadline for submissions is 26 August 2018 (COB, Lebanon Time). Only applicants submitting complete applications will be considered and only those short listed will be contacted.
