Child Education and Welfare Centre’s Communication – Dadaab – Save the Children

1.0 Introduction: Save the Children has been providing child protection services in Dadaab for over seven years and has a well-established operating platform within the camps in Dadaab.

The project has been partly supported by (Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration (BPRM) to cover implementation across four camps in the refugee population till December 2015, when exit from Hagadera reduced this scope to 3 camps: Ifo main, Ifo 2 and Dagahaley.

The project’s goal has been to increasing the protective environment of children in the refugee and host community through provision of comprehensive child protection services to vulnerable children and their families.

2.0 Project Background: Save the Children with funding support from BPRM has since 2012 been implementing an annually funded child protection project in Dadaab refugee camps (Hagadera, Ifo Main, Ifo 2 and Dagahaley) and the host communities.

One of the strategies used in the project has been the setting up of Child Friendly spaces to provide children with safe areas to play learn and interact with each other while in the camps.

Over the years the child friendly spaces have been reviewed to incorporate an education component, leading to their review into Child Education and Welfare Centres (CEWCs).

The CEWCs have incorporated a range of services including educational, recreational and psychosocial support, dubbed the Desert Flower Strategy.

Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) are one of Save the Children’s key programmatic interventions to protect children from physical harm and psychosocial distress and to help them continue learning and developing both during and after an emergency.

In Dadaab, CFSs were established in 2007 as core Child Protection activities and were primarily used as safe recreational spaces for boys and girls. Over the past few years, CFS activities were expanded to include counselling, life skills training activities and children’s clubs.

As the child protection programme expanded and conditions in the camps evolved, the CFSs faced challenges in maintaining their relevance.

The original role and mandate of the CFS as being a rapid emergency Child Protection intervention was no longer appropriate, and needed to evolve with the context of long-term displacement, whilst also providing the necessary immediate psychosocial support for new arrivals.

A new strategy called the “Desert Flower”, which incorporated more structured activities, including early childhood education and development (ECDE) classes, accelerated learning programmes, and vocational and life skills training for older children was initiated.

Efforts have been ongoing to integrate psychosocial activities with education and literacy based initiatives referred to as Accelerated Basic Education (ABE) initiated through UNICEF funding and Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD).

In addition, and important to the strategy, is entrenching a sustainability component which has been done by establishing and supporting community based CEWCs to take a lead role in facilitating activities and overseeing management of the centres.

The Desert Flower Strategy, being a component of the child protection project in Dadaab contributes to the overall goal of the child protection programming for Save the Children.

It directly supports the project’s commitment to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of community-based structures, and ensuring that children have the skills and psychosocial support needed to foster their active participation.

In the period that the project has been operational, Save the Children has continued to build upon the work achieved each year to expand access to services for children, improve the quality of services and strengthen the capacity of government and community stakeholders to assume the responsibility of protecting children.

The overall Child Protection project objective is to promote children’s healthy growth and development through psychosocial support, enabling children’s participation, greater inclusion of children with disabilities and targeted programming for out of school adolescents.

3.0 Purpose and Scope of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy service is to document children’s and community voices in demonstrating the importance of community led initiatives for the wellbeing of children.

This will be done through developing communication materials (documentary and assorted IEC materials) on the Desert Flower strategy and how it is contributing to child wellbeing.

This will enable Save the Children to communicate to external audiences on innovative initiatives that can be replicated in other contexts to provide integrated services to children.

Further it will also be an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of community actions on child protection and wellbeing.

The following is the key focus of assignment.
Develop a story line / script around the Desert Flower strategy activities to inform development of the documentary content
Through a community and child participatory process, collect and document messages and photo stories that will be used to design materials communicating various aspects of child protection and wellbeing interventions.
Design various IEC materials around the messages generated in the participatory process.

4.0 Conducting the Assignment
The consultant will work closely with the project team in planning and executing the task.

Save the Children expects that consultant will
Develop a detailed work plan for executing the various activities expected in the assignment’s scope.
Ensure a child focused approach in collecting information required for the assignment.
Undertake the assignment while providing supervisory oversight to all aspects of the assignment.
Present drafts at Save the Children (SCI) country office in Nairobi to an audience incorporating SC country and regional office staff.
Compile and submit the final materials incorporating the feedback forms from the SCI team.
The consultant will develop and share a proposed work plan as part of the bid submission.

The proposal should incorporate a suggested layout of the final communication materials.

5.0 Deliverables

The Consultant shall be expected to deliver:

a) Documentary depicting the Desert Flower strategy (10-15 minutes clip and a three minute web- version)

b) Personal human interest stories that can be captured in 3 to 5 minute clips to demonstrate impact of interventions to particular children or families

c) Capture or edit available case studies and present them in various communication materials
Booklets
Posters
Children’s photo albums
The consultant shall be expected to present the final communication material in both soft and hard copy.

Intellectual property rights: All documentation related to this assignment shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Save the Children International.

6.0 Timeline
This assignment is expected to take a maximum of 30 days commencing in April 2016.

The final products (Deliverables) after incorporating feedback from Save the Children will be submitted to Save the Children within the stipulated timeline.

The consultant is expected to submit a work plan indicating timelines of each activity to be discussed and agreed with the SC project team.

7.0 Qualifications
The lead consultant must have a Post-graduate or first degree in Communication or related field – experience in documentary production and print media with considerable experience working within the NGO advocacy context.
Sound and proven experiences in similar assignments
Fluency in English and Kiswahili is essential, knowledge of Somali language will be an added advantage.
Demonstrated experience in use of child friendly and participatory methods of conducting interviews, research and evaluations.
Excellent analytical, organizational, facilitating, presentation and communication skills.
Previous experience in working or delivering similar assignments in a refugee camp or emergency contexts will be an added advantage.

8.0 Conditions of Work
The consultant shall submit to Save the Children a technical and financial proposal through the email address provided.

There will be administrative and logistic support provided by Save the Children regarding transport costs from Nairobi to field, accommodation and meals during the period of stay in Dadaab.

The consultant fee payment will only be made after the assignment deliverables have been assessed and approved by Save the Children.

a) Logistics: contracted consultancy firm will be expected to use their own vehicle, computer, and filming and photography equipment. ; take responsibility for printing/photocopy services and accommodation for the consultant team involved in the communication material production process and cover their per-diem while in the field.

b) Tax and insurance: Save the Children will deduct withholding tax as per the Kenyan withholding tax policy.

c) The consultant will be required to abide by Save the Children International security procedures and rules in place for staff. While in the field, the consultant will be provided with security briefings from the field security focal person.

e) Contract: a contract agreement will be signed between the consultancy firm and SCI immediately after completion of the selection process. Communication material production time is effective from the date the agreement is signed.

All interested Individuals/firms are requested to submit their application following the EOI format ONLY (CLICK HERE to download) , by email to: Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org with a copy to caleb.odhiambo@savethechildren.org by 8th April 2016 indicating the assignment title on the subject line.

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