Home-based: Developing a Toolkit and a Facilitators’ Training Programme / Manual with Children in Building Evidence and Informing Responses

ECPAT International is a global network of organisations working together for the elimination of the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in all its manifestations i.e., exploitation of children in prostitution, online child sexual exploitation, sale and trafficking of children for sexual purposes, sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism and some forms of child, early and forced marriage. The ECPAT Network currently consists of 125 members working at national and local levels in 104 countries.

The ECPAT International Secretariat coordinates the global work of the organisation and is based in Bangkok, Thailand. The Secretariat designs and implements global and regional level programmes, and undertakes programming, advocacy and research and facilitates a range of network initiatives.

Context of the Consultancy: 

Millions of children are exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation every year- in their family, their communities and online. Prevention programs and awareness-raising initiatives are numerous, but many appear to fail in effectively reaching children on their terms or recognizing their agency. ECPAT’s experience and recent research show that an in-depth understanding of the environments in which children live, informed by their own realities, is critical to developing effective strategies. A current, localized and in-depth understanding of their environments assessed through their own lenses is currently missing. This creates significant gaps in interventions designed by adults for children (and not with children) to prevent and address child sexual exploitation and abuse, the related narratives and ability to base programming, practices and policies on the intersections of children’s lives in their contexts, aspirations, challenges and respective rights. A key missing link is the experience and skills of children themselves. We desperately need to engage with them in analysing the problem and creating meaningful spaces so that they can influence strategies.

For the foregoing reasons, ECPAT International is currently implementing a project in South Asia that aims at empowering children by providing spaces to generate evidence, facilitate dialogues and influence strategies to promote a more accountable society free from child sexual exploitation. The project is being piloted in Nepal and Bangladesh with ECPAT International’s members, Children's Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN), Nepal and Association for Community Development (ACD), Bangladesh respectively, aims to support and empower children to lead, co-design and evaluate programs to protect them from sexual exploitation towards achieving deep transformative actions and meaningful child participation. It entails deep dive engagements with children over a period of time, to strengthen their capacities, and support them to conduct child-led peer-to-peer data collection, analyse the data, come up with recommendations and implement them. This is aimed at showcasing that engagement with children, through thorough qualitative processes and peer-to-peer approaches to co-design strategies can influence decision-making.

The project will challenge existing adult perception regarding the value of child participation and will aim to increase adults' awareness of the needs, opinions and views of children as well as their capacity to meaningfully engage in decision-making on matters affecting them and further demonstrate that such a process is possible, replicable, scalable, effective and has the potential for other multiplier outcomes interlinked with addressing sexual exploitation of children.

Objective: 

The objective of this consultancy is to work with ECPAT International and two members in Nepal and Bangladesh to develop a Toolkit for child leaders, a manual for adult facilitators, and a training of trainers course and manual to train these adult facilitators, for the purpose of engaging with children to inform strategies to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse through child-led participatory research processes. The project will support spaces and processes to co-construct with children more adapted approaches and narratives on the protection of children from sexual exploitation and abuse, reflecting children’s realities.

A group of child leaders (20 in each country) will be supported and trained to conduct participatory research with their peers to understand the drivers and manifestations of child sexual exploitation and abuse in their contexts, analyse existing responses and propose their views and recommendations to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse. They will also collaborate with and advocate duty bearers to ensure more sustainable engagement with children on these matters.

This consultancy will align with ECPAT International Child Participation Strategy and our existing Child Safeguarding Policy. It will also build on existing work and ongoing work of ECPAT International, in collaboration with key consultants to develop models and tools to

• Engage with children in an in-depth analysis of their contexts, including the gender, social norms and meta-norms influencing children’s lives today
• Work with adults to support more meaningful child participation by challenging adultism practices
• Diversify child-led advocacy activities on child sexual exploitation and abuse

These models are currently being developed and will be tested within this project and should therefore feed into the training programme for child leaders and related training of adult facilitators.

Expected Deliverables: 

A/ A child leaders’ toolkit / curriculum to inform strategies to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse through child-led participatory research processes

The toolkit / curriculum targets adolescents 13 to 18 years old, to prepare them to lead peer-to-peer participatory processes of action research, in a structured way.

Composed of up to 20 sessions, the toolkit/ curriculum should include step by step guidance with methodological notes, structured sessions with activities to be facilitated by previously trained adults facilitators to implement the methodology with child leaders. Sessions would include:

• Objectives and overview of sessions
• Instructions and methodological notes to be used by adult facilitating the sessions
• Details of activities to be conducted
• Resources sheets
• Tips for adaptation and alternatives to be considered (based on contexts; groups; genders etc)
• End of session; feedback and learning

The toolkit/ curriculum may include sessions such as (to be reviewed with the consultant)

Critical skills particularly when discussing issues of child sexual exploitation: 

• Care and protection: ethics, safety, safeguarding
• Self-awareness, management of emotions, problem solving, creative thinking, social responsibility etc
• Managing disclosures and peer support

A section to explore child sexual abuse and exploitation issues in-depth: 

• Discussing sexuality, healthy relationships and potential harms to children
• Understanding harms, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, drivers and manifestations
• Exploring safety, safeguards and protective mechanisms
• Analyzing our environments (integrating the methodology currently being developed within ECPAT- See B, Cislaghi & C. O’Kane)

Skills to conduct participatory action research with peers: 

• Engaging with peers to develop understanding of these issues in our communities
• Collecting data with peers in a participatory action research process
• Conducting participatory analysis of data
• Analyzing current responses and prevention strategies and their adequation with children’s lived realities
• Planning to disseminate evidence and findings, including to peers and to decision makers

Communicating and influencing: 

• Planning for influencing and advocating for change (integrating the methodology currently being developed within ECPAT- See Children’s Unite, H. Veitch and C. Cody)
• Advocating for sustainable, systematic engagement with children on these issues
• Effective media, communication and advocacy skills on child sexual exploitation
• Engaging in intergenerational dialogue and influencing on issues of sexuality and sexual violence (based on the methodology currently being developed within ECPAT- See K. Cheney)

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning: 

• Planning and implementing participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning

B/ Adult facilitators’ orientation manual to facilitate the sessions and support child leaders in implementation of the activities.

The manual is the ‘How To’ guide to prepare facilitators in their accompaniment of the child leaders that will be using the toolkit / curriculum mentioned under deliverable A). It will provide practical guidance on how to facilitate every session; how to position oneself as an adult facilitator to support children without intervening; key knowledge, skills and competences needed for the adult facilitator and technical resource sheets. This will be largely based on (but not only) the methodology currently being developed within ECPAT- See K. Cheney.

C/ Development of a Training of Trainers' manual and (online) delivery of a course for the adult facilitators who will support the children.

• A training of trainers' course and manual on how to train and coach the adult who will facilitate sessions with the child leaders. The duration of the Training of Trainers should be up to three days maximum.
• The TOT course would be comprised of technical exercises to put in practice key principles and approaches for adult facilitators to create the conditions for children to succeed in this project. Examples of sessions to include in the course cover how to challenge preconceptions and unconscious bias of the adult facilitator, and how to prepare adult facilitators to manage difficult conversations and disclosures.
• The course should include participatory exercises and tools to assess changes in knowledge and practices to ease the integration of measurement in the unrolling of the project by the adult facilitators
• Deliver the training programme to selected trainers through a series of online sessions for adult facilitators

CONSULTANT PROFILE: 

The consultant or (groups of consultants) need to have: 

• Demonstrated experience in participatory approaches with children and young people on issues of child sexual abuse and exploitation
• Knowledge and experience in participatory action research with children
• Experience in developing toolkits and methodologies
• Capacities to deliver training for adults, online and face-to-face
• High ethical standards

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 

• This is a home-based position using its own equipment. The consultants should be available for online calls including with different time zones in particular with Thailand where ECPAT International Secretariat is based.
• The Consultant is expected to act at all times in a manner consistent with the values of ECPAT International and in compliance with the organisation’s policies and procedures including Child Safeguarding Policy and the Code of Conduct.

How to Apply: 

Please send expressions of interest to vacancy@ecpat.org. 

• CV detailing relevant experiences and 1 or 2 relevant resources developed
• Financial proposal with clear daily fee in USD for an estimated approximate 20 to 25 days of work
• 1 page maximum proposition of outline for the child leaders manual

Mention in the subject header: Your name and “Participatory action research with children”. Please note that we cannot reply to all candidates, only those selected for interview will be contacted

Deadline: 31 March 2024