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Home-based: Consultancy Sexual Exploitation of Children in Sport Settings

Request for Proposals: Consultancy - Sexual Exploitation of Children in Sport Settings

March - September 2024

Organisational Context: 

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 such as early and forced marriage. The ECPAT Network currently consists of 125 members working at national and local levels in 104 countries. Our strength lies in the diversity of our membership, collectively and individually working to address the issue. From large national coalitions to small grass-roots initiatives, we are committed to bringing together a broad range of expertise and perspectives to unravel the web that perpetuates this abuse.

The ECPAT International designs and implements global and regional level programmes, and undertakes programming, advocacy and research and facilitates a range of network initiatives.

Child protection for Children affected by sexual exploitation & Abuse in Sports in Global South: 

Organised sport (here, ECPAT means amateur sport, school and community-led sport, support role in sport (like children collecting balls in tennis tournaments), e-sport and new ways to understand sport in gaming context, competitive sport, elite sport and large events bring children and youth together, like Olympic games, world cups, and national school tournaments) plays an important role in the lives of hundreds of millions of children and young people across the world, from those engaged in school or community-level teams, to those who are elite athletes. In many contexts, sport settings represent spaces and opportunities for children to be protected, develop trust relationships with their peers and educators, avoid involvement from violent activities in their communities, develop skills, maintain a healthy lifestyle, socialise, realise their rights to play, recreation and leisure, focus and balance mental and physical health, take part in rehabilitation, and to engage on issues via sport. However, for some children and young people, sport settings can bring violations of their rights with experiences of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse and exploitation.

Although there is an abundance of anecdotal evidenceabout safeguarding concerns in sport, strong qualitative and quantitative research on the topic is relatively scant. Studies and investigations often relate to only a specific sport. There is a growing momentum in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to monitor the situation, advocate for bold changes, empower survivors and develop preventive and responsive measures to address the issue. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case in the Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. However, anecdotal evidence and recent cases broadcasted in the media from developing countries suggest a situation of serious concern. Prevalence rates of sexual abuse in sport at global, regional, and national levels in countries of the Global South are largely unknown, revealing a lack of systematic attempts to gather evidence to drive change at policy and practice level.

There is an urgent need to systematically evaluate and share lessons learned on the effectiveness of the interventions that have been taken or are being promoted to safeguard children and young people in sport. Promising practises in the development of safeguarding policies and accountability systems can shed light on the way forward. The report of the Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children included 12 recommendations to States and 11 to sporting organisations, but no organisation is monitoring their implementation. There is concern for a lack of robust evaluation of child safeguarding policies in sport by independent national governing bodies (NGBs) as well as a lack of transparency and information-sharing with the research, sports- and wider community.

Objective of the Consultancy: 

As a civil society movement, ECPAT International wants to learn from existing experience of civil society organisations around the world in combatting sexual exploitation of children in sport setting in order to mobilise a bottom-up approach to further promote civil society engagement in this area.

Expected Tasks: 

1. Collecting experience, learning, models and tools experienced or witnesses by civil society organisations (local, national, international) in addressing sexual exploitation of children in sport setting

  • Validate with ECPAT a list of guiding questions for the overall consultancy, building on the following list:
    • How CSOs have so far engaged on safeguarding, child protection and sport, including in informal sport settings?
    • Which sport has been the focus of intervention so far, at what level (competitive, amateur, with national federation, or local approaches, etc.),
    • What are the learning related to the gender dimensions of risk and harm in sport settings? How are girls, boys and children with a different sexual orientation and gender identity have been engaged in the fight against sexual exploitation so far?
    • What has been the learning from campaigning done in the past decade against sexual exploitation of children in large events?
    • What has been the learning in conducting capacity building of different actors involved in sport setting to address prevention and response to sexual exploitation of children?
    • Which dimension of the experience of children in sport setting have been covered so far by civil society organisations, and which ones are not generally covered?, i.e. e-sport, sport for rehabilitation, direct awareness raising with young athletes, establishment of codes of conduct and reporting mechanism, support to victims and survivors, etc.?
    • Which tools, models, material or strategies offer opportunities for emulation, learning and adaptation?
    • Which models of collaboration, coordination and engagement appear to have been successful or not and why?
    • Which kind of funding CSOs have been able to able to secure to sustain their work in this sector?
  • Design and analyse data from an online survey targeting at a minimum the entire membership of ECPAT (about 125 CSOs, including a good number of coalitions) and other experts and selected actors working on child safety and sexual exploitation of children in sport settings in multiple languages, building on the sets of agreed guiding questions. The survey will be built on ECPAT’s own account on the most appropriate survey platform;
  • In collaboration with the ECPAT team identify up to 25 CSO leaders who have gained experience in fighting sexual exploitation of children in sport settings, and conduct online interviews with them building on the guiding questions and following ECPAT’s standards and procedures for interviewing (consent procedure, data management and confidentiality, etc.).
  • Extract relevant data relevant to the role CSO can or have played in addressing sexual exploitation of children in sport from recent grey and academic literature, including the following sources (not an exhaustive list):
  • Process all relevant information in a structured folder so that ECPAT can easily access all results of survey, notes from interview, compilation of literature, tools, material and models;
  • Produce a final report – outline to be pre-agreed with the ECPAT team - that presents the findings, provide an analysis of the data available, address all guiding questions raised and formulate a series of recommendations on how CSO movements can step up the fight against sexual exploitation of children in sport settings.

2. Analyse the legal status of sport and the autonomy of sport when it comes to preventing, reporting and addressing sexual exploitation of children

  • Analyse available literature ideally across different regions and languages to produce a short report for general use among CSOs (non-legal expert) to explain the legal status of sport, how sexual exploitation of children in sport setting relate to the principle of autonomy of sporting organisations as well as to the criminal systems. The analysis should include case examples from at least five countries in different regions of the world.

Deliverables: 

1. Develop three key reports, which are processed in a structured folder:

  • Full report that includes:
    • Key learnings on how CSO can fight of sexual exploitation of children in sport setting in light of the guiding questions, including analysis and recommendations (25 pages position paper)
    • Summary of findings from the online survey and key informant interviews (15 pages)
    • Summary of key findings from the literature (10 pages)
  • Issue paper on accountability systems, autonomy of sporting organisations and legal status of sexual exploitation of children in sport (5-10 pages)
  • Provide recommendations for policy development and a roadmap for action against sexual exploitation of children in sports in Global South for ECPAT International (5 pages)

Modalities of Work: 

  1. This work requires independent and autonomous leadership on developing, reviewing and finalizing position papers;
  2. All the deliverables need to include a gender analysis, with a particular attention paid to the distinct trajectories of boys and girls in sport settings and their experience of sexual exploitation;
  3. Regular coordination meetings will be set up with ECPAT International and the consultant should plan for time to ensure proper consultation and integration of feedback in the development the deliverables.
  4. Expected timeframe for the delivery of the different outputs can be flexible and will be agreed upon with ECPAT International based on a workplan designed at the beginning of the consultancy and regularly reviewed. All outputs need to be finalized by end of September 2024.
  5. This is a home-based position using their own equipment. The consultant(s) should be available for online calls including with different time zones in particular with Thailand where ECPAT International Secretariat is based.

It is expected that these assignments will take place between 1 May and 30 September 2024. The available budget for this consultancy is US$ 15,000 disbursed in different instalments.

CONSULTANT PROFILE: 

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

  • Legal background and strong research background.
  • In-depth knowledge of child rights, child protection and in particular sexual exploitation of children.
  • Knowledge of and track record working with sport settings highly desirable
  • Experience in developing primary and secondary research papers and drafting policy recommendations.
  • High ethical standards.
  • Fluency in spoken and written English
  • Multi linguistic skills highly desirable

OUR COMMITMENTS: 

As ECPAT’s International Secretariat we recognise that our strength lies in the diversity of the people who make up our global network, staff, volunteers and consultants. We are committed to being an inclusive workplace where people of all backgrounds and cultures can strive and be themselves. This means we will challenge ourselves to do better and to continue learning, to create and maintain a working environment steeped in respect, tolerance, safety, and where all parties are valued equally.

As a child-focused organisation, ECPAT has a strong commitment to child safeguarding and rigorous procedures. The successful candidate will be required to sign our safeguarding codes of conduct.

How to Apply: 

Please send your CV detailing your relevant experience in English, and a sample of previous work in English, to vacancy@ecpat.org mentioning Your name and “Sports” in the subject header.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are not able to respond to every application. If you have not heard back from us within 3 weeks from the deadline, it means that your application has not been successful.

Deadline: Please submit your application no later than 25 April 2024

Link
https://reliefweb.int/job/4054360/consultancy-sexual-exploitation-children-spor…
Deadline for application
Organisation
ECPAT International
Type of work
Consultancy
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