Colombia: Violence Against Children Global Mobilisation Consultant

Terms of Reference:

Join us in our mission to power the potential of young people. 

Global Fund for Children (GFC) works to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. We partner with innovative, locally led organisations, helping them deepen their impact and build their capacity for social change. By pairing flexible funding with targeted capacity development support, we help our partners grow stronger and more responsive to challenges on the ground.

Since 1997, we have invested more than $44 million in over 700 organisations. Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas: education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and freedom from violence and exploitation.

We value courage, excellence, learning, partnership, and inclusion, as well as kindness and passion. Our partners’ visions for change inspire all we do. Feedback and learning drive us to do better, and we strive to be youth-centered.

Overview: 

Too often closed-door global policy dialogue spaces, while well-intentioned, are not informed by those most directly affected by policies and result in lofty, siloed commitments that are not widely communicated and embraced by those best positioned to drive systemic change.

In partnership with the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Global Fund for Children (GFC) has a unique opportunity to shift this dynamic in relation to the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Bogotá, Colombia, from November 7-8, 2024.

Hosted by the Governments of Colombia and Sweden, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children (SRSG VAC), this groundbreaking event will bring together ministers, high-level policymakers, civil society organizations and activists committed to creating a safer world for children.

Violence against children is a critical human rights challenge as estimates indicate that one in two children aged 2-17 experience some form of violence each year. This violence spans the home, school, community, and internet with long-lasting, devastating impacts on human development, social fabric in communities, and economies.

The Ministerial Conference represents a unique opportunity to bring violence against children to the forefront of the international agenda and build solidarity across children's rights, violence against children (VAC) and gender-based violence (GBV) movements to create shared goals and commitments through transnational connections.

It is also a critical moment to strengthen the voices and uplift the advocacy of child and youth survivors around the world. Innovative, community-led activism is critical to ending violence against children and individuals, grassroots networks and community-based organizations around the world are already leading change in this space with and for children and young people.

Violence against children does not exist in a vacuum; and the impacts of gender, race, immigration status and other identities shape children and young people’s experiences and understanding of violence. In particular, given the prevalence and gendered dynamics of many forms of violence against children, understanding the close relationship between violence against children and gender-based violence, and investing in the intersections of these two fields, is vital to truly understand the complexity of children and young people’s lives and their experiences of violence.

Global Fund for Children aims to ensure that children, youth, and community perspectives are central to this dialogue, help shape communications messages that emerge from it and contribute to the accountability toward commitments that emerge from the Ministerial Conference.

Scope of Work: 

This is a short-term consultancy from late July-December 2024. In partnership with a global team from GFC that represents several regions and teams, the consultant will create intersectional spaces before, during and after the after the Ministerial Conference to:

• Strengthen connections between grassroots organizations, networks and groups working on violence against children and gender based violence;
• Increase opportunities for child and youth survivors to engage in and influence public campaigning and messaging around the Ministerial Conference; and
• Create space for longer term action to translate commitments made at the Ministerial Conference into action at the grassroots level.

Global Fund for Children prioritizes participatory and creative methodologies to ensure that child and youth participation and leadership is key to any work we undertake. We aim for the Consultant to facilitate the aims of this engagement through the anticipated activities below, while understanding that the proposed activities may change through the participatory process:

• Leaning into GFC's global network, virtually convene an advisory group of youth and community leaders to shape this work. (Participatory framework)
• Identify and research key stakeholders and allies attending the summit, relationship and network building. (Pre-event Mapping)
• Identify and implement methodologies to develop regional spaces or online gatherings to cultivate synergies, alignment and possibilities (Pre-event network building)
• Facilitate sense making and story gathering with key partners, prioritizing youth, children and survivor narratives, to feed into wider campaigning and messaging around the conference (Pre-event message development)
• Facilitate pre-conference convening and/or satellite event where youth/survivor voices on intersection of GBV/VAC are centered (pre/during event ally spaces)
• Facilitate post conference meeting(s) on translating policy commitments into local change – exploring the opportunity for informal peer network or other post – event connections)
• Engage in an 'After Action Review' of overall experience and offer insight on lessons learned and any recommendations for the longer-term sustainability of the post-event connections and action.

Experience and Qualifications: 

The ideal consultant will be a values-driven, experienced network weaver and facilitator with an appreciation of participatory, community-led approaches. You will have solid networks in the children's rights and/or gender-based violence spaces with experience in participatory message development and understanding of high-level global policy spaces and strategies for ensuring these spaces are relevant, inclusive, and oriented toward concrete change.

You will be available to start the consultancy as soon as possible, ideally in July 2024. You will work closely with a small group of global GFC colleagues from our programs, communications and development teams. You can be based anywhere in the world with a strong, reliable internet connection that allows for virtual, global communication. You will be able to work flexibly across global time zones to enable participation from all four GFC regions. You will be fluent in spoken and written English. Candidates from Colombia or elsewhere in Latin America are especially encouraged to apply.

Essential Experience and Skills: 

• Strong understanding and experience of the child rights, violence against children, and/or gender-based violence spaces, gaps in the linkages across these spaces and ideas about ways to create synergy and solidarity.
• Experience in some capacity in high-level policy dialogues, particularly with a focus on including affected community perspectives.
• Experience with fostering youth participation with a trauma-informed and safeguarding-aware lens.
• Participatory and creative group facilitation experience in virtual and in-person environments.
• Experience developing messages and stories via participatory methodologies.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills across diverse cultural and professional contexts.
• Comfort with engaging in participatory processes, navigating disagreement, weighing multiple views and opinions and moving forward with decisions in a timely way.
• Comfort with delivering work in a short timeframe, while holding the importance of nurturing relationships and fostering wellbeing.
• Willingness to work across time zones and adjust schedule accordingly.
• Strong commitment to GFC's mission, values and vision

Desirable Experience and Skills: 

• Professional fluency in Spanish
• Strong French and/or Portuguese language skills
• Experience with event management and logistics. If not based in Colombia, willingness to liaise with local logistics support for an event during the Ministerial Conference.

Compensation and Time: 

• Rate - The renumeration range for this role is $18-23,000 benchmarked accordingly, dependent on location and experience.
• Time - The time commitment is estimated at 2.5 days/week from late-July-mid-November 2024 with an estimated 2 days per week for a final month until mid-December 2024 for wrap-up. Consultant will arrange time according to their schedule and the requirements of the project.

How to Apply: 

In line with our values of courage, passion and inclusion, to apply for this Consultancy, please share your thoughts on the following questions (maximum 1 page of A4) along with your CV through the following link: https://global-fund-for-children.breezy.hr/p/f1da81b9a13d

• What excites you most about this Consultancy and how is it directly connected to your skills or experience?
• What do you believe are the key opportunities and challenges in bringing the violence against children and gender-based violence agendas together for this conference?
• How do you think youth and activist perspectives can be most effectively integrated before, during, and after the Ministerial Conference?

The deadline for applications is July 24 at midnight UTC but applications will be assessed on a rolling basis throughout the application period.

We are excited to hear from you! If you have any questions about the role, please get in touch on careers@globalfundforchildren.org.