TOR for the consultant to co-create project materials by providing thematic Child Sexual Exploatation (CSEA) and Abuse prevention and education expertise and guidance, co-design and implement training for professionals

Terms of reference/Job description

 for the consultant to co-create project materials byproviding thematic Child Sexual Exploatation and Abuse (CSEA) prevention and education expertise and guidance, co-design and implement training for professionals working with young people on sexual interest in children among young people and create informational materials for young people about sexual interest in children

1. Introduction

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the North-West Balkans and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met, and their voices are heard.  We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Save the Children (SC) is the world’s leading independent organization for children. SC vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. SC mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

In the North West Balkans Region, SC strives to improve child rights situation in general and especially in the areas of education, child rights governance, protection of children from all forms of violence and emergencies. In all of the mentioned areas SC aims at providing professional and financial support to partners. Since 2000, SC in the North West Balkans (SCNWB), based in Sarajevo,  has programming in the Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Serbia and in Montenegro and it supports implementation of regional initiatives in the region of South East Europe.

2. Background and Rationale

Child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is a global social problem that leaves children with long-term and immeasurable consequences. With the scale of the global problem, it is recognized that preventing CSEA demands cooperation among state actors, civil society, and others. One important aspect of the prevention efforts is ensuring professionals working with children have the skills and knowledge to educate and guide children and education provided directly to children.

The prevention programmes are considered as an important contribution for a resilient and effective

approach to fight against child sexual exploitation both in the cyberspace and offline, and to raise main

stakeholders’ awareness to the issue.

To protect children from all kinds of sexual exploitation, violence, abuse and harassment both online and offline, a comprehensive and strategic approach is required. Children should be taught to recognize sexual violence, abuse and harassment, to enhance their own capacities to recognise possible risks, and to be familiar with the help and support services. Ensuring that children have the skills and knowledge to express their sexuality in an age-appropriate and safe manner and to protect themselves from CSEA is crucial. Children then can voice their concerns and abusive experiences, ensuring that they receive appropriate and holistic support services.

Children need to receive the information and guidance they need through ensuring consistent training of professionals who are in contact with children. Since professionals still find it uncomfortable to speak with children about sexual violence, training and resources to support them in this task would be important.

3.        Objective

Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children constitute major violation of fundamental rights and in particular of children rights to protection and care necessary for their well-being, as it is stated in the UNHCR Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The project intervention Child Sexual Abuse Prevention and Education (CSAPE) purpose and goals are devoted to improving the capacity of professionals working with children to be aware of and able to address the topic of CSEA with children and to support the children in acquiring awareness, skills and knowledge of safety, their bodies and sex.

One of the recognized aspects of preventing child sexual abuse is enabling professionals who work with children to acquire knowledge and skills to help children protect themselves and appropriately respond when faced with any form of sexual abuse. Experiences from countries that have been developing and implementing child sexual abuse prevention programs for decades show that preventive measures should also include program interventions for young people who recognize tendencies of sexual interest towards children.

Therefore, it is important that professionals who work with young people know how to impart knowledge on different aspects and elements of reproductive health and acceptable patterns of behavior.

These education programs will contribute to child protection in different living environments (physical and virtual environment). Professional education will enhance the capacities of professionals and enable them to transmit knowledge within the professional community when dealing with topics related to sexuality, which are often considered a challenging aspect of pedagogical work.

Save the Children in the North West Balkans seeks a consultant (from now on: The Consultant) to provide thematic Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) prevention and education expertise and guidance and to implement online training to educate and empower professionals to recognize early intervention and prevention of sexual violence in working with young people who exhibit sexual interest towards children. The training will be based on materials developed by Save the Children to be used by the professionals working with the youth and the youth themselves (UZRAST). The Consultant will be required to adapt these materials to the local context.  The goal is to lower the threshold for a young person to speak openly with a safe professional, opening the possibility to seek help.

More specific aim and objectives of the training: 

• Provide information about sexual interest in children among young people to ensure that the professionals have a basic understanding about the phenomenon. 

• Increase the understanding between sexual interest and action (committing sexual abuse) to ensure that the professionals understand that sexual interest can be part of the young persons identity and it is possible to live without ever harming a child. 

• Provide information about risk factors that might imply that the young person has sexual thoughts about younger children to ensure that the professionals recognize when to guide the young person to appropriate support services. 

• Provide information and practical tools on how to talk with young people about child-oriented sexuality and sexuality, in general, to ensure that the professionals have a lower threshold to discuss issues related to sexuality and minor-oriented sexuality with young people. 

• Provide information about national support services to ensure that the professionals know where to guide the young person for further support. 

• Provide information about the national legislation regarding the phenomenon and in what situations are authorities alarmed about the young person’s child-oriented sexual interest  to ensure that the professionals know where and when to inform/consult the authorities about the young person’s child-oriented sexual interest. 

The implementation of this assignment is expected to be completed between April 25, 2023 and November 30, 2024, in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

4. Expected outputs 

• Developed implementation plan related to the consultant task(s)
• Co-create all project training manuals and materials, provide thematic CSEA expertise and guidance, design and implement trainings for the professionals
• Adapted training material for professionals and informational materials for young people, adjusted to the national context
• Implement at least 8 online one-day trainings for 160 professionals who work with young people such as teachers, psychologist, pedagogues, professors, social workers, health care professionals, law enforcement professionals, associates in civil society organizations.
• Mentoring of professionals during the training process

• Reporting – prepared and submitted reports, in English and local languages, as follows:

-        Report on Training program/modules, including adjusted materials

-        Report on conducted training with professionals

-        Final report, including overview of whole process; main achievements, challenges, lessons learned and recommendations.

5.  Timeframe and methodology

In order to complete the above-specified tasks, the Consultant will be engaged from May 9 2023 to November 30, 2024.

The Consultant will develop and implement the work plan in consultations and with the support of SCINWB designated staff, in line with the proposed timeframe below.

*Timeframe can be changed in consultations with SCINWB.

The engaged consultant will be tasked with developing a detailed plan and implementing agreed activities, in collaboration with SCiNWB  and CSAPE project Consortium partner organisations also.

   6. Funding and logistical support and organisations

Funding will be provided by Save the Children in North West Balkans.

The Consultant will design and implement the task in accordance with this ToR and consultation and support from relevant SCiNWB staff.

Responsibilities and duties of the Consultant:

•        The Consultant will be in contact with Save the Children staff throughout the process, regularly updating the process (on a weekly basis) and seeking information and guidance when needed.

•        The Consultant is responsible for adjusting document/training modules and plan for the implementation of the training  for professionals

•        The Consultant will include feedback received from Save the Children and CSAPE project Consortium partner organizations in the final version of the said document, where appropriate.

•        The Consultant will develop the training agenda

•        The Consultant will provide mentoring and support to professionals

•        The Consultant will abide by the timing of the agreed consultancy work.

•        The Consultant will produce a final report about all activities implemented, and outputs developed in local and English language.

  7.Qualifications and Specialized Knowledge/Experience Required 

Minimum expertise and skills an Consultant must possess:

• Strong background in Childhood Studies/Rights of the Child/Child Protection/Law
• A longstanding experience as expert and trainer - years of proven experience in the field of capacity building for professionals 
• Expertise in sexology, sexual interest in children, sexual therapy and mental health.
• Experts with a strong background in Childhood Studies/Rights of the Child/Child Protection/Law and a longstanding experience as experts and trainers.
• Expertise in the prevention of child sexual abuse, sexual education, pedagogy
• At least five years of domestic and/or regional experience in implementing similar tasks
• Experience in direct work with professionals from government institutions and local civil society organizations will be considered a definitive asset
• Good knowledge of present context in BiH;
• Good knowledge of English language

8. Budget

The Consultant should indicate the amounts of fees and costs of the services it expects in the engagement, with currency. All budget items should be clearly described, explaining how they fit into the proposed methodology and work plan. It is mandatory to indicate the names of budget items as well as specific budget lines within the proposed budget.

Note* - Consultant should take into account travel, food and accommodations, and all other expenses related to their tasks as they will not be reimbursed.

9. Selection criteria

Save the Children will engage an experienced, independent third-party Consultant  to co-create project training manuals and materials, provide thematic Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) prevention and education expertise and guidance, co-design and implement trainings for the professionals

The third-party Consultant will:

1. Be financially and legally separate from Save the Children and partner organizations
2. Demonstrate knowledge, skills, and experience in conducting consultancy in area of child protection interventions
3. Provide Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) prevention and education expertise and guidance, implement training sessions for the professionals and schedules prior to initiating the consultancy tasks considering the following guidelines:

a.         Methodological approach

b.         Budget

c.          Curriculum Vitae with a detailed summary of the consultancy / projects conducted previously for individuals/companies. If the consultancy was done for a company/organization, please include a profile of such company/organization

d.         A minimum of two reference contacts from organizations with which it/s/he has conducted previous consulting work

Save the Children will make the award to the Bidder whose proposal provides the best value, considering both technical and cost factors. Technical and cost factors will be evaluated relative to each other, as described herein. The technical evaluation factors, taken as a whole, are of greater importance than cost or price in determining the best value.

Bidders should note these criteria:

(1) serve as the standard against which all proposals will be evaluated, and

(2) serve to identify the significant matters which Bidders should address in their proposals.

The proposal submitted will be the primary document upon which each Bidder will be evaluated. 

Save the Children reserves the right to waive any minor or technical defects or irregularities and reserves the right to reject any or all bids.

Save the Children emphasizes that all the accompanying costs of the process of evaluation and implementation of the engagement (travel costs, accommodation, etc.) should be included in the offer.

Candidates interested in the engagement should send their bids to Procurement.NWB@savethechildren.org no later than May 3, 2023. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Please find enclosed document for application: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N1_mbhAs4dk5YEOAx6RiaOLTXNrjHInC/view?usp=share_link

Special requirement:

No person working on any task for or on behalf of Save the Children may in no way whatsoever be involved or related to child abuse or exploitation as defined in Save the Children's Child Safeguarding Policy.

The contracting authority also requires that the personal data of all evaluation participants must be protected and stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation - (EU) 2016/679 and the national law on personal data protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH Law on Personal Data Protection, Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. 49/06)