Child Rights Situation Analysis Consultancy

I.                    Background   Save the Children International (SCI) is a child rights organization working both with development cooperation and humanitarian assistance since more than 90 years in about 120 countries around the world. Save the Children has been working in Lebanon since 1953.   SCI in Lebanon has decided to carry out a Child Rights Situation Analysis - CRSA in 2015 due to an identified need to develop a stronger base for developing rights based programs that, to a larger extent than currently, guarantees better integration between humanitarian and development efforts, for sustainability and enhanced resilience in marginalized children in Lebanon.   For SCI, the CRSA is expected to serve as an integral part of strategic decision-making and will be the primary assessment that will feed into the 2016-2018 country strategic plan. The CRSA aims to provide an overview of the extent to which child rights are fulfilled in Lebanon, as well as the obstacles to and enablers of their realization. It will look at how well Lebanon is progressing towards achieving the child rights it has committed to, and how SCL can most effectively and strategically contribute to child rights in Lebanon in the coming years. It will also serve as an advocacy tool to promote child rights within relevant Lebanese Institutions, NGOs and INGOs. It will finally offer some point of comparison in the realization of child rights from the previous CRSA conducted in 2011. The upcoming CRSA intends to take stock of above developments in analysing child rights. The assessment will have a broad scope and will be structured according to the same clusters of rights as found under the CRC. These Terms of Reference provide objective, scope, expected outputs, methodologies and sources aiming at the contracting of a consultant to carry out the mentioned analysis. An appendix outlining the key topics for the analysis is attached to the Terms of Reference.   II.                 Objective   The overall objective of the 2015 CRSA exercise is to conduct a review of the situation of boys and girls among the Lebanese and refugee population, to assess the realization of their rights based on the CRC and identify the obstacles and enablers to their fulfilment. The Child Rights Analysis intends to inform future strategic planning of SCI’s programming in Lebanon.   Specific CRSA objectives include:   Obtain an overview of the situation of boys and girls among Lebanese and refugee children and their rights in Lebanon including the extent to which their rights have been realized and the reasons for their fulfilment or non­-fulfilment. The regional child rights’ context will be considered in this overview as it may influence positively or negatively on the fulfilment of child rights in Lebanon; Inform and give recommendations to the Lebanon CO country strategic plan 2016-2018 based on up to date information on the child rights’ situation and boys’ and girls’ needs, on how to reach increased integration of humanitarian and development programming and ensure sustainable solutions are planned to increase the realization of child rights and enhance children’s resilience; Raise awareness and understanding of child rights and their fulfilment in Lebanon among SCL staff, duty bearers and rights holders; Develop an advocacy strategy based on the results of the CRSA to increase child rights based programming in humanitarian and development interventions in Lebanon; Draw comparison between the last CRSA’s results and findings from the 2015 exercise, to identify trends in child rights’ realization.   III.               Scope of work   The CRSA shall include a general overview of the child rights fulfilments and violations and presentation of immediate, underlying and root causes of the violations of children’s rights based on available data and sources in Lebanon. The analysis will provide input to guide how SCL can address the rapidly changing and diverse situation of children in Lebanon. It shall not only focus on the situation at national and local level, but also take into account developments in the region that hamper or encourage the implementation of children’s rights in Lebanon. Additionally it shall take into account the chronic emergency situation resulting from the conflict in Syria and its impact on Lebanon, which has and continues to expose Lebanese and refugee boys’ and girls’ to even more vulnerable circumstances and constrains on the development of civil society. The analysis will address governance issues by examining the legal framework, governance structure, role, resources, commitments and capacity of the government to implement all children’s rights in Lebanon at national, regional and local level. It will also pay special attention to the profile and role of local civil society, the private sector, UN and INGOs in promoting the rights of the child. The framework for this child rights situation analysis is laid out in Save the Children’s” Child Rights Situation Analysis Guidelines” from 2013. The analysis will also give insight on the status of the civil society in Lebanon and the region, particularly the child rights based civil society organizations/coalitions, assess their situation, the challenges faced in developing their activities, promoting child rights, and describe existing mechanisms in place to hold the government of Lebanon accountable for fulfilling children’s’ rights.   More specifically, the CRSA will address:   Overall political, cultural and social context prevalent in Lebanon. Analysis of the extent of domestication and implementation of the CRC in relation to different groups of children in Lebanon. Child rights violations/unfulfilled rights and child protection issues affecting the lives of girls and boys. Mapping of key actors in rights including the political environment for civil society and its role/potential in promoting children’s rights.       The Tasks The process consultant will work within the framework and thematic issues of the Terms of Reference for the Child Rights Situation Analysis established by the Save the children Country office. The consultant will be a member of  a CRSA project group at the Country Office and will in cooperation with the project group, and in accordance with established work plan, be responsible for the completion  of following specific undertakings: -       Detailed CRSA methodology document and work plan -       Matrix of secondary sources of CRSA information, including identified gaps -       Primary data collection methodology document -       Primary data collection tools -       Contribute to ToR for primary data research consultant -       List of interviews with brief summary of interviews  -       Matrix presenting key findings of secondary and primary data a -       Analysis workshop agenda and preparations -       Final CRSA report of maximum 70 pages in English, including a summary of maximum 10 pages in English and Arabic if possible, and child-friendly summary, including the following annexes: Matrix presenting consulted materials and resources, including identified gaps; List of interviewees with brief summary of interviews (if applicable); Matrix presenting key findings of secondary and primary data Bibliography     IV.              Methodology   CRSA Management A CRSA Steering Committee will oversee the overall CRSA process. The Committee will have general responsibility for the successful completion of the CRSA exercise. It will inter alia provide strategic direction and guidance during implementation, further develop and approve Terms of Reference (ToRs) and plans, ensure sufficient resources are committed and resources are used efficiently, and oversee the exercise once started, including the completion of key stages or deliverables.   SCL’s Country Director will chair the Steering Committee, which will be composed of the Director of Programme Development and Quality (PDQ), Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Technical Advisor (TA), Child Protection (CP) TA, Head of Partnerships and the Communication and Advocacy Manager.   For the day-to-day management of the CRSA exercise, a project team will be put together, composed of the Operations Director, MEAL TA, CRG Coordinator, relevant field MEAL staff and the CRSA process management Consultant (see below). The project team will be responsible for the implementation of the CRSA, ensuring work plan implementation and budget compliance. The CRG coordinator will supervise the work technically specifically with the process management consultant and the Beirut / South / Mount Lebanon Area Manager will have a managing and coordination role of the project team.   SCL plans to recruit a CRSA process management Consultant, either nationally or internationally depending on availability, competencies and experience, to steer the day to day management of the CRSA process, and ensure quality data review and collection phases, as well as analysis and final reporting. It is envisaged that the Consultant will be required in country during the inception and secondary data review phases, and subsequently during the primary data review, analysis and final reporting.   Finally, SCL intends to sub-contract the primary data collection tasks to a research or consultancy firm in Lebanon, to benefit from the firm’s knowledge of  - and contacts with - Lebanon’s government institutions and civil society organizations in all Lebanese governorates and districts, as the CRSA will be conducted throughout Lebanon, including in areas where SCL might not be currently present.   Sources of Information The CRSA will be conducted using two main sources of information: A secondary data review will be performed, during which available secondary information will be scrutinized in order to prepare for primary data collection and feed into the overall analysis report. Secondary data may be extracted from below sources of information (depending on the availability of below resources): CRC-State party reports and respective concluding observations (when available); CRC alternative reports issued by civil society; National legislation pertaining to children; Governmental reports about policy and programmes related to/affecting children (such as government sector plans e.g. strategic Plans, Poverty Reduction strategy papers, Sector wide plans e.g. , Disaster Risk Management, Education, Health Sector wide plans); RACE, LCRP, MOSA, National Statistics Institution, youth assessments, case management systems, street children assessment. Policy materials, guidelines and research reports produced by SC members; Reports produced by UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO and any other relevant UN agencies. Special attention should be paid to reports produced in the context of the UN Study on Violence Against Children; MRM reports - UN Office of the Special Rep. of Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict Reports produced by international organizations Reports produced by local, national or regional human and child rights organizations and academic/research institutions; Budget analyses related to public expenditure on children. Civil society partners’ reports and consultation. Child led reports. The Child Rights Situation Analysis published by Save the Children Sweden in Lebanon in 2011.   Interviews might be conducted with key informants and experts to determine the best sources of secondary data. Following secondary data review, the requirements for primary data collection will be identified by the project team, in order for the research firm to be able to devise the most appropriate primary data collection methodology and design the more relevant data collection tools. As mentioned above, primary data collection will be performed by the contracted research firm, which will be tasked with hiring and training Assessment Officers, with support from the CRSA project team and participation of relevant SCL programme staff if necessary. The third key CRSA implementation process will involve primary data entry, cleaning, validation and aggregation and will be performed by the research firm. The CRSA process management Consultant will then take over from the research team, analysing secondary and primary data obtained before convening a four-day analysis workshop, during which all CRC rights will be reviewed and key findings related to their fulfilment or violations will be analysed. The workshop will gather a wide range of SC staff, from the Steering Committee members to SCS CRSA Consultants to the CRSA project team. The process Consultant will then initiate the drafting of the CRSA report, including recommendations for SCL’s CO related to potential programmatic focus to enhance the child rights’ realization in Lebanon and increase child rights programming in humanitarian and development responses. A final verification workshop will be convened with key informants, constituencies, key SCL staff, partners and rights’ holders (in particular children), to confirm key findings and recommendations, before the final report is produced (see detailed work plan for more details).   V.                 Timeframe and Reporting Requirements   The consultancy is expected to start on the 27th of April 2015.   Draft report to be submitted by mid-June 2015. The four-day analysis workshop to be conducted after mid-June 2015 for final amendments and compilation.  Final report to be submitted by the 30th of June 2015.   VI.               Submission of Proposals   Interested consultants are expected to submit a consultancy proposal including a budget in USD by the 22nd of April 2015 to who rana.kharrat@savethechildren.org and Manhal.aridi@savethechildren.org  The budget should include all costs for conducting the consultancy and provide for appropriate payment of taxes in the consultants country of residence. Once an agreement about the proposal is reached by both parties, Save the Children will sign a contract with the selected professional and ensure payments are done based on agreed deliverables.   VII.            Consultant’s Requirements   Experience of right based approach to programming Experience in Child Protection, Child Rights Governance Experience in cooperation with local civil society Experience in working with gender analysis Understanding of child focused humanitarian programming Demonstrated experience in the application of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis tools, techniques and approaches Fluency in English and Arabic, written and verbal   VIII.         Save the Children’s Responsibilities   Save the Children Lebanon Country Office is responsible for overseeing the implementation of this consultancy. The organization is responsible for: Providing the consultant with access to all relevant material produced by Save the Children. Introducing the consultant to relevant contacts in Lebanon. Providing timely feedback to all the consultant’s enquiries related to the analysis.   The consultant’s contact person at SC is Rana Kharrat, the Child Rights Governance Coordinator.     Appendix – Key topics of Child Rights Situation Analysis   The CRSA shall include a general overview of the child rights fulfilments and violations and presentation of immediate, underlying and root causes of the violations of children’s rights based on available data and sources in Lebanon. The analysis will provide input to guide how SCL can address the rapidly changing and diverse situation of children in Lebanon. It shall not only focus on the situation at national and local level, but also take into account developments in the region that hamper or encourage the implementation of children’s rights in Lebanon. Additionally it shall take into account the chronic emergency situation resulting from the conflict in Syria and its impact on Lebanon, which has and continues to expose Lebanese and refugee boys’ and girls’ to even more vulnerable circumstances and constrains on the development of civil society. The analysis will address governance issues by examining the legal framework, governance structure, role, resources, commitments and capacity of the government to implement all children’s rights in Lebanon at national, regional and local level. It will also pay special attention to the profile and role of local civil society, the private sector, UN and INGOs in promoting the rights of the child. The framework for this child rights situation analysis is laid out in Save the Children’s” Child Rights Situation Analysis Guidelines” from 2013. The analysis will also give insight on the status of the civil society in Lebanon and the region, particularly the child rights based civil society organizations/coalitions, assess their situation, the challenges faced in developing their activities, promoting child rights, and describe existing mechanisms in place to hold the government of Lebanon accountable for fulfilling children’s’ rights.     More specifically, the CRSA will address:   I.                    Overall country context: Describe the legal, political, economic, cultural and social/ context/practices prevalent in the country, identify traditional practices harmful to children; Describe the development and the humanitarian contexts and trends in the country and how these are entangled. Describe the consequences of the current humanitarian situation on the development status of the Lebanon society and especially on children identified within the country’s jurisdiction.   Describe the different groups of refugee children (the history, the context, the number, which actor has the legal responsibility for the refugees vs. which actor takes actual responsibility for the refugees etc.).     II.                  Analysis of situation on CRC rights          Child Rights Governance: Analyse the national governance system that include a number of General Measures of Implementation of children’s rights, as mentioned in the Save the Children CRSA guide, and their conduciveness to the implementation of children’s rights. The GMIs to be taken into consideration are: 1) Law reform and enforcement,  2) National Plan of Action for the advancement of children in Lebanon, 3) National coordination role in relation to the various governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations involved in the implementation of the rights of the child at national and local level, 4) Independent monitoring (Children’s Ombudsman), 5) Allocation of national resources to children, 6) Disaggregated data collection, 7) Cooperation with national civil society, 8) Dissemination of the CRC and training activities among national staff, 9) Ensure awareness among children and adults on CRC and dissemination of UNCRC reports.  Describe and analyse the Disaster Risk Management systems and institutions that  the Lebanese government has put in place or is developing in case of natural or manmade emergencies/crisis (DRR/preparedness, response and recovery measures and to what extend children are visible or considered in those measures): look into the Lebanese government progress reporting in relation to the Hyogo framework, look into the legal framework, the national disaster risk reduction strategies and the risk mitigation measures in place in case of manmade disasters. The state preparedness and decentralization of disaster risk governance will inform Save the Children Lebanon country and Regional offices about the needed support, if the most vulnerable children are targeted by the government and who SC should target as well as what governmental bodies SC should seek a strategic cooperation. In addition, look into SCI Emergency Preparedness Plan and SCI engagement with the municipalities, local stakeholders and civil society in emergency preparedness and responses to know better about the efficiency and effectiveness of SCI’s interventions. Identify and describe informal parallel service systems and assess extent of outsourcing to NGOs, private sector and faith-based institutions. Present the International legal documents and protocols that the country has ratified with relevance for the fulfilment of the Rights of the Child. Assess to which extent they have been implemented. Highlight the gaps. Inform on possible reservations to the CRC. Analyse the current governance decentralization (political, economic and /or administrative power) process and assess the effect of the governing structure/decentralization on the implementation of CRC for both the Lebanon as well as for the refugee children. Describe the political and public climate towards Human Rights and the Rights of the Child in particular. The legal framework for refugee children and its consequences on the realization of child rights, considering that Lebanon did not ratify the Refugee Convention. Describe the availability, effectiveness and gaps of governance mechanisms directed to the Lebanese children as well as refugee children in the country, at national and local level for the implementation of the Rights of the Child;        Articles establishing cross cutting principles: Describe and analyse the fulfilment of the general principles among Lebanese and refugee children: Right to life: survival and development, mortality rate under 5 years old of each group of children, honour crimes. Best interest of the child: looking at the root causes and the consequences of current legislation on the best interest of the child. Non-discrimination including gender analysis: heritage in regards to boys and girls, discrimination against people with disabilities in law and practice, racism against migrant workers children.  Participation Definition of the Child: law review including child minimum age for marriage, labour, criminal responsibility. The different communities’ perspectives in regards to the definition of a child and to their evolving capacities.      Articles establishing Substantive Rights Describe and analyse the access and quality of the substantive rights for Lebanese and refugee children:   -          Education and Culture: the role of the ministry of education and higher education and the governance structure and capacity of the national education system:  the training unit at the ministry, teacher’s capacities, quality of services, segregated primary dropout rates, current curriculum, access of all refugee and Lebanese children to quality education, consequences of the languages’ system on refugee children, early childhood development, care institutions providing education services and children with disabilities, UNRWA schools, girls and boys enrolment, children with special learning needs.   -          Health and Welfare: children with special needs, children with disabilities, social security services and access to health services at hospitals and dispensaries in relation to the standard of living, vaccination, equal access to primary health care, adolescents sexual and reproductive health rights, the difference of the quality of services between public and private hospitals in addition to looking at the reforms within the health sector and at the law reforms and resources allocated by the ministry of health to ensure equality and quality of services.   -          Civil Rights and Freedoms: identifying the extent of children lacking registration and citizenship, children involvement in elections, children’s right to establish or being involved in NGOs, the right to freedom of expression, the right to nationality, and torture in relation to Law 422.   -          Child Protection: Looking at the national strategy for the protection of children from all forms of violence and its enforcement plan, the domestic violence law and the protection systems at the Ministry of Social Affairs and the role of the Higher Council for Childhood in relation to Child Protection; in addition to alternative care, corporal punishment, law 422 and administration of juvenile justice, case management, children in armed conflict, refugee children and access to protection services (Syrian, Palestinian residing in Lebanon and coming from Syria, Iraqis), children of migrant workers, street children, economic exploitation and child labour, sexual exploitation and trafficking and children in orphanages and without support including unaccompanied refugee children.              Analysis of crosscutting factors and actors Key factors important to the realization of rights: -          Investment in children: Identifying to what extent national budgets are child focused, tax system, anti-corruption in regards to the ministries related to children: ministry of Social Affairs including the Higher Council for Childhood, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities.   -          Describe environment issues with impact on children’s situation: Environment and climate change’s impact on children, Pesticides’ usage where children are working, child labour impact on the health of the children, looking at the 182 convention of the worst forms of labour, child resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction.          III.                Key actors in rights   Duty Bearers and other stakeholders   Assess duty bearers’ capacity to implement child rights at different levels: Government institutions, local, regional and national decision-makers, community, host communities of refugees and family. Describe the obstacles or barriers limiting the capacity of duty-bearers Identify and describe  other actors/stakeholders that exist with impact on the implementation of the Rights of the Child What international organizations exist and how do their work impact on the rights of the child? The sustainability of the work of international organizations? To what extent do they build capacity of state/local actors or merely direct implementation? Describe and assess the political rights environment for civil society and the role/potential of the civil society in promoting the rights of the child; Identify gaps for stakeholders to channel their resources The role of the private sector on Children’s Rights Assess UN and EU as supporter for the implementation of children’s rights Describe and analyse the relevance of support to the Lebanon CO from SCI and other Save the Children members Nature of and relationships between state, INGOs, civil society, religious actors and private sectors. Assessing potentials and actors for the promotion of the UNCRC.    Civil Society:   Describe the types (level of full spectrum) of organizations in the country and the social groups they represent, level and substance of coordination and cooperation between the organizations. What roles do they play in society: service providers, monitoring the implementation of CRC, advocacy, humanitarian or development focus? How do civil society organizations view their role in society? How prepared civil society is in regards to Manmade and natural disasters? How does the government view the role of civil society with specific focus on child rights organizations? Assess the capacity of civil society actors to monitor, promote children’s rights and to hold the government accountable. Are there child lead initiatives? If so, describe their role and how they function. Assess SC core partners and their national and local network in their work to promoting child rights, holding state accountable and assess current opportunities to strengthen them and their work.   The General Guidelines for reference are as follows: SC CRSA Guidelines from 2013 SC’s International Global Strategic Issues Gender policy and toolkit SC Non-Discrimination Handbook Guidelines for Children’s Participation in Humanitarian Programming SPHERE Standards Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response INEE Minimum Standards for Education Child Protection in Emergencies Minimum Standards Child rights programming handbook. A ‘How to’ note. Incorporating child right governance into your generic child rights situation analysis.    Child Rights Governance before, during and after Emergencies: Making the Case. Reducing Risks, Enhancing Resilience – Save the Children’s approach to DRR and CCA Framework for Child Centred DRR Strategy in the Arab Region (SCI 2013)