Consultant-Baseline Survey-Childline Zimbabwe-Screen Online Project
Consultancy, Research Jobs
- Childline Zimbabwe ~~ 0
- Expires 29 Jun 2022
- Bulawayo
- Part Time
Job Description
Childline Zimbabwe is a registered Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO 7/2001) in Zimbabwe. Childline provides a free 24-hour freephone and online reporting and support platforms for children and young people in Zimbabwe and operates Drop-in Centres across the country. The organisation provides children, young people, families and those involved with children, preventative, educational, therapeutic and rehabilitation services in addition to undertaking research and advocacy on child and youth safeguarding. Childline’s vision is: ‘A Zimbabwe that is passionate about the protection of children, championing, guarding and protecting their rights’. This is achieved through the organisation’s mission: ‘To champion, defend and promote the rights of children in Zimbabwe through the provision of safe, confidential and child friendly reporting mechanisms centred around a free 24-hour counselling service’. Childline programmes revolve around four thematic areas namely reporting and support platforms, specialized therapeutic services, knowledge management and advocacy.
Brief description of the project
The project is being carried out by four project partners in a consortium namely Childline, Tree of Life, Deaf Zimbabwe Trust and Harare Institute of Technology (HIT).
According to UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report 2017 ‘Children in a Digital World’, children and adolescents below the age of 18 years constitute one third of internet users worldwide. A 2020 report issued by Interpol highlighted that online crime in Africa was becoming a major security concern for law enforcers. Looking at the high levels of poverty, Africa has become a target of organized online crimes, with sexual exploitation and trafficking taking a lead. According to a 2021 Digital Report done by We Are Social Hootsuite; 33.4% of the Zimbabwean population are internet users. The report further highlights that between 2020 and 2021 the number of internet users increased by 4.2% (203 thousand) in Zimbabwe . The Government of Zimbabwe has taken initiatives to increase the access of children to the internet, in an online article by News Africa on the 17th of May 2021. The government through the ministry of ICT embarked on a project to increase the connectivity of children to the internet in schools. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the use of e-learning and this has seen more and more children accessing the internet.
In as much as the growth in internet usage among children is worth celebrating, as it provides developmental opportunities for children. It remains critical to appreciate that the more children interact with the internet, the more they are exposed to the dangers found on the internet. Mobile data network providers have been setting up free internet zones in public spaces including in rural shopping centres and even in some buses and commuter omnibuses. According to the Wi-Fi Map (2021) there are currently 1047 free Wi-Fi hotspots in Zimbabwe . Children make use of this free wi-fi to access the internet for various reasons which include surfing, online learning, games and chatting. The vulnerability of children on online spaces is increasing daily. Children are at risk of several online dangers of which sexual abuse and exploitation remain the common ones. According to Childline Zimbabwe data (2021) since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to date, Childline Zimbabwe received over 347 cases of online abuse, of which 16% were of a sexual nature. These mainly include issues of sexual grooming, revenge pornography, sexual harassment and receiving harmful content. Child survivors of the various violations are often left depressed and this has serious implications on their mental health.
As digital platforms continue to evolve, preventive and response structures need to be strengthened and developed as far as online violence is concerned. Duty bearers need capacity strengthening on how to systematically handle instances of Child OSEA. There is need to develop the capacity of national infrastructure, parents, caregivers and children in Zimbabwe, in order to match the standard at which online activity is growing. This also includes effective and modern ways of reaching out to children with information, as they use the internet. A number of cases of online child sexual abuse are embedded in cultural practices, hence a strong need to involve families and communities in addressing this concern.
The project Screen Online is designed to positively influence children, families and communities to adopt strategies that increase the prevention of child abuse on online spaces and increases access to justice and social care in instances where children have fallen victim of CSEA. The project is aimed at preventing and interrupting online abuse and violence through strengthening children and communities to identify potential online risks, threats and reduce exposure to online violence. In order to ensure that families and caregivers continue to provide online support to children, this project will support district child protection committee meetings, ensuring that issues of child online sexual abuse and exploitation are discussed and reported.
Parents will be encouraged to come up with online safety initiatives that they practice at home for children and the best initiatives will be awarded to parents. HIT will conduct digital literacy sessions for parents empowering them with skills on how to enhance online security for their children. Childline will engage children in education activities on online safety. Childline in partnership with HIT will develop games which will be deployed through google play store that engage children can assist in conveying information on online safety. In addition, the project will hold a series of online safety symposiums for schools and University students.
Overall project objective
1. Improve early intervention to prevent victimisation of children, and victim support to assist in recovery
2. Engage families and caregivers in preventing the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, and responding to harmful or otherwise unwanted experiences online
Objective of the baseline
A baseline assessment will be completed at the start of the project, to measure the status of all indicators and to understand the starting point of key elements of the work against which later progress will be measured. This will enable project indicators at output and goal/outcome level to be measured and tracked. The baseline will provide Childline and partners with benchmarks for measuring program performance in relation to tracking of project progress and outcome. The survey will also guide Childline’s programming on Screen Online project, especially through understanding the nature and extent of Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, the community’s and Children’s knowledge on action to be taken in the event of an incident, mitigation and management systems in place.
Specific Objectives
The baseline survey aims to achieve the following specific objectives:
1. To identify the various forms of child online abuse and exploitation occurring in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo, and the extent to which they are perpetrated. The prevalence established should capture the type of on-line violence disaggregated by gender and age of the child.
2. To identify the specific psychosocial support needs arising as a result of the exploitation and abuse.
3. To identify specific vulnerable groups and potential perpetrators.
4. To establish the extent of knowledge and awareness on existing reporting mechanisms for online violations or any forms of abuse for children including children with disabilities? Are there any disability friendly reporting platforms?
5. To establish the extent to which children are sharing and developing harmful content on social media.
6. To explore the frequently used social media platforms and the ones with most online abuse reports.
7. To establish the platforms children mostly use to access the internet.
8. To identify the community strengths, frameworks and resources that exist to respond to and curb online child sexual exploitation and abuse?
9. To identify challenges being faced by social service providers when addressing cases of online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
10. To establish the extent of knowledge and awareness on the existing laws, guidelines and policies towards child online protection among children, service providers, parents/caregivers, community leaders and other stakeholders.
11. To identify intervention strategies for prevention and response to online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
12. Analyze project indicators and formulate relevant questions to enable the survey and capture current status
13. To ascertain the strategies being employed by digital companies, schools, caregivers and community structures to curb online child abuse.
14. To establish the extent of knowledge and awareness of parents, families and caregivers about online spaces and their competence in digital knowledge.
15. Develop project Monitoring and Evaluation tools to collect project data.
16. To establish the most common online access methods of the children.
17. To establish the kind of games children and youths mostly play and on which platforms.
Duties and Responsibilities
In order to achieve the assignment objectives, Childline Zimbabwe intends to work with a consultant who will be helpful in ensuring that Childline and partners understands the magnitude of Child online sexual exploitation and abuse more so in four project districts. Childline will thus use the expertise of the consultant to ensure the exercise is completed within the stipulated period.
The consultant will undertake the following tasks:
• Review the relevant documents available that address Online Child sexual exploitation and abuse and related interventions, policies and guidelines across the board.
• Develop appropriate data collection and pre-testing tools
• Conduct interviews in randomly selected households and schools and Community leaders for the face –to- face interviews, visit relevant authorities, service providers and NGOs for the KII within Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo.
• Organize and hold focus group discussions with selected members of the community.
• Ensure that the data collected will be analyzed and interpreted in professionally, especially using appropriate tools for quantitative and qualitative data
• The assignment will be summarized in a report which the consultant will have to compile and submit within the stipulated period
• Conduct a validation workshop to present draft findings, interpretations and recommendations in a report to Childline and other stakeholders for validation.
• The consultant will then incorporate the inputs from the feedback session above (i) which will then lead to finalization of the Baseline Survey report.
• Submit the Final Baseline Survey report to Childline (both digital/soft & hard, bound copies).
Location
• The baseline study will be conducted covering all the 4 project districts namely; Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo.
Methodology
The consultant shall employ both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to carry out the survey, by employing the use of semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and reviews of secondary data, as well as any other methods deemed appropriate for the survey. Moreover, consultant team is possible to suggest other partners to be interviewed based on information needs. The selected research consultant will be required to prepare a detailed research methodology in partnership with Childline and implementing partners. The consultant (or institution conducting the study) will develop comprehensive data collection tools and pre -testing including questionnaires and interview guides that will bring out the key issues on Online Child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Duration and Reporting
The study will be executed over a period of 30 days from the time of the signing of the contractual agreement by both parties (Childline and the Consultant).
Expected Deliverables
1. An inception report upon selection and signing of the contractual agreement. Report with detailed survey methodology, sampling methodology and size, target respondents, including an outline of tools and processes to be used for conducting the baseline survey. The report should also have a detailed work plan including personnel and proposals for regular activity reporting on progress to the project manager.
2. Draft final report upon completion of field work
3. A validation workshop focused on the draft final report
4. After review, validation and acceptance of the draft report by Childline & implementing partners, a concise yet comprehensive final report should be provided.
Management
The baseline study will be conducted under the overall supervision of Childline. A Task team will
be set up to review the baseline study instruments and questionnaires designed by the consultant conducting the study with the goal to provide quality assurance to the entire process. Specific tasks will include:
• Selection of the consultant or institution to conduct the study
• Reviewing and approving the proposal of the consultant
• Agreeing on the proposed study methodology and baseline study tools
• Monitoring and reviewing progress of the study
• Approving the final baseline study report
• The consultant conducting the baseline study will undertake the overall responsibility of technical quality of the study. Specifically, the consultant (or institution) will:
• Prepare a comprehensive methodology as stated above
• Prepare a detailed inception report with work plan for the entire study.
Qualifications and Experience
• A post graduate degree in research and or monitoring and evaluation will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience in carrying out development research, including evaluation studies
• Minimum of five years of experience in coordinating and administering evaluations/ baseline/end line studies, preferably for international non-governmental organizations or multilateral agencies and multi-country studies.
• Demonstrated experience in facilitation and supervising data collectors/enumerators and data entry clerks to collect and enter data as per high quality standards.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
• Knowledge and experience of children´s rights, policies and service systems in Zimbabwe.
• Good management and co-ordination skills, and experience on technical project implementation.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills required to meet deadlines.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Evidence of having undertaken similar assignments.
• The consultant should be willing to work with the project staff throughout the process.
• Experiences on cross-cutting issues such as gender, inclusion as well as awareness on child protection and child rights issues.
How to Apply
Interested applicants should provide a proposal covering the following aspects:
1. Letter of interest.
2. Detailed technical proposal clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including the following:
• Demonstrated previous experience in coordinating and administering studies of a similar nature, with at least two references of recent work conducted.
• Proposed detailed methodology for the Baseline.
• Ethics and child safeguarding approaches, including any identified risks and associated mitigation strategies.
• A proposed timeframe detailing activities and a schedule/work plan (including a Gantt chart).
• Team composition and level of effort of each proposed team member, if applicable.
• Previous experience/mandates similar in nature including type of study, sector, organization.
3. A clear and elaborate work plan.
• Outline the major activities involved and specify/link consultancy team members to be involved in each.
• Propose an implementation time schedule, and
• Prepare a detailed Gantt chart and any other relevant illustration of the same.
4. A financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs for the study
• Itemized consultancy fees/costs.
• Itemized field data collection expenses.
• Itemized administrative expenses.
• Expected payment plan and method.
• Copy of registration certificate, VAT and other relevant documents.
5. Curriculum Vitae(s) of all proposed staff outlining relevant experience.
6. Names and contact information of three references who can be contacted regarding relevant experience.
7. A copy of a previous reports of similar work undertaken on: a) baseline study; OR b) mid-term evaluation OR end line study.
8. A Consulting Firm profile (if applicable).
9. A profile of Consultant’s CVs. In the case of a firm, full names, physical addresses, telephone numbers, and contact person of the firm/company; date of registration, registration number, copy of registration certificate and VAT certificate; names of directors/proprietors.
Bid Format
If you meet these requirements, kindly send to hr@childline.org.zw, mashregion@childline.org.zw and meal.hre@childline.org.zw.
Please note that due to the expected volume of applications, only pre-selected candidates will be contacted. Applications will be considered on rolling basis.
