Terms of reference for the survey on positive role models in the area of child protection
Tdh, project of fight against violence on children, 2014-2016.
1. Background and rationale of the survey
Background
The extent of violence against children at global level in general and specifically in Burkina Faso as well as the severity of its impact on both child development and social cohesion are such that violence against children becomes a priority for development stakeholders.
To accompany and support the State of Burkina Faso in its determination to fight against all forms of violence against children and strengthen ongoing initiatives, the Delegation of Terre des hommes Lausanne -Burkina Faso (Tdh) implements together with four partners of civil society in four provinces of Burkina Faso (Houet, Ganzourgou, Kadiogo and Séno), a project entitled « fight against violence on children in Burkina Faso» over three years (January 2014-December 2016). In total 5, 000 children in situation of labor, streets, pupils in Koranic homes, children in conflict with law are targeted to improve and strengthen their capacities to protect themselves and their peers from violence. Among them 1, 000 victim children are also targeted to benefit from adequate care through protection mechanisms that the project will strengthen.
The overall strategy of Tdh and its partners in the current project is to contribute to the set up and strengthen a national child protection system in order to better address issues related to the prevention and care of victim children or children at risk of violence. To this end, the general objective of the project is to contribute to reduce violence against children by strengthening protection systems at national and local levels.
Specifically, the project will strengthen prevention and detection mechanisms of violence against children as well as care to victim children through a chain of actors and actions working in synergy within local child protection networks which combine institutional and community.
The project implementation is based on four areas of intervention:
1. Collective protectionthrough the creation and strengthening of child protection system at the community level thanks to the involvement of children, families, communities, stakeholders in charge of children education (teachers, Koranic teachers, elders in the street, employers, etc.); on the one hand for an awareness raising and a better understanding of various forms of violence against children, but also and mainly for the promotion of reporting and protection existing mechanisms.
2. Individual protectionaiming at giving an adequate protection response to victim children or children at risk meaning an integrated and holistic support that relies on the «case management » approach.
3. Strengthening of protection mechanismsto give a qualitative response to children vulnerable or victim of violence through the promotion and strengthening of efficient detection mechanisms, reporting, reference and care. This will require the strengthening of various protection mechanisms, a support to put in place and strengthen host families, the quality improvement of emergency care in public and private centers, a support to the state reporting system of violence on children through a free phone (116), the strengthening of social services and child protection provincial networks, … etc. operational, technical and financial capacities.
4. Advocacytoward other child protection partners and the key decision-makers to mainstream child protection system approach in Burkina Faso policies and programs both at institutional and community levels.
To ensure a relative long-term sustainability of the project actions, strategies have been defined namely at community level to favor behavior change of parents and « guardians » of children vulnerable to violence. This requires a promotion of good practices from parents/guardians/helpers called positive role models and who will be identified in the community for protecting their children against violence.
This approach called « positive deviance » is the subject of the current survey.
Justification
The positive deviance is an approach which, until now, has been namely experimented in the health domain and more particularly in the domain of fight against children malnutrition.
The approach is based on a simple observation: some parents in a given community and having access to the same resources, risks and opportunities as the majority of the community members, have practices that protect their children from malnutrition. Development stakeholders have looked into these parents called « positive models » to better understand the reasons and know more about their strategies and/or practices enabling to protect their children.
The question that arises is the following: « What enables some community members (the positive models - PM) to have better solutions or to better prevent from a widespread problem than their neighbors who have access to the same resources? ».
This approach can be summarized as follows:
In all communities there are individuals whose uncommon habitsand behaviors allow them to avoid a problem or to find bettersolutions to problems than their neighbors or colleagues who have access to thesameresources.
Once identified, these parents are encouraged to share their knowledge and especially their practices with other parents within the community, or accompany them in carrying out and implementing if necessary.
It is therefore a strictly endogenous approach, which goes from the knowledge of parents or neighbors toward promoting behaviors change, and not knowledge coming from outside provided to health workers or NGO staff.
The focus is on positive role model practices and not positive role models as such (parents). Indeed, we cannot "clone" people but we can adopt their behaviors and strategies proven to be effective. Moreover, it is about minimizing comparisons between individuals or taking the risk of stigmatizing some community people who would do better or worse than others. The Positive Deviance approach or positive model focuses on practice rather than knowledge: it is easier to implement a new way of thinking instead of a new way of acting.
Although the majority of the targeted problems have underlying causes complicated and interconnected, the presence of PM shows that it is nevertheless possible to find effective solutions today for them long before addressing the causes.
As part of the theme of the project, fight against violence on children, positive model approach seems particularly suitable to identify strategies favorable to behavior change within communities and families / guardians at risk in front of violence on children. The purpose is to give communities the opportunity to discover and "own" their own solutions based on their own resources.
Within the framework of the project, this activity will be implemented by community-based organizations (CBOs), beneficiaries of series of grants, accompanied by NGOs and associations responsible for the project implementation: Terre des Hommes, Keoogo, and Tié handicap International. Based on the results of the survey per area, the role of CBOs will be to support the targeted communities to develop and implement a project relying on the outcomes aiming at acquiring new behaviors among target group. Under the project, the target group goes beyond the nuclear family. It takes into account not only the concept of extended family, guardians but also employers such as when the child lives with his/her employer. Koranic teachers are also taken into account, as guardian of the children Talibés.
2. Objectives of the survey
The overall objective is to discover beneficial unusual behaviors among parents / guardians in the four intervention areas of the project that are easy to adopt by other community members.
More specifically, it is about:
• Establishing norms of behavior within targeted communities with regard to the issues of violence on children (exploitation, abuse, neglect, abuse, etc.);
• Exploring behaviors and less spread strategies but effective, applied by some parents / guardians and who are positive models likely to be promoted among other community members;
• Developing a project based on the results of the survey aimed at acquiring new behaviors among the target group on the model of PM, following the positive deviance approach.
3. Survey methodology
The survey methodology on Positive Models is the tool used by the community for discovering behaviors and unusual strategies of individuals ‘positive role models’. "This type of survey is usually based on the following steps:
Define:
• The problem, its causes and behaviors within the concerned community ;
• Also define what an effective solution, beneficial behaviors (in terms of behavior and desired results) would look like;
Determine:
• The presence within the community of individuals or groups that have already adopted the beneficial behaviors or have obtained the desired outcome (identification positive models)
(e.g. Presence of ‘Talibés’ children who do not beg within a Koranic home, school children in communities where the school is far from homes, etc.);
Discover:
• Unique or unusual means or behaviors used by the PM that allow them either to avoid the problem or to better overcome and resolve it or even prevent it
(e.g. parents accompany or are having someone to accompany small girls to school when it is far from home as to avoid risks on the way to school).
• The outcome of the survey will be handpicked to identify and select accessible behaviors likely to be adopted by all concerned individuals. Other behaviors not selected are "True but Useless" or "TbU". The consultant will guide the sponsor in that sense based on the context analysis and topic of the project.
4. Outcomes / deliverables
The sponsor is expecting four main categories of deliverables: Statement of behavioral "norms" regarding the handling of violence on children within the communities / structures targeted by the survey, in conjunction with the major violence issues agreed on with implementing partners;
Identification within communities / targeted structures of different behavioral norms, fostering greater respect of children's rights, that is to say positive deviance behaviors in front of violence against children;
Identification of key factors that determine these behaviors of positive deviance;
A methodology for identifying and mobilizing parents / guardians positive role models for community-based organizations (CBOs) that will be responsible for replicating the proposed methodology as part of their activities in targeted communities;
Projects/Activities proposal to be carried out by CBOs in line with positive models approach within targeted communities.
Identification within communities / targeted structures of different behavioral norms, fostering greater respect of children's rights, that is to say positive deviance behaviors in front of violence against children;
Identification of key factors that determine these behaviors of positive deviance;
A methodology for identifying and mobilizing parents / guardians positive role models for community-based organizations (CBOs) that will be responsible for replicating the proposed methodology as part of their activities in targeted communities;
Projects/Activities proposal to be carried out by CBOs in line with positive models approach within targeted communities.
5. Period and duration of the survey
The survey is scheduled to start in October 2014, no later than October 15, 2014, for a period of 45 days.
6. Profile of consultants
As planned in the research project submitted to the donor (European Union), the current survey will be accompanied in its implementation by GAP Burkina Faso ‘Groupe d’Apprentissage des Programmes’ which will intervene at the following steps:
- Selection of the main consultant (international profile);
- Validation of tools and research methodology;
- Validation of the draft report.
GAP is a working group focusing on research and capitalization in the area of child protection in Burkina Faso, gathering representatives from national academic circles, civil society organizations active in the field protection of Children and representatives from two ministries, the Ministry in charge of child protection (MASSN) and the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation. The purpose of GAP is, among others, to improve the quality of research conducted in Burkina Faso in the field of child welfare by ensuring a scientific rigor to the work carried out by international and national NGOs. GAP is part of a wider international network, the CPCN, Child Protection in Crisis Network of Columbia University (NY-USA), which will also be involved through one of its representatives in the execution of the survey.
7. Specific qualification and required experience
We are looking for an international consultant, expert in conducting survey on positive deviance, which will coordinate the national consultant.
Required qualifications for the international consultant are the following:
1- Holder of a university degree in sociology, social science or other equivalent degrees (minimum +5);
2- At least an experience and / or expertise in conducting surveys on positive deviance. An experience in conducting survey on positive deviance in the area of child protection would be an asset;
3-Professional experience of at least 8 years including 5 years in research, participatory methodology with communities;
4- At least one publication in an international scientific journal;
5- Good knowledge of child protection
6- Very good analytical and synthesis skills
7 – Motivation for work under pressure and in a team;
8- Good knowledge of French (comprehension, reading and speaking);
9- Good knowledge of the cultural context of Burkina Faso or failing that West Africa sub-region countries as well as issues of violence against children;
10- Adhere to the values and mission of Terre des Hommes Lausanne Foundation particularly its child protection policy;
The following criteria determine the eligibility of the applicant: 1; 2; 8.
How to apply:
Interested candidates should submit their technical and financial offers, along with a CV, an abstract of their publication in a scientific journal, at least an abstract of one study (Executive Summary) in relation to the field of research and the references of 02 persons / Institutions to:
Fondation Terre des hommes Lausanne, 01 BP 2212 Ouagadougou 01, Rue 13.04 Avenue Maané-Kaka, for hard file and / or by email before October 1, 2014 at the latest to the following email addresses:
Bcc : tdhbfsg@gmail.com
