Objective: To create a competency-based capacity development guidance package for a community-based social welfare workforce

Half of the world’s children experience violence yearly, and a child dies every seven minutes because of violence.[1] Violence against children has significant consequences for their development, both in the short and long term. It leads to diminished physical and mental health and eroding social relationships and interactions. Hence, there is a need for sustained and continued efforts to protect children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

Effective and efficient child protection prevention and response support and services are crucial in preventing and removing children from harm and supporting their recovery. The social welfare workforce, both formal and informal, performs vital roles in delivering support and services for the prevention and response to the harm of children. However, a social welfare workforce is severely lacking in many countries. Moreover, even in countries with a social welfare workforce, roles and responsibilities, competencies, supervision and oversight, and ethical standards are not firmly established. In addition, coordination among agencies working on strengthening the social welfare workforce is weak, resulting in a lack of service delivery.

As part of the 2022-2024 Live Free from Violence strategy, Save the Children is committed to strengthening protection systems for children by improving the capacity of the community-level social welfare workforce through evidence-based approaches. From 2019 to 2021, Save the Children developed and piloted a competency-based capacity development scheme for India and Myanmar’s community-based social welfare and case management workers. To learn from these and other ongoing efforts, several Save the Children Country Offices (COs) have collected documentation to analyze Save the Children’s support for community-level social work. This work was initiated but needs to be developed. Therefore, Save the Children wishes to engage a consultant to build on existing work by extending the desk review, developing an analysis, and a package to guide work strengthening the community-based social welfare workforce.

Objectives

Objective 1: To produce a synthesis report in the English language documenting the state of play, good practices, and significant gaps. The report should identify critical approaches and tools that need to be developed or modified to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce across the different contexts where Save the Children works. Recommendations should be based on an analysis of (a) the role that the community-based social welfare workforce plays in different child welfare/child protection systems based on descriptions of its roles and responsibilities, (b) how it is trained, accredited, supervised, and supported, and (c) the challenges and opportunities facing efforts to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of these workers, including issues of scalability and sustainability.

Objective 2: To develop the competency-based capacity development guidance package for Save the Children’s efforts to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce. This package should include standardized job descriptions, a competency framework for capacity building of community (para) social workers, and guidance for training and technical supervision. In addition, it should give Save the Children’s Country Offices strategic directions enabling them to strengthen the community-based workforce using a child protection system supporting approach.

The package should be developed based on analyzing the roles and responsibilities, the associated competency frameworks, and capacity development opportunities for existing community-based social welfare workers in different countries across regions. Community-based social welfare workers in the study would include community volunteers, government staff, and (I)NGO/CSO staff delivering child protection preventative and response support and services at the community level.

Deliverables/timeline

The consultant(s) is/are expected to produce two deliverables:

1. To produce a synthesis report in English documenting the state of play, good practices, and significant gaps. This report should identify critical approaches and tools that need to be developed or modified to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce across the different contexts where Save the Children works. This should analyze (a) the role that the community-based social welfare workforce plays in different child welfare/child protection systems based on descriptions of its roles and responsibilities, (b) how it is trained, accredited, supervised, and supported, and (c) the challenges and opportunities facing efforts to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of these workers, including issues of scalability and sustainability.
2. To develop a guidance pack for Save the Children country offices to support strategic reflection and efforts to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce using a child protection system strengthening approach. This package should include generic competency frameworks, job descriptions, supervision guidance, and other capacity development materials.

Estimated Commencement Date: June 2023

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Deliverable title

Description

Submit to

Timeline

Outcome 1: Analysis

1

Collection and review of documents

Data collection and desk reviews: Collection of assessments, literature, and other relevant documentation (national and global) from professional, non-profit, academic, and other stakeholders working in this area[2]. This includes the review of the relevancy of the documents that SCSC collects.

Project Board[3]

June 2023 (5 days)

2

Finalized search matrix template

Finalization of a search matrix to organize the information of relevance to the study. This highlights, amongst others, 1) the terms or categories used to describe these roles, 2) the roles and responsibilities assigned to these workers, and 3) the capacity support provided for the community-based social welfare workforce, including support resulting in accreditation[4].

Project Board

June 2023 (2 days)

3

Search matrix

A populated version of the search matrix capturing all relevant data from the collated resources

Project Board

June – July 2023 (10 days)

4

KII Tool

Development and finalization of a Key Informant Interview (KII) tool[5].

Project Board

July 2023 (2 days)

5

Notes of KIIs

Implementation of KIIs. The consultant will record the participant’s answers. Then, the consultant will review the information recorded and make corrections for clarity, where necessary.

Project Board

July – August 2023 (10 days)

6

Presentation of key findings[6]

Presentation to the Project Board of critical findings on the state of play, good practices, significant gaps, and key recommendations on approaches and tools that need to be developed or further adapted to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce across the different contexts where Save the Children works.

Project Board

August 2023 (3 days)

7

A synthesis report

Document the state of play, good practices and significant gaps, critical approaches and tools that need to be developed or further adapted, and any challenges or opportunities identified and clear recommendations for strengthening the community-based social welfare workforce across different contexts where Save the Children works.

Project Board

September 2023 (10 days)

8

Presentation

Present to Save the Children and other partners (as determined by the Project Board) on critical findings.

Project Board

September 2023 (1 day)

Outcome 2: Development of a guidance package

9

A guidance pack

Developing a generic guidance pack for Save the Children country offices to support them in their strategic reflection and efforts to strengthen the community-based social welfare workforce using a child protection system strengthening approach. This would, at a minimum, include:

• Strategic directions on how to use systems strengthening approach in strengthening the community-based workforce
• Generic job descriptions
• A list of competencies required for the roles
• Generic training plans
• Guidance on technical supervision

Project Board

October 2023 (30 days)

Location and other requirements

This consultancy is home-based. The working language of this consultancy is English. Still, there could be some documents in other languages, or key informant interviews might need to be conducted in local languages. The consultant(s) can apply as a team where appropriate and necessary. However, all translation and interpretation must be managed by the consultants.

Methodologies for Analysis (under Outcome 1)

The analysis will apply a qualitative approach. This approach is chosen as the study seeks to achieve a rich and deeper understanding of the social welfare workforce in the community.

Concerning deliverable 1, Save the Children has already received documentation from the following countries:

• Asia: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar
• ESA: Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan
• LAC: Colombia
• WCA: Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Niger
• MEEE: Lebanon, Egypt

Based on the collected data from the collated resources (deliverable 3), key stakeholders will be identified for a series of key informant interviews (countries and numbers to be determined), allowing Save the Children to understand better the situation of the social welfare workforce at the community level.

Profile of the consultant(s)

• Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• Proven professional expertise and experience in child protection systems strengthening and strengthening of community-based social welfare workforce in development and humanitarian contexts.
• Excellent research/assessment/study-writing and analytical capacities.
• Fluent in English, preferably also French, Spanish, and/or Arabic (oral and written)
• Familiarity with MS WORD, EXCEL, PPT, and TEAMS.
• Proven consultancy experience, including the ability to work collaboratively and deliver quality results according to a set timeframe.
• Flexibility to adapt to changes in tasks based on the key findings of the work.
• Ability to present a well-written report in the English language.

[1] https://www.end-violence.org/

[2] The Project Board has already collected documents from 17 countries. However, the quality of documentation varies. The consultant will examine the relevancy of the documents and enable the Project Board to make a strategic decision of priority countries for further analysis. A minimum of 10 countries will be identified for further analysis.

[3] Throughout the consultancy, the consultant(s) will be supported by a small project board within Save the Children, involving country, regional and global level child protection and MEAL experts in the field of child protection systems strengthening. The group is called Project Board.

[4] The draft template will be shared with the consultant.

[5] Project Board will share a draft list of key informants to be interviewed.