I. INTRODUCTION 

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. We endeavor to ensure children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. 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 is currently in preparation to embark on a 10-month project funded by Unicef focused on Strengthening Socio-Emotional Learning and Parenting Skills capacity among partners operating in humanitarian contexts in Oromiya, Somali and SNNPR Ethiopia. The project will target Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) staff from UNICEF's government and non-governmental partners - including Social Workers, Social Welfare Officers, Community Service Workers and others.

Given the relevance of social and emotional competence, as well as sensitive and nurturing parenting, to promoting child resilience Save the Children International in cooperation with Unicef will work on to strengthen the capacity of government and civil society organizations in mainstreaming Socio-Emotional Learning and Parenting Skills Education in the context of child protection interventions in Ethiopia, with a focus on IDP/returnees, refugees and broader Children on the Move contexts. Within this framework SCI will undertake the following activities. 

a.     Review and contextualize Socioemotional Learning Package- Children’s Resilience Building Program: Psychosocial Support Program for in and out of school Children package for children 10-17. The contextualization process will be conducted in a participatory manner with the involvement of the partners whose staff will be trained.

b.    Review and contextualized the Parenting without Violence package for caregivers, diversified for caregivers of children aged 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17.

c.     Support the Roll Out of the packages to 180 trainees per package, including frontline facilitators and supervisors, in agreed locations across Oromia, Somali, and SNNP Regions. The facilitators will be identified by UNICEF from within government (Regional, Zonal and District Bureaus of Women, Children and Youth Affairs) and non-governmental partners’ workforce already deployed to provide prevention and response interventions and services to vulnerable children and their caregivers in humanitarian and broader Children on the Move contexts. The SEL and parenting packages will thus enrich facilitators’ toolboxes, and will support a more structured, evidence-based, and consistent approach to providing psychosocial support services across partners, localities and interventions.

d.    Provide on-job coaching to frontline facilitators to ensure quality and fidelity of implementation. Joint on-job coaching visits will be conducted by SCI and trained partners’ supervisors, using a structured feedback form. Groups of up to five facilitators will receive up to five on-job coaching visits, for a total number of 180 on-job coaching visits during the timeframe of implementation

e.     SCI will support and facilitate the collection of baseline information which will allow the implementation of an evaluation at completion of the intervention, highlighting key outcomes of the Partnership and potential/implications for further scale-up.

f.      Incorporate Child Safeguarding (CSG) and PSEA module will be added to the training for facilitators, inclusive of what they mean, how to operationalize, identification of referral pathways.

Save the Children International is a global leader in the development of socio-emotional learning and child resilience packages, which have been widely piloted and validated in both humanitarian and development contexts in Ethiopia. Most recently, the Parenting Without Violence (PWV) common approach builds upon and takes its evidence base from the three existing and proven Save the Children’s interventions, namely, Positive Discipline in Every Day Parenting (PDET), REAL (Responsible, Engaged and Loving Fathers) and Child Resilience programs. And the Socio Emotional and Parenting Skill Education Manual will draw inputs from lessons learnt from different organization, local and international partners and UN agencies who have are providing PSS for children and their parents. The SEL and Parenting Skill Education Program will have two Manuals: 

1.    Children’s Resilience Building Program: Psychosocial Support Program for in and Out of school Children package for children 10-17.

2.    Parenting without Violence package for caregivers. This will include the following modules:

As part of the SEL and Parenting Skill Education, Save the Children has planned to adopt the manuals to the local context and do translation of the two manuals. Thus, this TOR is prepared to recruit qualified consultant to do the contextualization of the manual to local contexts and translation of the manual to Amharic, Affan Oromo and Somaligna language. 

II. Purpose of the consultancey 

In humanitarian contexts in Ethiopia, children are exposed to multiple adversities, including conflict, violence, material deprivation, limited access to services. Besides representing significant protection risks, these environmental factors create an ecology of “toxic stress” that can harm

the short and long-term developmental well-being of boys and girls. Humanitarian partners have been addressing these issues through a range of Child Protection initiatives, including the establishment of Safe Spaces and the provision of psychosocial support interventions and services. However, findings from a recent MHPSS 4Ws mapping exercise (UNICEF, 2019) suggest that, for the greatest part, partners have been focusing on unstructured psychosocial activities with largely recreational aims; whilst very few partners incorporate in their programmes structured interventions aimed at equipping children and caregivers with individual and interpersonal assets and coping skills that can help maintain, or restore, healthy psychosocial and developmental trajectories in spite of challenging environmental circumstances. Socio-Emotional Learning and Parenting Skills Education are two of the psychosocial interventions that have the best global evidence of effectiveness in mitigating psychosocial distress and strengthening resilience in children and families.

Given the protracted nature of the emergency there is a need to focus on building resilient systems and communities to respond to current, and possibly recurrent, shocks and adversities. As part of this agenda, Save the Children in collaboration with Unicef focuses on psychosocial health promotion and prevention, and to equip children and caregivers with individual and interpersonal assets and coping skills that can help maintain, or restore, healthy psychosocial and developmental trajectories in spite of challenging environmental circumstances. By mainstreaming Socio-Emotional Learning and Parenting Skills Education in CPiE programing in IDP/returnees’ emergency response, CoM and related programs.

In this regard, Save the Children is now looking for competent consultant to adopt its resilience building program and Parenting without violence manual to the local context, and make translation of the document to Amharic, Affan Oromo and Somaligna language.  

III. Objective of the consultancy

Ø  To review child resilience program children manuals of Save the Children and come up with key recommendation for contextualization

Ø  To review Parenting Without Violence caregivers’ manuals of Save the Children and come up with key recommendation for contextualization

Ø  To conduct base line assessments to inform manual contextualization including identification of the gaps and strength of the existing Child Resilience Program manuals

Ø  To develop/adopt context specific Socio Emotional and parenting skill education

Ø  To adopt and translate socio emotional learning and parenting skills education

IV. Scope of the Consultancey 

The consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks

Ø  Mapping Emotional competence, Self-regulation, Social competence, Executive functioning skills and Self-awareness Agenda from save the children’s existing (1) child resilience children’s workshop (2) parenting without violence parents group session (3) youth resilience program manuals   

Ø  Review existing child resilience, parenting without violence manuals 

Ø  Conduct formative assessment to inform contextualization of the manuals. Conduct discussion with key stakeholders to understand the situation on the ground, related to socio emotional learning and parenting without violence aspects 

Ø  Conduct field visit and consult target beneficiaries on the development of context specific socio emotional and parenting skills education manuals

Ø  Prepare a draft Socio emotional and parenting skills education manual and monitoring tools in Amharic Language, Affan Oromo and Somaligna.

Ø  Revise the draft Socio emotional learning and parenting skills education program manual in line with feedback provided by Save the Children technical team.

Ø  Conduct project baseline and develop MEAL framework

The consultant should have the following qualification.

Ø  Proven experience in facilitating Socio Emotional Learning and Parenting Skills Education or life skill trainings

Ø  Extended knowledge and experience in the area of Education, child protection and psychosocial support

Ø  BA/MA in relevant field (psychology, sociology, social work etc)

Ø  Over eight years work experience in child protection, psychosocial support and life skills training for children and youth, and experience in delivering similar assignments

Ø  Good knowledge about the challenges and protection concerns of IDP children and their parents/care givers

Ø  Knowledge of Affan Oromo, Somaligna and Amharic Language