Consultancy for Baseline Survey for Safe Community Linkages for Internet Child Safety (Safe CLICS) Project

1.INTRODUCTION

Background and Context

WeProtect’s 2021 Global Threat Assessment indicates that online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) has rapidly increased in Africa, with about 57% of the report’s Southern and Eastern Africa respondents sharing OCSEA incidences. In 2020, Kenyan law enforcement received 14,434 CyberTips from the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nearly 13% increase over 2019. Anecdotal evidence suggests cases are mainly occurring in Nairobi and Mombasa. According to the 2021 Disrupting Harm in Kenya report, over 50% of surveyed frontline workers believe cases go unreported due to the public’s distrust of government services. There is also low awareness of reporting mechanisms. Disrupting Harm found that 61% of surveyed children aged 12-17 were not sure where to get support if they experienced sexual abuse. A third of child respondents that experienced OCSEA did not disclose it to anyone, and many shared they were not sure where to get help. Frontline workers also cited cultural taboos regarding sex and fears of stigmatization as reasons for underreporting. Both girl and boy respondents who experienced OCSEA shared they felt too embarrassed and ashamed to tell anyone. Respondents who did report, all girls, felt more comfortable discussing their experience with female officers. Like with offline sexual abuse, Kenya’s criminalization of homosexuality may partially contribute to the underreporting of male victims of OCSEA, who may fear repercussions if their perpetrator is of the same sex.Law enforcement, judiciary and social services staff are not trained on how to identify OCSEA, support victims, properly investigate cases or handle evidence and are not well-versed on OCSEA’s harms and legal regulations. There is limited interagency coordination, including with the Department of Children Services (DCS) and child protection structures, hindering information sharing. Surveyed frontline workers, in Disrupting Harm, identified inadequate funding as a big gap. DCS relies heavily on nongovernmental funding to sustain operations and typically has one officer per subcounty, reducing its ability to respond to cases and increasing its reliance on civil society. The Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU), a specialized police unit, only has five OCSEA-focused officers. Frontline workers identified Childline Kenya, the only child protection helpline in Kenya and one of the few organizations that provides free counselling to children, as critical to Kenya’s response to OCSEA. However, it has limited staff and funding, severely reducing its capacity. Frontline workers felt government OCSEA awareness-raising activities were either “poor” or “fair”. Online safety is not effectively integrated into the national school curriculum. 67% of children aged 12 to 17 in Kenya have internet access. However, of internet-using children surveyed in Disrupting Harm, two thirds have not been taught about online safety. Only 51% of these children’s caregivers use the internet themselves, limiting their digital literacy and understanding of online risks. Project activities will address the relationship between violence against children, gender inequality, poverty and the marginalization of vulnerable children, including children with disabilities, which may exacerbate children’s OCSEA exposure.

About ChildFund

ChildFund is an international child-centered development organization. We are a member of the ChildFund Alliance; a global network of 12 organizations that assists more than 15 million children in 58 countries around the world. ChildFund works throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas to connect children with the people, resources, and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, wherever they are. Delivered through over 250 local implementing partner organizations, our programs address the underlying conditions that prevent any child or youth from achieving their full potential. We place a special emphasis on child protection throughout our approach because violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect can reverse developmental gains in an instant. In 2021, we reached 16.2 million children and family members in 21 countries.

In Kenya, ChildFund works through 11 Implementing Partners (IPs) and 2 Direct Implementation Sites spread across 26 counties serving approximately 1.3 million children, families, and community members. The Kenya Country Strategic Plan 2022-2026 strategic priorities are strengthening ECD, Education, Child Protection, Youth Civic Engagement, Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change, Gender and Social Inclusion and Advocacy.

About the the Safe Community Linkages for Internet Child Safety (Safe CLICS) Project

ChildFund Kenya in partnership with Childline Kenya and Life Skills Promoters is implementing a 3-year project entitled “Safe CLICS” (Safe Community Linkages for Internet Child Safety) project from June 2022 to May 2025 in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu and Kilifi Counties, Kenya. The “Safe CLICS” project seeks to strengthen capacity, networks, and systems to make the internet safe for children. The project shall primarily focus on systematically strengthening Kenyan government agencies’ capacity to prevent and respond to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA), improve children’s self-protection skills with the support of caregivers and communities, and strengthen public awareness of OCSEA and connections to reporting and referral services.

The project will accomplish this with, but not limited to, the following key activities:

• Concerted efforts to strengthen Kenya’s national infrastructure, focusing on social care capacity to prevent and respond to online offending against children. • Improvement of early interventions to prevent victimization of children and support victim recovery and • Engagement of families and caregivers in preventing the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and in responding to harmful or unwanted experiences online.

Theory of Change

The theory of change for Safe CLICS avers that IF we support the collaboration between national and local stakeholders, strengthen the legal and operational frameworks for safe internet use, empower children and youth to participate in championing for their own safety, strengthen the capacity of service providers and sensitize parents and caregivers as well as community structures in preventing the sexual abuse of children, and responding to other forms of violence against children, THEN, there will be increased participation of parents/caregivers and children in prevention and response to online and offline CSEA, referral mechanisms will be stronger and government and non-state actors will be more responsive and effective, leading to sustainable coordinated prevention and response to online and offline CSEA and a safer internet in Kenya.

Project Outcomes and Outputs

Safe CLICS proposes three outcomes with key outputs as follows: Goal: Strengthening capacity, networks, and systems to make the internet safe for children

Outcome 1: Kenyan service providers have increased capacity, cross-sector coordination and collaboration and stakeholder commitment to effectively prevent and respond to online child sexual exploitation and abuse. At the national level, the project will focus on the Children Bill’s enactment through engagement with the National Steering Committee and the implementation of the National Plan of Action Against Sexual Exploitation of Children in Kenya. These are seen as enablers of improved legal and policy frameworks for the prevention of and response to OCSEA. SOPs will be developed as well as operational guidelines to improve collaboration between service providers in responding to and prosecuting online violence against children and supporting survivors. In addition, high-level advocacy efforts in collaboration with the Joining Forces Alliance and civil society organizations will push for increased allocation of funding from the national and county budgets for government agencies, including Childline and the AHTCPU, and to activate the Victim Protection Trust Fund.

Outcome 2: Supported by their schools, children and youth are empowered with an improved understanding of the risks of the digital environment, self-protection skills online and access to effective referral mechanisms. School management boards and teachers will gain an improved understanding of the risks of the digital space and be able to identify signs of exploitation and abuse of children to support children and make appropriate referrals. Student peer educators, trained with materials designed for use in schools, will hold child-friendly agender-sensitive guided dialogue forums on OCSEA which will be complemented by participatory educative theatre performances. This proven methodology will reach at least 500 children per school and will raise students’ awareness of online risks and how to mitigate them. Timely responses and progress on reported cases of OCSEA will be strengthened through monthly meetings with representatives of the DCS and key stakeholders to review the status of cases and provide suggestions to improve responses. Training of Childline counsellors, as well as medical and legal service providers, will improve gender-sensitive and child-friendly service quality.

Outcome 3: Caregivers improve children’s online safety, supported by their communities’ increased surveillance of OCSEA and linkages between formal and informal child protection mechanisms. Children’s online safety will be improved through increased parental and caregiver awareness of online risks and how to protect children. The promotion of dialogue between parents and children on the topic of OCSEA will further contribute to children’s safety online. The project will connect formal and informal child protection mechanisms involving actors at the community level to increase sustainable surveillance of OCSEA. The project will also link parents whose socioeconomic situation impacts their children’s vulnerability with financial empowerment and existing social protection mechanisms.

EVALUATION PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

The current consultancy is to carry out a baseline assessment of the online safety project being implemented by ChildFund Kenya and its partners Childline Kenya and Lifeskills Promoters. To assess the implementation and contribution of the project, the evaluation will be comprised of an outcome study inclusive of baseline, mid-term and endline assessments. The purpose of this baseline assignment is to assess, measure, and determine the baseline values relating to the status of the existing frameworks and networks to address Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) and all project 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 the output and outcome level to be measured and tracked.

SCOPE OF WORK FOR THE CONSULTANT

The consultant will work in close partnership, coordination and consultation with ChildFund Kenya and its partners in Kenya (Childline Kenya and Lifeskills Promoters) to undertake the assignment. ChildFund technical advisors and the project team will provide logistical support (mobilization, provision of external/internal documents, reports) to the consultant undertaking the project’s baseline evaluation from the design and conduct of the data collection, as well as the generation of the final baseline report. The participatory evaluation will be undertaken in the 4 counties of Mombasa, Kilifi, Nairobi, and Kiambu and the consultant’s main roles will be to: · Draft a plan for the baseline outcome study including the overall methodology design, tools, and enumerator recruitment. · Support contextualization of study design and tools for the outcome study. · Manage and implement all aspects of enumerators’ training and field data collection for the outcome study. · Lead the technical coordination and facilitate the in-person data collection for qualitative data. · Enter the data (if paper-based data collection) for the outcome study; Mobile data collection is preferred. · Conduct analysis of data for the baseline outcome study. · Respond to report reviews and provide feedback on the analysis and subsequent reports drafted (baseline assessment report and final assessment findings).

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY

In undertaking the assignment, the consultant is expected to provide technical and profession leadership accomplishing the exercise in three stages as detailed below:

A: Planning

• Conduct a comprehensive literature review in line with the above objectives
• Design and develop a Kenya Project Studies Plan. The evaluator will lead the development of the project studies plan (baseline & endline assessment) working in coordination with ChildFund Kenya, Childline and Lifeskills Promoters (LISP) staff to develop a detailed outcome study implementation plan for the baseline assessment, mid-term assessment and endline assessment, which will be inclusive of:
• o proposing the number of enumerators and developing/finalizing a ToR inclusive of competencies to use to identify enumerators.
• o identifying the timing needed to hire enumerators.
• o proposing the timeline (number of days per community, the time required per assessment activity per site, etc.) and logistics (transport, quality assurance mechanisms, ensuring data storage and security in the field) for field data collection.
• o identifying time and resources needed for developing the training agenda and modules for training enumerators on data collection tools and piloting tools.
• o identifying the time and resources required for finalizing assessment tools post-pilot and either printing or including in mobile data collection forms.
• o identifying the time required for creating the data entry forms; entering data, and cleaning data prior to sending it for data analysis.
• Develop and refine research questions and draft an evaluation framework in consultation with ChildFund and its partners.
• Finalize all outcome study enumerator training agendas and modules. The evaluator will develop and contextualize the enumerator training agenda and modules.
• Prepare all outcome study training and field data collection logistics in coordination with ChildFund Kenya and its partners.

B: Action

• Enumerator recruitment, payment, etc. The consultant shall be responsible for fully managing a baseline enumerators’ ToR and identifying enumerators with adequate competencies to fulfil the respective ToR.
• Contextualize, translate, and finalize outcome study data collection tools in consultation with ChildFund Kenya, its partners (Childline & LISP) and ChildFund International.
• Train enumerators on how to utilize the outcome study’s tools based on the training agenda and modules. Training will include piloting the data collection tools.
• Identify and facilitate the enumerators’ entering the quantitative data collected for the outcome study using agreed-upon data entry forms.
• Identify and facilitate the enumerators’ entering and translating the qualitative data for the outcome study collected using agreed-upon data entry forms. All data – both quantitative and qualitative – collected by the baseline study must be disaggregated by gender and beneficiary group.

C: Analysis

• Clean qualitative and quantitative data sets entered for the baseline outcome study.
• Conduct analyses of qualitative and/or quantitative data for the outcome study as per an agreement with ChildFund Kenya using the data analysis plan per the outcome study’s assessment.

Target group The target group will include pupils and students in 60 selected schools, government of Kenya officials at national and county government levels, the private sector, teachers and boards of management of 60 selected schools, parents/caregivers of children in the schools, staff of CSOs, and members of community support structures.

EVALUATION OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES The consultant will draft and share high-quality reports as follows:

• A detailed inception report, including a detailed workplan, detailed methodology for both data collection and analysis, sample size calculations, draft data collection tools and outline of the baseline report.
• 1st Draft baseline report. The first draft document will contain information as indicated in the scope above. Timely feedback on the 1st draft will be provided by the program team.
• 2nd Draft baseline report. The revised documents will synthesize all information, conclusions and recommendations considering all comments and additions from ChildFund and its partners following the submission of the 1st draft document. In case the 2nd draft document is not satisfactory to both parties, communication and the work should continue till an approved 2nd draft.
• Validation meeting. ChildFund will organize a feedback meeting. The consultant will make a presentation to the program team on the contents of the research and analysis produce benchmark measures against project indicators. The meeting will be an opportunity to clarify outstanding aspects of the study.
• Submission of documents. All documents used in the preparation of this assignment such as interview guides, progress reports, data collection tools, draft project documents, templates, raw data collected, preliminary and intermediate designs, layouts, specification documents, inception report, data analysis plan etc. are expected to be submitted to ChildFund together with the 2nd draft document.

Proposed Time Frame The evaluation shall take place between September 26th and October 31st, 2022, for a period not exceeding 30 days, with the final report submitted no later than November 4th, 2022.

WORKPLAN AND TIMINGS

The projected timelines for the delivery of the assignment are as outlined below:

Evaluation Stage A Deliverables 3 days

Project Studies Implementation Plan (Estimated Timing: October 2022)

• Conduct a comprehensive literature review in line with the above objectives.
• Develop and finalize the country project studies plan based on a review of project documents and consultation with the Country Team.
• Develop and refine research questions in consultation with ChildFund and its partners.

Evaluation Stage B Deliverables: Outcome Study’s Baseline Assessment Planning, Implementation and Reporting (Estimated Timing: October – November 2022)

• Spreadsheet of enumerators hired characterizing their competencies against the ToR for enumerators (this is inclusive of timing for hiring and determining enumerators). 1/2 day
• Final set of Training agenda and modules for the baseline assessment enumerators’ training that have been reviewed and finalized in consultation with ChildFund Kenya. 2 days
• Set of draft contextualized and translated baseline assessment data collection tools to utilize for training enumerators established in coordination with ChildFund Kenya. 2 days
• Training of Enumerators 3 days
• Set of contextualized, translated, and finalized baseline assessment data collection tools. 1/2 days
• Baseline Assessment field data collection 10 days
• Complete set of entered, cleaned (and translated for qualitative data) raw qualitative and quantitative data as per the final baseline assessment data entry forms agreed with ChildFund Kenya. 2 days
• Analysis of data 4 days
• Production of draft reports and review of tracked changes and comments provided on the draft reports of the baseline assessment report and brief. 2 days
• Make a presentation to the program team on the contents of the research during a validation meeting. Sharing of the final report. 1 day

TOTAL DAYS EVALUATION STAGE B 27 days

The estimated number of days is exclusive of travel).

MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The consultant will report to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager. The day-to-day management of the consultants is the responsibility of the MEL Officer in consultation with the Project Coordinator.

ChildFund Kenya will support the following: • Hold an inception meeting with the consultant to provide project background information and documents, review the research work plan and documentation shared by the consultant. • Provide day-to-day coordination of activities as the need arises, • Reviewing and providing feedback on the data collection tools • Identification and mobilization of the interviewees • Support meeting arrangements with the beneficiaries and stakeholders • Reviewing reports shared and providing the consultant with timely feedback • Facilitating a report validation meeting. • Being the link between the consultant, stakeholders and project implementation sites • Approving the final baseline report • Pay the agreed costs for the assignments and as per the deliverables completed.

Skills and Qualifications of the Consultant

• A post-graduate degree in Behavioral/Social Sciences, Development Studies, Community Development, Project Planning and Management, Child Protection, social sciences, and other related studies.
• Minimum of ten years of experience in conducting project studies: action research, participatory monitoring and evaluation of development programmes, process evaluation etc.
• Experience conducting studies on Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) is highly desirable.
• Experience in working with marginalized communities including youth, women and persons with disabilities in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi or working across multiple counties.
• Fluent in English and Kiswahili.

Note: The contracted consultant may be considered for engagement for the rest of the project studies pending satisfactory performance at baseline.

Selection of Consultant Interested individuals and/or institutions are requested to provide, at a minimum:

• Their CV and CVs of all team members (if individual or institution) highlighting relevant experience in conducting project studies (baseline, mid-term, process and endline)
• Highlighting 5 or more years of experience evaluating projects (baseline, endline, mid-term, participatory research) on Child Protection, Education, child rights and protection, Online Safety for children
• Daily rates
• Past evaluation reports or other research reports authored by the individual or institution’s staff.
• A technical & financial proposal showing a detailed breakdown of all the costs involved for the entire assignment including logistical costs that include enumerators’ professional fees and field costs (enumerators’ training, field data collection, transport, accommodation, workplan and meals) for the entire assignment, and
• Reference contact information of at least 2 individuals or institutions that have conducted research with the individual or institution in the past.
• Previous experience in working in Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and related Child Protection Programming areas in urban/peri-urban settings such as Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Kiambu will be highly desirable

PAYMENT

The consultant shall be paid for the successful completion of the deliverables in accordance with the following payment schedule below:

• Develop and finalize the country M&E plan based on a review of project documents and consultation with the Country Team and Submission of the inception report. 25%
• Spreadsheet of enumerators hired characterizing their competencies against the ToR for enumerators (this is inclusive of timing for hiring and determining enumerators).
• The final set of Training agenda and modules for the baseline assessment enumerators’ training that have been reviewed and finalized in consultation with ChildFund’s Kenya.
• Set of draft contextualized and translated baseline assessment data collection tools to utilize for training enumerators established in coordination with ChildFund Kenya. 25%
• Training of Enumerators
• Set of contextualized, translated, and finalized baseline assessment data collection tools.
• Baseline Assessment field data collection 25%
• Complete set of entered, cleaned (and translated for qualitative data) raw qualitative and quantitative data as per the final baseline assessment data entry forms agreed with ChildFund Kenya.
• Analysis of data
• Production of draft report and review of tracked changes and comments provided on the draft report of the baseline assessment report and brief and sharing of the final report. 25%

• The Consultant’s compensation shall be paid within 30 days from receipt of a proper invoice unless otherwise specified. • Payment will be made by electronic transfer unless otherwise specified. • The payment shall be subjected to 5% withholding tax as required by the Law at the time of payment. • Budget denomination should be KShs. • The full costs include consultancy/professional fees, enumerators’ professional fees, and field logistical costs (enumerators’ training, field data collection, transport, accommodation, and meals) for the entire assignment.