TERMS OF REFERENCE for CURRICULA READJUSTMENT

CURRICULA READJUSTMENT OF THE TERRE DES HOMMES’ METHODOLOGIES ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PREVENTION BY ADDRESSING THE EXISTING SOCIAL AND GENDER NORMS

Terre des hommes is seeking a qualified professional or team to conduct a curricula readjustment in the CARING project in English

PRESENTATION OF TERRE DES HOMMES

Terre des hommes (Tdh) is the leading Swiss organization for children’s aid. Through our health, protection and emergency relief programmes, we provide assistance to over four million deprived children and their families in more than 40 countries each year through innovative and sustainable solutions. In Europe, Tdh helps children who are affected by migration, who come in contact with the law as a victim, witness or offender, and who need general protection including from the risk of abuse, trafficking or exploitation. Tdh’s child protection teams work to develop and strengthen national child protection systems and build professionals` capacities who work for children. Tdh mobilises communities and educate families to create safe and nurturing environments for children and youth. We also empower children and increase their resilience through self-led art initiatives and mental health and psycho-social support. Tdh concentrates its work in Albania, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, and Greece, while together with local partners, it also reaches children in 14 other European countries. In 2022, Tdh supported 7.1 million children and members of their communities through 243 projects in 30 countries. For more background about Tdh globally and in Europe, visit our global website and our European website.

CONTEXT AND THE PROJECT

At the level of the EU, violence in schools is one of the most visible and pervasive forms of violence against children. School related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is resulted because of gender norms and stereotypes and enforced by unequal power dynamics. As such, gender plays an influential role in the prevalence of certain types of violence in school, girls being more prone to sexual and psychological violence, while boys, to physical violence. Researches show that across the countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and not only, the system of social and gender norms is increasing the use of violence, the acceptance of it and limiting the intervention of third parties. Therefore, addressing the gender dimension of violence against children in schools and challenging social norms become imperative not only to better understand the manifestations but also to enable professionals to design prevention programs through which boys and girls are made aware of and empowered to transform unequal and harmful gendered power relations.

Targeting to contribute to decrease gender-based violence in schools, Tdh Romania, Tdh Hungary, Tdh Greece, Brave Phone, SAPI and Association Roditeli are implementing an EU-funded project entitled ‘CARING – Challenging social and gender norms to reduce violence against children in school’ from 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2025 in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, coordinated by Tdh Romania.

The CARING project is based on an integrated and holistic approach to address SRGBV in 4 EU countries by working with young people to take action in preventing violence, with schools to reinforce their prevention measures, with educational staff to build their capacity to change behaviors and endorse positive attitudes, with parents/ carers to support young people in raising awareness, with relevant public institutions to improve cooperation with schools on violence prevention.

The project is challenging social and gender norms, shifting behaviors of school staff and young people who, in turn, will become change agents promoting positive practices on genderequity in their communities. This will be achieved through capacity-building activities with school staff from 32 schools; through trainings with young people, aged 13-18; through 32 child-led awareness-raising events, and round tables with relevant actors for multi-disciplinary cooperation.

Therefore, the project is aiming at reaching the following specific objectives (SO): • SO 1. At project inception to assess the specific social and gender norms which are promoting and maintaining GBV in the 32 selected schools from 4 countries. • SO 2. To increase the capacities of educational staff and school management (estimated 320) to adopt a tolerant, inclusive, and non-violent communication, behaviour and to promote positive practices related to gender-equity in schools. • SO 3. To improve the awareness and knowledge of at least 250 young people, aged 13-18 on gender stereotyping and gender equality with a focus on empowering them to become change agents and promote a non-violent behaviour and communication. • SO 4. To strengthen the multi-agency cooperation at local/county level in partner countries during the project and beyond in order to promote a gender-sensitive approach in their efforts to address prevention of violence in schools and communities. All project activities will be designed based on already existing and piloted methodologies of partners, most specifically the YouCreate program, the REVIS project Manual on Shifting Norms around Violence in Schools and ACTIV’s training methodology for teachers on GBV.

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

Terre des hommes Hungary as task leader, in the frame of the CARING project is looking for an expert or group of experts who will readjust the existing Tdh’s training curricula and methodologies on GBV prevention by addressing the existing social and gender norms, incorporating the results of the rapid assessment carried out in the frame of the project as follows. (To note: Completing the rapid assessment is not part of the present ToR, but to incorporate the rapid assessment’s results in the curricula readjustment.)

A rapid assessment is being carried out in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania to set the training priorities at country and school level, and will measure: – For students and school staff: knowledge and perspectives on gender; the abilities to grasp harmful social and gender norms that enable GBV, to identify GBV, and to prevent and manage cases of GBV; the scale and most frequent types of GBV. – For students: bystander perspectives and barriers against intervention. – For school staff: mechanisms to prevent, report, manage and solve cases of GBV. FGDs and surveys will target at least 160 students (5/school) and 128 staff (4/school). This gender-sensitive assessment will involve the integration of a gender perspective to best design the adjusted curricula. The assessment will surprise intersecting inequalities, investigating how gender intersects with age, education, family composition, and disability. Planned date of delivering the CARING project’s rapid assessment country reports: 20 September 2023 (tentative).

Based on the above assessment the ACTIV modules for teachers and REVIS modules for students will be adapted to the specific context and needs of each country or school, taking into consideration various gender power dynamics. The ACTIV methodology for teachers is currently organized on separate modules focused on: Understanding Social and Gender Norms; Working with Social and Gender Norms; Exploring the GBV School Context and its Consequences; How to Build a Child-Friendly School; GBV Prevention Activities; Intervention Methods for School Violence. The REVIS methodology is divided into four learning Modules associated with Tip Sheets that explain key concepts and ideas around social norms. The Activities that follow each Tip Sheet engage young people in art and play-based work through which they identify social and gender norms around violence against children in their school and community. The proposed activities allow youths to explore what it means to feel safe and create activities or projects that they can implement to address a norm they want to work towards shifting. Readjustment of the curricula will comprise of several online meetings with the national trainers, together with whom the necessary changes will be made. The support and input of the continuous professional development providers will be sought in order to be able to receive accreditation on the training course for teachers and make it easy for them to include in their training offer after the project’s end. The readjusted curricula will also cover aspects from the YouCreate methodology in designing youth-led projects and possibly from the ”Children-led projects on school violence prevention” guide developed in the frame of the REVIS project.

Within the curricula readjustment, the project partners will analyze the findings of the abovementioned rapid assessment and identify the specific social and gender norms which need to be addressed/ shifted and based on those, specific modules/ activities will be selected/ adjusted from the REVIS and ACTIV methodologies, integrating better the gender perspective (based on current projects and expertise of the partners). This will be done through several online meetings (initial discussions would take place during partners coordination meetings) with staff members from every partner, including the external trainers who will be selected to be involved in the project. Work will be divided among partners, but the coordination and final development of the design of the curricula will be done by the chosen external expert(s).

The readjusted curricula are aimed to be used in different activities in the frame of the CARING project, as follows: – A 3-day Training of Trainers (TOT)/ country of the revised Tdh’s methodology on shifting social and gender norms will be organized for the school facilitators. – The trained school facilitators will deliver 1 training/ school for 2 days as per the methodology, to min. 10 peers and school management staff in order to be able to address the gender dimension of violence against children by better understanding its manifestations, and by enabling them to empower boys and girls to transform unequal and harmful gendered power relations. – Conducting trainings with youth leaders in each school (1 in each school) by school facilitators: 3-day face to face trainings with young people to become youth leaders and promote positive behaviours. Min. 8 young people/ school (ensuring gender balance) will participate in approx. 18 hours of activities.

Expected tasks and deliverables

The expert(s) or team will be required to deliver the following tasks and deliverables:

– Detailed concept note of the curricula readjustment: in English, min. 10 pages, summarizing the scope, objectives, methodological approach and bullet points on the content of the curriculum readjustment. It will be shared with Tdh for feedback and approval.

– Consultations with national partners and key relevant stakeholders on the concept note incorporating the results of the rapid needs assessment in English.

– Final version of the readjusted curricula approved by Tdh: ready-to-print, easy-to read material in English, min. 50 pages, full and final curricula with annexes, incorporating the feedback received from the project partners on the drafted curricula. The expected deliverable is a training manual with two layers (one covering activities and methods of working with teachers and another one with working with YP), by readjusting the REVIS and ACTIV curricula, and covering steps from the YouCreate methodology in designing youth-led projects. The original will be English, and then it will be translated into Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Romanian, and adapted into the local context if needed. The publication must be suitable for distribution in online and printed version also.

– Transmitting the readjusted curricula to the national trainers and project partners in English. The format of this knowledge transfer will depend on the consultant’s availability, e.g. it can be a 1-2-day training or a series of online consultations.

– 1 public Webinar (of 1-1.5 hour) to present the final version of the readjusted curricula in English.

Further expectations for the expert(s) ▪ To deliver the assignment as per the signed contract, Terms of Reference (ToR) and the Technical and Financial Offer and relevant annexes, including Tdh policies where applicable (e.g. those related to Data Protection and Child Safeguarding). To submit all required deliverables as per the agreed deadlines. ▪ To be available for regular and brief check-in calls, as necessary, throughout the assignment to share updates on the progress. ▪ To ensure that the identified Tdh project staff is regularly informed in case of any questions and issues (particularly, delays and blockages) that may emerge during the assignment and may require mutual discussion/planning. ▪ To generally ensure the confidentiality of the process as well as the information and documents received from Tdh. For this assignment no travel is foreseen, the work is to be carried out remotely. The layout, graphic design, translation of the deliverables is not part of this consultancy.