Call for Consultant to Develop a Group Parenting Curriculum (Individual or Institution)

CALL FOR CONSULTANT TO DEVELOP A GROUP PARENTING CURRICULUM – (INDIVIDUAL OR INSTITUTION)

1.0 Background:

ChildFund Zambia is an International Child Protection and Development Agency, working for the well-being of children by supporting locally led initiatives that strengthen families and communities to overcome root causes of child poverty and ensure the protection of children’s rights. ChildFund Zambia’s interventions are based on five programmatic areas: Education, Health, Child Protection, HIV and AIDS and Food Security. These programs are designed to positively affect the well-being of children and youth.

In August 2018, ChildFund Zambia, with support from Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a multi-year, multi-country initiative designed to address the needs of your children and their caregivers affected by HIV and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, secured follow-on funding for the implementation of the second phase of a project, “A Strengthened Partnership for Nurturing Care” which runs until July 2021, in Chibombo District of Central Province. This project builds on the gains made, learning and the promising results[i], from a previously implemented project, on what works for responsive caregiving through home visitation and group parenting sessions during existing community platforms in the same implementation area. Additionally, the end line evaluation assessment and based on lessons learned from implementing Phase 1 project, the findings revealed that there is a need to develop a national group parenting curriculum that would be utilized by all stakeholders in Zambia working with children and families in this age range, unlike the current situation where different organizations use different group parenting training manuals and curriculum from different countries.

The project is targeting children in the age range of 0-3 years old and this is as a result of the Zambian government adopting the Nurturing Care Framework, which focuses on children aged 0-3 years, when children are considered to be the most vulnerable to meeting their developmental milestones.

The goal, objectives and outcomes of this project, taking into consideration the lessons learned from the previous project include the following:

• Long-term goal: Vulnerable children aged 0-3 years old affected by HIV and AIDS meet developmental milestones in a nurturing environment by July 2021.

There are three objectives related to goal:

• Objective 1: Multisectoral coordination is strengthened between Chibombo District government multisectoral partners, development partners, and Chibombo Child Development Agency (CCDA) to expand nurturing care knowledge and services to vulnerable caregivers of infants and young children aged 0-3 by July 2021.
• Objective 2: Community-based child protection is strengthened for improving the safety and security of infants and young children aged 0-3 in targeted communities in Chibombo District by July 2021.
• Objective 3: The project is implemented as designed.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned goal and objectives, the project will accomplish this with, but not limited to, the following key activities,

• concerted efforts to strengthen subnational multisectoral coordination on nurturing care (health, nutrition, early learning, responsive parenting, safety and security) with government and development partners.
• enhancing the skills of service providers to conduct home visits with the most vulnerable caregivers of children aged 0-3,
• training community volunteers to conduct group parenting sessions with targeted, vulnerable caregivers of children aged 0-3 through community platforms; and
• engaging with child protection actors to better validate, plan and utilize/monitor plans to address child protection risks for infants and young children.

2.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE

2.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The overall intent of the consultancy is to develop and add/adjust the already existing group parenting training manual developed by ChildFund and group parenting discussion cards, to include more detailed messages for children aged 0-3 years as well as enhancing the same counselling materials so as to address some of the issues prevalent in the local environment.  The above mentioned manual and group counselling card were used to train caregivers of children aged 0- 5 years, community volunteers and government stakeholders on how to support their children’s development and impart knowledge and skills on how to conduct  activities to bring about positive attitude, behaviour and practice change on social cultural practices affecting the lives of children.

• SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY
  • To conduct a desk review of existing group parenting materials and training manuals available nationally and internationally that are used by different stakeholders
  • To identify the gaps and strengths in the existing group parenting training manuals and materials used by the CNHF (FFP) project
  • To develop/adopt a national group counseling curriculum with training course Manuals, for Facilitators, Participants, Counselling Cards and a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework.

• EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
  • The consultant is expected to conduct a desk review of existing parenting materials for children aged 0 to3 years old and engage key stakeholders, at all levels, especially the national level in the area of ECCDE
  • A succinct Facilitator’s Guide and notes on group counselling with key messages on Early Childhood Care and Development for children aged 0-3years old is to be developed by the consultant
  • A succinct Participant’s Guide for group counselling with key messages on Early Childhood Care and Development for children aged 0-3years old is to be developed by the consultant
  • A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating the Intervention
  • The consultant with the technical background and expertise in Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) will source for a graphic designer to develop graphic chart/poster with messages on different ages to guide the counselors on the five components of Nurturing Care (Responsive Caregiving, Security and Safety; Opportunities for Early Learning; Good Health; and Adequate Nutrition) for categories of: 0 to 3 years;
  • A Poster summarizing the recommendations for Group Counselling key aspects and/or recommendations
  • All deliverables should be saved and shared with ChildFund in USB form and soft copies via Email. There should also be a CD-ROM with course materials, presentations, reviews, and videos

3.0  SCOPE OF WORK

The assignment will be undertaken in close collaboration with the government, non-government organizations, INGOs and UN Agencies working with children and families or in the area of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD)

The scope of work will include the following:

• Undertake desk research and analyze all the necessary documents/training .modules, training materials to fully understand the ground situation, review of available evidence on group parenting practices and existing training material available for training community volunteers, INGOs, NGOs and government departments on group parenting counselling (including the existing ChildFund group training manuals and counseling cards); relevant national and international legislations and policies that have been signed/ratified pertaining to parenting. The purpose of this review will be to assess current parenting support needs and to ascertain how existing and relevant evidence-based materials can inform the development of country-specific training curriculum and materials and training guides.
• The consultant is expected to provide a summary of findings on the ECD policy review.
• The consultant is expected to revise deliverables incorporating ChildFund, UNICEF, MoH, MOGE and other stakeholders’ feedback as this will be implemented at National Level
• Carry out stakeholder analysis to bring out the roles and responsibilities of key players and institutions and conduct individual and group interviews/discussions with parents and parenting practitioners to determine the needs of parents and/or caregivers – both male and female from various socio-economic backgrounds -who are seeking support in their parenting role.
• Carry out a “Gap” analysis to identify gaps in the trainings in group parenting. Map out the issues and identify the priorities in line with the objectives of this project. This should include consultations and meetings and key informant interviews with relevant stakeholders (Government, UN Agencies, INGOs, CSOs etc.)
• Based on the assessments, develop group parenting curriculum (including all the manuals and Cards as indicated in 2.2 under Expected Deliverables to provide directions for facilitating and training. The topics to be included are the five pillars or Components in the Nurturing Care Framework and reference to be made to the parenting discussion cards for additional topics.
• Conduct a curriculum validation and stakeholders harmonization meeting.
• Share the draft curriculum with key experts including government for their review
• Consultant will be expected to incorporate and finalize the curriculum for submission to ChildFund Zambia

4.0 PROPOSED TIME FRAME

All the above mentioned deliverables are expected to be submitted between September 1^st and 31st January,2021. A more detailed submission calendar for deliverables will be shared with the selected candidate.

5.0 SELECTION OF CONSULTANT

5.1. Only candidates with a track record of at least five (5) years with content development especially training manuals is preferred.

5.2 Interested candidates should submit an Expression of Interest detailing their technical approach, work plan /timelines and budget for their professional fees to achieving the deliverables.

5.3 Past writing sample of a final training manual, guides developed with preference for samples from parenting and Early Childhood Development trainings and manuals a must

5.4 Reference contact information of at least 2 individuals or institutions that have developed training manuals with the individual or institution in the past.

5.5 The consultant should include a capability statement highlighting the desired experiences and qualifications. This should be submitted with a detailed curriculum Vitae of all team members/profile for institutions. Any submissions after the closing date shall be rejected

5.6 ChildFund Zambia reserves the right to accept or reject any submission.

6.0 SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

Consultant (s) capable of carrying out the above task should send their expression of interest including technical and financial proposals(in separate small envelopes but sealed in one bigger envelope) with details of their profile and previous experience of carrying out similar assignments to ChildFund Zambia. A minimum of a degree in any social science for the consultant(individual) or team leader (firm) is a must.

This should be addressed to the Chairperson, Procurement Committee, ChildFund Zambia, P.O Box 32682, Plot 9158 Lunsenfwa Road, Kalundu Lusaka.The sealed envelopes must be deposited in the tender box at the Country Office no later than 10:30 hours on Friday 4th September, 2020.

Clarifications maybe sought from [email protected] and copied to [email protected]

Note: Only shortlisted consultants will be contacted.