Consultancy Service for Development of Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for 2021-2023 and Vision 2030

TERM OF REFERENCE

Develop the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for SOS Children’s Villages Vietnam 

1.   Introduction

SOS Children’s Villages International is the global federation of 136 national SOS Children’s Villages associations (MAs), working in more than 2000 program locations worldwide.  We work together with a single mission: to ensure that every child grows with love, security and respect.

Uniquely, we provide long-term, family-like care (FLC) for children who have lost parental care and we work with vulnerable families and communities to help strengthening them and prevent child abandonment (family strengthening program unit, FS).  The FLC units are usually organized in the form of a cluster of SOS families, where a SOS caregiver cares for small groups of children.

SOS Children’s Villages Vietnam (SOS Vietnam) is a member association of the SOS

Children’s Village International Federation that provides Family-like care, community support and educational programs across Vietnam. Currently, SOS Vietnam supports 17 children villages, 14 SOS youth facilities, 12 Hermann Gmeiner schools, 16 kindergartens, 03 vocational training workshops, 01 vocational training school in Viet Tri, 06 Family strengthening programs in 6 provinces.

Our Vision: Every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security.

Our Mission: We build families for children in need. We help them shape their own futures and we share in the development of their communities.

Background of Advocacy for Children's Rights 

SOS children’s villages stand up for children and help to inform communities and decision-makers about children's rights; encourage children to actively take part in the decision-making processes that affect their lives and, when possible, speak up for themselves and be heard.

SOS children’s villages, with its experiences of working with children without, or at risk of losing parental care, has resolved to position itself as a leading advocate for the rights of children as well as those of their families and communities. 

In Vietnam, in collaboration with the Department of Children’s Affairs of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and with technical support from the Regional Advocacy Advisor, SOS Vietnam conducted a report of the Child Rights Situational Analysis at SOS children’s villages in Vietnam; a Field Assessment by the Regional Advocacy Advisor and various national meetings in 2019 that highlighted key gaps for advocacy work and improvement including:

• absence of the legal and social recognition of Family-like care as a form of alternative care;
• relevance of the legal entity of both SOS Vietnam and SOS children’s villages at location level;
• limited access and/or approach to governmental policies supporting SOS children and child caregivers such as Decree 136/2013/NDCP dated 21/10/2013 and Decree 26/2016/NDCP dated 06/4/2016;
• budgetary possibilities for increasing governmental subsidies supporting SOS target groups;
• capacity, opportunities and challenges of SOS Vietnam participating in and contributing to the process of developing the national child care and protection policies, programs and related legal documents of the government for period 2021-2025 and Vision 2030.

SOS Vietnam aims to scale up evidence-based advocacy locally and nationally in order to have a more profound impact on an increased number of children in its target group; i.e. children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care. SOS Vietnam wants to recruit a competent national consultant having a strong background in areas of alternative care, child protection and advocacy to facilitate development of the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for 2021 - 2023 and Vision 2030 in English and Vietnamese languages.

2.    Objective of the Assignment:

The overall objective of this consultancy is to develop the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for SOS Vietnam on alternative care including specific objectives but not limited to:

• To understand intensively and comprehensively internal and external advocacy environments and the context of alternative care in Vietnam;
• To understand the underlying philosophy of the advocacy approach adopted in the advocacy work of Vietnam;
• To propose potential advocacy initiatives to be taken by SOS Vietnam in the field of alternative care for children;
• To identify advocacy priorities, actions, roles and responsibilities of SOS children’s villages at regional, national and locational level for implementation.

3.    Scope of work

The scope of work for the Consultant will include but not be limited to: 

• Conduct literature review/desk review;
• Undertake stakeholder mapping and analysis; 
• Develop participatory tools to supplement information in the secondary literature review, and conduct field consultations at all levels as required, with a range of stakeholders including SOS co-workers at regional, national and locational levels; the government, UN, I/NGOs, communities, children in care and care leavers;
• Review the institutional capacity, organizational set-up for advocacy work at location and national level and make concrete recommendations; 
• Propose a strategy for achieving the strategic objectives and key results; 
• Develop a Results and Resources Framework (logical framework) for the action plan period;
• Organize and facilitate the national advocacy strategy development workshop. The analytical report including the findings from the literature review and fieldwork should be presented at this workshop.
• Finalize the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for 2021-2023, and Vision 2030 and submit to SOS Vietnam.

4.    Methodology

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the consultants are expected to propose an action plan which includes detailed information on literature review, strategic outline report, methodology and tools including questionnaires, data analysis plan, timeline and consultation meetings/interviews with relevant stakeholders and supports needed.

Methods of Data Collection: The various methods for data collection include - i) desk review, ii) Key Informant Interview, iii) Focused Group Discussion, and iv) observations.

Desk review:

The purpose is to gather the current situation of SOS International, SOS Vietnam, alternative care and child protection, Vietnam government in different context of Vietnam through different literature and documents published by SOS International and Vietnam and concerned agencies of the government, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs or research institutes,… Based on the 'Literature Review', the consultant will develop checklists for conducting KII, FGD as well as participatory tools for all respondents. The draft checklist for each categories of the respondent will be discussed with the SOS Vietnam for necessary feedbacks and inputs. Accordingly, the final tools will be designed before collection of primary data.

Collection of Primary Data:

Primary data and qualitative information will be collected mainly from the field study at national and locational levels. The field visit will be planned to conduct in Hanoi. The additional interviews will be conducted in selected locations via online forms to ensure comparative data and different situations of SOS children’s villages regarding laws, sub-laws documents, policies and its application. The following tools will be used for collecting primary data:

Key Informant Interview (KII):

KIIs will be used for gathering qualitative information for developing the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy for 2021-2023 and Vision 2030. The KII will be conducted with SOS International, SOS Vietnam, key government stakeholders working on alternative care and promotion of the child rights. The KII would help in collecting the expert's opinions and the situation in the policy makers' perspectives. This will also help the consultant in understanding the perspectives of SOS International, SOS Vietnam and the government in the area of alternative care for children who lost the parental care or at risk of losing it in Vietnam.

Focus Group Discussion (FDG):

Along with KII, the FGDs will also be conducted during the field visit to collect perspective and qualitative information on situation of children, alternative care in various contexts. The FGDs make discussions and come into common consensus, so that it becomes easy to analyze the facts during development of the advocacy strategy and plan of action.

Consultations:

Consultations with SOS Vietnam, main stakeholders, SOS children and youth, SOS caregivers would be organized as tool to serve in filling gaps of the information collected through other methods of data collection such as desk review, KII and FGD.

Suggested Stakeholders for Data Collection:

• Government agencies at national level (to be confirmed)
• Government agencies at local levels (to be confirmed)
• UNICEF and relevant UN agencies (to be confirmed)
• INGOs, local NGOs (to be confirmed)
• SOS International, SOS Vietnam, SOS children’s villages
• SOS children, mothers and co-workers and care leavers

Specific Tasks and Outputs:

5.  Time Frame

The consultant will be recruited for a period of 2 months with highest possible involvement of 30 working days. The finalized Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action need to be submitted by 30 November 2020.

6. Role of SOS Vietnam

• The Consultant will report directly to the Program Director, SOS Children’s Villages Vietnam; 
• SOS Vietnam will provide relevant background documents necessary for the assignment;
• SOS Vietnam shall be responsible for the coordination of meetings and workshops with the stakeholders of SOS Vietnam at all levels;
• SOS Vietnam will provide feedback to the draft Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for 2021-2023 and Vision 2030.

7. Skills and Competencies:

a) Academic Qualifications 

• At least a Master’s Degree in a relevant field in the area of planning, law, social work, public policy or development studies. 

b) Experience 

• Minimum 10 years’ working experience in advocacy for child rights and alternative care focusing on children deprived of parental care, preferably with the government, UN Agencies and International Organizations;
• Proven Skills in the development of advocacy strategies;
• Demonstrate experience of having undertaken similar assignments;
• Proven examples of implementing successful advocacy initiatives;  
• Experience in networking with government departments, such as Department of Children’s Affairs, Department of Social Protection of MOLISA. 
• Skilled in working with diverse groups of officials in the government, NGOs and different agencies and with children and community members;  
• Skilled in conducting Participatory Research;
• Objective oriented workshop planning and facilitation skills;
• Excellence in report writing in English is mandatory;
• Experience in working on Gender Equality will be an advantage. 
• Excellent command of oral and written English
• Familiarity with alternative care and child protection context in Vietnam and the SOS Vietnam’s work will be advantage.

8. Application Process:

Interested candidates should submit your applications which include the following:

• Detailed Curriculum Vitae;
• Technical and financial Proposal for implementing the assignment. The documents shall be provided in English language.
• An application letter including remuneration requirements (daily rate) and contact
• Information for three work- related referees

The application should be submitted latest by 5PM, 25 July 2020 in soft copy to the email address: [email protected] [1] and [email protected] [2]  stating “Consultancy service for development of the Evidence based National Advocacy Strategy and Plan of Action for 2021-2023 and Vision 2030” in the email subject line.

Only short listed applicants/consultants will be contacted. SOS Vietnam reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and is not bound to any legal claim in this regard.