Child Protection in Emergencies (CPIE) third party monitor (Consultant) 46 views3 applications

Background

The Amhara region continues to face multiple complex and protracted humanitarian crises since the start of North-Ethiopia conflict in 2021. The humanitarian situation in the region continues to deteriorate due to the ongoing armed conflict between government forces and armed groups (FANO) for the last one year, as well as drought, disease outbreaks, the presence of >1M IDPs for years in temporary shelters and host communities, refugee influx from Sudan, floods, landslides, and economic decline. These factors have adversely affected the community to unprecedented levels of protection risks, hunger, and malnutrition especially children under five, pregnant and lactating women, and other vulnerable groups. According to a report by the regional Women, Children and Social Affairs (BoWCSA) in 2016 EFY (2023/2024), more than 729,000 children were identified with different child protection risks and concerns, mostly in conflicted-affected areas including Gojjam (June 2024 report of BoWCSA). Furthermore, the regional Education bureau has indicated that nearly 4.1 million children are out of school due to the ongoing conflict (OCHA report April 2024). Hospitals in conflict-affected areas also reported more than 1,440 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) between July 2023 to June 2024 (Amhara Public Health Institute’s report). Fortythree woredas found in 9 zones have been adversely affected by drought, impacting a total of 1,846,895 individuals, including 250,805 under-five children. This critical situation demands urgent and life-saving assistance to address the immediate needs of the affected population. (Ethiopia – Situation Overview | Digital Situation Reports (unocha.org) The region has also not yet recovered from the devastating Northern Ethiopia conflict, which affected almost 50 percent of the region and caused displacement of millions and mass destruction of public and basic service infrastructure and systems. The region continues to host over 981,000 IDPs as of June 2024 and approximately 2.4 million returnees in conflict-affected areas are in desperate need of integrated and lifesaving response and service provision (Amhara DPFSCC and OCHA Situation Reports). Since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan in April 2023, Ethiopia’s Metema of Point of Entry (PoE) has seen a steady influx of refugees, returnees, and asylum seekers. So far, 103,177 people (42,813 women and 60,364 men) have entered Ethiopia from Sudan. Among these arrivals, 43,805 were Ethiopian returnees, 43,139 were Sudanese refugees, and 16,233 were asylum seekers from other countries: 23,019 children, 11,473 girls and 11,546 boys ( IOM DTM).

The above-mentioned crises have exacerbated the protection risks, that demand robust child protection responses and monitoring of reports. Anecdotal evidence shows that there are increased cases of family separation in which children are often forced to flee their homes in search of jobs and survival, and are subject to child labor, trafficking, and street life. Increased economic and psychosocial distress, insecurity, and deterioration of basic services resulted in adverse mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. Given the size, scale, and geographic diversity of the responses, Client’s Child Protection programme is requesting the scale-up of available CPiE personnel to monitor, quality assurance, and deliver critical child protection and GBVIE responses in the affected woredas and kebeles of east, west, Awi and north Gojjam zones and south, central, and west Gondar zones. II. Justification As part of the emergency response in Amhara region and as per FCDO’s EC2R funding agreement, Clients seeks to strengthen the child protection and GBViE prevention, response, and protection services to highly affected children, women and population groups in conflict affected region. There are access constraints in more than 85 % of kebeles and woredas in the region mainly at East Gojjam, West Gojjam, North Gojjam, Awi, South Gondar, Central & West Gondar, and north Shewa zones, which make it challenging to provide necessary support and coordinate services with existing structures both government and Clients. Deployment of child protection monitors in these locations is critical to support the implementation, monitoring, trend analysis and to support strengthening of Child Protection services since most BoWCSA and other key sectors structures and capacities are weakened at woreda and community level. These CPIE monitors will support Clients in the implementation of planned activities in partnership with three local CSOs under FCDO EC2R funding, monitor all activities supported by the donor, strengthen community-based structures as well as community service workers (CSWs), and kebele and woreda CP actors on identification and linking of vulnerable children with available services in those affected and access limited areas.

Support is needed to strengthen or establish zonal/woreda level coordination mechanisms which will ensure continued monitoring of the child protection situation and ongoing responses in highly dynamic emergency contexts. It is also the donor’s prerequisite (FCDO EC2R) to strengthen monitoring in locations that are hard to reach to ensure proper follow up of ongoing project and adequate utilization of funding. The CPiE monitor will work with and report to the regional Clients CP team. III. Key function, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks The CPiE consultants provide support to the CP Clients  team on implementation, monitoring, trend analysis and inputs for reporting of child protection in emergency prevention and response interventions in partnership with BoWCSA and CSOs; and under the CP Clients  team, the CP monitors ensure that these interventions included in the child protection priority focus areas are implemented in a timely and effective manner with FCDO EC2R funding. The monitors are under the supervision of the CP Clients  specialist based in Bahir Dar (Amhara). IV. Detail Duties and Responsibilities. As the CP systems at woreda, community and facility level are disrupted due the conflict, CPiE monitors are based inside the zones, and provide support to zonal, woreda and kebele WCSA structures as well as key Clients  child protection partners and actors on the overall CPiE & GBViE prevention, response and risk mitigation including coordination, planning, implementation, monitoring, and trend analysis:

1. CPiE and GBViE coordination:

• Provide support and closely follow up establishment and functioning of Child protection and GBV coordination clusters/forums/platforms at Zone and emergency woredas;
• Identify stakeholders, services, and partners with the capacity to address child protection issues including GBViE;
• Support partners to provide multi-sectoral response services (e.g., health, psychosocial support, security and legal/justice) to victims and survivors;
• Coordinate and collaborate with other clusters such as the Health and Nutrition Cluster, Education and WASH Clusters to ensure that CPiE and GBViE are mainstreamed across sectors to meet the psychosocial needs of children affected by emergencies and promote multisectoral response to CPiE.

1. Support CSOs in the establishment of community-based safe environments for women and children, including child-friendly spaces, women and girls’ safe spaces and learning spaces, with attention to girls, adolescents, and their caregivers, and support the provision of mental health and psychosocial support services.
2. Support community service workers of the CSOs, as well as ZoWCSA/WoWCSA (when possible) to roll out CP case management at kebele and community level in line with the National Case Management Framework (NCMF). The monitors will support the CSOs at woreda and kebele level to

• Develop a referral pathway for children who experienced and at risk of violence, exploitation, abuse;
• Support the partners to complete registration and documentation of the caseload;
• Assist the CSOs, as well as zone and woreda WCSA to facilitate family tracing, verification, and reunification efforts;
• Assess alternative care options and ensure all the necessary safeguards are in place.

1. Support regular documentation on the situation of child protection in emergency-affected zones, share trend reports on the situations affecting children and programmatic response; including inputs for bi-weekly and monthly SitReps and 5W reporting on monthly basis (and ad hoc requests as needed), as well as support the CP team in monitoring of performance of the CP & GBV responses against agreed indicators.
2. Based on needs assessment, support the Amhara CP team in building capacity of humanitarian actors and front-line workers on child protection, GBV and PSEA areas and report on results.

 Deliverables

• Provide inputs for required reports from the field when required.
• Conduct trend analysis on the CP-GBV risks, response, and emerging needs on monthly reports; or when required as per the situation.
• Submit monthly deliverables and work plans.
• Participate in bi-weekly meetings with the CSOs on implementation rate (along with CP Clients  focal point); and ensure regular calls with the FO on updates; participate in calls with CPHA team at federal level when required.
• Participate in monthly zone/woreda CP AoR & coordination meetings.
• Share inputs for supply Post Distribution Monitoring report.
• On site support & capacity building reports to community service workers (CSWs) on CP case management.