Street-connected children in West Africa: situational analysis consultancy At Consortium for Street Children

Background

The Consortium for Street Children (CSC) is dedicated to raising the voices of street-connected children. We join forces with governments, NGOs, policy makers, researchers, charities and businesses to build a world where street-connected children are treated equally; have the right to be heard; and have the right to life, survival and development. Find out more about us at: https://www.streetchildren.org

Purpose of the consultancy

We are looking for a consultant to support CSC to build our understanding of the situation related to street-connected children in West Africa. We want to understand the value we might add to existing efforts at national level, including which countries and issues we should prioritise; and how we might harness and add value to existing regional powers and systems to drive change for street-connected children through advocacy, peer learning, and sharing good practices. The outputs of this consultancy will inform the ongoing development of CSC’s strategy and feed into State of the World’s Street Children knowledge hub to inform our network and the wider sector.

Responsibilities of the consultancy

The consultancy should include analysis of the stakeholder/CSO landscape, policy landscape, and existing data and research, at regional level and at national level for selected countries.

Phase one:

• Review existing analysis that CSC has conducted for the West Africa region
• Conduct initial regional-level analysis of stakeholder/CSO landscape including national and regional coalitions, policy landscape, and existing data and research
• Propose priority countries (including where we currently have members and where we could potentially work in the future) and themes or issues based on criteria, including potential risk and where CSC can add value through:
  • Support for developing organisation’s potential for regional leadership
  • Developing partnerships with individual member organisations in country

Phase two:

• Deeper regional-level analysis based on feedback and inputs from CSC team
• Conduct in-depth national-level analysis for priority countries and issues agreed by CSC following Phase One including consideration of*:
  • Opportunities to support and develop existing efforts to promote street-connected children’s rights
  • Building on CSC’s Legal Atlas, understanding what policies are in place, its level of implementation and gaps
  • Progress against the UN General Comment No. 21 on Children in Street Situations, including states’ input to the General Comment and references to street connected children in UN and regional monitoring systems (e.g., ACERWC)
  • Existing data and research
  • Potential partners beyond the CSC network

Note: We will not be led purely by data on numbers of street children. This is because these data are recognised as unreliable, and because we want to be reaching the children who are often excluded from this data (although it is helpful to know where attempts have been made to include street connected children in development indices).

We encourage the consultant to propose engagement with existing network members as part of the proposed approach.

Timescale

• Phase One completion date to be advised by the consultant in their proposal
• Feedback and review with CSC team to inform Phase Two – early March 2022
• Phase Two to be completed by the end of March 2022

Deliverables

• Report setting out conclusions and recommended next steps
• Clear and concise summary slide deck (e.g. in PowerPoint)

Required qualifications, experience and skills

• A good understanding of the West African region and of the lives, vulnerabilities and needs of street-connected children
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English and ability to communicate in French in line with the project aims
• Ability to keep strict deadlines
• Availability for the time-period specified

Fees

Please send a budget for the task with your application, up to a maximum of £2,500.

Accountability and support

During the assignment the contractor’s main point of contact with CSC will be Katherine Richards, Director of Advocacy and Programmes.