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Save the Children International is looking for a Consultant to undertake the Baseline Assessment for the Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Projects in Bangkok and Phang Nga Province

 JOB TITLE:  Consultant for Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Projects

TEAM/PROGRAMME: DRR and Road Safety                LOCATION: Bangkok and Phang Nga

1. Background

Drowning is the most common cause of child death in Thailand killing around 2,700 children per year. Thailand’s late remarkable economic rise has created new hazards and vulnerabilities for children. A new trend is now emerging in many middle-income countries with increased child deaths from injury and accident.

Save the Children Thailand is leading two child safety programs in Khao Lak, Phang Nga province and Bangkok funded respectively by the Michael Holland foundation and Family Mart which aim at enhancing children’s knowledge of drowning prevention and contributing to reduce child injury and death by drowning across Thailand.

Save the Children will run a program in Phang Nga in collaboration with the Thai Life Saving Society (TLSS) and Marriott, and a program in Bangkok working with the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Centre (CSIP), Ramathibodi Hospital and Thai PBS with overall objective of promoting child drowning prevention through the following methodologies:

The project in Phang Nga will aim at:

(1) Conducting prevention activities and educating children on drowning prevention in target schools as well as encouraging to enroll children in Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers;

(2) Building community awareness;

(3) Monitoring survival swimming lessons for children and

(4) Leading national and local advocacy initiatives

Whereas the project in Bangkok will aim at:

• Educate children on drowning prevention, reinforcing key messages through peer modeling and adult support
• Develop drowning prevention awareness-raising materials.

With its pilot water safety program in Khao Lak, Save the Children is planning to protect 38,000 children from injury or death and intends to raise 200,000 people’s awareness. Save the Children will also conduct swimming lessons with respectively 600 and 500 children age 8 to 12 in Khao Lak and Bangkok. Both project will be launched in September 2016 and will run until April 2017 in Bangkok and March 2019 in Phang Nga.

The purpose of this consultancy

Save the Children will hire a consultant to conduct a baseline assessment of the project in selected schools and Early Childhood Development Centers in Khao Lak, Phang Nga Province and Bangkok with the following objectives:

• Establish baseline indicator values against outputs and outcomes in the M&E matrix which can be used to monitor project progress (see Annex I) through consultations with local stakeholders and beneficiaries at school and community levels
• Conduct mapping analysis of stakeholders and available supervision services of drowning prevention in project
• Gather and analyse information that will assist program staff in modifying project interventions and further refine project indicators if necessary
• Undertake analysis of social inclusion issues (gender, age, ethnicity, religion and disabilities) by including the voice and opinions of children and people of different needs and abilities (where applicable)
• Build capacity of project staff and enumerators on M&E methods that will be used during the project

2. Scope of this consultancy:

Methodology

A consultant will be hired to conduct the baseline assessment. The following is the outline of a suggested process; however, it would be expected that this would be further refined by the consultant. The baseline assessment shall be undertaken based on the Save the Children International requirements and must be in line with Save the Children’s ethical guideline (Annex II).

Preparatory work:

• Literature review of secondary data which can be used to set baseline indicator values (as applicable)
• Development of survey tools to be used for collection of baseline data.
• Development of sampling methodology for administering surveys (as applicable)
• Training of data enumerators (as applicable)
• Pre-testing of survey tools
• Leading workshop with Partners

Field Work:

• Leading the administering of baseline survey tools
• Leading other consultations with project beneficiaries, partners and Government as deemed necessary during baseline methodology design

Data Processing, Analysis and Reporting:

• Data entry and analysis of completed baseline survey tools
• Discussion on preliminary findings of baseline
• Draft Report and Final Reports
• Presentation on key findings

 3. Deliverables

 Note that all deliverables will be reviewed and must be approved by the Save the Children MEAL Coordinator.

 4. Consultancy Timeframe & Management

The consultancy service period for the whole assignment is 20 working days, between October to November and the final report should be delivered on 25 November 2016.

Consultant qualifications and profile

• At least master’s degree in education, research, social sciences or other related field
• Expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Strong qualitative and qualitative data analysis skills
• Expertise in issues related to Disaster Risk Reduction and Child Safety for Survival
• Thai and English language proficiency
• Ability to work within strict deadlines

Management of consultancy

• The consultant will report to MEAL Coordinator
• Technical advice: DRR Coordinator and Child Safety and DRR Technical Advisor
• Save the Children should approve all plans and documents developed by the consultant

Consultancy Budget

The consultant is requested to submit the proposal and detailed budget with their application letter. The financial competitiveness of the fee will be considered in the selection process. Costs involved in the assessment such as materials and travel, will be covered by Save the Children.

Submissions for the consultancy

The submission must address the terms of reference and include: 

• Name and contact details of applicant
• Resume of the lead consultant
• A cover letter outlining the relevant experience and expertise of the consultant and initial ideas on the approach to be taken the achieve the consultancy objectives
• A draft summary proposal of the research scope, design, methods, and field implementation approach (maximum 5 pages)
• A detailed quote in THB (including travel and other costs)

 Close date for submissions: 10 Oct 2016

 Submissions should be addressed to: hr.thailand@savethechildren.org

ANNEX:

Annex I: Logical Framework and Concept Paper:

Drowning Prevention Project in Phang Nga: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1k49wlu1r49xb1/Michael%20Holland%20Proposal%20LogFrame%20revised%20230816%20%282%29_KK.DOCX?dl=0

 Water Safety in Bangkok (Family Mart): https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8fotko5kgt87pq/FamilyMart_Drowning%20Prevention_%20Concept_v2_revised_yumi0629%EF%BC%BFKim0630.docx?dl=0

 Annex II: Ethical Guideline:

 Before undertaking any monitoring and evaluation activity with children or adults an ethical assessment should be undertaken by the Country Office. Where appropriate, approval for an activity should be obtained from all relevant ethical or institutional review boards in-country prior to the commencement of the activity.

As per the minimum standards, at each of these stages the responsible individual or office must:

• Make sure the information gathering activity is necessary and justified:
  • Make sure that the purpose of the activity is clearly defined
  • Use the minimum sample size required to get statistically significant or valid results
  • Consider carefully the ethics of using a comparison or control group
• Adopt informed consent and voluntary participation procedures:
  • Participants must give their informed consent (either written or verbal) to participate. When children are involved consent must also be granted from an appropriate adult. Consent forms should be field tested before use. Save the Children’s Practice Standards for child participation can give more guidance.
  • Ensure that participants are well informed on the purpose of the activity and how the results will be disseminated
  • Make sure that individuals are informed that their participation is voluntary and that they have a choice to opt out
  • Confirm that participants understand the limits of the activity, in terms of benefits, and the next steps
  • Consider very carefully the use of incentives for participation and try not to use incentives where possible
• Adopt appropriate confidentiality procedures, sensitive to children’s needs
  • Ensure that all persons involved in the activity, including data gatherers, data input staff, translators etc have received training on the confidentiality procedures and signed an appropriate confidentiality agreement
  • Confidentiality may need to be breached to provide immediate protection to a child. Children and adults must be made aware of the confidentiality procedures before being asked to provide any information.
• Ensure that the costs to children of participating in activity do not outweigh the benefits, and ensure their safety at all times:
  • Adhere to Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy
  • Ensure that participation is in the children’s best interests and does them no harm
  • Ensure that information gathering with children is appropriate to their age and stage of development
  • Anticipate adverse consequences and develop appropriate responses
  • Be cautious and protective and undertake ethical checks as you proceed with any activity
  • Be sensitive and flexible; if situations change you must be prepared to stop or change an activity if ethical issues cannot be resolved
• Be consultative
  • Determine whether local permission from community stakeholders or authorities is needed to proceed and adhere to any locally established institutional policies or guidelines for conducting research.
  • Information about the activity must be provided to all stakeholders
  • Prepare local communities and explain the purpose and aims of the activity
• Be sensible and prepared
  • Researchers have a responsibility to be mindful of cultural, religious, gender, and other significant differences within the research population in the planning, conduct, and reporting of the study findings
  • Ensure that those gathering information from children and/or vulnerable communities are adequately trained and ready to follow up or refer children who might need special attention as a result of research/investigation in sensitive themes.
• Respect the dignity and autonomy of those participating in the activity
  • Ensure children and/or vulnerable communities are not simply used as a means to achieve research objectives
  • Know that study participants have a right to remain anonymous.
• Be accountable
  • Adhere to the International Accountability Charter
  • Make sure that a complaints and feedback mechanism is in place for children and adults participating in the activity
  • Ensure accuracy of information during analysis, interpretation and reporting. And remain open to the findings of any study and do not allow vested interests to interfere
  • Make sure that proper acknowledgement is given at all stages, as appropriate.

 Ethical issues

 Every data gathering exercise involving children and vulnerable communities is theme or context specific therefore you must review all ethical considerations before undertaking a new activity.

 Whenever we conduct research on people, the well-being of research participants must be our top priority. The research question is always of secondary importance. This means that if a choice must be made between doing harm to a participant and doing harm to the research, it is the research that is sacrificed.

 In some cases you may decide that you cannot proceed with a monitoring and evaluation activity because of ethical issues.  In this case you may need to re-design the activity or cancel it altogether if an ethical solution cannot be found.

Additional Resources:

• International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) -  Policy governing the use of human subjects in 3ie funded studies web http://www.3ieimpact.org
• FAO Food Ethics: http://www.fao.org/ethics/ser_en.htm

Annex III: Evaluation Report Checklist

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3n0y54018qsjvn/evaluation%20checklist_draft.docx?dl=0