Consultancy (development of safe school guidelines)

Background

Plan has received funding from Sida to implement the “Strengthening Children’s Voices in Promoting Safe School” project from November 2011 to December 2013 in three Asian countries. The project’s goal is “Children in the most at-risk communities in Cambodia, China and Indonesia have access to safer education through duty bearers minimizing the impact of disasters on their right to quality education with the support of civil society”. The project’s implementation strategy focused on Plan’s Child Centered Disaster Risk Reduction approach, Plan’s partnership approach, and Plan’s contribution to the UNISDR global safe schools campaign. The project has three purposes: 1) to promote a culture of school safety in the project target countries and regionally by advocating for policies, regulations, and guidelines at all decision-making levels on structural safety, 2) to embed the participation of children in the local and national process of establishing safe schools in the target countries, and 3) to strengthen the role of civil society organizations in developing and monitoring disaster risk reduction and preparedness measures in schools through capacity building and networking both in-country and regionally.

In Cambodia, Plan International Cambodia has provided funding support to Child Right Foundation (CRF) to implement the Strengthening Children’s Voices in Promoting Safe School project from February 2012 to December 2013.

CRF has worked with Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS) to form the safe school guidelines taskforce to develop the safe school guidelines. In addition, Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Education working group in Cambodia consists of Plan International Cambodia, World Vision Cambodia, Save the Children and Child Right Foundation has worked together to enhance Disaster Risk Management in Education System of Cambodia through improved coordination of initiatives and joint actions by supporting government of Cambodia to strengthen the policies, regulations, and guidelines on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Education and Education in Emergencies. One of objectives of DRM in Education working group is to provide technical support to MoEYS especially safe school development taskforce to develop the safe school guidelines, which provide great added value to the implementation of Child Friendly School Policy of MoEYS, especially, Dimension 3 focusing on health, safety and protection of children. Therefore, the consultant will work very closely with the safe school guidelines taskforce and DRM in education working group members to develop the safe school guidelines.

Objective

The main objective of this consultancy work is to develop the safe school guidelines for Cambodia in consultation with safe school guidelines development task force of MoEYS and DRM in education working group of Cambodia.

Methodology tool

The safe school guidelines will be developed in consultation with key stakeholders and informants at national and school based levels.

The qualitative method will be used with key informants at the national and school based levels.

Further methodological detail is to be established by the consultant in consultation with International Plan Cambodia.
IV. Scope of field work

The consultant will conduct the field research in the two schools who are implementing the best practices of school based disaster risk reduction initiatives. The two target schools will be identified by consultant in consultation with safe school guidelines taskforce and DRM in education working group based on the mapping of school based disaster risk reduction projects in Cambodia.

Consultant task and activities

• Elaboration of the work plan
• Literature review on Safe School guidelines from other countries and existing guidelines on school construction guidelines and school based disaster risk reduction in Cambodia.
• Conduct mapping for school based disaster risk reduction projects in Cambodia
• Meet with key informants from NGOs, UN and government officers
• Conduct field research to the best practices of school based disaster risk reduction projects in Cambodia
• Work in consultation with Writing Committee of the Task Force to draft the Safe School guidelines
• Draft the Safe School guidelines
• Present the draft of Safe School guidelines to the safe school guidelines taskforce and DRM in education working for comments
• Revise the Safe School guidelines
• Organize the consultation workshop with other stakeholders to finalize the safe school guidelines
• Final safe school guidelines

Consultant qualifications

The consultant must fulfill the following requirements:

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Development, Research Methods or related fields
• Experience of developing guidelines and policies especially on disaster risk reduction
• Familiarity with a range of participatory research methods – particularly gender sensitivity and child participation
• Background in Disaster Risk Reduction and/or School Safety related fields that consider school and community based vulnerabilities reduction and disaster resilience
• Knowledge of the international school safety initiatives
• Awareness/knowledge of School Based Disaster Management approaches and national Disaster Risk Reduction/School Safety strategies
• Experience of working with, or familiarity with the work of, child-centred development agencies. Ideally the consultant will have conducted research work in which children have been active participants.
• Demonstrable experience of conducting policy and practice-oriented research that has considered rights and inclusion of marginalized groups in policy processes (e.g. women and girls rights, people with disability ethnic minority rights) and development programmes.
• Familiarity with, and some experience of, rights-based approaches, human rights approaches, broad knowledge of international human rights frameworks (CRC, CEDAW), and of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in particular.

Report format

The format of the guidelines needs to be discussed with the safe school development taskforces and DRM in education working group.