Consultants at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Location: Abuja, Nigeria-4Children CRS office
Duration: 1 November - 15 December 2017
Objective:
To revise and update the Better Parenting curriculum Nigeria (BPN) using the feedback from participants of the six months pilot program on parenting. The consultant will work with 4Children Parenting and Adolescents Senior Technical Advisor and focal persons from some PEPFAR implementing partners to review current content and articulate findings into a harmonized revised version of the BPN.
Background:
In January 2016, 4Children began a two-year, USAID- funded technical assistance project in Nigeria. The overarching objective of the SoW is for 4Children to provide Technical Assistance to USAID and CDC IPs in responsible graduation and transition1 of OVC, households, communities, LGAs and states as part of the PEPFAR pivot and reflective of PEPFAR 3.0 priorities. The SoW also included a focus on supporting prioritized actions and strategies for the geographic areas identified by PEPFAR as scale-up local government areas (LGAs). The technical assistance provided by 4Children over the next two year period will achieve the following:

• Development of guidance, strategies and tools to support improved HES and parenting.
• Strengthened linkages among and referrals between community and clinic based OVC services, including strategies for reaching more children living with HIV (CLHIV) within the OVC population.
• Strengthened capacity of government systems (LGA and state level) to advocate, plan for and use funds for OVC.
• Strategies for delivering critical OVC services at clinical facilities.
• Guidance and examples of interventions targeting adolescent girls and young women that address their increased vulnerability to both child protection concerns and HIV and can be easily integrated into existing programming.

To successfully address many of the issues related to graduation and transition, improved and strengthened sustainability plans and strategies must be in place, utilized and understood by all actors, and include appropriate support to Implementing Partners, CSOs and States to successfully manage sustainable graduation and transition of beneficiaries in FY16-FY17. The two-year work plan includes a specific output related to the improvement of parenting practices of caregivers involved in OVC programs in Nigeria (see Annex 1 for IR 2.5).
The first step in identifying what additional parenting training curricula content that needed to be adopted, a review of existing parenting training curricula was conducted. These were assessed
1 As noted in the following sections, there does not appear to be commonly understood or standardized definitions for graduation and transition in the OVC community in Nigeria. However, in other documentation, graduation and transition in OVC programming have been defined as follows: Graduation: A point at which all actions identified in the case plan have been completed and the child and caregiver are stable and secure enough to meet their own needs (e.g. financial, protection, emotional, health and education) without the assistance of the case manager. A case manager may monitor the status of a stable and secure child and caregiver for a period of time prior to graduation to ensure the child and caregiver are unlikely to require additional support in the future. Transition: The transfer of a child and his or her caregiver from direct PEPFAR support to support provided by another source (e.g. government, community, a program funded by another donor, etc.)
using the framework thus helping to identifying strengths and gaps of the curricula being used by OVC Implementing Partners in Nigeria as at June 2016. The findings of the review informed the development of additional content that were contextually appropriate, evidence based and address the unique needs of children living with or affected by HIV in Nigeria.
A framework was developed to help guide the review process and enable 4Children Nigeria to have a comprehensive understanding of what was being used within OVC programs and what content needed to be developed to meet the identified needs of the program in diverse contexts.
4Children used the adopted Better Parenting curriculum Nigeria to roll out a six months pilot with one of the PEPFAR Implementing Partners. During the pilot, qualitative evaluations were conducted at three and six months and the findings are to be used as guidance for the revision of the BPN.
Description of Work:

• The consultant will use relevant expertise in parenting approaches and training methodology combined with information gleaned from existing literature reviews of parenting training programs, guidance and research on the topic2 to do the following:
• Specific tasks:
• Specific tasks to be performed during the time period of 8 August– 16 November, 2016, include:
• Meet with 4Children Parenting and Adolescents Senior Technical Advisor
• Review background information about project and context

Work plan

• Parenting curricula literature review
• Parenting curricula collated from IPs
• Standardized and contextually appropriate parenting curriculum draft and TOT Manual
• Revise the content, pictures, training methodology of the BPN curriculum and Training Supplement.
• Participate at in reflection meeting with technical team to decide what will be removed or added into the BPN.
• Liaise with Graphic artist to ensure that all revisions are articulated in the curriculum as agreed by technical Team.
• Co-facilitate at the Validation and final review workshop on the BPN
• Produce workshop and meeting reports with input from other facilitators and P&A STA

Deliverables: Activity/Deliverable Due Date Maximum Number of Consultancy Days Meet with 4Children Parenting and Adolescents Senior Technical Advisor
November 1
1 Review background information about project and context, Work plan, Parenting curricula literature review, Parenting
November 2
1
2 4Children will provide a folder with relevant materials to help inform the process. However, it is also expected that the consultant will do a web-based search for other relevant documentation.
curricula collated from IPs, Better Parenting curriculum Nigeria. Revise the content, pictures, training methodology of the BPN curriculum and Training Supplement.
November 3-5
3 Participate at in reflection meeting with technical team to decide what will be removed or added into the BPN.
November 5-11
6 Consolidate all agreed content reviews into BPN with Graphic Artist
Nov 26-Dec 2nd
7 Co-facilitate at the Validation and final review workshop on the BPN
December 12
1 Produce workshop and meeting reports with input from other facilitators and P&A STA
December 15
1 Total (Maximum) Days
20
Supervision, reporting and oversight:
The consultant’s primary point of contact under this consultancy will be the Senior Technical Advisor, the 4Children Nigeria.
Working Relationships:
The consultant(s) will be expected to work in collaboration with the following 4Children staff and partners in Nigeria: 4Children Parenting and Adolescents Senior Technical Advisor and PEPFAR-OVC IP staff (includes both international and local NGOs).
Qualification:
Consultant’s profile must show evidence of experience in family strengthening for over two years, attach copies of publications made or books published on parenting and family wellbeing at large.