Parenting Training Consultant - FOR NATIONAL CANDIDATES ONLY

The ongoing conflict in Syria has led to unprecedented levels of displaced Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Lebanon is now the country with the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, 79% of whom are women and children and an estimated 55% of whom are children under the age of 18.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 cities in the United States, the IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions of vulnerable individuals who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Child protection (CP):

The situation for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon remains dire, as children continue to face significant barriers to access their basic inalienable rights such as safety, education and birth registration. Refugee children, as well as vulnerable host community children, are facing complex CP issues in Lebanon, these range from e.g. child labor and exploitation, child marriage, neglect, family separation, abuse, including sexual violence, psychosocial and mental health issues. Almost one in four reported cases of SGBV involves a child, and 65 percent of Syrian, 57 percent of Lebanese, 82 percent of Palestinian Refugees from Lebanon and 77 percent of Palestinian Refugees from Syria children aged 1-14 years are subjected to at least one form of violent discipline in their homes.

Violence against children in the home causes harm in all areas of children’s development: including how they grow physically, how they learn at school, and how they relate to people around them. It has tragic consequences for children now, but also has well-known, long-term consequences – it can lead to cycles of violence and threat the health, educational and economic wellbeing of countries and communities. Growing up in a crisis zone worsens the risks of violence and these negative effects.

Since 2010, the International Rescue Committee has been working to reduce violence in the lives of children in and support their healthy development by focusing on parenting. The IRC rolled out the Families Make the Difference curriculum since the onset of the crisis in Lebanon, training over 400 frontliners in the intervention and conducting a study on the impact of the intervention on caregiver’s mental health. 

Two trainings will be rolled out on IRC’s evidence-based Families make the Difference parenting curriculums aimed to promote the wellbeing of young children aged 0-17 years old through reducing harsh punishment, improving parenting practices and child development. The three parenting curriculums of Parents Make the Difference program range from 10 -13 weekly group sessions for caregivers. The curriculums have been adapted from various evidence-based parenting interventions. The program used behavioral skills training to teach content on positive parenting, and child development. Session topics included: negative effects of physical and psychological punishment and alternatives to harsh punishment, positive parenting skills and communication skills. Participants of parenting trainings are also trained on how to use the fidelity forms which relate to facilitators’ adherence to the program delivery and curriculum. Parenting trainings which include all curriculums are conducted over a 5 day period which will include coverage of the three curriculums, with more time spent on the technical components of the curriculums. The curriculums promote positive caregivers’ parenting practices, as well as children’s cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children aged 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17.

Purpose and objectives of the end line evaluation    

a.       Purpose:

Based on the above, the IRC is seeking to a consultant to conduct 2 training cycles of Families Make the Difference curriculum to frontliners throughout Lebanon. The consultant will be responsible for preparing briefing sessions on the curriculum to promote lessons learnt from past Parenting Interventions in addition adapting sessions to the needs of specific professionals to ensure maximum retention of knowledge.

b.      Objectives:

In preparation for the trainings the consultant will be responsible for preparing the roll out of the sessions, in addition to specific briefs on topics outlined below. The consultant will also be responsible for conducting pretests for participants of parenting training in order to assess technical knowledge of participants post training. The consultant is fully responsible for data input, as well as data analysis along with a final report including all relevant information pertinent to analysis regarding participant’s knowledge and profiles.  

• Conducts Parenting trainings starting Mid-November over the course of a few weeks in the North of Lebanon, Beirut and Bekaa.
• Coordinate closely with specific focal points identified by IRC to support in the co-facilitation of certain sessions.
• Use full monitoring and evaluation tools for the training
• Coordinate additional thematic days on parenting sessions for specific target groups based on skills and interest.  
• Prepare briefings thematic sessions on:

A) Mobilising Parent Support groups

B) Approaches for retention – Use IRC/UNICEF research study

C) Combining home visits with Parenting support to increase effectiveness

D) Targeting specific vulnerable groups with Parenting- Parents of working children, Caregivers of married children, Caregivers of vulnerable refugee and host community children, including Palestinian, stateless, and Caregivers of children with disabilities

E) Planning session for each NGO to agree on their target group focus – set a mini action plan to share as part of report for accountability

Additional thematic and points to be raised as standalone sessions:

1.  Early marriage awareness session from Child marriage toolkit – around one hour session estimate to be provided by UNICEF.
2.  Child labour
3.  Adolescent girls who are mothers

Target Sectors:

• GBV Sector
• CP Sector

Locations:

• Bekaa – 20 participants of the CP & GBV sector
• North – 20 participants of the CP & GBV sector
• Central & South – 20 participants of the CP & GBV sector

Final deliverables:

• Trainings delivered up to standard;
• All raw data collection sheets – pre and posttests, attendance sheets of each training;
• Analysis of raw data as per IRC Families make the difference M & E requirements
• Outline and content of sessions from thematic days- 5 sessions (2 hours each)
• Final report including:

a)      Analysis of data from pre and post tests

b)      Summary of attendees and profiles

c)      Content of sessions and feedback from participants

d)      Outline of findings, lessons learned and recommendations following the trainings