- Presentation of the organization and context
- Presentation of Terre des hommes – Lausanne
Terre des hommes – Lausanne is an independent, neutral and impartial Swiss organization, founded in 1960, dedicated to bringing about meaningful and lasting change in the lives of children and young people, especially those most at risk1. We ensure their well-being and the effective implementation of their rights as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments. To make a difference, we focus our efforts on maternal and child health, children and young people in migration situations, and access to justice.
Tdh-L operates in 32 different countries around the world, in humanitarian and development contexts. In its interventions, Tdh-L promotes a human rights-based approach, as well as a general progress in quality and accountability by ensuring meaningful access to services for all, in safety and dignity.
Tdh-L’s work is based on the following principles2:
- Act in the best interests of the child;
- Promote the participation and empowerment of children, young people, their families and communities;
- Working in partnership to strengthen local capacities, dynamics and systems;
- Act for humanitarian interest, development and peace;
- Promote continuous improvement, collaboration and learning;
- Being transparent and accountable to beneficiaries, partners, donors and ourselves
Additional information on ongoing interventions in Burundi, Guinea and Mali for the benefit of minors in conflict with the law is available in Annex I.
- Background & Rationale
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Articles 37 and 40, Observations No. 10 and 24 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the various international rules and guidelines on justice for children, stress the obligation that children in conflict with the law be treated with humanity and with due respect for the dignity of the human person and taking into account their needs and development in accordance with their age. These various texts urge those involved in the juvenile justice system to give priority to diversionary measures and non-custodial measures over repressive measures at all stages of the judicial procedure. They also specify the purpose of personalized support for children in conflict with the law, in particular their rehabilitation and reintegration into society so that they can play a constructive role. While adults can be legally detained for various reasons, paragraph b of Article 37 of the CRC provides for much stricter limits for children. In addition to the general rule that “no child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily”, there is a clarification that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in accordance with the law, shall be a measure of last resort and shall be for the shortest appropriate period of time”. In other words, except as a last resort, deprivation of liberty should in principle be avoided for children. If, as an exceptional measure, deprivation of liberty is legally provided for, made unavoidable and strictly proportional to the particular circumstances of the case, it may only be applied for “as short a period as possible” [1] because, as the World Report on Children Deprived of Liberty states, “deprivation of liberty is a deprivation of rights, independence and visibility; it is closing doors to children and depriving them of love. To take away their freedom is to take away their childhood”.
The report of the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty highlights the consequences of deprivation of liberty on children’s mental health: “During childhood, which is a period of development, deprivation of liberty can seriously harm the physical and mental health and subsequent development of the individual and thus disrupt the course of a life.”
Some children in conflict with the law come from disadvantaged and poor backgrounds. Some have experienced the instability of their family and social environment to the point of finding themselves in a situation of street life, estranged from their families for a long time. Others have experienced daily violence and abuse of all kinds, rejection and stigmatization. Generally speaking, these different experiences lived by most children who come into conflict with the law have an impact on their mental health, their capacity for psychosocial resilience, their self-confidence and their ability to “reproject” themselves into the future with new perspectives. The questioning or arrest of a child in conflict with the law, contact with the criminal justice system, deprivation of liberty are all situations that can generate or reinforce emotional disorders and psychosocial distress.
The countries of intervention, by ratifying the CRC, have committed themselves to ensuring that all children, regardless of the conditions and circumstances in which they find themselves, have an environment that guarantees the promotion and protection of their fundamental rights. Children who, for various reasons, find themselves in situations of extreme vulnerability, including children in conflict with the law, need appropriate support that takes into account their specific needs in order to guarantee their sustainable reintegration into their families and communities.
To achieve this goal, Tdh – Lausanne is looking for a consultant to develop a toolbox to enable the implementation of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) for incarcerated minors.
- Objectives of the consultancy
The general objective of the consultancy is to develop, on the basis of the identified psychosocial needs, a curriculum of activities aimed at strengthening the individual and collective skills of girls and boys in detention, in order to improve their psychosocial well-being and facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration.
Specifically , this involves:
- Support country teams in the participatory analysis of the psychosocial needs of incarcerated children and young people;
- Based on the results of the analysis, identify the key psychosocial skills to be strengthened and the methods of implementing the activities to be prioritized;
- Propose, based on the conclusions of the analysis of psychosocial needs, psychosocial activities contributing to strengthening the individual and collective skills of incarcerated girls and boys, improving their psychosocial well-being and facilitating their rehabilitation and reintegration;
- Integrate monitoring and evaluation tools within the activities themselves (throughout the curriculum but also at the end of it) in order to guarantee the measurement of the impact, quality and adaptability of the interventions.
- Develop recommendations for interventions and complementary activities that can contribute to improving the relevance and quality of interventions for incarcerated children/youth and the justice system;
- Propose principles and standards to be respected in the implementation of psychosocial activities;
- Develop a trainer training package containing an agenda, training materials, a trainer guide and assessment tools.
Methodology and technical approach
- Methodology
The consultation will be conducted following a multi-stage approach:
STAGES
Launch of the consultancy after validation of the proposed methodology and the work plan by the Steering Committee
Secondary data review – conduct a literature review of existing information regarding the SMSPS of incarcerated children and youth globally, in the region and in the countries concerned.
Briefing on the contexts and ongoing interventions in each country by Tdh project managers.
Interview with key stakeholders by country (prison staff, members of organizations working in remand centers, psychologists, etc.) regarding the situation of incarcerated children and young people.
Leader, in conjunction with SERA managers and delegation focal points, the process of finalizing and validating the SMSPS needs assessment tools for incarcerated minors.
Support the analysis of data concerning the SMSPS needs of children collected by Tdh teams in order to highlight the psychosocial needs of incarcerated girls and boys and the key skills to be strengthened**.**
Based partly on Tdh’s SMSPS framework and the participatory SMSPS support methodologies already developed, develop a curriculum of SMSPS activities respecting the following steps:
- Develop the broad outlines (structure, approaches, duration of sessions, duration of cohorts, etc.) of the curriculum
- Sharing and validation by the technical committee
- Define activities and finalize the curriculum
- Review by the technical committee
- Integration of feedback and recommendations
Provide tools for monitoring and evaluating SMSPS sessions
Develop recommendations for Tdh teams to improve the relevance and quality of interventions
Develop a training package for trainers on SMSPS for the benefit of facilitators containing:
- A training agenda;
- Training modules;
- A Trainer’s Guide
- Training assessment tools
2. Governance
The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the regional technical advisor for protection and SMSPS. A technical committee will be set up to monitor the process, align with the strategic reference documents, read and monitor the quality of deliverables. The terms and frequency of exchanges will be determined at the start of the consultancy.
This committee will be composed of:
- From the regional technical advisor for child protection/SMSPS
- From the A2J regional coordinator
- From the MHPSS Global Technical Advisor
- From the SMSPS technical referent of Mauritania
- MHPSS/Protection of delegations focal points
- Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Focal Points.
3. Duration and deliverables
The consultancy will be carried out over a maximum of 30 days, spread over a maximum period of 2 months from the signing of the contract.
The expected deliverables of the mission are as follows:
1 A concise inception report including: the situation of children and young people incarcerated in the 3 contexts, the revision of the methodology and the timetable.
2 A tool for assessing the psychosocial needs of incarcerated children and young people in order to identify psychosocial needs and define the psychosocial skills to be strengthened.
3 A synthetic analysis of the needs in terms of SMSPS of incarcerated children and young people, highlighting the psychosocial needs and key skills to be strengthened.
4 A curriculum of SMSPS activities aimed at strengthening the individual and collective skills and resources of incarcerated children in order to support their resilience. It will be structured in several parts:
- Common modules and activities : A base of modules/activities designed for all children (girls and boys), integrating a gender approach and ensuring adaptation according to the specific needs identified.
- Specific modules : Complementary activities targeting specific needs linked to gender or specific contexts, allowing a response adapted to local realities.
- A brief orientation (for Tdh teams) on the steps to follow in order to contextualize the tools produced with regard to the context.
The curriculum will have to integrate monitoring and evaluation tools within the activities themselves (throughout the curriculum but also at the end of it) in order to guarantee the measurement of the impact and the quality of the interventions.
5 A SMSPS training of trainer package for the training of facilitators in charge of implementing SMSPS activities.
6 Recommendations for additional activities that could help improve the relevance and quality of interventions for incarcerated children/young people.
7 A PPT presentation with the main results of the consultancy.
Profiles sought
- The consultant (or team of consultants) sought to carry out this mission must have a higher degree (minimum BAC + 5) in psychology, psychiatry or any other related fields such as health or human sciences.
- Have at least 5 years of experience in the field of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, preferably in North and/or West Africa.
- Demonstrate proven experience in developing SMSPS technical resources such as guidance/game banks/structured activity curricula for children or young people.
- Familiarity with Minimum Child Protection Standards, IASC MHPSS framework, gender and diversity issues and intersectorality.
- Excellent communication skills in French (oral, written). Good synthesis skills, analytical mind.
- Capacity to produce analytical summaries accessible to diverse audiences.
- Perfect mastery of IT tools.
- Experience in organizing training and popularizing technical/complex topics.
- Impeccable ethics, particularly on the principles of confidentiality, data protection, impartiality.
- Knowledge of the Malian, Burundian or Guinean context is a real asset
How to apply
- Terms and conditions for submitting applications
The file must be sent by email no later than April 4, 2025 to the following address: [email protected]
Deadline for submitting a request for clarification to Terre des hommesLausanne March 21, 2025 5:00 p.m.
Deadline for the provision of clarifications by Terre des hommes Lausanne March 28, 2025 5:00 p.m.
Deadline for submission of offers April 4, 2025 5:00 p.m.
Bid evaluation session April 10, 2025 10:00 a.m.
Contract finalization April 15, 2025 5:00 p.m.
Applications must include:
- Updated CV of each consultant.
- At least 3 references per team member.
- Proof of registration as a consultant/self-employed person (at least for the main consultant).
- A technical proposal that must highlight at least the following elements:
- Description of the methodology envisaged for achieving the deliverables
- Taking into consideration, during each phase, different population groups according to gender, age group and status.
- A work plan with clearly defined phases according to the deliverables requested and a breakdown of the number of consultancy days;
- Taking ethics and safeguarding into account in a cross-cutting manner;
- In the case of a team of consultants, a clear distribution of the role of each team member and the distribution of working days.A financial proposal including all costs relating to the technical offer.
ANNEX 1
BURUNDI :
Number of remand centers covered by the projects: 3
Targets of current interventions (Number and age group): children and young people aged 15 to 24, including 10% girls.
Objectives of current interventions: Educational support for managers and social workers in prisons with a view to holistic care and according to the principle of case management of the specific needs of prisoners according to age categories and gender-specific needs.
If SMSPS support group activities are already in place (Number of children per session/Frequency of sessions): 30 children/session – twice a week.
Perception of prison officers on the problems of incarcerated minors: “Psychological” distress, deprivation of liberty and broken family ties.
Actors in charge of facilitating the sessions (Profile and experience): Case manager, Tdh social workers. Experience in child protection for more than 5 years.
Available spaces: Multipurpose rooms and large grounds available inside the detention centers.
GUINEA :
Number of remand centers covered by the projects: 1
Targets of current interventions (Number and age group): children including 5% girls and an undetermined number of young people.
Objectives of current interventions: Prevention of systemic violence in prisons, peaceful conflict resolution, desistance approach, psychosocial support and case management adapted to ECL.
If SMSPS support group activities are already in place (Number of children per session/Frequency of sessions): Not yet started.
Perception of prison officers on the problems of incarcerated minors: “Psychological” and emotional distress linked to the deprivation of liberty; Reconstruction of interrupted family ties; Violent behavior and risks of reoffending.
Actors in charge of facilitating the sessions (Profile and experience): Social workers from the Ministry of Justice – psychologist.
Available spaces: To be determined at the end of the current rehabilitation work.
They had:
Number of remand centers covered by the projects: 4
Targets of current interventions (Number and age group): children aged 14 to 17, including 10% girls.
Objectives of current interventions: Contribute to improving the quality of support for children in conflict with the law by taking into account in a structured manner the psychosocial needs of children in conflict with the law, guaranteeing their successful reintegration which is the ultimate goal.
If SMSPS support group activities are already in place (Number of children per session/Frequency of sessions): 20 children/session – twice a week.
Perception of prison officers on the problems of incarcerated minors: “Psychological”/Psychosocial distress; consumption of psychoactive substances.
Actors in charge of facilitating the sessions (Profile and experience): Facilitators and social workers trained in PE but not in SMSPS
Available spaces: Multipurpose room and basketball court.
