Safeguarding Consultant on Youth and Women in The Construction Sector – Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI)

Background

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is anchored on a fundamental vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. This vision has been the driving force in all HFHI actions and activities and has seen HFHI helping more than 29 million people around the world to build or improve the place they call home. To further fulfil this vision, Habitat for Humanity International established the Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter (Terwilliger Centre) to Build and Expand Inclusive Housing Markets by supporting local firms to innovate and expand client-responsive services and products. The Terwilliger Centre understands that the role of local markets is critical in closing adequate housing gaps among the low-income and incremental market segment. The Terwilliger Centre strives to make markets work more effectively for low-income people in need of decent, affordable housing.

Among the Terwilliger Centre’s efforts over the past five years includes engaging stakeholders in the affordable housing market system to facilitate efforts to drive housing quality up and housing costs down, considering social and community aspects of housing. The aim is to stimulate inclusive housing markets while generating expanded benefits to low-income households in a sustainable manner. The thrust of the interventions is the market system development approach that focuses on systemic change aimed at stimulating the low-cost housing market system to innovate and replicate promising practices on a sustainable basis.

This approach has ensured partnering with key actors to identify impediments and opportunities in the subsystems of the incremental housing markets and facilitating initiatives that strengthen competitiveness of private and public sector actors through market-based initiatives. By adopting the market systems development approach, focus is maintained on housing services and products with potential to be developed in an equitable and inclusive manner through the market leverage. The approach further ensures that efforts are driven with and through private and public sectors and other market-based actors where anchor/lead firms/catalytic companies are evident and strengthened to lead systems change even beyond the programme intervention.

Project Overview

Habitat for Humanity is currently implementing a 3-year project on Driving Green Growth in the Construction Sector project; funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) programme. The project is being implemented in Kenya and co-designed between Habitat, consortium partners, other sector partners and youth working both in formal and informal sections of housing sector. It will apply market systems development approach to facilitate housing firms and relevant stakeholders to link youth to decent green jobs through three interconnected change objectives:

1. Create, match and improve 908 green jobs for youth in the construction sector, of which 34% for women.
2. Increase demand, supply and utilization of green housing products and services.
3. Increase meaningful participation of women and youth in the construction sector.

Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment

The project wishes to engage the services of a safeguarding consultant to create meaningful participation and access to career opportunities in the green construction industry with a priority focus on youth and women facing significant barriers to employment and provide technical support to the three years Challenge Fund for Youth Empowerment Project. The consultant will work closely with Habitat for Humanity’s relevant departments and other project partners to offer one-to-one support on developing pathways to safe and sustainable decent work for youth and women.

The key objectives of this assignment will be:

1. Assess safeguarding situation for Driving Green Growth in the Construction Sector project partners.
2. Support the partners to institute and operationalize effective systems that enable youth and women to communicate that they feel safe or unsafe.
3. Institute and operationalize a Safeguarding team to ensure decisions concerning complicated and sensitive issues are arrived at through informed discussion, whilst respecting confidentiality.
4. Create awareness on safeguarding among project stakeholders.
5. Offer Technical Assistance to partners and build their capacity to develop, institutionalize and enforce Safer recruitment and workplace guidelines.

Tasks and responsibilities

1. Conduct a desktop review and develop an inception report and work plan.
2. Develop data collection tools.
3. Map, compile and document Safeguarding-related policies, procedures and training resources including Code of Conduct, recruitment, and selection.
4. Map, compile, and document local regulations that are related to Safeguarding, particularly laws on sexual abuse and exploitation, the welfare of and protection of children and vulnerable adults (elderly, people with disabilities, women)
5. Conduct safeguarding assessment with the project partners.
6. Analyze and present the findings.
7. Support the project partners to develop and institutionalize/operationalize safeguarding policies and procedures.
8. Conduct stakeholder engagement round table to disseminate the findings.
9. Prepare and submit final safeguarding assessment report.

Deliverables

1. Inception report.
2. Workplan and data collection tools
3. Draft report
4. Partner support schedule.
5. Round table report
6. Partner specific safeguarding policies and procedures.
7. Final Consultancy Report

Duration

The duration of this assignment will be 12 calendar weeks.

Experience and qualification

1. Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, social work, human rights, preferably with a focus on protection/ child protection/ child rights and other relevant fields.
2. At least for seven (7) years’ experience in safeguarding, protection, child protection and gender in development or emergency settings, particularly in Kenyan context.
3. Experience of managing programs in both development and emergency settings, including some field experience.
4. Good understanding and experience of safeguarding practices within the private sector.
5. Strong commitment and capacity to engage staff and partners through participatory and consultative approach in developing safeguarding polices and procedures.
6. Experience in data management and analysis, including data collection tools design, database design and management and data quality checks.

Safeguarding and Data Protection

Safeguarding: HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguarding our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work. Managers at all levels have responsibilities to support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse, safeguards the rights of beneficiaries and community members (especially children), and promotes the implementation of Habitat for Humanity’s code of conduct.

Data Protection: The contractor will be required to abide by Habitat for Humanity International’s data protection and security policy during the assignment period.

Submission

Interested individuals or companies should submit the following:

1. A maximum 5 pages technical proposal clearly outlining understanding of the terms of reference, methodology, duration, and the technical team.
2. A detailed financial proposal
3. Profile/resume of the lead expert.
4. Two references (including one from your last client/employer)