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Survey Consultant for the project: Strengthening the Capacity of Law Enforcement, Inter-Agency Coordination and Civil Society Organizations to Address Discrimination and Ill-Treatment of Children within the Justice System in the Republic of Moldova

Job Title: Consultant
Duty Station: Chisinau, Republic of Moldova (with field missions in Moldova's districts)
Duration of Employment: 3 months

Background: Founded in 1960, Terre des hommes (Tdh) is a Swiss organization helping to build a better future for disadvantaged children and their communities. The direct aid to children in need is provided without any political, racial or religious bias.

Working in Moldova since 2004, Tdh is dedicated to meeting the needs of all children and contributing towards the improvement of the Moldovan child protection system.

We focus on the social follow-up and protection of Moldovan children in vulnerable situations within and outside Moldova, by providing direct services to beneficiaries, supporting the service creation, raising awareness, building the capacities of professionals and strengthening the child protection system

Rationale for the position:
While Moldova has a legislative framework allowing for basic child protection during judicial proceedings, reports on actual practices on both banks of the Nistru river point out repeated incidences of mistreatment, secondary victimization and inadequate access to information for child victims, witnesses and offenders alike. Available data and expert consultations identified the first contact with the justice system as the stage where the highest number of incidents involving discrimination and ill-treatment occur.

With the support and funding of the European Union, Terre des hommes has developed the Strengthening the Capacity of Law Enforcement Inter-Agency Coordination and Civil Society Organizations to Address Discrimination and Ill-Treatment of Children within the Justice System in the Republic of Moldova project, which aims to reduce the potential for discrimination and ill-treatment of children during the early stages of contact with the justice system in Moldova.

Under the Cooperation Agreement signed between Tdh and the General Inspectorate of Police of Republic of Moldova (GIP), Tdh has committed to provide assistance and consultancy in order to support their capacity building in the area of justice for children.

The program is seeking to engage a Survey Consultant to develop the appropriate methodological tools and conduct the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) assessment.

Scope of the work: is to develop a methodology of assesing the knowledge, competences and attitudes of the in-service police officers regarding their responsibilities to descry and answer to the needs of the children in contact with the law. By means of this study, Tdh aims to identify the good practices, understand the specifics and the shortcomings of this category of professionals working in justice for children sector, and provide recommendations in order to increase the capacity of police officers to detect, respect and respond to the rights and needs of children in contact with the law in their daily work.

Key deliverables:
- The methodology for the KAP assesment;
- An action plan for implementing the methodology;
- The draft of the KAP assessment report, with main findings and recommendations;
- The final version of the KAP assessment report, with main findings and recommendations.

The timeframe and duration of activities are estimated to be broken down as follows:
Deliverables Duration (estimated)/weeks Estimated timing and deadline
The methodology for the KAP assesment 3 weeks March - April 2014
An action plan for implementing the methodology 2 weeks April 2014
Conducting the KAPassesment 3 weeks May 2014
The draft of the KAP assessment report, with main findings and recommendations 3 weeks May - June 2014
The final version of the KAP assessment report, with main findings and recommendations 2 weeks June 2014

• All deliverables will be approved by a joint committee consisting of Tdh and GIP representatives.

Reporting and coordination:
The process of developing the methodology and its implementation will be monitored by the Head of the Public Security of GIP and Technical and Financial representative of Tdh.

Special duties:
- The consultant will commit her/himself to act and performs all tasks always in a professional manner, aiming at quality and efficiency;
- Keeping the confidentiality of the data collected is essential during and after completion of the work contracted;
- The consultant will take on the responsibility of ensuring the strict respect of Tdh child protection policy;
- In all circumstances and activities, the consultant must bear in mind the principle of the best interests of the child;
- The consultant must also comply with the latest Communication and Visibility Manual for EU External Actions concerning acknowledgement of EU financing of the project and related guidelines

Competencies required:
• University degree in law;
• 3 years of professional experience in law enforcement;
• Proven research experience (i.e. studies, books, etc.);
• Good understanding of child rights and child protection;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, Romanian, Russian;
• Excellelent inter-personal working and communication skills
Civil servants and other staff of the public administration cannot participate as experts in this program.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
1. Cover letter;
2. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 2 references;
3. Financial proposal;
4. Short methodological concept;
5. Documents, links, etc. confirming the research experience. Terre des homes ensures the application of the equal access clause.
The applications will be submitted to email. The deadline for submission is March 17, 2014.