1.About PROSPECTS
The Government of the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Government of Kenya (GoK) and selected development and humanitarian partners, including the World Bank, IFC, ILO, UNHCR, and UNICEF, is engaged in a strategic multi-year and multi-agency initiative known as PROSPECTS. PROSPECTS 2.0 is a 4-year multisectoral intervention in refugee hosting areas of Turkana and Garissa. The partnership is aimed at enhancing an enabling environment for socio-economic inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers, enhance access to education, training and protection for host and displaced children and young people, and strengthen the resilience of host communities through inclusive socio- economic development that also benefits refugees and asylum seekers.
The PROSPECTS initiative is anchored across 4 pillars; 1) Education and Learning, 2) Economic Inclusion, 3) Protection and Social Protection, and 4) Critical Infrastructure.
Under the protection and social protection pillar, safeguarding forcibly displaced children, young people, and host communities from violence, abuse, exploitation, and harmful practices is essential for enabling learning to earning. When children are safe and well cared for, they are better positioned to learn and grow into healthy, productive members of society. To achieve this, forcibly displaced children and youth must have access to services, infrastructure, and socioeconomic opportunities through a strong continuum from learning to earning. A key insight from PROSPECTS 1.0 is that learning and earning outcomes are unattainable without corresponding investments in child protection. Inclusive and effective child protection systems support access to safe learning-to-earning pathways by addressing the vulnerabilities of all children, regardless of their displacement status.
Therefore, PROSPECTS 2.0 has the immense opportunity to elevate the centrality of protection through strategic and inclusive priority interventions. To accelerate progress towards achieving the learning to earning outcomes of PROSPECTS 2.0 while providing a protective environment for children.
Terre des hommes foundation (Tdh), Save the Children International (SCI) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) are working towards strengthening child protection outcomes for refugee children and families and as well strengthen the social service workforce (formal and non-formal protection mechanisms) in Dadaab, Kakuma and Kalobeyei. Supported by UNICEF, UNHCR among other partners, the investments aim to make national child protection systems inclusive of forcibly displaced children by strengthening policies, legislation, and coordination structures to ensure non-discriminatory and comprehensive protection for all children.
Further, this seeks to ensure an inclusive continuum of services with minimum standards and oversight mechanisms to protect forcibly displaced children; adequate resources (human, financial and infrastructure) are available, including a skilled social service and allied workforce in child protection, equipped with specific competencies and skills to prevent child protection violations, strengthen families/prevent family separation, and respond and refer child protection cases involving forcibly displaced children to services across sectors.. In addition, expanding effective child protection case management and information management as well as embedding protection across sectors including education, and WASH - for safe learning to earning pathways.
To gain a clearer understanding of the gaps, enablers, and barriers related to these outcomes in the Dadaab and Kakuma operations and their host communities, three organizations, with technical support from UNICEF and UNHCR, have agreed to conduct a joint study. This study aims to provide solid empirical evidence on the situation and offer concrete recommendations to further enhance the achievement of the envisioned protection outcomes.
2. Background and context
Kenya has a progressive legislation on refugees (the Refugees Act, 2021), credited for advancing significant changes on refugee economic inclusion, integration, and contribution to Kenya’s national and local economy. In March 2022 the Government of Kenya announced the development of an inter-ministerial Shirika Plan founded on the concept of integrated settlements in which both refugees and host communities would access from national programmes and services aimed at facilitating self-reliance, community-led economic development, and peaceful co-existence. Despite enactment of a strong legal and policy frameworks, refugees and host communities continue to face a challenging socio-economic environment and frequent shocks, particularly in regions hosting the largest refugee populations. According to UNHCR data, Kenya hosts 892,411 refugees and asylum seekers in Kakuma, Kalobeyei & Dadaab refugee camps (86% of the refugee and asylum-seeking population) and in Kenyas urban centers (14% of the refugee and asylum-seeking populations). Of the 892,411 persons, 60% are below the age of 18 years with children between 12-17 years being the majority (40.4%). For a long time, children have borne the brunt of the heightened and evolving vulnerabilities and risks associated with the protracted refugee situation. Limited access to basic needs, psychological trauma, elevated risks to various forms of abuse, violence and exploitation are among the issues that have long impacted childrens overall development, safety and wellbeing.
Family separation being one of the direct consequences of the displacement, has resulted into increasing numbers of separated and unaccompanied minors in Dadaab, Kakuma and Kalobeyei, often denying affected children the much-needed parental care and protection and exposing them to various forms of abuse and exploitation. Over-time, community-based protection structures that have long existed to provide care to affected children through informal foster and kinship arrangements have been complimented by formal protection structures that provide protection assistance through case management to these children as well as support to their caregivers. Despite these efforts, unaccompanied, children in child-headed households and separated children continue to face challenges in the refugee camps that include relationship difficulties, conflict in their foster families following placement, misunderstandings based on cultural differences, heightened risks of abuse, violence, and exploitation (including economic and sexual) as well as unmet basic needs requirements.
Over time, the humanitarian response in Kenya has observed shrinking funding largely on account of shifting donor priorities. Most recently, the freezing and subsequent termination of American aid has made the situation worse. These changing dynamics coupled with the evolving protection situation necessitate the proposed study, bringing together PROSPECTS child protection partners to gain an introspection into the lived experiences of children, the risks and vulnerabilities they face to inform relevant interventions.
3.Study Purpose
The study aims to assess the child protection landscape—focusing on policies, services, and community participation—to develop actionable, collaborative recommendations for safeguarding forcibly displaced children
The specific objectives of the study are;
4.Scope of Assignment
Geographical scope: Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps & Kalobeyei settlements.
Demographic scope: The study will target residents of the above referenced locations, in particular; parents and/or caregivers including those of children in foster and kinship care arrangements, children themselves (including unaccompanied and separated children) in and out of school, formal protection actors and representatives from the community-based protection mechanism.
5.Intended users of the study
The findings of this study will be used to enhance the relevance of the ongoing child protection intervention by ensuring interventions and any adaptations deemed necessary are based on evidence and are relevant to the needs of the affected population.
6.Methodological approach
6.1Study design
A cross-sectional study design is proposed for this assessment.
6.2.Data gathering
Data will be gathered through primary and secondary data sources. Primary data collection will be actualised via the following: household surveys, key informant interviews, gender specific focused group discussions and where applicable observation. For child respondents, data collection tools and methodology will be tailored to this demographic to enhance their engagement and participation. Secondary data sources will include relevant reports, write ups and/or journals. Primary and secondary data gathering approaches will be used and data triangulated to enhance the richness of evaluation output. To actualize this, the sub sections provide details on the approach.
6.3.Sampling approach
Probability and non-probability sampling approaches will be applied in the generation of the respondent samples. For quantitative data collection, the study proposes stratified sampling in each location. Purposive sampling is proposed to identify respondents deemed relevant for the focused group discussions and key informants for the key informant interviews.
The proposed sampling approaches aim at drawing correct conclusions about the study population and will jointly be defined and agreed upon by participating agencies.
6.4.Selection and training of research assistants
Research assistants will be recruited locally, trained and paid by each participating agency based on agreed upon renumeration rates. Research assistants will be required to be knowledgeable of the context including the local dialect(s).
7. Timelines and schedules
The duration of the assignment will be maximum of 6 weeks, including tools development, training of research assistants, data collection, report writing and submission.
In a co-creative process, a final report will be generated in the below format;
8.Selection criteria
A consultancy firm/ individual with valid legal registration paperwork in Kenya and formal access to the locations of the programme implementation. The selected firm/ consultant should possess the following minimum qualifications as follows:
Academic skills
Master's degree in applied research, monitoring and evaluation, development studies, population studies, or any related academic discipline or an affiliation with a research institution or a university, holding a PhD, or being in pursuit of a PhD in a relevant field is an advantage.
Previous Experience
9. Copyright and intellectual property rights
The title rights, copyrights and all other rights of whatever nature in any materials used or generated under the provisions of this consultancy will exclusively be vested with participating agencies. All products developed under this assignment will belong to these agencies exclusively.
10. Child Safeguarding
In all stages of this task, childrens safety will take precedence. All parties involved in the study will be required to read, understand, and commit to each agencys child safeguarding policies and guidelines. Parties engaged in data collection, will sign the policies and code of conduct to indicate an understanding of, and commitment to follow the policy requirements. The methodologies used in this study will abide by the universally accepted standards for involving children in research.
The interested firm/ service providers should submit their proposal no later than November 18th, 2025. The submission of proposals (technical and financial) and/or related questions should be directed to Tdh via email to: ken.tenders@tdh.org.
Other considerations