Posting Title: Consultant to Develop a Tailor-made Training Curriculum and Manual on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism for the Department of Children Services in Kenya

Department/Office: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Duty Station: NAIROBI

Result of Service

• An inception report including a proposed work plan for the execution of the assignment, methodology and timelines.
• Draft tailor-made Training Curriculum and Manual on Preventing / Countering Violent Extremism for Children Officers.
• Successful facilitation of the validation workshop of the Training Curriculum and Manual; and provision of a final draft of the Training Curriculum and Manual.
• Successful delivery of a training of select Children Officers on the use and piloting of developed Needs/Risk Assessment Tool as a measure in the prevention and countering of violent extremism for child and youth offenders.
• Successful delivery of a ToT for 20 children officers covering generic ToT skills enabling them to deliver similar training to other officers and specific skills for the P/CVE.
• Successful delivery of two P/CVE mentorship training workshops for the ToTs (i.e. monitor and evaluate the ToTs as they deliver the training to other children officers to strengthen their training techniques).
• A final, comprehensive and output-oriented report submitted not later than three working days prior to the end of the consultancy.

Work Location - Home-based, with travels to and within Kenya

Expected duration - 65 Working Days between September and December 2021

Duties and Responsibilities

1.Background of the assignment:

The involvement of children and youth in violent extremist groups entails numerous new challenges for the institutions dealing with child justice matters. First, prevention has become particularly complex, as evidenced by the innovative methods of propaganda and recruitment employed specifically by such groups. This is a primary concern to efforts to effectively tackle a security threat while, at the same time, limiting the victimization of such children and youth. Secondly, because of their association with terrorism-related activities, which are classified in international and national law as serious offences, an increasing number of children come into contact with national authorities, in particular with justice authorities. In this context, the questions range from the applicable international and national legal framework to the legal status of the children and the competent authorities and procedures to deal with them. Such children are commonly regarded as a security risk and subsequently exposed to further violations of their rights. Finally, there is a lack of understanding regarding the rehabilitation and reintegration measures that can be effective in addressing the particular stigma associated with serious crimes such as violent extremism, sexual offending and offending related to drugs and substance abuse, while taking into account the extreme violence approaches that have always characterized recruitment and exploitation of children.

As the global guardian of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, UNODC seeks to strengthen the rule of law through the prevention of crime and the promotion of fair, humane and accountable criminal justice systems. To do this, UNODC provides the Member States with expertise and advice to develop effective and responsible crime prevention strategies and policies and to build the capacity of their criminal justice systems to operate more effectively within the framework of the rule of law, while promoting human rights and protecting vulnerable groups.

Within the framework of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, UNODC has continued to support the Justice System in Kenya to implement reforms on child justice matters, including handling the very complex and multifaceted phenomenon of children and youth involved in violent extremist groups. While it is important to note that not all children and youth involved in serious crimes are in contact with the justice system, often actors working within that system, for example; Police, Children Officers and Probation Officers are the first ones to have contact with those children. For this reason, they have an undeniable responsibility to protect, respect and fulfil children’s rights, to prevent revictimization and to take action to ensure that the justice system collaborates to provide suitable responses to vulnerable groups including child and youth offenders. So far, Probation and After Care Service has already received support to build the capacity of its staff on preventing and countering violent extremism.

Through the project on “Preventing Violent Extremism through Rehabilitation, Vocational Training and Social Reintegration in Statutory Children’s Institutions in Kenya (phase 2)”, UNODC will work jointly with the Department of Children Services (DCS) to develop a tailor-made Training Curriculum and Manual on Preventing / Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) for Children Officers including international and national legal framework on child justice. This training curriculum and manual is aimed at strengthening DCS capacities, responses and strategies to treat children in conflict with the law in line with international standards and in compliance with the principle that deprivation of the liberty of children should only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

This support responds to some of the findings of the Assessment Report on Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Programmes Services and Practices for Children in Conflict with the Law in Kenya published in January 2021 that revealed how pertinent the institutional capacity and appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration programmes were in dealing with the paradigm shift in child justice occasioned by the complexity of emerging crimes.

2.Purpose of the assignment:

The overall goal of this consultancy is to develop a training curriculum and manual that will be applied in strengthening DCS capacities, responses and strategies to treat children in conflict with the law (focusing on serious crimes) in line with international standards and in compliance with the principle that deprivation of the liberty of children should only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Specifically, the initiative seeks to build the capacity of Children Officers in:

• Build capacity of Children’s Officers to detect at early stages the potential candidate or recruit for the violent extremism and crime including management of such cases.
• Preventing and countering the involvement of children and youth in violent extremism and other serious crimes in line with international standards and national legal framework;
• Understanding the level of risk a child or youth offender poses to the child protection personnel, community and the nation, as well as appropriate targets for change through the application of appropriate needs/risk assessment tools;
• Identifying effective justice responses, which should include appropriate Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS) Measures, to children and youth involved in serious crimes, whether they are in contact with the justice system as victims, witnesses or alleged offenders; and
• Identifying appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for children and youth involved in serious crimes.

3.Specific tasks to be performed by the consultant:

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Representative in the UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA) and the direct supervision of the UNODC ROEA Head of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, and in close cooperation and consultation with DCS, the consultant will perform the following substantive duties and responsibilities:

a) Development of an inception report
• The consultant will prepare an inception report which shall detail his/her understanding of the assignment founded on the terms of reference. The inception report will also provide detailed timelines and methodology to be applied for discussion with DCS.

b) Development of the Training Curriculum and Manual
• Undertake a thorough literature review of the existing mandates, policy documents, assessment reports and materials/tools/guidelines generated by DCS, assess the materials on CVE generated by the government of Kenya including the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism, Probation and After Care Service and other relevant jurisdictions as well as applicable international standards, national laws and emerging international practices.
• Design an online questionnaire to be disseminated to all children officers in the field to collect relevant information that could inform the development of the training curriculum and manual on preventing and countering violent extremism.
• Provide technical advice on the selection criteria of the Children Officers that will form a small Working Group of Authors to work with him/her on the development of the training curriculum and manual as well as provide technical assistance in the development of these training documents.
• Develop jointly with Working Group of Authors, a training curriculum and manual on P/CVE and an appropriate Risk/Needs Assessment Instrument module, containing generic training methods such as problem-based learning, lesson planning, lesson delivery, learning objectives etc.
• Develop and integrate the Needs/Risk Assessment Tool for children within the scope of violent extremism into the training Manual on P/CVE and where necessary improve the assessment tool following a pilot training.
• The Training Manual should seek to address the emerging gaps in the handling, rehabilitation and reintegration of the Children at risk of and in Violent Extremism.
• Facilitate a one-day validation workshop of the developed draft training curriculum and manual which should have representation from all key partners.
• Review and finalize the draft training curriculum and manual on P/CVE in readiness for publishing based on the input provided during the validation workshop.

c) Delivery of the Training of Trainers
• Design a training plan for a Train of Trainers (ToT) course covering generic ToT skills and P/CVE content that can enable trainers to deliver the training based on the developed training manual to other officers and specific skills for the P/CVE.
• In collaboration with the DCS, identify and conduct ToT for 20 suitable trainers based on the competency or criteria required.
• Conduct a training of select children officers on the use and piloting of developed Risk Needs Assessment Tool as a measure in the prevention and countering of violent extremism for child and youth offenders.
• Conduct a ToT of select children officers based on the developed training manual on P/CVE to equip them with capacity to transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to other children officers effectively. This aims at creating a pool of trainers as a key component in the sustainability plan for institutional knowledge and skills.
• Mentor the selected ToTs to deliver two P/CVE training workshops to other children officers (i.e. monitor and evaluate the ToTs during these sessions to strengthen their training techniques).
• Identify any emerging gaps in the training on P/CVE manual and Risk Assessment Tool and make possible recommendations.

d) Reporting and other requirements
• Complete a final, comprehensive and output-oriented report, submitted not later than three working days prior to the end of the consultancy.

Qualifications/special skills

Academic Qualifications: An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in social sciences, criminology, sociology, psychology or other relevant discipline is required. A first-level university degree in similar fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:
• A minimum of 10 years relevant work experience in criminal justice preferably including in child justice, rehabilitation and reintegration of children is required.
• Experience in working on CVE and Prevention of Violent Extremism is required.
• Experience in providing training for criminal justice agencies and in developing policy and procedure manuals or training curricula/materials is required.
• Proven experience in providing technical advice to multidisciplinary teams in government or national stakeholders and international organizations in the area of child justice and youth is desirable.
• Work experience within Africa is desirable.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another United Nations Secretariat language, is an advantage.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.