1. Background

Kakenya's Dream (KD) is a not for profit organisation which invests in girls from rural communities through education, health and leadership initiatives. Our programs operate in Transmara, one of the remotest and most marginalized regions of the Kenya, where nearly 80% of girls continue to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) at puberty, 50% are married before the age of 19, and only 17% complete a primary education. Girls’ education is not a priority for family or community investment, and social norms perpetuate low educational achievement. Investing in girls’ education yields profoundly positive outcomes not only for the girl, but for her family and community, as well.

Our interconnected programs provide educational opportunities for vulnerable girls and train youth on sexual and reproductive health and rights in marginalized communities.

a. Centers for Excellence: Our boarding schools, the Kakenya Centers for Excellence (KCE I and KCE II), serve 280 girls in grades 4-12 in a safe, supportive environment. The program takes a holistic approach to educating girls, incorporating health and leadership elements into the curriculum and providing for all physical and social- emotional needs.

b. Network for Excellence: We support the 135 girls who have graduated from our boarding schools as they continue on their educational journeys. The girls receive mentorship, tutoring, financial support, and a variety of essential resources to help them thrive in secondary and tertiary education. This year, 78 Kakenya’s Dream girls are attending colleges in Kenya and abroad.

c. Health and Leadership Training: In the communities we serve, sexual and reproductive health are not discussed openly. Young people do not know their rights and cannot advocate for themselves. Our training program reaches boys and girls in schools across the region to foster positive change. We have trained 14,000 youth over the past eight years.

2. Purpose of the assignment

Child protection is an integral part of Kakenya’s Dream (KD) work; respecting the dignity of all children and keeping them safe is one of the foundational principles that the organization upholds. Child protection reflects the universal ‘fundamental duty of care’ that the organization owes children and the vulnerable that we interact with in the course of fulfilling our mission. Kakenya’s Dream is committed to keeping children safe from abuse through awareness raising, prevention, responding and reporting by implementing a child protection policy. We believe that every child has the right to protection, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and whether or not they have a disability.

It is in this regard that the organization is planning for a child protection training targeting staff aimed at raising the awareness of staff on the importance and relevance of protection and safeguarding.

3. Key areas of responsibility and deliverables;

a. Review, refine based on research and benchmarking, and finalizing a written child protection policy for KD. The developed policy should:

• Identify vulnerable population in the KD programs’ scope
• Identify the context wherein KD operates and child protection opportunities
• Identify and define risks to vulnerable populations that may arise from the KD programs’ implementation
• Highlight the categories of staff, consultants and partners that the policy shall apply to
• Suggest an internal and external procedure for confidential reporting and addressing child protection violations

b. Develop a framework for staff capacity development on implementing the child protection policy. The framework should

• Review the existing HR provisions relevant to child protection to establish compliance with safe recruitment, induction and training of all staff on child protection
• Suggest internal designated child protection officers

c. Develop clear procedures to prevent and respond to child protection violations. The procedures should speak to:

• Risk assessment framework and scope of application
• Review the KD Human Resources policy gaps in sync with the proposed policy and recommend amendments (specifying the framing of the amendments)
• Complaints’ procedure to report, record, and respond to allegations of violation of child protection.
• A disciplinary procedure for both internal (staff and consultants) and partners
• Communications strategy for KD downstream partners

d. Develop a policy implementation accountability framework. The framework should among other things:

• Specify the monitoring of the implementation of the policy
• Specify the review framework including the rationale for review, period and circumstances
• Specify the components necessary for annual review (Internal KD policy review guidelines)
• Specify the top management culture necessary for implementing the child protection policy

e. Develop pre- and post-training evaluation tools. This tool will enhance the establishment of existing capacities before training as well as evaluating learning outcomes after the training.