1. family and parenting
2. children

Terms of Reference
Syrian refugee children and their psychosocial distress
Background
The war in Syria is about to enter into its fifth year. The fighting has caused an unprecedented degree
of suffering and forced more than 3,8 million people to flee Syria, with the majority residing in
neighboring countries. Children make up more than 50% of the refugee population, meaning there
are close to 2 million refugee children in the region. The unrelenting conflict is depriving millions of
children and adults of food, clean water, healthcare and other life-saving services. But living in these
conditions, whether it be in a refugee camp or in a host community, also limits children´s lives when
it comes to access to education, play-time, meaningful activities and structure to their day to day
lives. The consultancy will explore the impact of living on the run 4 years after the start of the Syrian
Crisis on the children wellbeing.
Save the Children MEE regional office and CPI conducted a mapping exercise of mental health and
psychosocial support needs of Syrian children in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey/Syria.
Respondents in all six locations expressed concerns about the level of Mental Health & Psychosocial
Support (MHPSS) needs in children. Hence, there is a profound and urgent need to further present
these children´s life and living situations, thus highlighting the need for a deepened and more
extensive support for Syria´s children living on the run. During 2015, SC Sweden will capitalize on this
and run a campaign to highlight the situation for Syrian refugee children in different contexts.
Target groups
1. The main focus of the report is to attract the Swedish media´s attention and to create further
awareness surrounding the plight of children living in these dire conditions.
2. As a key donor for Child Protection in the region, SC Sweden will continue to fundraise and to
raise awareness amongst the general public in Sweden, and an a greater media coverage will
certainly support this work
3. This comprehensive and engaging report about Syrian refugee children and their
psychosocial distress will be used for advocacy in Sweden with key decision makers:
ministers, heads of and desk-officers at ministries, parliamentarians and Sida-officials.
The report (and a Communications-kit) will be available for other SC members in English after sign off
from the Global Advocacy Group to conduct their own awareness raising, advocacy and fundraising
activities around it in their own markets. This report is in line with the ambition from the Global
Media Unit to present media moments based on Save the Children generated data.
Objective
1. To strengthen and provide a sharper joint focus on communication and advocacy work around
the Syria humanitarian emergency in Sweden
2. To deliver a concise and compelling, fact-based report with Syrian refugee children sharing
their life experiences; building a case for Sweden to engage politically for a broader
international commitment to the issue of the Syrian children´s wellbeing and rights, and
warning of the likely implications of the current conflict
3. Focusing the report on Child Protection and specifically highlighting the psycho-social aspects
that refugee children are experiencing
4. To create a report to engage media and be used to make policy recommendations to decision
makers on the importance of providing sufficient as well as ear-marking funds specifically
related to the benefit of children in Syria and the wider region; looking at short as well as longterm funding
5. To inform the wider public of the implications of the crisis for children and of the longer-term
consequences. Highlighting the need for a greater public commitment to support
programmatic initiatives to ease the suffering amongst the refugee communities with a solid
focus on children
6. To provide data and material from Save the Children related projects and work in the region
reflecting upon the way we work. Thus highlighting our position as the leading child rights
organization working in and around Syria and the region
7. Providing a base for advocating for greater focus on children issues, based upon facts derived
from our own projects and programs and as well from the children themselves
Methodology
1) Conduct a participatory assessment with children using child friendly active research techniques.
Where children will be feeding back on their situation using participatory action research and
evaluation methodologies for that purpose, Save the Children Sweden will identify and recruit a
consultant with a solid child protection background. This person will adhere to psychosocial guidelines
and rules to work with children in distress and ensure that no harm is done to children throughout the
consultation phase. The child protection expert will also collect evidence through key informative
interviews with Save the Children staff directly implicated in the provision of psychosocial and child
protection activities. The consultant will be closely working with each country team visited and with
technical and operational back up from the regional office. The methodology, and final report
outcomes will be shared with country and regional key team members to consolidate their input.
The child protection expert will be working closely and in consultation with a communication expert
who will be capturing the communication side and processing the information obtained from children
and from Save the Children staff. The communication expert will be also collecting photographs and
other evidences from the programs in the field.
During field research the consultants will be closely working with SC staff with knowledge of the
context and the language in each country office where the study will take place.
The report and its content will be made up of both testimonials as well as statistics that are drawn
from our projects and our participatory assessment groups. Testimonials will be provided by the
children as well as from staff. Data will also be collected from children and staff where the latter will
be asked to provide estimates on a range of questions relating to the children´s psychosocial wellbeing.
These data won´t be academically viable but will serve as snapshots and indicators on how the Syrian
children feel in their living settings and thus provides us with an overview, across our projects in the
region. The testimonials will then verify the data extracted.
Reference group
A reference group will be formed from colleagues from CPI, the regional office and SC Sweden with
relevant knowledge about the issue on country and regional level. The reference group will be
responsible for finalizing the TOR, provide comments on drafts and agreeing on final outcome. It can
also seek advice and guidance from involved country offices. However, SC Sweden will ultimately
decide on the final version of the content, publication, launch and everything related to the
Communications-package.
Materials & tools
The report will be using material from existing reports and assessments already conducted in the
region as support. However, the primary sources and information will be derived from:

Children through participatory evaluations (focus groups discussions to reflect on
their current living situations in both host communities as well as in camp
environments)
Activity
Communication Persons
consultant
Responsible
1 day reviewing Consultant
the
methodology
and providing
feedback
Expected
Comments
Output
Key
informant
interview
questionnaire
Focus group
methodology
5 days
travels to 2
countries in
the region
and 1 travel
to Stockholm
Conducting 15 days
face to
face
interviews
and visit to
project
sites
Debriefing 2 days
2 days travel to
one country in
the region and
back
Consultant
None
5 days
Consultant
Detailed
interview
minutes
The 2 consultants
will overlap in the
field to gather
communication
materials
2 days
Consultant
Minutes of
the meeting
First draft
of the
report
finalised.
7 days finalising
the report
Consultant
draft report
(20 pages)
The consultants
will have a 2 days
meeting in
Stockholm to
consolidate all the
content and the
learning from the
field
10 days
Design of
key
informant
interviews
and
research
tools
Travel time
CP
consultant
5 days
developing
the
methodology
2 days
commenting
on the
report draft
Final draft
of the
report
Date of
the
publication

3 days
October
Final report
Rädda
Barnen
Key informants such as Save the Children staff involved in the Syria response across
ideally 2-3 countries (interviews) where the information will be used to analyse how
the well-being of the Syrian children has been affected by the current conflict and
displacement situation 4 years after the start of the Syrian crisis).
Expected output
1. A participatory detailed stakeholder’s interview questionnaire for Save the Children key staff
involved in the PSS programs, and an additional methodology of participatory focus groups
discussions with children.
2. A final report including key advocacy messages and the identified challenges. A fact based report
written with media and broad audience as the main target groups.
The report should include the following sections:
- Introduction
- Context
- Case studies
- Testimonies
- Key messages
3. Develop a set of key messages in consultation with SC Sweden staff, MEE regional office and
country offices to support advocacy on the report and review associated press releases, media lines
and a Q&A.
Save the Children Sweden will take responsibility for the design of the report. Furthermore, the
media consultant will provide photos and other relevant items/materials to include in the report and
associated media.
Qualifications
CP expert
At least 8 years of professional experience in Child Protection in Emergencies and/or related field
within the humanitarian sector.
-
Experience in participatory assessments with children
Field level experience in 1st phase emergencies as well as programming related to chronic crisis
Demonstrated experience in research and analysis
Ability to work independently and effectively under a tight timeframe
Fluency in spoken and written English
Communication expert
-
Proven ability to write high quality reports as programming related to chronic crisis
-
experience in working in challenging and insecure environment
Capacity to communicate with children in a child friendly non harmful way.
Minimum understanding on procedures to work and communicate with children under
distress
-
Fluency in spoken and written English
Interested candidates should send a CV and a cover letter to [email protected] and
[email protected], deadline for the application is 24th of April 2015.