Consultant Child Rights Situation Analysis

Organisational context

ChildFund Australia is an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities, partnering for community and systems change that enables vulnerable children and young people, in all their diversity, to assert and realise their rights. It is a registered charity, fully accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and a member of the ChildFund Alliance — a global network of 10 organisations assisting almost 36 million children and families in 66 countries. ChildFund Australia directly manages and implements programs in Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and other Pacific nations, and partner-delivered projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas.

2. Background

ChildFund Australia is committed to genuine, safe and honest participation by children and young people in decisions that affect them, consistent with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children and young people are experts in their own lives and should help shape the plans, programs and decisions that affect them — not simply act as another source of evidence to validate adult-generated findings. This assignment strengthens that commitment across two connected areas of ChildFund's work.

Development and updating of Guidelines for Child Participation in Child Rights Situation Analysis

ChildFund already has a child and youth participation policy and suite of participation tools that are applied across program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. However, these resources were not designed for, and do not sufficiently address, participation in strategic portfolio-level analysis and decision-making. New and adapted components are therefore required to enable children, young people, parents and caregivers, and community leaders to meaningfully inform ChildFund Australia's understanding of children's rights and wellbeing at a population level.

Specifically, ChildFund seeks to strengthen its existing participation approach so that stakeholders can engage with, validate, challenge, and enrich the findings of Child Rights Situation Analyses, helping to identify priority issues, emerging trends, evidence gaps, and opportunities for action. The resulting insights will inform organisational strategy, country planning, program portfolios, advocacy priorities, and investment decisions, ensuring that these are grounded not only in published evidence but also in the perspectives and experiences of children and communities themselves.

This assignment will develop practical guidelines, tools, and supporting resources that enable this process to be undertaken consistently across country contexts. The approach should be low burden, repeatable, and designed to leverage existing community engagement structures wherever possible, recognising the capacity constraints facing Country Offices and partners. It should also promote accountability by establishing clear mechanisms for reporting back on how participant feedback influenced findings, priorities, and subsequent decisions.

Provision of Strategy-related Child Participation and Child Rights Technical Advice

ChildFund Australia is also establishing a Youth Advisory Group (“Youth Voice”) of young people aged 16–25 from its partner countries and programs (Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, Solomon Islands, and Sports for Development), providing a direct channel for young people to contribute to the development of ChildFund Australia’s new Strategic Plan. Initial progress has been made to recruit and onboard inaugural Youth Voice members.

The consultant will provide technical advice on the role of Youth Voice in ChildFund’s strategy development and broader strategic decision-making, including its evolving purpose, Terms of Reference, engagement processes and feedback mechanisms. ChildFund staff will manage and facilitate Youth Voice, although the consultant may be asked to support selected online meetings in English.

The consultant may also be asked to provide child rights and child participation technical advice in relation to ChildFund Australia’s new Strategic Plan and priorities. This component of the assignment is expected to require no more than three consultant days and is included within the overall estimated level of effort.

3. Purpose

Development and updating of Guidelines for Child Participation in Child Rights Situation Analysis

The purpose of this assignment is to:

Review ChildFund Australia's existing child and youth participation policies, guidance and tools and identify what can be adopted or adapted for use in Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA), and where new guidance or tools are required.

Develop practical CRSA Child and Youth Validation Guidance that enables Country Offices to meaningfully engage children, young people, parents/caregivers and community leaders to:

discuss the issues that matter most to them, their experiences of children's rights, and the changes they would like to see;

engage with CRSA findings and identify where these are confirmed, qualified, challenged or contradicted by lived experience;

identify additional priorities, perspectives and evidence gaps that may not be adequately captured in the CRSA; and

identify children's and young people's own priorities and recommendations.

Develop practical, child-friendly tools and resources to support consistent implementation of the guidance across different country contexts, while keeping the process proportionate and feasible for Country Offices and partners.

Establish clear feedback and accountability mechanisms so participants understand how their views influenced the CRSA, subsequent priorities and decisions, including where ChildFund was unable to act on their views and why.

Develop orientation materials and support piloting of the guidance with 1–2 Country Offices, using feedback and learning from the pilot to strengthen the final guidance and toolkit.

Provision of Strategy-related Child Participation and Child Rights Technic

Provision of Strategy-related Child Participation and Child Rights Technical Advice

Advise on meaningful approaches for engaging children and young people in ChildFund Australia's strategy development and strategic decision-making.

Provide technical advice on the role of the Youth Advisory group / Youth Voice in contributing to strategic discussions and decisions, including its purpose, Terms of Reference, engagement processes and feedback mechanisms.

Support ChildFund to integrate children's and young people's perspectives into strategy development and establish appropriate mechanisms for communicating how their views influenced decisions ("You Said, We Did").

Provide additional child rights and child participation technical advice related to ChildFund Australia's Strategic Plan and priorities, as required.

4. Scope of work

Development of Guidelines for Child Participation in Child Rights Situation Analysis

The value of this assignment is in translating established good practice into something genuinely usable by a time-poor Country Office. Development steps:

Review and map existing resources. Review ChildFund Australia's existing child and youth participation policies, guidance and tools, together with relevant safeguarding requirements, and identify what can be adopted, adapted or needs to be developed specifically for CRSA validation.

Develop the CRSA Child and Youth Validation Guidance. The guidance should provide a clear, practical process for Country Offices to:

translate and share CRSA findings in accessible, child-friendly formats;

engage children, young people, parents/caregivers and community leaders in discussing their experiences, priorities and aspirations;

explore whether CRSA findings reflect local realities and lived experiences;

systematically record where participants confir