RE-ADVERTISED: Qualitative research on child labour in refugee and host community populations in Turkana and Garissa counties, Kenya

Background

The state of play concerning child labour in areas hosting refugee populations remains largely unclear as few if any studies have been conducted targeting this population. Hence, it is currently impossible to gauge the magnitude, prevalence and distribution of child labour across regions, economic sectors, and occupations. The scant evidence available to date suggests that, as in other countries, relative levels of child labour are correlated with family size, household income and educational status.

The PROSPECTS Partnership in Kenya aims to achieve sustainable socio economic improvements in the wellbeing of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) and host communities (HCs) in the two refugee hosting counties of Turkana and Garissa through education, protection and livelihoods and decent employment.

Children seeking asylum or of refugee status are often restricted to living in designated areas, such as the

Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps. These camps have an insufficient number of schools and existing

facilities lack adequate educational materials, such as textbooks, electricity, and latrines. These

conditions likely contribute to heightened vulnerabilities of refugee children to child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking

Against this background, the ILO is undertaking a research aimed at improving the knowledge base on child labour among FDPs and host communities in Turkana and Garissa counties in order to contribute to program design and to identify effective policy interventions. The research will combine quantitative and qualitative methods to:

1. Provide evidence on the magnitude of children’s work and child labour in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties, and on conditions of work, main hazards, and socio-economic environment where child labour occurs.

2. Identify what are the main factors at family, and community level that push children into child labour, and what are those that prevent children from working (protective factors).

3. Assess gender differences with regard to children’s activities (school attendance, work, activities/tasks performed by boys and girls, performance of household chores, social and cultural norms regarding the role of girls vs. boys, etc.)

4. Review previous efforts aimed at addressing child labour

5. Provide recommendations on how to decrease, eliminate and prevent child labour in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties

6. Disseminate to the national stakeholders and the general public a comprehensive report on child labour in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties, depicting key results and their implications for policy and future research (i.e., Vulnerability Assessment Framework), thereby enhancing the knowledge required to promote action and alternatives, and promote awareness raising and advocacy.

2. Objectives of the research

The objective of the research is to enhance the knowledge and understanding of child labour in forcibly displaced populations and host communities in Turkana and Garissa counties, including working conditions of child labourers, as well as the causes for child labour.

Specific objectives of the assignment will be:

1. Provide an in-depth understanding of activities performed by girls and boys, including tasks, conditions of work, main hazards and the interplay between children’s work/child labour and school attendance and children’s health.

2. Assess the existence of worst forms of child labour (WFCL) other than hazardous work and identify in which form children are involved;

3. Provide an in-depth understanding of the socio-economic environment where child labour/WFCL other than hazardous work occurs.

4. Identify what are the main factors at family and community level that push children into child labour/WFCL other than hazardous wok occurs, and what are those that prevent children from working (protective factors).

5. Assess gender differences with regard to children’s activities (school attendance, work, activities/tasks performed by boys and girls, performance of household chores, social and cultural norms regarding the role of girls vs. boys, etc.)

6. Provide recommendations on how to decrease, eliminate and prevent child labour/WFCL other than hazardous wok occurs in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties

3. Proposed methodology

The research will be qualitative, and its main purpose is to provide detailed descriptions of the characteristics and conditions of the work that children engage in, identify the main factors pushing children into child labour, give insights into the interplay between child labour and school as well as challenges in accessing social services and identification of the worst forms of child labour.

The research will adhere, as much as possible, to the definition of child labour and related concept (working children, forms of work, and worst forms of child labour) based on national and international standards.[1]

The development of the research will include the following phases: **

Collecting background information

Desk research phase

The desk research shall involve a review of the existing information on child labour in Kenya , with a focus on FDPs and host communities. The desk research shall also review the policies, programs and legislation with a bearing on childrenand on refugees and host communities as well as good practices and lessons learnt in addressing child labour

Policies and programs to be considered including education, social protection, active labour market policies, awareness raising and protection and remedies including labour inspection. Moreover, the research will consider the implications of the COVID-19 crisis on household incomes particularly on access to education and to social protection, but also how COVID-19 has affected child labour (increased/decreased).

The institutional framework including the National action Plan 2004-2015 will be analysed in order to map the stakeholders and identify the role of key institutions and their coordination. The review will also include the national legislation relating to child labour as well as the national monitoring systems

Stakeholder mapping

A stakeholder map complements the context analysis with a wider picture of the relevant stakeholders at the national and county level, including policy makers, international organizations, employers, private sector, NGOs and civil society and the population engaged and/or at risk of child labour.

a) Understand the roles, interests, needs, influence relationships and capacities of each stakeholder.

b) Identify the level of awareness and mobilization of the stakeholders on child labour issues.

b) Clarify with stakeholders what are the most critical knowledge gaps on which the research should focus and on the identification of the key research questions and objectives.

c) Foster a common engagement and support on the research implementation and use.

Scoping missions

The scoping missions serve various purposes at this stage: obtain information on the dynamics of child labour in the targeted area and improve the understanding of child labour; to clarify with the stakeholders the objectives of the research, information needs, research questions, and refine the stakeholders mapping.

In particular, the scoping mission will:

• Identify the specific research locations where child labour and WFCL other than hazardous can be observed and people interviewed.

• Conduct stakeholder mapping and consultations;

• Identify potential limitations, risks and challenges to the fieldwork, set prevention measures and alternatives in case of events that make difficult to carry out the planned activities.

Field work and qualitative data collection methods

Qualitative methods will provide in-depth information on the characteristics of the work performed by the children in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties, the socioeconomic and cultural factors behind child labour/WFCL other than hazardous work. The qualitative research will also aim at assessing actual national response to child labour/WFCL other than hazardous work in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties .

The following participatory tools will be utilized:

· Direct observation (to inform on the presence of worst forms of child labour other than hazardous, conditions of the workplace, in particular on occupational health and safety, work attitudes, relations, etc.). External risk assessment methodology could be used to assess hazards and risk levels, especially regarding the activities that the children are engaged in.

· Household sampling

· Key informant interviews (to include representatives from UNICEF, UNHCR, county governments, department of children services, labour office, education office NGOs, schools, health facilities, police, social workers, county children coordinators and county children officers, community/religious leaders); KIIs will aim at ; Gathering additional information on the availability of data and research on child labour in Kenya, with a focus on FDPs and host communities; Gathering a better understanding of the factors affecting child labour in Kenya, with a focus on FDPs and host communities; Gathering additional information on interventions addressed to eliminate child labour in Kenya with a focus on FDPs and host communities; Identifying the level of awareness and mobilization of the stakeholders on child labour issue; Obtain inputs from the stakeholders on perceived critical knowledge gaps to tackle child labour in Kenya, with a focus on FDPs and host communities

· Focus group discussions (in-depth discussion with groups of children not engaged in labour , child workers, their parents, employers, on selected topics concerning children’s work);

Data analysis and report drafting

Following data collection, data analysis will be performed and results presented in a report that will include

recommendations for the government of Kenya, Turkana and Garissa county governments as well as for the PROSPECTS team on programmable activities to support the Government’s efforts to combat Child Labour.

The report will also include a section on lesson learnt.

Security and ethical considerations

The proposed research is expected to provide information on child labour and WFCL other than hazardous work in FDPs and HCs in Turkana and Garissa counties. Access to sites may be limited especially due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation and other issues around the remote nature of the area, but ILO and UNHCR will facilitate access, at least within camp/ settlement areas.

The standard ethical practices including child safeguarding must be followed in the data collection process with respect to children, that is, persons aged below 18 years of age

7. Consultant’s responsibilities

Building on previous rapid assessments conducted by the ILO in DRC, Nigeria, South Sudan, the external collaborator will be responsible for:

1- Collecting background information according to the methodology described above

2- Developing survey tools, protocols, non-probability sampling plan and analysis plan for the qualitative research based on ILO tools and methodologies

3- Training the interviewers and other collaborators on the use of guidelines, questionnaires, manuals, the differences between interviewing children and adults, and gender and ethical concerns

4- Conducting the qualitative data collection and drafting a field report stating conditions found for data collections, challenges faced in implementation of focus groups/interviews. Initial findings from the data, including the cleaning, processing and analysis (should also include presentation and Q&A to the Kenya Prospects team, plus representatives from Fundamentals’ research unit)

5- Analysing the data and drafting the report on the results according to the methodology described above. A draft outline of the report is included as Annex 2.

6- Support the consultation with national and county stakeholders including the validation of the findings of the final report

The consultant will also serve, if required, as technical resource person in technical consultations at county, national and international level.

The consultant will work under the supervision of the ILO Prospects Kenya team, the technical backstopping unit at HQ Geneva and in the Decent Work Team in Pretoria, with support from other prospects partners, notably UNHCR and UNICEF. S/he will consult with ILO on challenges encountered in conducting qualitative child labour research in challenging environments and identify lessons learnt.

All draft of survey tools, as well as drafts of the research report, will be submitted for review to the ILO. The consultant shall make revisions integrating any feedback received and submit a final version for approval.

8. Deliverables

1. Inception report including sampling and analysis plan (within 10 days upon signature of the contract). This report will also describe strategies to implement the research taking the limitations of Covid-19 on data collection into account and laying out required support from the ILO.
2. Report on existing information, legal and policy framework, stakeholder mapping (draft and final)
3. Survey tools, protocol and methodology (draft and final)
4. Training of interviewers and other collaborators
5. Fieldwork report (draft and final)
6. Clean dataset of the qualitative data collection, and associated documentation
7. Report on the results (draft and final) and outlining key recommendations that will be disseminated to stakeholders in a webinar.

[1] On the statistical measurement of child labour, please refer to the 20^th ICLS “Resolution to amend the 18th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of child labour”. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—Astat/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_647347.pdf