School Safety and Contingency Planning At Adventist Development and Relief Agency International

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is a global humanitarian organization with a mission to work with people in poverty and distress to create just and positive change. ADRA Norway belongs to the worldwide network, comprised of more than 130 supporting and implementing country offices. ADRA Norway is seeking to recruit a consultant to provide support to school safety and contingency planning for primary schools in Somalia under TOFI and SEAQE2 Programmes.

Background Information **

Disasters affect millions of people every year. Strengthening disaster preparedness is therefore critical to save lives, protect livelihoods and strengthen recovery from crises. Systems for coordination of preparedness efforts is equally important. These can be addressed by better integrating the diverse practices of contingency planning and business continuity planning through establishing acceptable standards and tools for multi-hazard emergency preparedness. School children and school buildings have been greatly affected by all major disasters. The role of schools in the community is very important and it would be befitting to call schools as cradles of the society. Children are a dynamic and powerful force of change and are supporters in creating awareness in the community. They can contribute in a unique manner with energy and vision to find local solutions. School children should be encouraged to take up tasks, which make them realize their importance as necessary stakeholders in the change process.

While the Ministry of Education in different States strive to ensure learning continues with minimal interruptions, a major barrier to this aspiration is the perpetual disaster occurrences in schools. Flooding, protracted droughts, disease outbreaks including the global novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) that has disrupted people’s livelihoods and learning. During crisis, the health, safety and wellbeing of learners, teachers and education personnel is a priority since a slight disruption of the education system may lead to loss of education gains. Schools in different parts of Somalia are susceptible to different forms of hazards and disasters. Contingency planning and preparedness are therefore imperative and core for every school. Plans that are simple, participatory, realistic and supported by preparedness actions are indeed very necessary. The drive is to create a shift from reactive approaches and actions of the education community towards disasters to a more risk reduction approaches and actions that requires a certain depth and time of engagement with stakeholders.

Schools are hubs of social activity and human interaction and therefore, schooling provides essential learning. When schools close, children and youth do not only miss out of on social contact that is essential to learning but are also deprived opportunities for growth and development. Disruption of learning carry high social and economic costs and affect everyone across the communities. The impact is however severe for disadvantaged boys and girls and their families. The disadvantages are disproportionate for children living with disabilities who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school. When schools close parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to perform this task because both the children and parents/guardians are unprepared for distance and home schooling This is especially true for parents with limited education and resources. There is also a bigger challenge to ensure that children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after protracted closures.

Purpose and Objective of the Consultancy

Emergency situations create circumstances in which threat and loss are common. However, people and communities often have capacities to cope with the distress caused by emergencies. What is always needed is assistance to reinforce such existing capacities as protective factors and promote resilience. The planned psychosocial support intervention aims to strengthen individuals’ protective factors, minimize risks, and promote psychosocial well-being of learners.

The following objectives are to be achieved:

i. Develop context-appropriate strategies for a safe learning environment both at school and remotely;

ii. Institute measures for quality, age-appropriate acquisition of lifesaving and disaster preparedness skills and psychosocial support for wellbeing and resilience of children and their communities;

iii. Support schools to implement the safe school operations guidance with government and local partners;

iv. Enhance coordinated and informed actions of national level platform for reducing disaster risks in schools;

Rationale for School Contingency Planning

Schooling provides essential learning and when schools close, children and youth are deprived opportunities for growth and development in growing their competencies. The disadvantages are disproportionate for under-privileged learners who tend to have less access to educational opportunities beyond school. Insecure schools lead to high dropout rates since is a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after protracted closures due to early marriages, child labour, drug and substance abuse occasioned by frustration. Young and adolescent girls face greater vulnerabilities such as domestic/gender-based violence when not in school. In difficult economic times, boys are more likely to drop out of school to support family economic activity or take employment outside of the home thereby increasing child labour. Children and youth with disabilities, along with other marginalized populations; including children from minority groups, are neglected in the best of times and face heightened learning risks during prolonged school closures. Schools and learning centres are places for communities to address health related issues, including mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), which the most vulnerable students rely on for their wellbeing and development to learn. Against this, young people stand to be affected by trauma or mental health issues. It is therefore imperative that seamless learning is sustained to ensure that children do not lose out on essential learning times that could have an impact on their developmental milestones.

In view of this, there is need for strategies and plans for prevention of risks, hazards, disasters including infectious diseases and preparedness of learners, teachers and school communities including mechanisms to offer effective supportive case management in and out of school. The rationale for this response plan is therefore, to guide basic education in the overall readiness and response for emergency including COVID-19 to enable learning to continue and the education system to recover and transit smoothly post any disaster or pandemic.

Scope of Work

This contingency plan targets learners and teachers in basic education institutions with a focus to most vulnerable and poor learners including learners with special needs and disabilities. The assignment should be a highly participatory process to ensure that the tools to be developed are rooted in best practices and there is buy-in from the key partners including Education Sector stakeholders. Minimum research, analysis, extensive consultation and synthesis of existing policies and legislation.

The scope of work will specifically entail the following:

• Assessment of the physical location and infrastructural stability of the schools and constructions to withstand disasters;
• Institutional preparedness of schools in protecting education from disasters;
• Strengthen capacity of stakeholders on sustainable preparedness measures to reduce disaster risks in schools and stimulate organised actions for emergency response and recovery;
• Analyze existing guidelines, policies and legislation on school disaster risk management (DRM) and in-build the provisions into the school contingency plans;
• Full community engagement with clear communication and information channels;
• Develop a framework for school contingency plans for disaster preparedness, risk reduction response;
• Measures with regards to gender differences including for children with disabilities for continued learning;
• Sustained engagement of teachers with their classes and students to monitor progress, assign new lessons and to provide psychosocial support services as may be appropriate;
• Referral mechanisms for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) as may be appropriate;

Methodology

The ToT Training Guide will be required for facilitate simple and understandable training techniques that can easily be understood by the participants. Participatory training will be critical to stimulate learning and facilitate discussion. Relevant case analysis, lectures and presentations will be the main training methodologies. In overall, least cost but most effective approaches for delivering the assignment shall be employed. The viability of the proposed approaches and methodologies will be discussed by the project team prior to commencement of the assignment.

Expected Deliverables

All deliverables will be completed with guidance, input and feedback from the Project Manager or designate. The following outputs are expected:

i. Inception Report and detailed work plan for undertaking the assignment

ii. Debrief with MOEs/ADRA and Implementing Partners on the findings

iii. Draft and Final Training Report including the training manual

iv. Framework for school contingency plans

Further Information

• Logistics: travel logistics for the assignment shall be inclusive of the facilitated funds.
• Fees: shall be payable to the extent of the jointly agreed and costed workplan for the assignment to be delivered.
• Tax and insurance: shall be the responsibility of the contracted party as appropriate during the assignment period.
• Code of conduct: the engaged party shall be bound by the principles and conditions of ADRA’s Code of Conduct.

A contract will be signed by the engaged party prior to commencement of the assignment. The contract may detail additional terms and conditions of service, aspects on inputs and deliverables.

Qualifications and Experience

• At least Bachelor’s degree in Disaster Management/Education or relevant field;
• Demonstrated experience/knowledge in School Safely Planning/Contingency Planning/Vulnerability Capacity Assessment;
• Experience in Policy Analysis/Development;

Knowledge and Skills

₋ Demonstrated knowledge and skills in stakeholder participation techniques;

₋ Demonstrated knowledge and skills in facilitation of workshops;

₋ Demonstrated research and analytical and research skills in the field of policy development;

₋ Strong communication, documentation and presentation skills.

₋ Excellent command of written and spoken English and Somali languages;

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