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.

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.

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 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.

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 confirm, qualify, challenge or contradict findings, identify new issues or evidence gaps, and capture children's and young people's own priorities and recommendations;
• consider how differing perspectives are interpreted and how decisions about priorities are made;
• use the resulting insights to inform analysis, strategic planning, programming, advocacy and other relevant decision-making; and
• close the feedback loop by communicating how participant input was used, what changed, what did not, and why.
• Develop a concise set of practical tools and templates required to implement the guidance. These should include, at a minimum:
• child-friendly formats for sharing and discussing CRSA findings;
• survey questionnaires and interview/facilitation guides for engaging children and young people and, where appropriate, parents/caregivers and community leaders;
• a simple validation record for documenting whether findings are confirmed, qualified, challenged/contradicted or supplemented by new information;
• a mechanism for separately capturing children's and young people's priorities and recommendations;
• appropriate safeguarding and referral prompts/checklists; and
• a simple "You Said, We Did" feedback template.
• Design for practical implementation. The guidance should include a minimum viable approach for Country Offices with limited time and capacity, make maximum use of existing ChildFund processes and community engagement structures, and be adaptable to different ages, abilities, languages and cultural contexts.
• Support piloting and refinement. Support 1–2 Country Offices, to be agreed with ChildFund during inception, to pilot the draft guidance and tools. Capture feedback on usability, cultural and contextual appropriateness, reach, safeguarding considerations and staff time/level of effort, and use this learning to revise and finalise the package.

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

Review the Youth Voice Terms of Reference and supporting materials and provide recommendations.

Review ChildFund Australia's Strategy Consultation Plan and advise on how and when the Youth Advisory Group should contribute.

Advise on the integration of children's and young people's views into strategy and organisational decision-making.

Provide technical advice and capacity strengthening to relevant ChildFund staff and leaders on meaningful child participation in strategy development.

Recommend a child-friendly feedback mechanism communicating how children's and young people's input influenced the final strategy ("You Said, We Did").

Provide other child rights and child participation technical advice relating to the Strategic Plan and priorities, as agreed with ChildFund.

This strategy-related technical advice is expected to require no more than three consultant days and is included within the overall estimated level of effort for the assignment.

Methodology

The methodology should be grounded in appropriate frameworks. The Lundy Model of Participation, which emphasises the need to go beyond asking children what they think, and the 9 Basic Requirements for Meaningful and Ethical Child Participation can function must be used as quality frameworks. These frameworks translate into a working set of principles for the guidelines themselves: participation must be genuine and engage children and young people as change makers and creating opportunities for them in all their diversity and as rights holders to express their views, influence decisions and co-create solutions alongside partners using the accommodation strategies for the engagement of otherwise excluded groups; approaches must be purposeful, safe, inclusive and grounded in children and young people’s cultural identity, language, age, stage and capabilities. It is important to Childfund that this work upholds the right to meaningful and respectful engagement and ensure that the best interest of the child is always paramount. This should include closing the loop honestly with children and other participants as set out in the Follow Up Guidance in Section 4.

Selection Criteria for Consultancy Team

ChildFund Australia is seeking a consultant with the following expertise. The successful applicant should demonstrate:

• Significant professional experience in child rights and rights-based approaches to development, including strong knowledge of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Demonstrated expertise in meaningful child and youth participation, including designing and facilitating approaches that enable children and young people to influence analysis, strategy and decision-making.
• Experience developing practical child participation guidance, tools and resources, including translating complex evidence or analytical findings into accessible, child-friendly formats.
• Strong understanding of recognised child participation standards and safeguarding and ethical requirements, including the Lundy Model and/or Nine Basic Requirements for Meaningful and Ethical Child Participation, informed consent/assent, confidentiality and safe referral processes.
• Experience designing inclusive approaches appropriate for different ages, abilities and cultural contexts, including children with disabilities and other groups who may experience barriers to participation.
• Experience establishing feedback and accountability mechanisms that demonstrate how children's and young people's views have influenced analysis and decisions and close the feedback loop with participants.
• Experience working across multiple country contexts, preferably in international development and/or humanitarian settings in Asia and the Pacific, with demonstrated ability to develop practical approaches for country offices and partners operating in capacity-constrained environments.
• Experience with Child Rights Situation Analysis or similar strategic/context analysis, organizational strategy processes, and/or youth advisory mechanisms would be highly regarded.

Interested consultants should submit an expression of interest including: a short technical proposal, outlining understanding of the assignment, proposed approach to designing child-friendly, low-burden guidance, and workplan; a financial proposal/fee schedule in AUD; a curriculum vitae including at least two references from similar assignments; and a sample of previous, similar written work (e.g. child participation guidance or a facilitation toolkit) via BHR.

Please submit you application via this link not later than 23 October 2026.

For the full TOR in the link below

ToR Child Participation in Child Rights Situation Analysis (Child Rights Consultant)

For questions or clarifications, please contact Nelita Ximenes at nximenes@childfund.org.au or WA +670 7732 6600.

ChildFund Australia believes in a global community where children are safe and can reach their full potential. We take extensive steps to safeguard children in any work done by our people, i.e., our staff, volunteers and interns, supporters, partners, board members, ambassadors and suppliers. We strive to keep children safe through child safe practices, and rigorously ensure we prevent, oppose, and combat all exploitation and abuse of children and vulnerable people. As part of this commitment, all people working with us will undergo relevant background checks before joining ChildFund Australia.

At ChildFund Australia, all staff must remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding or sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment (SEAH) risks. Staff will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to understand our Child Safeguarding and PSEAH policies & procedures, promote strong safeguarding practices, and conduct themselves consistent with these policies.

In line with our values, diversity of people and ideas is critical to our work and our success at ChildFund Australia. We strive for a team culture that is welcoming, inclusive, and supportive. ChildFund is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and strongly encourages people from all backgrounds, abilities, and identities to apply.