TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT STUDY ON THE OTHER APPLICABLE FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE CARE IN SOMALILAND

1. Background

SOS Children’s Villages is a global federation of 136 national SOS Children’s Villages associations, working in more than 2000 programme locations worldwide. We work together with a single vision: every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security.

SOS Children’s Villages in Somaliland is part of SOS Children’s Villages International, the umbrella organization to which all SOS Children’s Villages are affiliated. SOS CV in Somaliland is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that is not for profit, non-sectarian and non-partisan, and has been in existence since 1999.

SOS Somaliland is committed to the welfare of children who lost parental care or at risk of losing parental care – often ensuring that children grow up in a loving family environment, and to strengthening families and communities as a preventive measure in the fight against child abandonment and social neglect, and upholds child protection policy as part of their commitment to the protection of children and youth from abuse. Uniquely, SOS provides long-term, family-like care for children who have lost parental care (alternative care service), and works with vulnerable families and communities to help strengthen them and prevent family separation (family strengthening service, FS). SOS alternative care is usually organised in the form of a cluster of SOS families, where each SOS parent cares for small group of children.

SOS Children’s Villages was established in Somaliland in 1999 and it started first operations in Sahil region. Currently, SOS Children’s Villages in Somaliland implements programs ranging from child care, child protection, youth empowerment and participation, education and emergency interventions. SOS Children’s Villages Somaliland is operational in four regions of Somaliland: Awdal, Marodijeh, Togdheer and Sahil.

1. Alternative Care Program of SOS Children’s Villages in Somaliland

Currently, SOS CV in Somaliland is running alternative Care Programme that consist of three main units:

1. SOS Family-like Care (FC): can be defined as an alternative care setting, which is specifically created for the purpose of providing alternative care for children who lost parental care and need a long-term family environment, where one or two care professional(s) take on a consistent parental role, offering care in a largely autonomous small group resembling a family environment as much as possible, and where specific support is available when needed.
2. Foster Family Care (FFC): SOS Children’s Villages believes that addressing the children’s needs within their own community is rational and will contribute to the overall direction of SOS CV International. Addressing orphan and abandoned children through other forms of family-based care has become important for two reasons. The primary reason is to help the children get their right to survival and development, and the second is to reach more target children in contextually relevant interventions.
3. Youth Care (YC): The overall objective of the youth care program is to enable Young people (aged 14+) exiting SOS Family Like Care to develop skills and attitudes that will help them comfortably transit into Semi-independent life through integration with their family of origin and their communities. The specific objective of the program is to create an environment where the youth continue living in a family environment while SOS provides them appropriate support towards self-reliance.
4. General objective

The aim of this consultancy is to carry out study on the feasibility, suitability and relevance of other Alternative Care options (besides Residential Care, Foster Care, Family-like Care and Youth care) applicable in the context of Somaliland.

• Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the study are to:

• Map out other Alternative Care options available/existing in Somaliland besides those listed above.
• Analyse how the identified care option/s is relevant to the local context of Somaliland.
• To make recommendations for the adoptability and effectiveness of the alternative care option as a form of programming

1. Methodology

During the study, the consultant will use:

• Secondary Data
• Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
• Key informant Interviews (KII)

The data collection will mainly be done in the towns of Hargeisa and Buroa.