Introduction and Ministry of Justice Role

The term ‘children in conflict with the law’ refers to any person below 18 years who has come in contact with the justice system for committing a crime or has been suspected of committing a crime, according to the Somali Juvenile Justice Act/Bill and the Somali Penal Code.

Juvenile offences in Somalia are mostly caused by poverty, drug/substance abuse, lack or poor access to quality education/dropout, family breakdown and peer pressure/influence and adult coercion. These children are those who needs holistic care and protection.

To date, only limited data is available on the situation of children in conflict with the law in Somalia, therefore qualitative and quantitative evidence generation would be a key step to help identify gaps and needs, analyze existing processes and procedures and inform future programming in the area of juvenile justice, which promote diversion, rehabilitation/reintegration of children and young people confronted with the juvenile justice system with a restorative justice approach, to end detention of children, as well as prevention from further offending or prevent any children coming into conflict with law.

Since Somalia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2015, progress has been made in developing policies and legislation and expanding coverage of social services to enable the realization of child rights. However, CRC domestication and implementation remain critical issue in the country.

The MoJ-UNICEF partnership on ‘Child Access to Justice’ (Annual Work Plan 2021-22.) aims at strengthening child friendly and gender sensitive justice system through policy and legislative reforms, institutional capacity development, planning, monitoring and information management, in order to ensure better adherence to international standards. To date the Ministry of Justice has developed Juvenile Justice Law (JJL) – passed by Cabinet in early 2021 – and is working closely with the Ministry of Women and Human Rights Development on the finalization of the Child Rights Bill. Moreover, MoJ finalized a Diversion Policy, age verification guidelines and minimum standards for children in detention.

While efforts are underway, the current legislative framework, procedures, and capacities of Somalia’s justice system, do not sufficiently protect children who come in contact with the law (as offenders, victims and witnesses).

The MOJ in partnership with UNICEF is seeking an expert research consultant(s) who will undertake a research study on the situation of children in conflict with the law, including a research plan and methodology in line with the national and international standards and in consultation with key stakeholders (line ministries, children, courts, prosecutors, police, implementing partners and etc.) in Somalia.

Description of Responsibilities

Specifically, the project aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. To generate and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on the situation of children in conflict with the law, including drivers/push factors
2. To describe the processes of administering children’s justice at the community (community based/informal justice mechanism), coordination mechanism among justice institutions and other sectors (social welfare, education, health), adherence process, staffing capacity, capacity of each personals etc. to identify gaps.
3. Assess the existing curricula and materials used for all relevant personnel’s to identify gaps.
4. To understand children’s experience in criminal justice system and how it was Impacted on their protection and well-being while in the system as well as after they have released, [ case studies].
5. To establish trends on the main offences committed by children in conflict with the law
6. To provide recommendations and concrete proposed actions with timeline that may be necessary strengthening the child justice system and other social welfare systems, including health, education, social protection and etc.

Quantitative information shall include;

• Number of children arrested/in detention, gender, locations. Detained by whom, etc.
• Number of children diverted and sent to alternative to detention [through referrals for CSO or local community arrangements].
• Type of offences committed
• Number of recidivist offenders
• Number of children in custody
• Number of cases the police sent to the prosecutor
• Number of cases the prosecutor filed in courts
• Number of cases the court sentenced
• Duration of sentence
• Period of detention pending trial
• Are children’s cases are heard separately from adults?
• Number of children sent for mediation;
• Are children are separated from adults in prisons and police
• Other relevant information

Scope of the Assignment:

More specifically, this TORs requires that the study survey is conducted in a participatory manner as much as possible. The consultant(s) will lead on the execution of the assignment from inception to final reporting. The geographical study areas are Banadir/Mogadishu, Juba-land Kismayo, Punt-land Garowe, South west/Baidabo and Galmudug/Dusomareb. The study survey in selected districts should identify the main drivers and assess the situation of children in conflict law in Somalia. It will target all relevant groups-includes government administrations and non-government organizations such as prisons, prosecutions office, police, courts, juvenile courts, ADR centers, elders in the community, judges, attorney general, lawyers, MoJ at FMS etc. to explore how the such children are affected and find sound method to prevent and respond to such issues.

Main Tasks/Outputs of the assignment:

The Consultant is expected to produce the followings:

• Prepare an inception report/note and plan: mapping and overview of key stakeholders to conduct consultations with (e.g., government, UNICEF, and civil society who work on Juvenile justice services and overview of the main topics/questions to be discussed. This consultation plan will be shared with MOJ FGS for feedback.
• Provide and present a detailed analysis of the collected data for the MOJ FGS, FMS and key implementing partners based on the consultations and interview meetings of the key stakeholders.
• Draft Study Document: The Consultant will send the draft study survey Document to the MOJ FGS and share with UNICEF and FMS. Consolidated written comments will be provided to the Consultant within 1 weeks.
• Final draft of study report: The Consultant will send the final study report document to the MOJ FGS and share with UNICEF and FMS, after having received the consolidated comments on the draft document.
• Summary of the Key findings and PPT with standardized infographics – after completion of the final report, towards supporting dissemination, the firms will develop two pagers highlighting the key findings for policy makers, and prepare a standard presentation with infographics for in various fora.

The Consultant will:

• The research will employ a mixed methods approach to generate evidence (both for quantitative and qualitative) which can be used for planning purposes and to enquire more on children’s access to justice, experiences in their interaction with the criminal justice system and informal justice system.
• Key informants Interviews with key stakeholders (including government FGS and FMS justice institutions (including 4 pillar levels), key relevant UN, CSOs and children/families)
• Literature/Desk review of the existing relevant documentation of the juvenile justice system in the country such JJP including the 2018-2021 JJP Programme Document, progress reports and evaluation report (May 2020) and other relevant docs related to the child justice program reports as well as the review record of the CICL files will study and analyse at different stages.
• Conduct consultations with key implementing partners and stakeholders. The consultation will be expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach in engagement with stakeholders of the child justice programme.

Ethical considerations required.

This study involves primary data collection from children and family. This requires ethical clearance as well as very strong safeguarding mechanism. The consultancy needs to elaborate clearly on how they will apply ethical considerations on research involving with children. And how they will protection the ethics, safety and avoid harm in the proposal and during inception meeting.

Institutional Arrangements

• The Consultant will report to the Ministry of Justice FGS and work closely with Human Rights, Gender and Child Protection Department and UNICEF.
• Contractually the consultant will report to MOJ for final signing of the deliverables and processing of fees
• The Consultant’s work shall be undertaken through field-based work and desk review. The travel of the states will be included necessarily, this shall be arranged in consultation with MOJ-CPU.
• The MOJ FGs and FMS-MOJ CPUs will be responsible for liaising with the Consultant to set up interviews with key actors, including line government entities, UN, CSO and children in conflict with law.
• The consultant, to provide a summary overview of the main objectives and deliverables identified by the partners during the consultations to the whole stakeholders.

The interested qualified candidates/firms are expected to submit a technical and financial proposal for this consultancy.

Payment terms

Payment will be made in 3 instalments and upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR

Competencies

Core Competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism
• Excellent analytical and organisational skills

Functional Competencies

• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
• Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors
• Demonstrates ability to manage complexities
• Communicates effectively with staff at all levels of the organisation & children/families.
• Acts with tact and diplomacy
• Proves outgoing and comfortable in handling external relations at all levels
• Demonstrates compelling communication skills and cross-cultural effectiveness
• Possesses the ability to convey difficult issues and positions to senior officials and counterparts

Experience and qualification requirements

Education

• Team members should at least have Master’s degree or equivalent in law, political science, social science, gender studies, human rights or in a related field.

Experience

• At least 8 years of progressive experience in justice sector work, including managing and designing rule of law programs and proposals integrating gender
• Extensive experience, knowledge and expertise in the design and implementation of qualitative and quantitative research.
• Awareness and understanding of international standards and legal and social policy framework applicable to children in contact with the law.
• Experience in conducting desk reviews
• Strong analytical and conceptual thinking
• Good knowledge of gender issues
• Robust knowledge of developing monitoring/evaluation plan for CJ/CP project designs.
• Experience in conflict/post-conflict settings, project implementation and knowledge of Somalia context are added advantages. Experience in rule of law and justice sector work or child protection is required.
• Experience conducting stakeholder consultations and reviews with ability to identify linkages of views and the envisaged programme objectives.
• Experience in child justice/CP programs are added advantages
• Ability to work under tight schedule, to cope with time pressure, ability to absorb high amount of information in a short period of time, flexibility and ability to adapt to changing time schedules, etc.

Languages

• Fluency in English. Somali language is considered an asset.

MOJ is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

Study Process and Methods

The interested qualified candidates/firms are expected to submit a technical and financial proposal for this consultancy.

The consultant firm will be selected pursuant to a review based on below criteria:

• Team composition and experience/CV or consultancy Firm Profile & experience background
• Each proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its price.
• The Evaluation Team first reviews the technical aspect of the offer followed by the review of the financial offer of the technically compliant vendors. (70% technical aspect and 30% for financial aspect)
• The proposal obtaining the overall highest score after adding the scores for the technical and financial proposals is the proposal that offers best value for money and will be recommended for award of the contract.

ü  CV along with application letter in English.

ü  Verified Copies of academic Certificates or transcripts.

ü  2 Reference persons.

Interested candidates should submit their applications via e-mail info@moj.gov.so not latter that 13 March 2022 at 4:00PM in Somalia time.

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