EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR ADVOCACY PARTNER 

Advocacy
Sierra Leone, Freetown
May 7, 2025
Full Time
Application ends: May 20, 2025

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Job Description

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR ADVOCACY PARTNER 

BACKGROUND

ChildFund’s work to address the underlying conditions that prevent children from realizing their rights takes many forms, ranging from working directly with children, families and communities to shift social norms and practices, to seeking to influence decision-makers to develop, implement and enforce policies (e.g., laws, regulations, etc.) that are in the best interests of children. This latter effort is known as “Policy Advocacy”. ChildFund defines policy advocacy as “the deliberate process of influencing decision-makers to support evidence-based policy change or implementation that contributes to ChildFund’s mission to value, protect and advance the worth and rights of children”. For simplicity, ChildFund uses the term advocacy to refer to policy advocacy.

Advocacy plays an important role in advancing ChildFund International’s mission to value, protect and advance the worth and rights of children. ChildFund’s advocacy efforts focus on changing or updating current policies (e.g., laws, regulations, etc.), recommending a policy if one does not exist (i.e., a policy gap) or ensuring that a policy in place is being implemented in ways that enable children to benefit from the policy. 

PURPOSE

The purpose of this terms of reference is to recruit an Advocacy Partner to work with ChildFund to advance our advocacy agenda (prohibition of child Marriage, preventing Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children – OSEAC – and promoting Online Safety, and promoting climate change mitigation actions). ChildFund’s development approach seeks to mobilize children, families, communities and a wider constituency of individuals and institutions to advance the rights of children. 

Therefore, ChildFund Sierra Leone considers the role of partners as crucial to ensuring positive outcomes in its advocacy interventions. Working with an Advocacy Partner ensures that our advocacy efforts are informed by different perspectives, including those of children and communities; leverage the often-limited resources available for advocacy; expand our influence; and build on previous efforts that may already be underway to address the policy issue.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The specific objective of this terms of reference is to recruit a qualified Advocacy Partner to: 

  • enhance child protection efforts, develop advocacy strategic initiatives, and represent the organization’s interests in child advocacy.

 

  • work collaboratively with ChildFund Sierra Leone Country Office to enhance child protection policies, raise awareness, and advocate for the rights of children
  • support the engagement of stakeholders and build partnerships for better advocacy. 
  • raise awareness on child protection advocacy issues.

SCOPE OF WORK

  • Support ChildFund to design advocacy campaign tools focusing on child rights and protection.
  • Collaborate with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders on ChildFund prioritized advocacy areas. 
  • Support ChildFund advocacy research initiatives, monitoring and evaluation of advocacy interventions.
  • Conduct assessments to identify child protection needs and gaps

KEY DELIVERABLES

  • Comprehensive advocacy strategy document.
  • Regular progress reports on advocacy initiatives.
  • Organized stakeholders’ meetings and workshops, seminars etc on ChildFund advocacy initiatives.
  • Developed and conducted training sessions on advocacy materials.
  • Submitted regular progress reports detailing activities, challenges, and outcomes.
  • Developed and produced Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials and other resources on child protection advocacy. 

PROFILE

  • The Advocacy partner must have at least 5 consecutive years of experience in working with government, national and international civil society organizations on child protection policy advocacy works. 
  • The Advocacy Partner must have a strong understanding of child rights and relevant legislation in Sierra Leone including existing gaps
  • Must have established networks with stakeholders at government and national and international civil society organization levels in child protection
  • Must have capacity to conduct research and assessments in child protection policy advocacy for evidenced based programming

 

  • Must have led the development of series of child protection advocacy strategies and implementations, monitoring and evaluations with reputable INGOs within and/or outside the country.
  • The partner must have a multidisciplinary team in social sciences, with knowledge and experience of at least 5 years in carrying out child protection advocacy efforts in Sierra Leone. 
  • Must have experience in conducting training and capacity building on child protection and policy advocacy 

DURATION

This partnership will be for a period of 1 year, with the possibility of extension based on performance and funding availability.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Proposals will be evaluated based on:

  • Relevance and quality of the proposed approach.
  • Organizational experience and capacity.
  • Ability to engage with diverse stakeholders.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SAFEGUARDING 

All information shared during the partnership recruitment process will be treated confidentially and used solely for the purpose of selection. The selected partner is expected to sign to ChildFund’s Safeguarding policy before the signing of partnership agreement and also comply with the details therein. 

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested organizations should submit:

  • A proposal outlining their experience and approach to child protection policy advocacy.
  • Relevant case studies or examples of previous work in child protection policy advocacy.
  • Submit documents through the email: SierraLeoneProcurement@ChildFund.org with email clearly marked with the title of “Expression of Interest –  Advocacy partner” 

The closing date for submission of complete applications is 20th May 2025 Only applicants with complete documents will go through the selection process and only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. We look forward to receiving proposals from qualified organizations committed to making a difference in child protection policy advocacy. 

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