Request for Proposal: Education Safe from Disasters Research - Child-Centred Disaster Risk Reduction: Impacts on Household Safety

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children’s lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential. We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. We have over two million supporters worldwide and raised 1.6 billion dollars in 2011 to reach more children than ever before, through programmes in health, nutrition, education, protection and child rights, also in times of humanitarian crises.

Save the Children International Asia Regional Office is inviting submissions for proposals for conducting the following research on Child-centred Disaster Risk Reduction: Impacts on Household Safety.

Background

Disaster risk reduction advocates promote education initiatives that engage children, parents, and teachers in understanding the hazards around them, learning and implementing risk reduction measures, and learning and practising measures to improve safety during and after disasters. Education administrators often expect or assume that learning from formal or informal educational activities will be transmitted from children to household members, and/or from communities to parents and children. However, there is very little research on how learning is shared and what effect shared learning has on household preparedness.

The research will use a theory-based evaluation framework to study how children’s educational programming can foster child-to-parent engagement that results in household disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The research will investigate three child-centred DRR education programs with demonstrated positive results implemented within the past 2 years. It will seek to identify common variables in the content and delivery of the program activities that instigated shared learning and preparedness activities within children’s households. This research will be important because although there is an established evidence base on how children learn, there is very little research on how disaster risk reduction learning can be effectively transmitted from children to their households. This research should add new knowledge and inform the development of educational initiatives for children that aim to have a broad community impact.

Rationale

There is significant scope for improvement in the design of child-centred risk reduction education programs which are typically designed for formal curriculum integration and informal learning as part of school and after-school programs. Theory and evidence-based approaches will ideally differentiate approaches for different age groups, and make use of both child-to-parent and parent-to-child transmission of interest, knowledge, and skills, and will leverage care-taker-child interaction to spur the kinds of behavioural changes needed to ensure individual safety and enhance household resilience to hazard impacts. We expect that this can also shed light on the role of sibling and adult interactions in the household as well. Those involved in both the design and funding of disaster risk reduction education programs will be able to better identify the elements of sound programming approaches, and conceive of means for scaling these up to maximise effectiveness. A literature review designed as a 'research-into-practice' brief, specifically for these audiences will provide background. Evidence will be sought from recent theory-based approaches in at least three different countries will provide insights into specific program design and content elements associated with household safety impact.

Aim, Objectives & Research Questions

Aim

To identify and recommend learning and behaviour change communication theories, and range of implementation approaches and activities, and the types of content, that will enhance the effectiveness of scalable child-centred risk reduction education programs, with a focus on maximising the transition from knowledge to action for improved household risk reduction and resilience.

Objective

• To understand the critical factors in parent-child learning and action for household safety.
• To differentiate gender-specific and developmentally (age)-specific effective interventions.
• To learn most promising approaches from current practices in school-to-home, child-to-parent, and parent-to-child practices for both pre-school and school-aged children.

Scope of Work and Deliverables

Applicants please note: The full Scope of Work will be agreed upon following submission of successful Research Proposal.

Scope of Work

The study shall be conducted in urban and peri-urban areas in selected countries in Asia. The exact locations and programmes best fit for this study are open to discussion with selected researcher or research service provider.

Ethical statement regarding human subjects (Note that any results that are to be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal will require approval by academic institutional human subjects or ethics board)

Deliverables

• Full Research Report (20 pages + appendices) (for technical practitioner audience)
• Research Summary Report (4-6 pages) (for public stakeholder audience)
• Research-into-Practice Brief (2,000 words) (This is a literature review for general practitioner audience)
• PowerPoint presentation of findings for general practitioner and stakeholder workshop
• Full data set (where applicable).

Qualifications

Applicants should demonstrate that the primary investigator(s) have:

• Masters or Doctoral degree
• Subject-matter expertise in education sector, and or disaster/disaster management research
• Proven track record in designing and implementing social science research
• Firm grasp of ethical/human subjects review considerations
• Experience in participatory-action research, desirable
• Commitment to research dissemination and interest in implementation science highly desirable
• Appropriate cultural and language skills to carry out research in this particular context

Research Timeframe

Research Duration: November 15th 2016 – June 15th 2017 (Open to discussion)

Request for Proposal Process: Expression of Interest

Expression of interest should include:

• Cover letter stating interest and qualifications
• CV(s) and/or introduction of institute, company and primary investigators
• Links to 1 or 2 sample research work products
• 1-page top-line proposal based on the above descriptions of this research
• If you apply as a company then the bidder response document needs to be completed as well.