Consultancy to Develop Youth Safeguarding Resources for Asianew

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy to Develop Youth Safeguarding Resources for Asia

1. Summary

Oxfam in Asia fights inequality to end poverty and injustice – now and for the long term. We believe all lives are equal. No one should be discriminated against or live in poverty. We want a world in which everyone can safely speak truth to power, claim their human rights, and build a better future for themselves. Oxfam in Asia is part of a global movement, campaigning for economic, gender and climate justice.

Oxfam in Asia seeks a qualified consultant/team to develop a comprehensive Youth Safeguarding Resource Package. The resources are intended to support the safe and meaningful engagement and participation of youth in Oxfam’s work, and support staff and partners to operationalise commitments in Oxfam’s Youth Safeguarding Policy and suite of safeguarding policies, standards, and Code of Conduct.

The consultancy is for a period of 10 weeks and should be completed by December 2026.

2. Background

Oxfam works with young people as co-creators and partners in programmes, campaigns, fundraising and decision-making structures. We define young people as those aged 15-24 – while acknowledging that definitions can change between countries and cultural contexts. A core feature of our approach is to work with young people and support them to lead on efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Oxfam has a duty of care to young people and must adequately consider and mitigate risks associated with the safety, security and well-being of young people, and those working with young people.

Practical resources are required to help Oxfam staff, partners and young people apply safeguarding standards consistently across programmes, campaigns, influencing, humanitarian action, partnerships and digital engagement. The resources must support meaningful youth participation, address unequal power relationships, and provide practical guidance for preventing harm and responding appropriately to concerns.

3. Definition of Youth

For this consultancy, youth refers to people aged 15-24 years, in line with the One Oxfam Youth Safeguarding Policy, while recognising that definitions may vary between countries and cultural contexts.

Because the age range includes young people under 18, the Youth Safeguarding Resource Package must clearly distinguish between requirements applying to children aged 15-17 and those applying to young adults aged 18-24. For anyone under 18, Oxfam's Child Safeguarding Policy, procedures and tools remain fully applicable. The youth safeguarding resources will supplement, and will not replace, Oxfam's child safeguarding requirements or tools. Content for people under 18 must use age-appropriate communication and reflect applicable requirements concerning informed consent, parental or guardian consent where required, confidentiality, reporting and referral

4. Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this consultancy is to develop a practical and user-friendly Youth Safeguarding Resource Package that supports the implementation of Oxfam's Youth Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct across programmes, campaigns, partnerships, youth engagement initiatives, and digital spaces in Asia. The resources should help translate policy commitments into clear and actionable guidance for staff, partners, volunteers, consultants, and young people, while promoting safe, meaningful, and inclusive youth participation.

The resources will be produced in English. Oxfam in Asia may subsequently translate them into local languages. The consultant must therefore supply editable, translation-ready source files that country teams can contextualize and adapt without weakening safeguarding standards. Translation into local languages will be the responsibility of Oxfam in Asia.

Objectives

The consultancy will:

1. Develop practical guidance and tools that can be easily applied by Oxfam staff, partners, and youth leaders in their work with young people.
2. Strengthen understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and expected standards of behaviour when engaging with young people, including professional boundaries, respectful engagement, inclusion, accountability, and the prevention of abuse, exploitation, harassment, discrimination, and misuse of power.
3. Support safe and meaningful youth participation by providing guidance on managing power imbalances, promoting inclusion and accessibility, and creating environments where young people can participate confidently and safely.
4. Develop practical safeguarding tools and risk management resources that support the planning and delivery of youth-focused activities, including workshops, consultations, campaigns, advocacy initiatives, travel, and partner-led programmes.
5. Strengthen digital safeguarding practices by providing practical guidance to help staff, partners, and young people identify and mitigate risks associated with online engagement, social media, virtual meetings, and digital communications.
6. Produce adaptable and youth-friendly resources that are usable across diverse Asian contexts, including low-connectivity and lower-literacy settings

5. Scope of Work

Conduct inception review, stakeholder consultations, gap analysis, resource development, validation workshops and finalisation. The consultant will engage youth representatives, safeguarding focal points, partner organisations and programme teams from across Asia.

• Deliverable should be practical, adaptable and suitable for country offices and partners across diverse Asian contexts.

• Resources should be accessible, youth-friendly and ready for translation and adaptation.

6. Methodology

Use participatory, youth-centred, trauma-informed and survivor-centred approaches. Resource development should be informed by consultations, desk review, validation workshops and iterative feedback. Ensure gender-transformative and intersectional perspectives.

The consultant must describe, in the inception note, the process for obtaining voluntary and informed consent from all consultation participants and parental or guardian consent for participants under 18 where required. Participation must be accessible, confidential and designed to avoid retraumatisation. The consultant must follow Oxfam safeguarding and data-protection requirements, explain safe reporting options before each consultation, and immediately report safeguarding concerns through Oxfam's approved reporting protocols. Personally identifiable information must not be included in consultation outputs without explicit authorization. The consultant will meet regularly with a Technical Reference Group comprising relevant safeguarding specialists from Executive Affiliates and Countries, youth focal points and programme or partnership representatives. The consultant will present key decisions and emerging findings, respond to consolidated feedback and document how material feedback has been addressed.

7. Required Deliverables

Deliverable 1: Rapid Review and Inception Note

Includes:

• Review of Oxfam Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy
• Review of relevant safeguarding and Code of Conduct documents
• Review of existing youth safeguarding tools available internally
• Brief gap analysis proposed resource framework.
• Detailed 10-week workplan, consultation sampling approach and engagement schedule.
• Draft interview and focus group discussion guides.
• Consent, assent and parental or guardian consent process, including arrangements for confidentiality, accessibility, safe participation and safeguarding reporting.
• Quality assurance, validation and feedback-response process
• Workplan

Approx. Length: 5-8 pages

Deliverable 2: Targeted Stakeholder Consultation

resource package is informed by the lived experiences, perspectives and practical needs of young people, Oxfam staff and partners. They will explore:

• Young people's experiences of participating in Oxfam programmes, campaigns, advisory structures and youth engagement initiatives.
• Safeguarding risks encountered in practice, including online and offline settings.
• Power dynamics between staff, partners and young people, including factors affecting participation and reporting of concerns.
• Barriers to safe, inclusive and meaningful participation.
• Digital safeguarding risks and the realities of low-connectivity and lower-literacy settings.
• Existing good practices, tools and resources already in use.
• Capacity-building and guidance needs of staff, partners and young people.
• Recommendations for making the resources accessible, practical and youth-friendly.
• The proposed consultation sample will include, at minimum:
• Two FGD and two KII with youth from four countries, with attention to diversity, inclusion and representation of people aged 15-17 and 18-24 where feasible.
• Consultation with one youth-focused partner organisation
• One FGD with Oxfam programme, campaign or partnership representatives, ideally representing countries or a comparable range of operational contexts.
• One FGD with Country Safeguarding Focal Points and relevant regional safeguarding expertise

Methods:

• Online interviews
• One virtual focus group discussion

Output: Consultation summary report (5 pages maximum)

Deliverable 3: Youth Safeguarding Implementation Guide

This becomes the main product for Oxfam staff, personnel, partners and youth leaders. It will link directly to the standalone tools in Deliverable 5.

Indicative content, to be refined through the review and consultation process, includes:

• Introduction, scope, definitions and relationship with child safeguarding.
• Why youth safeguarding matters; common risks and challenges.
• Applying relevant policies, safeguarding standards and the Code of Conduct.
• Key safeguarding principles, expected behaviour and professional boundaries.
• Safe and meaningful youth participation; power, privilege, gender, inclusion and accessibility.
• Consulting young people during programme design and community consultation.
• Safeguarding in workshops, training, youth advisory groups, campaigns, advocacy, online engagement, travel and partner-led programmes.
• Designing accessible feedback and complaints mechanisms with young people.
• Digital safeguarding, including low-connectivity contexts.
• Reporting concerns, referral pathways, confidentiality and survivor-centred response.

Specific requirements and reporting pathways for young people under 18

Approx. 20-25 pages

Deliverable 4: Youth-Friendly Safeguarding Guide

A short document developed for young people aged 15 to 25 years. It will use simple, inclusive and visual communication and will clearly identify information specific to participants under 18. The format must be usable in digital and printable versions and adaptable for low-connectivity and lower-literacy contexts.

Approx 8-10 pages

Topics:

• Your rights
• What behaviour to expect
• Professional boundaries
• Staying safe online
• How to report concerns
• Confidentiality and here to seek support

Deliverable 5: Practical Tools Package

A linked set of standalone tools for use alongside the Implementation Guide by Oxfam staff, personnel, partners and youth leaders. This may include:

1. Event Safeguarding Checklist
2. Youth Engagement Risk Assessment Template
3. Digital Safeguarding Checklist
4. Youth Travel Checklist
5. Youth Participation Safety Checklist

The consultant may recommend consolidating, replacing or adding tools where the gap analysis and consultations demonstrate a stronger operational need. Any proposed change must be agreed with the Technical Reference Group and remain within the agreed scope and timeframe

Output: 3 tools

Deliverable 6: Validation Sessions

The consultant will facilitate one focused virtual validation sessions, with a combined maximum of approximately 15-20 participants unless otherwise agreed:

• A staff and partner session focusing primarily on the practicality and usability of the Implementation Guide and Practical Tools Package.

The session will enable participants to review draft resources, assess their relevance, practicality, accessibility and usability across different Asian contexts, and recommend final changes. The consultant will document feedback and incorporate agreed revisions before final submission

Deliverable 7: Final Resource Package

The final package will include:

• Youth Safeguarding Implementation Guide
• Youth-Friendly Safeguarding Guide
• Consultation report
• Final agreed tools (3)
• Brief final report summarising the process, validation feedback and how feedback was addressed.
• Editable Word and other relevant source files, as well as final PDF versions, suitable for translation, contextualisation and future adaptation.

The consultant will apply Oxfam brand guidance and recognised accessibility good practice to the design of all outputs. Visual content must be inclusive, culturally appropriate and usable in both colour and grayscale, and digital documents should support screen readers and accessible navigation where practicable.

All resources and source files produced under this consultancy will be owned by Oxfam, subject to the final contract. The consultant must maintain confidentiality, protect consultation data, use secure storage and transfer arrangements, and delete or return personal data at the end of the assignment in accordance with Oxfam requirements. The consultant is responsible for the content, copy-editing and professional design and layout of all materials. Final outputs must meet accessibility requirements agreed during inception and preserve the integrity of Oxfam's safeguarding standards.

7. Deliverable Schedule

Deliverable - Timeline

Inception Note - Week 2

Virtual Consultations - Weeks 2-4

Draft Resources - Week 7

Validation Session - Week 8

Final Resources - Week 10

8. Consultant Profile

The consultant or team must have at least eight years of relevant professional experience and demonstrated expertise in safeguarding, youth participation, PSEAH, participatory consultation, learning-resource development and work in Asia. Experience with international NGOs, child and youth safeguarding, digital safeguarding, accessible design, and the development of practical implementation tools is strongly preferred. A team proposal should clearly explain the contribution and level of effort of each member

9. Budget Guidance

Applicants must submit an itemised financial proposal showing professional fees, level of effort or daily rates, consultation and accessibility costs, copy-editing, design and layout, applicable taxes and any other proposed costs. This is expected to be a remotely delivered consultancy; travel is not anticipated unless subsequently agreed in writing by Oxfam. Any approved travel must comply with Oxfam procedures and be separately itemised.

The contract will be for the agreed total amount, with payments linked to acceptance of agreed deliverables and milestones. The final payment schedule and any applicable budget ceiling will be confirmed through the procurement or contracting documentation. Value for money and technical quality will both be considered.

10. Evaluation Criteria

Technical approach 30%; Relevant experience 30%; Quality of previous work 15%; Youth participation and safeguarding expertise 15%; Financial proposal 10%.

11. Reporting and Management

The consultant will report to the Regional Safeguarding Advisor, Asia, who will serve as the contract manager and coordinate Oxfam feedback. The consultant will work with the Technical Reference Group throughout the assignment. The Regional Safeguarding Advisor, Asia, will provide final sign-off following confirmation that consolidated Technical Reference Group feedback has been appropriately addressed and that contractual quality requirements have been met.

12. Application Requirements

Applications must include:

• Technical proposal of no more than 10 pages, including methodology, safeguarding and consent approach, workplan, team composition and quality-assurance process.
• Itemised financial proposal.
• CVs of the consultant or proposed team members.
• Relevant sample work demonstrating safeguarding, youth participation and practical resource-development experience.
• Contact details for two professional references.