Consultant to conduct Participatory Action Research on online safety and resilience

Research Respect Ourselves, Accentuate Resilience (ROAR)

1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Thailand has a high (75%) internet and social media penetration rate and the average user spends 9h online each day (Datareportal, 2020). Young users dominate some of the country's lead social media platforms, such as TikTok where over 50% of total users in Thailand (South East Asia's third biggest market) are young people aged 13 to 17 (TikTok, June 2020). In the past year, which was marked by the Thai student protest and the COVID19 pandemic, the internet and social media have proven to be valuable resources for accessing digital learning, keeping up with peers and promoting child rights. However, with Thai young people's internet usage and online presence on the rise, their exposure to Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) or online bullying are also emerging trends, as noted by UNICEF, ECPAT, Plan, Thai Health and DTAC.

Data shows that unregulated and excessive use of online platforms can lead to abuse, exploitation and risky behaviour by young people. COPAT's (Child Online Protection Action Thailand) 2020 national survey shows that children 12-18 years of age are increasingly exposed to different forms of online abuse, with 69% of child respondents reporting experiencing cyber bullying and a further 68% revealing that they practice online risk-taking behaviour. 43% of respondents expressed that the excessive amount of time they spend online (10 hours and above) had resulted in a negative impact on their family relationships as well as their education performance. As of today, there remains limited data on how boys, girls, and other vulnerable groups of children experience online abuse - this is a critical gap.

Thailand remains a host country for child sexual abuse images, ranking 6th out of the top 15 countries in the world (ECPAT and UNICEF Situation Analysis, 2015) and undoubtedly COVID-19 is increasing attempts to access existing material or coerce more children living in Thailand in selling or exposing intimate photos online. 45% of respondents from a 2018 survey by COPAT reported being involved in collecting, downloading and sharing illicit materials i.e., child pornography, while 17% of respondents reported having been sexually harassed including pressured to share sexual images.

While these statistics depict the risks Thai children face online, we do not have a clear understanding of their scale and severity, nor how they are distributed differently across different groups or locations. It is also unclear if, and how, traditional harmful practices affecting children in marginalized communities (e.g. early marriage, school drop-out, sexual exploitation etc) are being affected by current conditions whereby internet usage and online presence are rising sharply.

Assumptions among agencies working with refugee populations from Myanmar in Thailand is that access to connectivity – with the exception of some specific large camps such as Mae La and Umpiem – is limited or barely existent, meaning that online safety risks may not be a major concern. Although connectivity issues persist, UNHCR's 2016 'Connecting Refugees' report reveals that 59.1% of refugees in Thailand had access to 3G or more through mobile phones, a figure that is very likely to have increased in line with the increase in Thailand's broader digital penetration since 2014, when the data was collected. A series of interviews that SC conducted with the Karen Student Network Group (KSNG) in March 2021 to develop the proposal for ROAR revealed that – despite various challenges such as lack of resources and hotspots – it is common for households in various camps to gain access to connected device and purchase short term data plans. Further to this, KSNG young people leaders have identified a host of emerging protection concerns alongside other concerns present offline which are exacerbated by the use of the internet and digital devices.  Activities carried out by the KSNG as a part of their young people engagement and coordination strategy have been forced online since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, meaning young people are increasingly using the internet.  

Data from the PWG’s reports indicate that children living in the camps continue to suffer from a culture characterized by patriarchy and the rule of compromise, in which the father, husband, and/or eldest male leader determine the way men, women, parents and children relate and live together, including deciding roles for other members of the family. When asked about the capacity of the current child protection systems in the camps to address the off/online continuum of children protection (CP) cases, the CP leads and young people groups acknowledge there is a lack of awareness among young people and CP actors OSEC. It is also recognized that children and young people are rarely consulted or part of decisions affecting their wellbeing and the types of services that target them specifically, meaning existing CP mechanisms are unlikely to be child friendly or fully meet their needs.

Children on the move at the border are particularly vulnerable to abuse. There is a lack of comprehensive data on the prevalence of offline and online sexual abuse and exploitation of migrant children in Thailand, however a 2019 Harvard research paper looking at migrant Myanmar communities in Tak province found that “all interviewed Burmese migrants [in Thailand] reported having access to a mobile phone with internet and reported high rates of smart phone usage in their communities”. This finding was echoed by representatives from Ray of Young people (ROY) interviewed by Save the Children during the design of this project in March 2021. According to ROY representatives, compared to the past year the digital presence of migrant young people has increased. ROY identifies this both as an opportunity and a challenge for young people. With an increased in digital literacy amongst young people, ROY was able to successfully migrate some of their workshop facilitation tools online for young people to use[1] and have witnessed many young peoples’ creativity blossom on YouTube (singing is identified as a trend). At the same time, ROY has identified that online hate speech and discrimination against migrants are emerging issues and they have also witnessed cases of “love turned sour,” an increasing prevalence of young children chatting to strangers online, meeting in real life, and then entering into abusive relationships. In one instance, ROY reported being contacted directly by a young woman who faced bullying online and offline after her photo was distorted and used in a photomontage of pornographic images, which caused her great distress.

In both contexts, young people have spearheaded initiatives such as KSNG hosting fake news discussions with young people and ROY’s new app which connects them with future migrant young people leaders. However, both groups recognize the small scope of these projects, and that awareness amongst young people and service providers about online safety and resilience remains limited. To date, a number of compelling resources have been developed in Thailand (eg. Plan's digital literacy teacher guide, Facebook's digital literacy curriculum, ECPAT Foundation toolkit on Protecting Children from Online abuse) and globally (eg. Mind of my Own, safe to change, Mye Pya Tike, etc.). These tools seek to educate children about online abuse risks, promote positive peer interactions and improve referral to local protection and police authorities. However, we seldom came across solutions that were co-designed with migrant and refugee young people, reflecting their concerns, motivations and unique user perspectives. We also found little to no evidence of the perceptions and uptake of existing tools among young people themselves.

2. SCOPE OF RESEARCH

2.1 Purpose

The ROAR project intends to hire a research consultant to conduct preliminary desk research, building on evidence generated by a study conducted by Child Online Protection Action Thailand (COPAT) on the online behavior of the Thai children in 2018. The desk research will seek to summarise the evidence available on online, protection concerns and internet and social media usage in target locations. Findings will inform the participatory action research (PAR), which will be conducted with young people using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methodologies. The gender-sensitive PAR research aims to identify and quantify the specific risks and opportunities that girls and boys of all gender and abilities living in the refugee camps and 1-2 migrant communities in Mae Sot face online. This research will contribute to the evidence base and directly inform phases two and three of the ROAR program, in which young people will design and advocate for solutions, campaigns and policies to prevent abuse and improve their protection. The findings from this research will also provide recommendations for Save the Children, protection leads, CSO partners, migrant and refugee communities and the Thai government to build a strategy to prevent online violence against children.

The research shall propose actions that would help inform the design of co-creation workshops in which children participate as change agents to define and develop solutions to tackle online abuse. Recommendations within the research report should include suggestions for modalities could be used to prevent OSEC, as well as make recommendations for behavioral change models VS child-led tools and solutions and resilience building which place a priority on the essence of child participation: children are promoted to be engaged, test and refine their solutions and campaigns along the life of the project.

The overall objectives of this research include:

• To identify and quantify general threats (problems and risks) online to determine issues that targeted groups of children and young people are facing;
• To understand the distribution of online safety risks according to age, gender, socioeconomic groups, geographical locations and other relevant factors
• To understand existing means of risk mitigation and protection, in order to inform actionable recommendations for Save the Children’s programming, and that of its partners
• To establish a baseline of digital literacy and knowledge about online safety amongst young people against which project progress can be assessed against
• To generate recommendations/gather lessons to inform phase two, i.e. how young people would like to be supported online and create their own solutions for peer awareness raising on online safety for children
• To empower young people leaders to build their skills to co-conduct Participatory Action Research (PAR) and to produce an increased Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) sensitive evidence base on the types of safety issues children are facing.
• To influence broader policy and practice around child protection in online settings, and encourage uptake of actionable findings into government, SC, and DFAT-funded initiatives.

2.2 Areas for data collection

The research is expected to be carried out in the ROAR project areas. There will be 11 research sites (9 in camps, 2 in migrant communities) in Mae Sot, Pop Phra and Tha Song Yang district and in selected refugee camps.

Due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and in the event that face-to-face research and data collection cannot be done, the research team will be requested to prepare alternative data collection methods with support from Save the Children and implementing partners i.e. remote data collection, interviews and online surveys. The challenges to training children, CSOs and collecting data remotely target areas must be thoroughly considered prior to research commencing. The researcher/consultant is expected to discuss the research methodology with SC and implementing partners and provide an overview of this in their application, as well as a detailed description in the inception report of how these challenges will be addressed.  

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Target research population:

Two young people groups namely Rays of Young peoples (under umbrella of HWF) and KSNG will engage in PAR research. Over 55 young people (20 boys, 30 girls) from 11 “research teams” will be trained as research leads to collect inputs from up to 1,200 children (550 boys, 650 girls) from refugee camps and target districts in Tak.

Children and young people will be trained by the research consultant to lead the participatory action research (PAR). The consultant will conduct the research collaboratively with the young people, with support from selected mentors from their umbrella organisations or other, local civil society organisations. Young people leaders will be 12-17 year old and will receive direct capacity building on data collection, CSG and creating safe spaces for children to share their views to collect data for the study.  Although the research lead will be responsible for methodology development, young people leaders will be consulted throughout the development of the research protocol, their feedback incorporated where possible and relevant, which will be later approved by the project steering committee.

Detailed analysis and risk assessment will ensure this research will be compliant both from an ethical and from a child safeguarding point of view.

4. DELIVERABLES

Expected outcomes of the research:

• Inception report detailing sample and full methodology
• A presentation of the research findings and research validation meeting with relevant stakeholders
• Standalone case studies
• Copies of any data collection instruments formulated
• Cleaned data set (field notes, data set in & Excel, qualitative analysis and other relevant documents should be filed).

• A final report (of no more than 30 pages) that answers the evaluation questions, presents an accurate and rigorous analysis, and should be learning oriented and take a strong gender sensitive approach in the analysis. (Full report in Thai and an executive summary in English)
• Recommendations for the adoption of online safety solutions
• Child friendly version of the results of study

5. RESEARCH TEAM

To be considered, the research team members together must have demonstrated skills, expertise and experience in:

• Masters’ degree in Social sciences, psychology, gender studies or relevant area to the project.
• Proven experience designing and conducting high quality research. Proven ability and track record conducting ethical and inclusive research with vulnerable populations while ensuring rigorous ethics, integrity, and safeguarding
• Experience working directly with children and young people, mentoring and training them to achieve results
• Demonstrated experience in using a rights-based approach to research and evaluation using instruments such Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN CRPD).
• Demonstrate knowledge in online safety and resilience, preferably with experience in conducting online child protection -related research
• Strong analytical skills and ability to clearly synthesise and present findings, draw practical conclusions, make recommendations and to prepare well-written reports in a timely manner;
• Demonstrated experience of disaggregating and analysing data by gender, disability and other aspects of identity such as diverse SOGIE, Indigeneity, Ethnicity, language etc
• Thai or international consultant who has experience working in Thailand with work permit
• Ability to work independently and meet tight deadlines
• Language proficiencies required include: English and Thai; kindly include a clear plan for language proficiencies in the team and/or translators included in the team
• Flexibility to travel (if needed)

There is a high expectation that:

• Members (or a proportion) of the research team have a track record of working together.
• A team leader will be appointed who has the seniority and experience in leading complex research projects, and who has the ability and standing to lead a team toward a common goal.
• The team has the ability to commit to the terms of the project, and have adequate and available skilled resources to dedicate to this research over the period.
• The team has a strong track record of working flexibly to accommodate changes as the project is implemented.
• The members of the research team who contribute to the report will be extremely well practiced in writing clearly and succinctly in the languages required.

Applications for the consultancy should include:

• Expression of interest: stating candidate skill and experience suitable for the consultancy (max 2 page)
• Technical and financial proposal: Outline of research framework and methods, proposed timeframe, work plan and budget (max 4 pages; applications over limit will be automatically excluded).
• CV of proposed individual/s
• Provide at least 2 research samples in Thai or English led by the leading consultant on the assignment

If you are interested in this consultancy, please read the full TOR in details and submit a proposed plan for research design and implementation with detailed schedule and proposed budget (consultant fee and all proposed expenses including translators (if lead candidate is international consultant) by 22 October 2021.

Submissions should be addressed to: THA_Procurement_BKK@savethechildren.org

For the full details of TOR, please follow this linkage;

https://thailand.savethechildren.net/sites/thailand.savethechildren.net/files/library/Final_Thailand%20research%20concept%20note_ROAR.docx