Research Consultant: Technology-Facilitated Violence (TFV) against Children in Humanitarian Contexts

1. General Information

Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH NL) is an international child rights NGO dedicated to preventing and stopping child exploitation while empowering children to make their voices count. Driven by five core principles – Children at the Centre, Safety and Well-being, Intersectionality, Power Awareness, and Sustainability – TdH NL addresses systemic root causes to design scalable, evidence-based protection interventions.

2. Background & Rationale

In active conflict and displacement settings (including Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Bangladesh, and Ukraine), traditional protective environments for children crumble. Simultaneously, displacement, financial desperation, and humanitarian remote delivery mechanisms push children onto digital devices.

This digital dependency exposes children to unprecedented risks: predatory online recruitment, financial or sexual extortion, synthetic child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). High-income settings dominate existing research, leaving frontline actors without actionable evidence suited for crisis zones. This operational research aims to bridge the evidence-to-practice gap to inform localized policy, adapt frontline protection programming, and improve organizational safeguarding.

3. Objectives of the Consultancy

The research will evaluate online risks, protective factors, and systemic safeguarding gaps across targeted humanitarian contexts (Ethiopia, DRC, Uganda, Bangladesh, Ukraine). The specific objectives are:

• Explore how children in humanitarian and displacement contexts navigate digital environments, including their patterns of social media usage, digital self-expression, and levels of digital literacy.
• Map the specific nature and prevalence of online threats faced by children in crises, including exposure to cyberbullying, harassment, and technology-facilitated recruitment, extortion, or exploitation.
• Investigate how children themselves perceive safety and rights in digital spaces, as well as their expectations for protection and accountability from duty-bearers.
• Analyze structural weaknesses, capacity constraints, and missing referral pathways within existing humanitarian frameworks, evaluating how the sector’s own digital aid delivery introduces unaddressed child protection vulnerabilities.
• Situate these digital risks within the broader tech ecosystem by documenting how platform environments impact child safety, providing a foundation for targeted child protection advocacy without directly evaluating proprietary corporate systems.
• Translate research findings into evidence-informed, actionable recommendations designed to help humanitarian actors adapt frontline child protection programming, strengthen safeguarding practices, and inform policy.

4. Consultant Scope of Work & Deliverables

The Lead Research Consultant will directly execute technical design, methodology protocol writing, training oversight, data synthesis, and final report drafting:

• Phase 1: Research Design & Tool Finalization: Draft the study protocol, focus group discussion guides, quantitative survey tools, and ethical review board documentation.
• Phase 2: Enumerator Training & Supervision: Prepare, participate in, and deliver technical facilitation/oversight for field enumerators and partner training workshops prior to data collection launch.
• Phase 3: Analysis Framework & Data Synthesis: Lead qualitative thematic coding (NVivo/Dedoose) and statistical analysis of field datasets across target contexts.
• Phase 4: Final Report Drafting & Revision: Write, edit, and finalize the comprehensive narrative research report incorporating cross-country findings and actionable programming recommendations.

5. Indicative Timeline

Execution is scheduled across Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, with final deliverables due in early 2027.

Phase	Core Consultant Responsibility	Key Milestone
Phase 1: Design & Prep	Protocol writing, methodology adaptation, tool design	Approved study protocol & tool templates
Phase 2: Training & Supervision	Facilitating enumerator training & pilot oversight	Fieldwork launch clearance & trained teams
Phase 3: Data Synthesis	Qualitative coding, statistical survey analysis	Analytical codebook & synthesis matrix
Phase 4: Reporting	Drafting narrative report & integrating review feedback	Final publication-ready report

6. Budget & Financial Guidelines

The total available budget allocated for the Lead Research Consultant is €15,000 to €18,000 EUR (inclusive of VAT). Applicants must provide an itemized financial proposal breaking down daily fees and within the €15,000 – €18,000 range.

Note: Direct in-country operational costs (survey software fees, enumerator field stipends, local focus group venue hires, logistics, transport, local tool translations, and dissemination workshops) are funded and managed separately by TdH NL and should not be billed within the consultant’s proposal.

7. Profile & Submission Requirements

Desired Expertise:

• Advanced postgraduate degree in Social Sciences, International Development, Child Rights, or related fields.
• Extensive track record of conducting participatory, trauma-informed qualitative and quantitative research on child protection and technology-facilitated violence (TFV) in crisis settings.
• Proven capability in qualitative thematic coding (e.g., NVivo) and statistical data analysis disaggregated by age, gender, and displacement status.
• Demonstrated experience preparing and delivering ethics and data collection training for field enumerators.
• Excellent technical writing skills with a history of delivering high-level research reports for international audiences.

Integrity & Safeguarding: The consultant must adhere strictly to TdH NL’s Safeguarding Policies, Code of Conduct, and Ethical Content Policy.

8. How to Apply:

Please submit your application package via email with the subject line “Consultancy Proposal – Lead Research Consultant (TFV)” to Abby Roberts, Technical Expert – SEC, at a.roberts@tdh.nl.

The deadline for submission is 16 September 2026 (inclusive).

Your application must include:

1. CV / Technical Portfolio: Highlighting relevant experience in child protection and TFV research.
2. Technical Proposal: A brief paper outlining your proposed methodological approach, analytical framework, training strategy, ethical standards, and work plan.
3. Financial Proposal: Itemized breakdown of daily fees and workshop participation up to a maximum of €18,000 (incl. VAT).

Our Commitment to Diversity, Integrity and Child Safeguarding 

We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas and challenge our thinking. We are especially interested in people whose lived experiences help us to see things we might otherwise miss, and enable us to do better work with and for children. Whether or not you meet 100% of the criteria, we want to hear from you, because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. 

TdH NL is committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation. We continue to learn about intersectional considerations and power distribution within our organisation and our work. We are dedicated to preventing and eradicating any type of misconduct including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, any other type of misuse of power, lack of integrity or financial misconduct. 

Note: We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us, this includes a commitment to diversity and inclusion at all levels of our work. All offers of employment will therefore be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which include a valid criminal record check, terrorism finance checks, and/or integrity screenings/references relating to misconduct and disciplinary actions in prior employment. 

TdH NL is particularly committed to keeping children and vulnerable individuals safe, and has zero tolerance on (child) abuse. Every TdH NL employee is bound by the TdH NL Code of Conduct that describes the expected behaviour by staff, in particular with regards to Safeguarding children and (young) adults in our programmes. Child safeguarding measures are part of our selection and recruitment process. By submitting your application you accept that TdH NL will conduct such pre-employment screening for successful candidates. TdH NL participates in the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.