Consultant – Youth-led Research Specialist

Founded over 20 years ago, Theirworld has grown to become a leading global children’s charity committed to the best start in life for children and young people by ending the education crisis and unleashing the potential of the next generation. Theirworld’s Global Youth Ambassador (GYA) programme has a network of more than 2000 young people from over 140 countries around the world. GYAs are supported to advocate for education, taking their experiences and knowledge of their own communities and bringing it to powerholders, making the case to unlock big change everywhere.

Project Background

Threats to peace and security continue to disproportionately affect children and young people worldwide, with conflict, displacement, violence, and instability severely disrupting access to education. Education is not only a fundamental right, but also a powerful tool for peacebuilding, prevention, recovery, and sustainable reconstruction.

The Peace, Security and Education Task Team brings together young leaders from the GYA network who are already using or seeking to use learning and education as pathways to peacebuilding in their communities. Theirworld’s Task Team model is designed to:

• Build the leadership capacity of young people with lived experience of peace and security challenges
• Support and advance youth-led peacebuilding initiatives that use education and learning
• Generate youth-led evidence and recommendations through a global consultation process
• Elevate youth voices in peace and security discourse and policymaking at national, regional, and global levels

The Youth Consultation

A core component of the Task Team’s work is a two-stage global youth consultation embedded within the wider project design. The consultation aims to generate evidence grounded in young people’s lived experiences of peace, security, and education; identify youth-led actions contributing to peace and stability; strengthen young people’s role as legitimate contributors to peace and security discussions; and produce youth-informed inputs for a flagship global report.

The consultation will reach young people aged 18–30 globally. Stage One of the process uses a global qualitative survey to map youth perspectives, experiences, and existing practices, prioritising broad participation. Stage Two will build on these findings through focus group discussions led by Task Team members in their communities, validating insights and exploring what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to change. The consultation approach is youth-led with young people actively involved in designing questions, facilitating discussions, analysing findings, and shaping recommendations.

Scope of Work

Working alongside the Theirworld Youth Team, the consultant will provide technical leadership and support for the design and implementation of the youth consultation led by the Peace, Security and Education Task Team. The consultant will play a facilitative role, ensuring that the process remains youth-led, well-structured, and aligned with project objectives, while maintaining coherence, adhering to Theirworld’s safeguarding policy and upholding quality throughout.

The consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Creating a clear delivery framework for the youth-led consultation on young peoples’ role in peacebuilding efforts and how they’re impacted by peace and security instability, ensuring alignment with the overall project objectives and timelines
• Lead in the design of the two-stage consultation approach, ensuring clarity of purpose, logical sequencing, and feasibility
• Design consultation tools, including qualitative surveys (using existing Theirworld tools, such as Salesforce) and focus group discussion guides, in collaboration with the Youth Team (staff) and Task Team members (Global Youth Ambassadors)
• Develop a simple and robust data analysis system, organising data collected across the different consultation stages and input gathering tools
• Lead on the design and delivery of sessions (regular virtual meetings and one in-person workshop) for Task Team members to analyse and interpret survey questions and findings.
• Provide technical support to the Youth Team and Task Team members on the implementation of the peace and security-themed consultation
• Support initial thematic analysis of Stage One consultation data, working collaboratively with the Youth Team and Task Team
• Design focus group guidelines and provide capacity building to Task Team members to lead focus groups independently in Stage Two
• Design and deliver structured reflection and sense-making sessions with the Task Team to support youth-led analysis and validation of emerging findings from Stage One, including in-person and virtual delivery methods.

Throughout the consultancy, the consultant will ensure that youth leadership is enabled and visible, and that young people are meaningfully involved in shaping questions, interpreting findings, and building their capacity to lead consultation activities.

Key Deliverables and Timeline

Phase One – Design and Preparation

February – April

• Finalise the consultation delivery framework in collaboration with the Youth Team
• Design consultation tools, including:

• Global qualitative survey
• Alongside the Youth Team, establish data collection and tracking systems to support analysis
• Design and deliver at least two virtual capacity-building sessions to help Task Team members understand and engage with the survey questions.

Phase Two – Stage One Consultation and Initial Analysis

April – June

• Provide technical oversight and support during the rollout of Stage One of the consultations.
• Monitor consultation inputs in order to prepare for analysis phase
• Support initial thematic analysis of Stage One findings in collaboration with the Youth Team and Task Team
• Facilitate at least two sense-making sessions with Task Team members to identify key themes and priorities
• Develop focus group guidelines and facilitate at least two training sessions to build Task Team capacity to lead focus groups in Stage Two
• Support preparation for Task Team-led focus groups, including:

• Co-creating facilitation guides
• Providing coaching and guidance on facilitation techniques
• Establishing safeguarding and quality standards

Phase Three – Stage Two Support and Reporting

July – October

• Provide technical guidance on documenting and analysing Stage Two focus group findings.
• Lead on drafting the focus group report, ensuring youth voices and perspectives are accurately reflected.
• Plan and deliver a three-day in-person training to validate Stage Two findings with Task Team members.

Reporting and Communication

The consultant will report to the Youth team at Theirworld and provide regular updates on progress, challenges, and any support needed.

Essential Qualifications and Experience

• Demonstrated expertise in youth participation and youth-led research approaches, ideally with the Peace and Security field
• Strong background in participatory research methods and qualitative research design
• Proven experience in leading similar consultation or research projects with young people
• Experience designing and delivering capacity-building or training for young researchers/facilitators
• Strong facilitation skills, particularly in supporting youth-led processes
• Background or experience working on peace and conflict issues
• Experience translating research findings into policy-relevant outputs. Co-creation experience a plus
• Familiarity with education in emergencies or education and peacebuilding contexts
• Experience working with young people with lived experience of displacement, fragility or instability a plus

Application Process

Interested parties should submit a CV of the principal person and a one-page supporting letter detailing previous experience with youth-led consultations, participatory research methodologies, and how they meet the consultant specification outlined above. Please also include the consultant day rate (in GBP, USD, or EUR). Applications are due by 16th February 5 pm GMT and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.