Consulting & Expertise Services — Réseau EnfanceAfrique.org
Our extensive fieldwork in Africa and beyond has enabled us to develop rich, multidisciplinary experience centered on the social issues most decisive for the future of our communities — child protection, social cohesion, community conflict resolution, and food security. This expertise is made available to NGOs, institutions, UN agencies, universities and development organizations wishing to act more effectively for the children, families and communities of West Africa.
The Réseau EnfanceAfrique.org operates at the intersection of academic research and field action. Its approach combines ethnographic rigour, cultural sensitivity, and operational mastery of child protection, community mediation, and local development programmes. Its services are available to any organization working on childhood, family, social cohesion, community conflict management, food security, or community development in Mali and West Africa.
🔬 Studies & Research
Rigorous knowledge production and in-depth fieldwork to document local realities and guide our partners' actions. Our research relies on a proven ethnographic methodology — semi-structured interviews, participant observation, multi-sited studies — combined with a nuanced reading of the social, cultural and economic dynamics specific to each territory.
Our work covers in particular :
▸ Children's vulnerability trajectories, fostering practices and their contemporary shifts
▸ Community, land and intercommunity conflict dynamics, and their traditional resolution mechanisms
▸ Reintegration processes for populations displaced by security crises
▸ Food and nutritional security issues in contexts of community vulnerability
▸ The interplay between positive law and customary regulations in protecting the most exposed populations
Each study is designed to produce directly usable results: field diagnostics, social mapping, operational recommendations, and advocacy briefs tailored to each partner's specific needs.
🎓 Training & Capacity Building
Developing the skills of field actors and structuring professional practices to ensure sustainable and self-sufficient child protection, community mediation and local development. Our training relies on a proven participatory pedagogy — real case studies, role-playing scenarios, direct transfer of field methodologies — designed to strengthen immediately applicable skills, rather than mere theoretical knowledge.
Our modules cover in particular:
▸ Child protection, fostering, and identification of vulnerability situations
▸ Community mediation techniques and land or intercommunity conflict resolution
▸ The practical interplay between positive law and customary regulations for field agents
▸ Project cycle management, monitoring and evaluation, and impact analysis of development programmes
▸ Institutional communication, advocacy, and community outreach in national languages
Each training programme is tailor-made to the partner organization's needs: short workshops, ongoing training cycles, or individualized support for social action professionals and Traditional Authorities mobilized in the field.
💡 Advisory & Expertise
Supporting institutions and partner organizations in defining, evaluating and optimizing their child protection, social cohesion and community development strategies. Our advisory work draws on a dual perspective — scientific and operational — enabling the precise identification of a programme's blind spots and the proposal of adjustments that are genuinely applicable in the field, rather than mere generic recommendations.
Our advisory missions cover in particular :
▸ Audit and impact evaluation of existing child protection or social cohesion programmes
▸ Design of intervention strategies adapted to local cultural and community dynamics
▸ Support in structuring mediation mechanisms with Traditional Authorities
▸ Advisory support on governance and institutional positioning for local and international organizations
▸ Strategic support for donors in identifying credible local partners and priority intervention areas
Each advisory mission is accompanied by a structured report and prioritized recommendations, designed to be presented directly to the partner organization's decision-making bodies.
🔬 Studies, Research & Field Diagnostics
Our research unit relies on a rigorous scientific approach and an intimate understanding of local contexts to produce reliable and actionable data, whether related to child protection, social cohesion or food security. Our work aims to inform strategic decisions and adapt field responses to the diversity of community realities.
Our Main Areas of Action :
* Qualitative ethnographic fieldwork — participant observation, in-depth interviews, life stories, focus groups
* Baseline and endline studies for child protection, social cohesion or community development projects
* Contextual socio-anthropological analyses — stakeholder mapping, community dynamics, social norms, and customary regulation mechanisms
* Research on fostering, children's mobility, African family systems, and breakdowns in intercommunity cohesion
* Territorial diagnostics on food security and nutritional vulnerability issues in community contexts
* Thematic literature reviews on child protection, traditional mediation, and development in West Africa
🎓 Training, Workshops & Skills Transfer
Because the impact of our actions depends on the qualification of practitioners, we design tailor-made training programmes to professionalize, structure and sustain the practices of actors working in child protection, community mediation and food security across West Africa.
Our capacity-building offer:
* Certified training pathways: Learning modules adapted to the legal, psychosocial and community realities of West Africa.
* Field support & coaching: Post-training follow-up and team supervision to ensure the assimilation and proper application of what has been learned, including within community mediation mechanisms.
* Design of educational tools and curricula: Methodological guides, training manuals, technical briefs and programmes adapted to the Malian and West African contexts.
* Training in child protection and children's rights — for social workers, health workers and educators.
* Training in community mediation and legal pluralism — for practitioners, institutions and partner organizations.
* Awareness-raising and training for Traditional Authorities and Legitimacies on children's rights and social cohesion issues.
💡 Strategic Support, Technical Advisory & Advocacy
We put our cutting-edge technical expertise at the service of governments, international institutions, NGOs and donors to optimize the governance of child protection, social cohesion and food security systems.
Our support services:
* Support for public policy and programme development: Technical assistance and legal advice for drafting legislation, decrees, national strategies, and child protection, mediation or food security programmes.
* External programme evaluation: Independent audit and impact measurement of your development aid projects to optimize resource allocation.
* Partnership facilitation & Advocacy: Facilitation of multi-stakeholder consultation frameworks to harmonize practices and positively influence decision-makers.
* Policy briefs and analytical reports on child protection, social cohesion and food security.
* Reference expert for institutional and donor reports (UNICEF, EU, USAID, AFD).
* Support for local authorities in planning child- and family-focused social and community services.
💰 Pricing, Quotes & Modalities of Intervention
Because each mission is unique, our collaboration terms and fees are adapted to the scale of the project, the type of partner (NGO, public institution, donor), the complexity of the field context, and the nature of the intervention — child protection, community mediation, food security, or institutional support.
Our pricing principles:
* Consulting & Expertise (Daily rate): Fees calculated on a daily basis, aligned with standard national and international expertise rates in West Africa.
* Fixed-fee projects (Studies, Diagnostics, Mediation): Development of an overall budget following analysis of your Terms of Reference (ToR), covering preparation, field data collection or the mediation process, analysis, and report writing.
* Training & Workshops: Pricing on quote based on the number of participants, the duration of the module, and whether tailor-made educational tools need to be designed.
Intervention & Deployment Modalities:
* Contracting process: Joint needs analysis ➔ Submission of a technical and financial proposal ➔ Signing of a service contract or memorandum of understanding.
* Mission expenses: For field travel outside our base, travel costs, accommodation and daily allowances (per diem) are calculated according to our rates or the partner's rates, including for areas with complex security conditions.
* Preferential rates for local Malian NGOs, low-resource community structures, and initiatives led by Traditional Authorities and Legitimacies.
For any quote request or further information, please contact the Réseau EnfanceAfrique at this email address: contact@enfanceafrique.org
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