Call for Application - Social Cohesion Guideline Review Consultant at Search for Common Ground

Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict—away from destructive approaches towards cooperative solutions. With more than 600 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries across the globe.

Applications are invited for:

Title: Call for Application - Social Cohesion Guideline Review Consultant

About the RESILAC Project
The overall objective of the RESILAC project is to contribute to the economic recovery and to the strengthening of the resilience and the social cohesion of the territories of the Lake Chad basin most impacted by the Lake Chad crisis and the climate change. The specific objectives of the project are:

• Strengthening human capital, social cohesion and collective and sustainable management of natural resources in targeted territories;
• Promoting economic recovery in targeted areas and the resilience of the most vulnerable populations, especially young people and women, through access to employment and agro-sylvo-pastoral production systems intensified and adapted to climate change;
• Valuing and consolidating the actors of the targeted territories by encouraging dialogue and commitment, and reinforcing their capacities according to the skills and roles of each one; and
• Producing useful knowledge for the quality of project activities in a crisis context and for decision-making by local actors.

Purpose of the Consultancy
Search is working with community and government stakeholders towards building community resilience to conflict, building social cohesion and management of natural resources. This is being achieved through community structures supported by the project to utilize community led initiative towards addressing issues militating against access and utilization of resources and delivery of a full range of project activities.

Search for Common Ground at the onset of the project May to September 2019 designed a social cohesion guideline to serve as a tool for local or international NGOs, civil society groups, or local peace champions and community leaders wishing to implement activities targeted at building social cohesion in their community. The document includes foundational information on social cohesion and step-by-step guidance for designing, planning, implementation, and reflection processes. Various planning tools and discussion outlines are also included through the document, as well as example activity outlines. During the implementation of Activities from September 2019 to date, it was discovered that there is need for review of the guidelines to include other activities and as well to translate to local language in an easy to read format.

Search for Common Ground is seeking to hire a consultant that will lead the process of community engagement, reviewing the guidelines, translating and converting into an easy to read and understand format by the community. The consultant will revise the guideline to include a pictorial representation of the content. He/She will be responsible for designing, translating and adapting the tools to suit the context. More specifically, the Consultant will have the following roles and responsibilities:

• Deliverables:
  • Conduct a desk review of the already existing Social cohesion guidelines thoroughly while keeping in mind the context and culture of the benefiting communities.
  • Coordinate community consultation in an effort to understand the social cohesion activities that are viable and strengthen social fabrics.
  • Summarize and transform the social cohesion guidelines into an easy to read format to include pictorial representation of the activities set out.
  • Lead the translation of the transformed guideline into local languages using any available resources. Lead the validation process of the reviewed guidelines with community members in close coordination with Search for Common Ground.
  • Ensure that guidelines are in the correct format for printing.
• Reporting Line:
  • The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of RESILAC Project Manager.

Application Requirements
Required Profile:

• Education: A Degree or Postgraduate in Management, Development studies, Arts and Culture, Communications or other relevant fields.

Experience:

• The Consultant must be familiar with the context of the region and experienced in community engagement, planning and execution of programs in Peacebuilding and Humanitarian sectors.
• Experience on Social cohesion Activities, development and review of similar guidelines

Other Relevant Requirements:

• The consultant must be familiar with the context of Northeast Nigeria with focus on conflict dynamics of the Lake Chad region.
• Must be resident in Maiduguri.
• Excellent facilitation skills and high capacity to plan at short notice.
• Excellent written communication and report writing skills in English
• Basic computer skills is in MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel among other skills
• Fluency in Hausa and/or Kanuri and knowledge of other languages indigenous to Northeastern Nigeria will be an added advantage.
• Motivation and self-discipline to work without supervision.

The consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

Submission of Documents
interested candidates should Click Here to fill and submit application form.

Submitted offers will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and selection made according to the following criteria:

• Financial offer will be awarded based on the lowest cost basis but with following criteria:
  • Cost proposal submitted cites specific rates by each major items
  • Relevance and consistency with technical proposal.
• Excellent experience with both the content/subject-matter area of what she or he will be training
• Consultant's availability and ability to conduct the training on time.

N/B: As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.