ToR for Consultancy Feasibility Study on Horn of Africa civil society capacity building

ToR for Consultancy Feasibility Study on Horn of Africa civil society capacity building

Background

The Horn of Africa and Yemen region have been marked by severe conflict and general instability for the last two decades. Naturally, this state of conflict has resulted in massive displacement of refugees and wide scale poverty. In recent years, environmental factors have exacerbated an already dire and unstable situation. As a consequence, the Horn of Africa and Yemen region contain some of the largest refugee camps in the world with each of the respective countries in the region serving as origin, transit and destination stations as refugees struggle to survive. The Danish Refugee Council along with countless other national and international NGOs have been attempting over the years to mitigate the above mentioned issues in seeking to assist these vulnerable communities.

Despite the confluence of national and international NGOs in this region dedicated to addressing the problems associated with displacement, there remain large gaps in the capacity of these groups to come up with durable solutions to the displacement crisis. One of those gaps is the lack of engagement of host communities and local grassroots civil society groups. Furthermore, the local civil society groups that do exist are often hampered by a lack of training, funds and a legal or national policy framework. To that end the Danish Refugee council seeks to conduct a feasibility study of these groups to ascertain which ones would benefit the most from capacity building to the extent that they can be more effective in addressing the problems associated with the displacement crisis. The Horn of Africa and Yemen Civil Society Capacity building program feasibility study will be based on a previous study of previous capacity building of civil society groups within the Great Lakes region. Having participated in that particular project, the consultant will provide valuable insight into opportunities and obstacles going forward.

Purpose

The purpose of the feasibility study on the Horn of Africa and Yemen Civil Society capacity building program is to explore to what extent the Danish Refugee council in conjunction with the consultant can identify and assist, through capacity building and training, grassroots NGOs in Somaliland, Puntland, South-Central Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen and Djibouti that address the issue of displacement and the welfare of refugees from armed conflict- although key issues and themes of work will be selected during the stakeholders workshop. To that end, the consultant will convene a workshop to explore the most pertinent avenues and obstacles to consider when dealing with civil society groups in the respective countries. More specifically, the consultant will conduct a desk review of the Great Lakes Region Civil Society Capacity Building Program, a project in which he has previously worked on with the DRC and one which the Regional Advisor hopes to replicate in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. The consultant’s experience in this area will be very useful to the feasibility study on the Horn of Africa and Yemen civil society capacity building potential, while still keeping in mind that the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa contain distinctive dynamic on the ground that is unique to each region. However, the successes and shortfalls of the Great Lakes program can still prove useful to this particular project going forward.

Key Responsibilities

 Facilitate a 2 days stakeholder’s workshop (work with the regional advisor and Intern on the design and content of the stakeholder’s workshop). Contribute to the design and content of the  workshop thus ensuring that the workshop is well utilized in terms of the discussions on the normative issues but also concrete actions, suggestions and recommendations. (2 days)

 Draft an extensive workshop report and well elaborated proposal. A substantive technical input and taking part in the finalization of the proposal. The content of the proposed concept note will have to reflect the outcome of the workshop and identifications of core areas of focus for the proposed programme.  (4 Days)

Key Deliverables

The Expectations from the Consultant:  Facilitate a 2 day workshop with all the stakeholders.

 An extensive workshop Report and elaborate proposal.

Reporting Arrangements

The Consultant will report to the Regional Advisor.

DRC’s Responsibilities:

DRC staff will provide necessary support to the consultant.

DRC will provide the following:

 Transport to and from the field, where applicable

 All necessary project related documents as requested by the Consultant

 Accommodation for consultant (if applicable)

 Pay consultancy fees at a mutually agreed rate 

The terms and conditions of service will follow DRC terms of consultancies. Payment will be done according to the financial procedures of DRC.

Conditions

Availability: November 2012

Duration: 6 days

Qualifications

 Advanced degree in international relations, human rights or refugee studies

 Good knowledge of refugee and displacement issues in the Horn of Africa and Yemen

 Excellent facilitator with extensive experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops.

 Very good proposal writing skills and must be able to write well elaborated proposal and report based on core consensus and agreement from the stakeholder workshop.

Languages:

Excellent reading and written English. For general information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult www.drc.dk.

General

Commitments: DRC has a Humanitarian Accountability Framework, outlining its global accountability committments. All staff are required to contribute to the achievement of this framework

(http://www.drc.dk/HAF.4265.0.html)

Application and CV

Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to submit

Expressions of interest (EoI) to: drcjobs@drchoa.org no later than 7 November, 2012. Please indicate

“Workshop Facilitator” as the subject heading.

The EoI should include: 1) CV (s) with details of qualifications, experience, telephone number and names of three referees, 2 proposal that summarizes your understanding of the TOR, the proposed workshop approach and tools to be used, 3) financial proposal providing cost estimates of daily consultancy fees and 4) the foreseen work plan for the days. Daily consulting rate is negotiable, although will be commensurate to DRC consultancy terms and standards.