Position: Consultant for Baseline Assessment
Form of Employment: Short-term consultancy
Starting Date: As soon as possible / as assigned
Duration: 15 days
Location: Sri Lanka / home-based with possible field visits
Background
Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organisation registered in Berlin. DRI promotes the political participation of citizens, accountability of state bodies and the development of democratic institutions worldwide.
DRI is operating in Sri Lanka since 2016 and has implemented various democratic strengthening projects with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office, the European Union, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). DRI has worked in Sri Lanka on the thematic areas of human rights, justice: constitutions and the rule of law, and democratic discourse with a focus on strengthening civil society in their work towards democratic reforms.
DRI is currently expanding its work in Sri Lanka to include electoral reforms. The 2019 presidential as well as the 2020 parliamentary and provincial council elections are defining moments regarding Sri Lanka’s democratic development. With funding from the German Federal Foreign Office DRI is implementing the project “Preventing electoral violence in Sri Lanka by advancing core electoral reform issues and strengthening the integrity of the public discourse”, which aims at supporting Sri Lanka’s institutions in delivering major election-related reform priorities to prevent violence erupting during the electoral periods and thus threaten Sri Lanka’s democratic development. The project will render the following two results: 1) Increased integrity of the elections through improved electoral frameworks and 2) Strengthened public awareness and multi-stakeholder response to disinformation and hate speech through social media to improve online democratic discourse and the integrity of the elections.
The project aims to among other things analyse, publish and critically discuss data on misinformation and hate speech and build momentum among key stakeholders on how to address challenges posed by social media.
Objectives of the Assessment:
DRI intends to conduct awareness-raising workshops for civil society and grassroots actors across the Island on misinformation, hate speech and social media bias with the aim to equip civil society and grassroots actors with critical skills for improved (social) media literacy, enabling them to detect political hate speech and misinformation and identify them as obstacles to social cohesion and peace in Sri Lanka. DRI will draw on the findings of its own social media analysis and other studies as a basis of the workshop contents. This will include women’s and youth groups, students, communities at risk of instigating violence in the vicinity of political/social/religious influencers, among others identified through a baseline assessment.
The intended assessment is aimed at identifying districts for social media literacy workshops to which DRI intends to obtain the services of a consultant to conduct a baseline assessment based on an analysis of which geographical areas are prone to inter-communal violence taking into account conflict markers such as ethnicity, religion, gender, past exposure to/instigation of inter-communal violence. In particular, the baseline assessment will carefully select the target group participants in view of their potential to act as agents of change rather than contributing to more potential hate, disinformation and violence, which will put Sri Lanka’s democratic trajectory at risk.
Overall the baseline assessment aims at
- Identifying districts which are prone to violence taking into account specific markers including self-identified ethnicity and gender, religious belonging, roots causes of conflict in the respective areas and past exposure to/instigation of inter-communal violence.
- Select target groups in view of their potential to act as change makers /influencers that can deflect hate speech, disinformation and violence at the community level.
Tasks and Deliverables:
The Consultant will work under the supervision of DRI’s Programme Director in Sri Lanka and take on tasks and assignments as set out below. In general, s/he will:
- Employ both quantitative and qualitative methods for collection of data/information. The consultant/agency is expected to use participatory tools and techniques for data collection, which may include but not be limited to in-depth interview, key informant interview, focus group discussion etc.;
- Conduct comprehensive desk review of all relevant documents i.e. review related literature, news reports, reports and related government policy documents as deemed necessary;
- Conduct interviews with a range of stakeholders including civil society representatives, community leaders, government officials as relevant;
- Submit an outline of the report, obtain prior approval from DRI on data collection tools;
- Submit a draft report for review and the report to include:
- Cover page
- Table of Contents
- Executive summary of key findings and recommendations
- Methodology
- Background information and context analysis
- Research findings, analysis
- Conclusion and recommendations
- References
- Final report incorporating comments from DRI;
- Present report findings (power point presentation) to DRI and partner staff if required.
Qualifications & Experience:
- University degree in law, political science, international development, social sciences, humanities or a relevant discipline;
- More than 5 years of experience conducting project evaluations and/or monitoring and evaluation experience including data collection through interviews, surveys and focus groups discussions;
- An excellent grasp of the Sri Lankan political context, especially regarding political, social, ethnic, religious, and gender fault lines and conflicts in the country;
- Demonstrated understanding, experience and networks working with civil society organizations, preferably including youth and marginalized communities;
- Excellent Sinhala and/or Tamil language skill as well as English (spoken and written);
- Excellent report writing, communication and presentation skills;
- Ability to travel within Sri Lanka;
- Excellent time management skills.
For interested applicants, please send your application to [email protected] with “Consultant: Baseline Assessment (Sri Lanka)” as the subject heading and supporting documents in the following format: SURNAME_FIRSTNAME_CONSULTANT_BASELINEASSESSMENT
The application must include:
- Technical proposal outlining a short methodology for the analysis (maximum 2 pages);
- CV;
- Contact details of two professional references.
Closing date for applications: 23 January 2020. The position may be filled before the end of the deadline so early applications are encouraged. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.
Organisation responsible for this vacancy:
Democracy Reporting International gGmbH
Prinzessinnenstraße 30
10969 Berlin, Germany
Tel +49 30 27877300
Fax +49 30 27877300-10
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