Position Title: Technical advisor – State of Local Democracy Assessment
Form of Employment: Consultancy short term
Starting Date: January 2019
Duration: January 2019- February 2020
Location: Home based with missions to Tunisia
Background:
Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organization registered in Berlin. DRI promotes political participation of citizens, accountability of state bodies and the development of democratic institutions world-wide.
DRI has supported the constitution-making process and implementation of the constitution in Tunisia since 2011 by working with the constitution-making and legislative assemblies, executive, judiciary, civil society and the legal community. DRI’s current projects aim at supporting the implementation of the constitution.
One of the components of a new DRI project funded by German Federal Foreign Office includes Local Democracy Assessment.
The project comes as a continuation of DRI’s involvement in the decentralisaton and local governance reforms and will kick off several months after first free local elections, which took place in May 2018. The Local Democracy Assessments (LDAs) will be conducted in two selected municipalities and as a follow up will launch local democracy initiatives to respond to the assessment short-term recommendations. The assessments will allow stakeholders to jointly take stock of the state of local democracy at a critical juncture where Tunisia will embark on a complex process of introducing decentralisation reforms; as important as the results, the process itself will allow representatives of various groups to engage in a well-planned, long-term project, thereby fostering the cohesion of the communities and a culture of collaborative work far beyond the limits of the actual assessments.
The approach and methodology DRI will use for the LDAs will be based on International IDEA’s State of Local Democracy Assessment Framework (SoLD), which has been implemented in numerous countries across the MENA region.
During the project implementation DRI will help in forming and will provide continuous assistance to Core Assessment Teams (CAT) (one in each targeted municipality) composed of representatives of various stakeholders in the particular municipalities. The CATs will be responsible directly for preparations, implementation of the assessment and then for drafting and dissemination of the assessment reports. DRI will then closely engage with and coordinate the LDA with the Advisory Teams, which will bring together municipality leaders providing overall advisory and facilitating implementation of the LDA.
The Technical Advisor will work under the administrative supervision of the Tunisia Office Director and programmatic direct supervision the North Africa Regional Representative/senior programme advisor in close cooperation with the Civil Society Expert responsible for implementation of the LDA component.
Your duties and responsibilities:
Under the programmatic supervision of a NA Regional representatives/senior programme advisor the Technical Advisor will provide well-designed and targeted support to particular phases of the LDA. In particular, she/he will be responsible for the following:
Overall tasks:
- Providing technical advice in the design, planning and implementation of the SoLD in Tunisia and achieving its outputs;
- Remote on-the-job support to the DRI staff and national consultants responsible for the project;
- Contribute to the preparations of substantive documents and knowledge products as per the needs;
- Research and analysis as per the requests;
- Review and provide feedback regarding the project outputs/knowledge products as requested;
- Planning, facilitating and providing substantive inputs to the meetings, working sessions, briefings and trainings;
Particular tasks may include:
- Providing support in desk review of the relevant materials and methodologies in order to fine tune the International IDEA SoLD methodology for the proposes of the DRI project;
- Supporting preparation of the detailed work plan and other implementation documents for the project;
- Facilitating and providing substantive inputs to an induction training and planning sessions in Tunis with the DRI Team of staff and consultants responsible for implementation of the SoLD project;
- Providing substantive inputs to the two separate induction training sessions for two Core Assessment Teams representing each of the selected municipalities;
- Contributing to the two introductory presentations on the SoLD addressed to each of the Advisory Teams representing both municipalities;
- Review and inputs to the design of the research questions and methodology as well as the draft assessment reports;
- Online remote advisory support to the DRI team of staff and consultants during various phases of the project regarding the substantive and process issues;
- Performing other tasks related to the position, as required.
The assignment will require around three short missions to Tunis and work from home-base.
All the documents will be prepared in Arabic or in French. Arabic or French will also be the languages used for the presentations, trainings, consultations etc.
Deliverables:
(particular deliverables to be produced in Arabic, French or English based on the subsequent consultations with DRI):
- Phase I: preparatory work and first mission to Tunis – Induction training and planning working sessions for the DRI team/desk research: training/planning session programme; training curriculum; detailed project implementation note including, among others, initial context analysis, approach, brief stakeholders analysis, description of project phases, time bound workplan and action plan for implementation of the project, prepared based on the consultations with DRI team and other stakeholders; ToRs for the CATs and the ATs; other written at hoc outputs; report covering the activities delivered by the consultant during the Phase I of the assignment;
- Phase II: second mission to Tunis – induction trainings and planning meetings with the Core Assessment Teams and introductory presentations for the Advisory Teams: programme and content of the trainings and presentations including handouts; document describing in a user friendly way details of the process, role of the CATs as well as roles of particular CATs’ members (based on the overall CAT ToR and participatory consultations carried out during the planning meeting with the CATs’ members); the project implementation note fine-tuned based on the consultations with the CATs’ and ATs’ members; other written at hoc outputs; report covering the activities delivered by the consultant during the Phase II of the assignment;
- Phase III: support to fine-tuning of the methodology and assessment questions and inputs into analysis of the draft reports (one mission to Tunisia and home based work) reports on inputs provided to the design of the methodology and assessment questions as well as comments on the draft reports and analysis of the assessment findings; other written at hoc outputs; report covering the activities delivered by the consultant during the Phase III of the assignment;
The expert will be directly involved in designing, coordinating and facilitating the workshops and meetings. She/he will work in close collaboration with DRI Tunisia’s dedicated team members. She/he will take responsibility for the learning process during the workshop including undertaking quality assurance and conducting monitoring and evaluation exercises (e.g. pre and post tests).
All the deliverables will be approved by DRI.
Qualifications we require:
- University degree;
- Minimum of seven years of relevant international experience working on civic engagement, citizens participation, decentralisation, democratisation or governance;
- Proven experience on design and implementation of all the phases assessments on state of local democracy democracy, governance and participation issues or similar topics;
- Particular experience in SoLDA methodology will be a strong asset;
- Previous experience of working on governance issues in Tunisia or in the MENA region would be an asset;
- Experience working with senior representatives of authorities as well as with civil society;
- Demonstrated experience in drafting assessment reports development of concept and strategy documents;
- Proven experience in conceptualizing and planning of the processes and activities;
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
- Excellent written and oral command of the Arabic and French (or English in lieu of French) languages;
Duration of the assignment:
The consultant will be contracted for the period from January 2019 till February 2020 with the total maximum number of 30 days. The working days will include home-based work and mission days in Tunisia.
DRI values diversity and aims to be an equal opportunities employer. Women are encouraged to apply!
If you are interested in this position, please send your application (CV and cover letter) to [email protected]. Please include “Technical advisor – State of Local Democracy Assessment” in the subject line and refer to the source you have found this opportunity.
Closing date for applications: 28 November 2018. The position may be filled before the end of the deadline so early applications are encouraged.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. If you are one of those shortlisted, we will contact you within one week after expiration of the deadline at the latest.
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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