Consultant: Institutional Learning - Conflict Analysis at Search For Common Ground’s International

Locations: Abuja, Borno, Delta, Adamawa, Jos
Consultancy: Institutional Learning - Conflict Analysis
Duration: January - March 2019

Position Summary

• Search for Common Ground seeks experienced and highly motivated individuals to serve as Conflict Analysis Consultant to support state level implementation of project on increasing the participation by marginalized groups in Nigerian political processes. The consultant would lead the production of the monthly conflict analysis in the two regions; provide ongoing conflict analysis and monitoring of the elections in each of the target states, as well as national issues that could impact the target states.
• They will work closely with the Project Coordinators, Project Officer; managers and coordinators of other Search projects in the project states in gathering sufficient information for monthly and real time conflict analysis on the dynamics of election and the risk or actual incidences of violence before and after the elections.
• S/He shall be supervised by the project’s Senior Program Manager and work in close coordination with other members of the project team and other projects of Search in the states. 
• The position will be based in Maiduguri or Yola for the North East (one person) and Jos or Makurdi for North central zone (other person).

About the Project

• To respond to the challenges of the 2015 election and promote sustainable long-term CSO engagement in electoral and political processes, the Electoral Empowerment of Civil Society Project (EECSP) Consortium is implementing a five-year initiative to:
  • Improve impartial observation, accurate reporting on, and recording of election vote totals using domestic electoral observers during and after the 2015 election cycle;
  • Improve management within Nigerian partner CSOs; and
  • Increase participation by marginalized groups in Nigerian political processes. The Consortium includes the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as the lead partner, World Learning (WL), the Center for Democratic Development – Ghana (CDD-Ghana) Search for Common Ground (SFCG). In the one-year extension of the project (Year 6) Search’s intervention will also contribute to Objective 3: Increased Participation by Marginalized Groups in Nigerian Political Processes and special focus on Violence Mitigation for 2019 Polls in the Middle Belt (Plateau and Benue) and the Northeast (Borno and Adamawa) regions and Bayelsa and Kogi states in their off-season election later in 2019.
• The activities of this project would be implemented in two phases. The first phase would focus on the federal and state level elections in Plateau and Benue states in the North Central, and Borno and Adamawa states in the North East, with intensive activities between January and March 2019, with selected activities continuing in the post-election period.
• The second phase of proposed activities will be for gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states from September to December 2019.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Develop indicators for monitoring violence before and after the elections. The indicators will be reviewed and approved by the team.
• Gather early warning information on election violence in the project states, utilizing credible,  open sources including media reports, information from security, government and community sources and information from existing early warning systems of Search in the states
• Analyze the information gathered using different analytical tools and produce two monthly reports and other special reports of potential and incident of political violence in a prompt manner
• Share regular update of changing dynamic and risk of violence with the project coordinator and manager.
• Participate in Search’s Community Response Network (CRN) and Community Security Architecture Dialogue (CSAD) and Peace and Architecture Dialogue (PAD) and work with the project coordinator to share early warning information with the members.
• Support the project coordinator in engaging stakeholders to get response to the early warning report and mitigating violence.
• Contribute relevant context specific information to the development of peace messages for the project.
• Contribute to media and social media monitoring and support the project officer in fine-tuning to output of the monitoring.

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 duties.

Educational Qualifications

• Master's degree in Conflict and Peace-building Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, Political Science or related fields; PhD degree will be an added advantage.

Required Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience carrying out conflict analysis, research, or election related assignment
• Demonstrated skills of using different conflict analysis frameworks and excellent analytical and writing skills
• Experience working on election violence prevention will be a strong added advantage.
• Understanding of political and social conflict contexts of elections in project states and Nigeria and experience working in the region.
• Ability to prioritize, plan and organize workflow to tight timelines; handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision and produce excellent outputs
• Excellent working knowledge in English and Hausa language
• Knowledge of other local languages spoken in the project states will be an advantage.
• Knowledge using qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis tools;
• Knowledge of early warning systems;
• A demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards and a diverse workplace;

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Attention to detail:  The ability to process detailed information effectively and consistently
• Collaboration: The ability to work effectively with others in order to achieve a shared goal - even when the object at stake is of no direct personal interest possibilities.
• Learning Ability: The ability to absorb new information readily and to put it into practice effectively
• Adaptability: The ability to remain fully functional by adapting to changing circumstances (environment, procedures and people).