Coaching and Mentorship Consultant for Media Fellowship at Search For Common Ground’s International

Location: Yola, Adamawa

About Project

• To contribute to the mitigation of conflict over natural resources between Farmer and Herder communities in Adamawa state, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Search for Common Ground (Search) and Mercy Corps, with funding from the European Union, are implementing a project titled COMITAS (Contributing to the mitigation of conflict over natural resources between farmer and herder communities in Adamawa State).
• The consortium has designed a comprehensive and integrated approach that builds on the comparative strengths of each organisation. IOM will build on its data collection experiences in northeast Nigeria and globally to implement a transhumance tracking tool to strengthen early warning systems.
• IOM will also build on its extensive policy engagements with the government of Nigeria, most notably with regards to the Disengagement, Disassociation, Reintegration, and Reconciliation programme and action plan.
• Search will build on its extensive work on early warning and response, trust-building through dialogue, and promoting positive perceptions through reliable information and peace messaging.
• Mercy Corps will capitalize on its trusted relationships with local stakeholders across Nigeria’s Middle Belt to continue to empower communities to prevent and respond to violence by strengthening collaboration on natural resource management.
• Search’s Peace Architecture model, a successful model across its programming in Nigeria, Niger, and Mali, establishes interconnected, multi-stakeholder, and community-inclusive dialogue-to-action platforms.
• In Nigeria, these platforms operate at three levels of engagement: the community, local government area, and state levels. Each platform comprises relevant stakeholders within each level of engagement, where they convene to discuss and jointly address peace and security challenges.
• Since the platforms are established at the community, local government, and state levels, they are able to both address and respond to needs within each level, as well as coordinate among and between each other to share information and develop holistic responses to peace and security challenges.
• These platforms are designed to support trust-building, collective action, and mutual accountability among diverse stakeholders for lasting change. Search regularly trains members of these platforms on the Common Ground Approach, conflict mediation, transformative dialogue, and conflict prevention and other capacities.
• These platforms are effective in addressing transhumance-related conflicts, where solutions require the participation of diverse stakeholders.

Objective
Specific Objective 4: Improved Intra and inter-communal perceptions:

• The media plays an important role in shaping public opinion and can therefore be regarded as an influential factor in shaping Intra and inter-communal perceptions. However, reports on the conflict between farmer and herder communities are often subjective and lack the appropriate level of analysis. Furthermore, “fake news” has been on the rise, often fuelling divisive narratives.
• In terms of COVID-19, this may lead to rumours or false accusations about the transmission of the virus. Therefore, this project will aim to improve Intra and inter-communal perception through unbiased reporting and peace messaging, including some basic messages about COVID-19 in case the need arises.
• The film production will serve this overall project objective through the development of a quality and engaging product that will bring unbiased peace messaging and improvement of intra- and inter-communal perceptions to a wider audience across Nigeria while inculcating young media fellow with a drive to utilize the medium of film to foster peace.

Result - 4.1 Improved access to reliable public information:

• Activity 4.1.2 Support youth leaders in promoting peace through social media and film.
• The first component of activity 4.1.2 is a youth fellowship program, engaging youth leaders with a significant presence on social media, training them in transformative leadership, constructive social media presence, and non-violent communication, then providing them with a stipend to develop media that counters divisive narratives.
• To reinforce this fellowship program and to further harness the power of the media to build peace and counter divisive narratives, the fellows will work with a consultant throughout a 9-month fellowship program to sharpen their leadership and media skills and build their capacity as youth media leaders committed to using their voices to reinforce peace in Adamawa and Nigeria.

Methodology

• Search is seeking to contract a coaching consultant to work with 20 youth leaders on a 9-month fellowship that integrates peaceful narratives and diverse voices promoting unity between farmer and herder communities.
• The consultant will provide technical expertise as well as oversight to the media fellows throughout the duration of the fellowship; providing mentorship and coaching them to strengthen their social media skills and further harness the power of the media to build peace and counter divisive narratives.
• The consultant will oversee the learning objectives of the fellows who will be involved in film production, radio drama production, community participatory theatre, and digital peace promoter hub. The consultant will also facilitate a training session on Transformative Leadership to sharpen their leadership skills.

Deliverables

• The consultant will facilitate sessions on transformative leadership at the Fellowship induction training in Adamawa.
• The consultant will support, supervise, and coach the media fellows to implement their social media, radio and television tasks throughout the fellowship in bi-monthly meetings.  
• The consultant will develop learning objectives for each of the 20 fellows to keep track of their progress throughout the duration of the fellowship.
• The consultant is solely responsible for engaging all media fellows to facilitate all aspects of this contract as necessary. All logistical costs associated with the mentorship and coaching sessions will be facilitated by Search.
• The consultant in consultation with SEARCH will review work plans and other preparatory work. The consultant is expected to hold early meetings with SEARCH to understand project objectives. The consultant will provide illustrative examples of how mentorship sessions would be structured.
• The consultant will ensure that the learning objectives and final outcome of the fellowship meet the highest standards of quality.
• The consultant will commit to developing monthly progress updates and final reports detailing objectives and results at the end of the training.
• SEARCH will provide expert field knowledge, and expects the consultant to coordinate and arrange travel and site visits on their eventual budget.

Qualifications
Educational Background:

• University Degree or equivalent in Communications, Journalism, Media Studies, or related fields. A Master's Degree is an added advantage.

Required Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in imparting knowledge through tutoring and coaching
• Experience engaging and working with young people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds;
• Demonstrated experience working on conflict issues and in fragile environments;
• Excellent knowledge of the North-East conflict dynamics
• Relevant experience engaging the media, or supporting NGO(s) / INGO(s) in a similar capacity.