Consultancy at Mercy Corps

Background:

Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation. With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs. As the crisis has persisted, Mercy Corps’ strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long-term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.

Project Description:

The Northeast Conflict Management and Stabilization (NE-CMS) program is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) now Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) with the aim of reducing violence and insecurity in Borno State. The program is an expansion from a pilot phase starting in August 2016, and is currently being implemented by a consortium of international and national partners, with Mercy Corps as the lead. The program operates across 20 communities in 5 LGAs and will run until July 2021. The NE-CMS program envisions the following results:

• Citizens more civically engaged, and civilian government and security forces are more transparent and inclusive in addressing community needs around service delivery and protection.
• Communities and citizen security forces have improved capacities to protect civilians in conflict.
• Communities demonstrate improved trust and social cohesion within and between actors at the local level.
•  Local decision-making spaces and peacebuilding processes are equitable and inclusive of marginalized social groups, especially youth and women.

Over the past two years, Mercy Corps and partners have facilitated dialogue trainings and refresher trainings for members of local Conflict Management Committees (CMCs) and Good Governance Committees (GGCs), Youth Support Networks (YSNs), and Women’s Councils (WCs). During the dialogue refreshers that was carried out in recent times the following topics were covered include: 1) Understanding conflict, its dynamics, spillovers effect, causes and escalation; 2) Constructive communication, empathy and collaboration; 3) Engaging in dialogue for relationship building and understanding; and 4) Utilizing approaches for dialogue facilitation. Since then, local partners have mentored these local committees to apply their analytical, communication and facilitation skills to conduct local dialogue forums on conflict issues particular to their communities, as well as dialogue forums with local government officials on participatory governance, respectively.

Mercy Corps aims to ensure that the skills of dialogue facilitators are continually strengthened and the dialogue sessions sustained. It on this premise that Mercy Corps is developing a standardizing dialogue facilitation guide. The Guide will assist trained facilitators with the task of facilitating dialogue sessions, and it will also serve as a resource material for training dialogue facilitators. It is intended primarily for facilitating dialogue in community settings where many small dialogue groups meet. However, the principles set out in the Guide will apply, regardless of the setting, topic, or scale of the effort.

Mercy Corps through NE-CMS is working in Five LGAs in Borno State to elevate dialogue as a tool for community change. Our vision is that more and more LGAs and communities across the state will be able to create and sustain this kind of public dialogue and problem solving. Such strong, local democracies can form the cornerstone for attaining lasting peace in Borno state.

Consultant Objectives:

In support of Outcomes 1, 3 & 4, the Consultant/s will develop a dialogue facilitation guide for NE-CMS local partners, CMCs, GGCs, YSNs, WCs members and Government actors in Borno State all techniques and approaches for engaging these groups are embedded in this guide to make it a bit more generic. This is aimed at promoting deliberate and standardize the culture of dialogue.  The Guide will consist of four parts –

• Concept and Theory,
• Design, Planning and Preparation, and
• Characteristics and Techniques.
• Checklist, Pre- and post-dialogue stages/processes.

Consultant/s Activities:

The Consultant/s will

Develop a standardized 40 pager dialogue facilitation guide in English and a translated version in Hausa and Kanuri with pictorial illustrations.

Consultant will translate finalize work from English version to Hausa and Kanuri that reflects the right and generally acceptable language translations from an accredited body 

Validation meeting with NECMS, Partners and select stakeholders.

Final proofreading and submission for printing.

Preparatory work Facilitation Guide-English  : First week

Translation to Hausa and Kanuri languages  :Second week

Validation meeting with NECMS/Partners      : Third week

Final proofreading                                           : Fourth week

Submission for printing                                    : Fifth week

Total Level of Effort:

32 days (Including weekends)

NB: Consultant should send in a brief concept note/proposal and sample of similar work done also indicating daily consultancy fee rate and cost for document translation.

 The Consultant will report to:

Program Manager, NE-CMS

The Consultant will work closely with:

Program Manager & Senior Conflict Management and Reconciliation Officer.