SENIOR CONSULTANT LEAD EXPERT FOR THE SUSTAINING PEACE DURING ELECTIONS PROGRAMMING INCLUSIVE G[...]

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SENIOR CONSULTANT LEAD EXPERT FOR THE SUSTAINING PEACE DURING ELECTIONS PROGRAMMING INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE, UNDP, BruxellesLocation:

Bruxelles

Job Category:

Consulting

EU work permit required:

Yes

Job Reference:

Not specified

Job Views:

310

Posted:

21.03.2023

Job Description:

United Nations Development Programme recruits a Senior Consultant / Lead EXPERT for the sustaining peace during elections Programming Inclusive Governance.

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

Services/Work Description: Support the Sustaining Peace during Elections (SELECT) research initiative on topic 3: Programming Inclusive Governance.

Client: UNDP Brussels Task Force on Electoral assistance/SELECT project

Post Title: Senior Electoral Consultant to conduct a lessons’ learned study on governance and peacebuilding in selected countries and develop programmatic options

Duty Station: Remote

Duration: 65 working days over 6 months.

Expected Start Date: 15 November

II. BACKGROUND

Credible, inclusive, transparent, and peaceful electoral processes are essential to confer legitimacy to national and local governments. When these processes are conducted in a well-organised and transparent manner, they often offer the means of channelling grievance and expectations into respectful and constructive debate. But electoral processes can also exacerbate underlying conflict dynamics triggering violence, sometimes undermining years of development and peace-building efforts.

The overall objective of the “Sustaining Peace during Electoral Process” (SELECT) project is to build the capacity of both national electoral stakeholders and international partners to: a) identify risks factors that may affect elections; b) design programmes and activities specifically aimed at preventing and reducing the risk of violence; c) implement operations related to the electoral processes in a conflict sensitive manner.

This will be done by delivering on the two project outputs:

• Development of an online knowledge hub where implementable programmatic activities related to the prevention of electoral-related violence are listed, informed by research and knowledge development, available in French and English.
• The organization of outreach events/workshops as to enhance electoral violence prevention capacities at national, regional and international level.

Against this background, the SELECT has developed a research process to deliver on the content of the project output 1, “development of an online knowledge hub” and to be used through the project output 2 for capacity building and outreach. The present TORs describe modalities of implementation of the research process.

The topics used to frame the research around the field of the prevention of election violence are the following:

• Promotion of information integrity
• Youth participation
• Programming Inclusive Governance
• Gender and women participation
• Electoral Violence Monitoring and analysis
• Parliamentary support and citizen consultations

The SELECT Project team under the UNDP Brussels’ based Task Force on electoral assistance, wishes to recruit a Senior Consultant with solid experience in elections, prevention of election-related violence and information integrity, to lead on the SELECT Topic 3, specifically on research and product development.

III. Topic Rationale

Governance is identified as crucial to achieving sustainable development and inclusive growth, to making governments accountable to their citizens, and to successfully tackling corruption-related challenges as well as peacebuilding. In this regard, a substantial number of countries have made commendable progress in the delivery of comprehensive governance reforms and in strengthening democratic institutions, ensuring citizen engagement, fighting corruption and improving justice and the rule of law.

While the governance dividends are undeniable, it is also worthwhile to acknowledge that many countries have struggled to deepen and sustain democracy and peacebuilding, missing thus to effectively implement key elements of governance, namely accountability, transparency, combating corruption, citizen participation, addressing underrepresentation of women and youth in decision-making and an enabling legal/judicial framework.

Recent studies add new areas of concern for democratic governance and elections, which have further frayed the social contract and constrict civic space, including: high voter apathy and low turnout, especially among young people; increased election violence, especially gender-based, limiting women’s participation as candidates and voters; increased number of contested election results; rise in the spread of misinformation and disinformation, including via social media intended to undermine election integrity; and long-term concerns for financial sustainability based on the high cost of elections compared to investment in development.

The SELECT project anticipates that the conduct of a comprehensive review of the successes and challenges in terms of governance in cases specifically identified around the globe could facilitate and support experience sharing and information exchange practices on key issues among countries. This study will also explore specific initiatives of women and youth in good governance and peacebuilding.

IV. SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The research process for each topic content development is structured around 6 steps that are estimated to take about 6 months to roll out: 1) recruitment of the lead expert, 2) Coordination of a working group on the topic, 3) organization of country specific and regional consultations, 4) development of a research report and programmatic options, 5) quality review of the production, 6) development of an e-learning. In addition, the expert will be invited to participate to the SELECT two global events that will follow the research process, to present and moderate session on the topic of research.

Based on these activities, the lead expert is tasked with delivering the content on the Programming Inclusive Governance topic, that will be published on the knowledge hub (website). He/She will play a role of knowledge consolidation, identify, collect and structure knowledge through a research report identifying best practices and lessons learned informed by country specific research through consultations.

For every country case covered in the report, a programmatic option will be developed which will highlight a specific best practice focusing on successful political and electoral processes, as well as the efficiency of the rule of law and infrastructures for peace at global, regional and national level.

The research report covering the country specific reports and programmable options will align with the SELECT deliverables and will inform the development of a training module to be published on the SELECT website.

Job Requirements:

VI. DELIVERABLES

The tasks of the Lead expert include:

• Desk review and scoping interviews including background research on the topic latest development in relation with electoral violence (both as opportunities and challenges) as well as an evaluation of UN/UNDP, EU, and other institutions’ concrete programmatic experiences on the given topic.
• Advise on finalizing the identification of participants to the working group, participants to the country level and regional consultations and other interviews necessary in the completion of the deliverables based on a pre-established list.
• Organizes the working group meetings including the preparation of the probes and content according to the Working Group TORs.
• Support the organization of specific consultations (on the substance side) including the probes, agenda and chairing of the briefing documents.
• Production of the final research report based on template provided.
• Production of the programmatic options fiches based on template provided.
• Insertion of the comments from the quality control process in a final version of the report and programmatic options fiches.
• Production of training content (PPT and guiding notes) based on template provided.
• Participation to the 2 SELECT Global events as moderator and/or panel speaker.

VII. RECRUITMENT QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Hold at least a master's degree in international development; political science, international relations, public policy, law, human rights or related disciplines. Qualifications and expertise in more than one field are an advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of professional work experience providing policy and programme advice and pioneering innovative approaches in governance assistance pertaining to developing countries.
• At least 5 years experience working in developing country settings is required and experience in crisis contexts is an asset.
• Experience in the field of electoral assistance will be considered an asset.

Functional skills:

• Experience providing policy advice and programme support in electoral assistance in different developing country contexts.
• Knowledge of UNDP Programme support and policy advice.
• Experience in policy development, and coordination in electoral assistance and its relationship with broader democratic governance.
• Practical experience of linking electoral support to broader democratic governance programming.
• Experience in designing and implementing data analysis/information verification tools.
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to prioritize and effectively execute tasks under pressure.

Language: Excellent command of written and spoken English, French is a plus.

VIII. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT/REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

The Senior consultant will report to the SELECT project management team and liaise closely with the colleagues in the UNDP regional hubs.

IX. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The engagement of the IC will be for sixty-five working days, over a period of 6 months.

X. DELIVERABLES / DAYS

The experts will be recruited for a period of about sixty-five days over a period of 6 months. With deliverables structured as follow:

• Desk Review and scoping interviews - 5 days
• Country level and regional consultations - 20 days
• Working group sessions - 4 days
• Final Report and programmatic options - 30 days
• Review deliverables after quality control - 2 days
• Training module development - 2 days
• Participation to the SELECT conference - 2 days

Total number of days: 65 days

Payments will be released in tranches following submission and review of the above-mentioned deliverables.

VIIII. EVALUATION

Shortlisted candidates will be rated according to the following criteria:

• Previous experience based on cv/resume and examples of successful development of content - 25%
• Demonstrated understanding of programming inclusive governance - 25%
• Demonstrated professional experience in designing and developing products - 20%
• Financial proposal - 30%

X. OTHERS

The selected expert will perform its duties remotely. No official travel is envisaged for this assignment.

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