National consultant for Mediation/Peacebuilding, El Geneina, West Darfur for 7.5 months

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, peace

Sudan, surrounded by the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and South Sudan, positioned next to East, West, South and North Africa, is surrounded by complex conflicts in an unpredictable, volatile and rapidly evolving region. Sudan is by size the third biggest country in Africa, with a diverse population of around 42 million people. Sudan’s children make up half of the total population, and the past two decades have seen their lives significantly improve: fewer girls and boys are dying before their fifth birthday, primary school attendance is increasing, immunization coverage is high and the country remains polio free. Still, millions of children continue to suffer from protracted conflict in Darfur, the Kordofans, and Blue Nile, from seasonal natural disasters, malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and from under-investment in basic social services. More than three million of Sudan’s school aged children are not in the classroom. UNICEF has been in Sudan since 1952 and continues with a presence in 12 of Sudan’s 18 states.

How can you make a difference?

This consultancy is to establish and sustain the good offices role at the local level and ensure partnership and coordination with key actors including, but not limited to, the State government, native administration and tribal leaders, Civil Society Organizations, Women’s groups , youth groups, nomadic commission and farmers union to support local mediation efforts, through mapping the existing mediation initiatives and provide the needed support in terms of capacity building, organization of reconciliation conferences and negotiation meetings. The long-term consultant will work close coordination and collaboration, in two localities, with state government and native administration leaders the consultant will also support activation/re-establishment of mediation and conflict resolution mechanisms.

Scope of Work

The consultant in coordination the State level Committee on early warning and conflict resolution will provide technical and advisory support to the existing peacebuilding mechanisms across the 6 localities affected by inter-communal violence. The consultant will provide support to strengthen rural community skills and capacity in responding to conflict resolution and peacebuilding needs. He/she will also ensure synergies and complementarity between UN Sudan planned activities, including those of UNITAMS and the UNCT, and those of government as well as other UN/INGOS to avoid duplication and maximize impact.

The indicated deliverables are expected to promote local capacities in addressing local conflict and restore intercommunal confidence and stability.

Component 1: Conduct conflict mapping and community needs assessment exercise in each conflict area. The consultant to undertakes conflict mapping exercise including mapping of stakeholders and power dynamics in 26 hotspot areas in hotspots in West Darfur (within the 8 localities of El-Geneina, Beida, Krenek, Sirba, Jabel Moon and Kulbus Habila and Forobaranga). The conflict mapping entails (i) the consultant with work with local communities to organised Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) in the target hotspot areas; (ii) the consultant to conduct a desk review of secondary sources and available information /reports , previous assessments findings on conflict situation in West Darfur; (iii) the Consultant to reach out re UN Agencies / INGOs El-Geneina University Peace Centre to obtain any available data in this context and incorporate them throughout the mapping exercise; (iv) the consultants will liaise with other key actors including government authorities, Civil Society Organizations, native administration and tribal leaders to collect information on statewide conflict situation. In coordination and jointly with consultants reporting to the UNITAMS Office for the Support of Civilian Protection (OSCP) relevant UN/Humanitarian agencies on ground the consultant supports and anticipates community needs assessments specifically as they related to protection and early warning components community needs assessment through organizing meetings with stakeholders in 28 location across the target 6 localities using different methodologies including FGDs and KIIs.

Component 2: Conduct or help organise inter-communal dialogue and consultations with local government, native administration and community leaders as well as with farmers, herders’ women and youth. The consultant, in coordination with the respective government authorities, native administration leaders and Peaceful coexistence committees to conduct (i) a series of one-day long inter-communal dialogue and consultation in 14 locations where farmers and herders / villagers and nomadic communities maintain some sort of peaceful coexistence (ii) consultant to undertake confidence building measures in 13 locations n the 6 target localities through organizing consultative meetings with local community representatives . The indicated consultative meetings should focus on whether the respective communities are willing to have a dialogue with other communities with whom the relations are tense.

Component 3: Communication and outreach activities, including efforts countering hate speech and disseminating peace messages. In close coordination and collaboration with relevant actors including state ministry of youth and sports, local media, CSOs, the group of peace ambassadors and resistance committees, the consultant will plan and implement series of communication and outreach activities with aim to raise local community awareness on social peace and community cohesion. The activities include sports activities between youth communities, activities that promote peaceful coexistence amongst the youth such as mobile theatre, organizing of mobile peace caravans, school debates, broadcasting of peace messages through local radio/TV, peace campaigns tour to some areas and organizing of special sessions on the destructive impact of hatred speech on social fabric. This might entail supporting young people from different tribes to come together with the objective of countering the spread of hate speech, propaganda and the mobilization of fighters and finding ways to encourage their use of social media to change the behaviour of young people instead of them partaking in violence. Encourage changing attitudes and promote tolerance and mutual understanding to bridge divisions groups that don’t frequently communicate with one another. In all of his/her work, the consultant is to ensure gender perspective is well incorporated in implementing the indicated activities. The consultant to ensure the communication activities target areas of public gatherings such as IDP camps, schools, pastoralists resting sites, Mosques especially after Friday prayers and Rural markets.

Component 4: Conduct training workshops on mediation and negotiation skills for peaceful coexistence committees at the grassroots level. In consultation and collaboration with existing peacebuilding and conflict management mechanisms and actors such as State level committee on early warning and conflict resolution and EL Geneina university’s peace centre, the consultants will plan and implement 13 conflict resolution training workshops.

Component 5 : UNITAMS to undertake good offices and carry out specific mediation efforts as requested by the parties. The consultant will organize consultative meetings with key actors at the state level that includes Wali of West Darfur, Sultan of Dar Massalit,, state level committee on early warning and conflict resolution, nomadic commission, IDP leaders and UN agencies / NGOs working on peacebuilding with the objective to map the existing/potential mediation efforts and provide the necessary support to address the identified gaps/needs in local mediation initiatives. The Consultant will specifically focus on mediation efforts seeking to address active/ongoing inter-communal conflicts in either of the following localities, El-Geneina, Krenek , Jabel Moon , Sirba, Beida, Kulbus, Forobaranga and Habila. The support entails building the capacity of mediation committees, support organizing reconciliation conferences, supporting of special negotiation forums as well as logistical support for movement of mediation delegations from location to another.

Component 6: Support Farm protection committees as a key protection mechanism both for farmers and farmlands. The consultant with will engage with the state level high committee on crop protection as well as crop protection committees at localities level to map the functioning crop protection committees across the state and provide them in kind and logistical support. In close coordination with consultants reporting to the UNITAMS Office for the Support of Civilian Protection (OSCP), support to the farm protection committees should be coordinated with other UN and NGOs provide similar support

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A Bachelor degree in Social sciences or relevant experience
• A minimum of five years of relevant experience in peacebuilding or peacekeeping, preferably in Sudan. Proven experience in organising and facilitating workshops. UN/INGO experience a strong assessed. Fluency in Arabic and English. Proven report writing skills. Proven experience in mediation processes an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.