National Consultant to Develop a Communications Strategy for the Land Rights Act, Women land Rights and Tenure Security

Consultant

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women’s goal in Liberia is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality which are key in sustaining and furthering achievements in stability and development. In this regard, its programming in the Country is connected to five corporate priority areas: women’s leadership and political participation; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; engaging women in all aspects of women, peace and security processes; advancing women’s rights to live free from violence and Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and governance. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s joint work in advancing gender equality.

Although Liberia has succeeded in ensuring a peaceful transition from conflict to peace, it still faces continued peacebuilding challenges due to unresolved grievances that are linked to the country’s 14-year civil war. A nation-wide conflict mapping exercise undertaken in 2016 by the Liberia Peacebuilding Office (PBO) revealed three key conflict drivers that pose a significant threat to national peace and stability, namely, land/property disputes, corruption and border/boundary disputes. Another exercise further revealed that land/property disputes were the most predominant conflict driver in all 15 counties of Liberia and hence requires concerted effort to ensure their resolution Land conflicts often disguise other societal problems and may erupt along ethnic, class, or factional lines.

The enactment of the Land Rights Act (LRA), in 2018 was a fundamental step in the land reform process of Liberia. The LRA seeks to address the root causes of conflicts and sets a framework for building and sustaining the peace. The LRA is explicit on the rights of women to land and their participation in discussions and decisions about Land. This legal framework is a milestone in land legislation, where discrimination in all forms is prohibited in terms of access and ownership of land. It further ensures that customary and private rights are recognized on an equal basis. Alongside the LRA is the Local Government Act (LGA), another piece legislation also passed in 2018, which supports the full devolution of political, administrative and fiscal authorities to the counties over a ten-year period. If successfully implemented, these laws will provide opportunities to empower rural communities and protect the rights of all members, including women by allowing them to manage their land and land-based resources to advance their economic growth and development, and in turn to consolidate peace in Liberia.

As a way of supporting the Government to fully implement the two mentioned legislations as well as sustain the fragile peace, UN Women, UNDP and WFP are jointly implementing the project “Sustaining Peace and Reconciliation through Strengthening Land Governance and Dispute Resolution” funded by the Peace Building Fund (PBF) project and implemented in 4 project counties -Nimba, Maryland, Grand Cape Mounty and Sinoe. As part of its intervention the project aims to ensure that communities are aware of the LRA and its provisions. Access to land for women and youth is still limited in some communities even after the enactment of the LRA. This is because of long standing traditional norms perceived to favor men, while restricting equal access to women, youth and people with disabilities (PWDs).

A recent perception study commissioned by UN Women unearthed that there is a very large variation across counties in terms of how respondents perceive women’s land rights to be respected, with Nimba showing very low levels of perceived fairness. In Nimba, 92 percent of males and 98 percent of females either ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that women have been disadvantaged or overlooked because of communities’ rules for customary land. Hence, the importance of continuous, long-term, community level awareness raising was recommended as a critical step towards ensuring a more gender equal roles for the future of Liberia, otherwise, these laws and rights will remain elusive and weak.

It’s a foregone conclusion that the greatest challenge faced by the public, particularly those living in rural communities, who are to benefit greatly from the implementation of the LRA, is the availability of adequate information on the LRA, particularly, the processes and steps for the formalization of customary community land, including community self-identification, development of community by-laws and the establishment of Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs); identification and harmonization of boundary and other claims; conducting confirmatory survey of customary land; developing land use plans; and probation and registration of land documents. Additionally, the perceptions and norms deep rooted in the communities need to be demystified if all community members including women, men and youth are to enjoy their rights to land.

Against this backdrop UN-Women in partnership with the Liberia Land Authority are seeking to engage a national consultant to support the development of a communication strategy based on the findings of the perceptions survey and the stipulations of the LRA. The strategy will be endorsed and used by the LLA and other stakeholders working in the land sector.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment

The objective of the consultancy is to develop a robust communication strategy that will assist the Liberia Land Authority and other partners working in the land sector to share accurate information and in an effective and harmonized manner on the LLA, the LRA and related regulations, and land instruments and change perceptions on Gender and Land ownership. The Consultant will also support the LLA Communications team to roll out a pilot on the communication strategy in a few of the project communities to check its effectiveness.

Specific Objective

• Develop a robust communication strategy based on findings of the Perception survey and provisions under the LRA
• Support the piloting of the use of the Communication strategy within selected communities in the counties to check its effectiveness
• Support the LLA to finalize the strategy after field trials

Scope of Works

Under the guidance of the Deputy Representative and Direct supervision of UN Women, Gender and Land Management specialist and the Communication and Outreach officer of the LLA and UNW Communication officer, the National consultant will be required to perform the following tasks in line with the UN Women standard and compliance procedures:

Task 1. Develop a consultancy Work Plan and Inception Report.

• Develop a detailed work plan for the consultancy.
• Conduct a desk review of all relevant project documents including; Perceptions survey conducted in 2020 , the Land Rights Act
• ;Liberia Land Authority Act ; LLA Implementation Strategy of 2018; 2014 Act Against Criminal Conveyance of Land (AACCL); LLA/ILAMP Communication Plans; 2018 five-year Strategic Plan; reports on awareness and media engagements with support of the World Bank, Liberia Land Administration Project (LLAP), Land Governance Support Activity (LGSA), Land Conflict Resolution Project (LCRP), ILAMP, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) etc
• Conduct preliminary consultations with LLA Senior Management Team (Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Commissioners, and Executive Director) as well as relevant technical staff, including the LLA Communications and Outreach Officer, Directors of LLA departments, Assistant Director for Customary Land Rights Division, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, UN joint project team , CSOs including the Multi-Actor Platform, as well as relevant agencies in both the public and private sector to identify specific communication gaps and needs .
• Prepare a detailed Inception Report including an outline of the Communications strategy.

Task 2. Develop and submit a validated Communication Strategy

• In reference to results from the desk review, the NC will develop a draft Communication strategy and share with UN Women and LLA for review and input
• Finalise Communication strategy with clear Action plan.
• Hold a one-day working session for key stakeholdersto validate the draft strategy Complete final reports for any field work conducted

Task 3. Pilot rollout of Communication Strategy in selected communities

• Develop simplified tools for piloting the draft communication strategy in selected communities
• Develop a detailed and time-sensitive plan to guide the field piloting work in agreement with UN Women and LLA
• Pilot key aspects of the Communication strategy to check its effectiveness
• Develop and submit a field report that includes results, challenges, and recommendations

Duration of the assignment

The total duration of the assignment will be from 1st August to 14th October 2022

Expected Deliverables

The NC will produce the following deliverables;

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Deliverables

Indicative Deadline

1.

Detailed Inception Report to include consultancy work and outline of Communication strategy agreed upon with UN Women and LLA

10th August 2022

2

Draft Communication strategy shared to UN Women, LLA and other relevant partners for input

26th August 2022

3

Reports of Piloting of Strategy as required in specific selected locations within the four project counties

16th September 2022

4

Final validated Communication strategy completed and approved by the LLA

30th September 2022

Competencies

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical evaluation will be further evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allotted for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

Experience and skills

90 %

Language and other skills

10 %

Total Obtainable Score

100 %

Only the candidates who fit the minimum requirements will be longlisted, and additional documentation may be requested. Candidates with a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates and will be shortlisted for potential interview.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation****:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allotted for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

DeliverablesPercentage of Total Price (Weigh) for payment)Fixed PriceDue Date All the deliverables, including annexes, notes and reports should be submitted in writing in English.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the first installment, the deliverables and related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by both the LLA and UN Women. The period of the review is one week after receipt.

Inputs

• LLA will provide the NC with background materials relevant to the assignment where needed

• UN Women will provide documents as requested.

• The NC is expected to work using his/ her own computer.

• The NC will be based at the LLA or UN Women office
• UNW will set up a reference group composed of technical experts to provide guidance during the development of the strategy

Performance evaluation:

The NC’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

1. Submission of package

2. Cover letter.

3. CV, including contact information for 3 references;
4. Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount per each deliverable, including any travel, per diem and administrative fees, based on the template in Annex 1. The lump sum costs must be accompanied by a detailed breakdown of costs calculation.

All applications must include (as an attachment) a CV and a financial proposal. Applications without a financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further processing.

Required Skills and Experience

The NC should fulfill the following requirements:

Education

• Master’s degree or above in Communications, Gender and Development Studies, or any of the related studies

Experience:

• A minimum of five years of professional working experience in public awareness and outreach in the land sector, especially public information campaigns on the land reform process, including the products of the reform such as the Land Rights Policy, etc
• Good knowledge of the land reform process in Liberia particularly the policy, legal and institutional frameworks;
• Demonstrated experience in working with government partners, UN agencies and international organizations in providing technical support for institutional and policy reform;
• A proven skills in drafting policies, strategies and other relevant documents for government institutions

Language and other skills/competencies:

• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, Internet and email including and not limited to MS-Word and Ms-Excel and PowerPoint
• Excellent facilitation and training skills
• Proficiency in oral and written English
• Good Interpersonal Skills and communication skills
• Ability to work independently and under minimal or no supervision
• Proven ability to work with people from diverse background, culture and tradition
• Good working knowledge of United Nations/UN Women and other international development organizations, their procedures, rules and regulations for project/programme implementation

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org