Background

UNDP works in areas where natural disasters, insecurity and violent conflicts negatively determine sustainable development, based on a Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR) approach and Practice Area. In 2009, UNDP enhanced its presence in the Latin American and Caribbean region with the establishment of a Regional Service Center (RSCLAC) in Panama, with the purpose of providing technical assistance and effective support to UNDP Country Offices in the region for the promotion and implementation of its programs and strategies in disaster risk reduction and recovery activities, citizen security, conflict resolution and other areas of UNDP focus, both nationally as well as locally. 

The Regional Center’s CPR Practice Area prioritizes three main issues: (i) conflict prevention, (ii) citizen security, and (iii) disasters risk reduction and recovery. The efforts in these three issues are carried out in a coordinated manner with the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBLAC) and the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR).

The increase in violence rates has elevated insecurity as one of the main problems according to citizen perception at a global level, in the region and in particular sub-regions, such as Central America, that has witnessed relatively high levels of violence as well as in perception of insecurity over the last decades, which in turn has constituted an obstacle to development.

A range of individual, family, community, cultural and societal factors contribute to the engagement of the youth in gangs and illicit activities, proliferation of violence and high levels of impunity . These factors include the lack of opportunities for young people, a culture that validates violence as a primary mechanism for resolving conflicts, availability of a large number of weapons among the population, permissive laws for their possession and carrying, and poor or no coordination between the agencies responsible for crime control (police, prosecutors and judiciary). There is a regional necessity for an initiative to detect current factors of insecurity and understand citizens as the key actors for interventions against violence, insecurity and detecting its causes.

In the case of the northern triangle, comprised of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, insecurity has been growing since 2000 according to their police data, especially the homicide rate that rose at more than 30% compared with the previous period. Insecurity is also the main concern of the population in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, which creates an atmosphere of vulnerability, anxiety and despair. In El Salvador approximately 70 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants are homicides, representing one of the highest rates in the world. By gender and age group, the highest incidence of homicide occurs in men between 15 and 29 years, with a homicide rate exceeding 200 per 100,000 inhabitants in this population group. Additionally, El Salvador also ranks first in the world with the highest rate of femicides (12.94 per 100,000 women).

Based on this experience, USAID seeks to create a cooperative effort with UNDP to work in the countries of the northern triangle in citizen security information management at the regional and national level. The focus of this initiative is in the establishment of effective information management mechanisms that monitor specific interventions both at national and regional level, which will vary depending on the context within each country. For this, detailed contextual analysis will be carried out with participation of governments and civil society at national and regional level.

On the other hand, the citizen security team in UNDP’s Regional Center will coordinate this initiative with its Country Offices in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and will articulate with other UN agencies in the regional context as well as with national institutions and civil society, focusing on the improvement of information, strengthening data sources and the functioning processes of citizen security observatories.

The project Evidence-Based Information Management for Citizen Security in Central America aims to strengthen evidence-based policy making by improving the quality and comparability of regional citizen security statistics and increasing regional coordination and collaboration on effective citizen security strategies in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

The project intends to achieve two outputs: Strengthen evidence-based policy making; and, Strengthen capacity to analyze and inform citizen security policy decisions. These outputs will be achieved by: (1) improving regional and national institutional capacity to collect, monitor, and process security information and apply it to decision-making and policy formulation at both levels; (2) developing civil society capacity to collect, analyze, and process citizen security data and monitor citizen security policies and programs; and, (3) supporting regional knowledge management to enhance knowledge and understanding of root causes of violence and insecurity and promote successful citizen security policies and practices.

The project will build on the regional strategies and donors who are supporting indicators and observatories in the region, as also who are engaged to strengthen the capacity of national and regional institutions to implement Central America Security Strategy CASS. The regional project will also complement the CISALVA´s, CECI´s, IADB´s and other regional efforts as the SES project to strengthen OBSICA’s Sun technical Units (ad-hoc) in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua and install permanent technical capacities within the OBSICA.

For this reason, a project team is being established to implement this initiative and a professional is currently being sought to be the Team Leader Consultant and advisor for the overall supervision of the Regional Project, ensure the appropriate provision of political and technical support to its different components, and be accountable to USAID-UNDP.

The position will also advance UNDP Corporate priorities in Citizen security, information and knowledge management; and South-South cooperation. The position will respond to the need in Central America to respond to the specific needs related to Citizen security and human development in middle income countries, aiming to contribute to a strategy and framework for cooperation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for the following activities and deliverables as part of the support provided to Central America by the Regional Service Centre CPR Cluster:

• Expand Institutional capacity for evidence-based policies in the region, through trainings, assessments, advisory and information management knowledge products, developed at the national and sub-regional levels.
• Harmonize national STU support teams and monitoring results of information based management (as necessary)
• Conduct Regional and assist National workshops and conferences on information management and evidence-based policy, to strengthen quality of data, indicators for public policy and citizen security approach
• Overview training and conferences implementation
• Advise on coordination, administration, logistics, and reporting of regional and national conferences on Evidence-Based Policy.
• Settle a regional Information Management process and provide Quality-comparable indicators on citizen security
• Advise baseline collection, quality of data, roadmap to enhancement plans and strategic partnerships aimed at the development of better policies on citizen security
• Provide Quality-comparable indicators on citizen security within project implementation in three core Central American countries, including support to UNDP Country Offices
• Provide Quality-comparable indicators on citizen security within project implementation in four non-core Central American countries.
• Documentation of Evidence-based policy through compilation of case studies from four national units.
• Manage indicators´ collection process, dissemination, information, communication, and other networks to support Evidence-based policies among strategic actors and partners in Central America.
• Advise on strengthening analysis capacity to inform citizen security policy decisions
• Expand regional workshops on evidence-based policies for youth and gender.
• Implementation of encounters to generate reports on citizen security and coexistence.
• Support to potential regional  agreements and partnerships between the state institutions and universities for the improvement of information production
• Provide technical assistance and programmatic support to Dialogue on citizen security issues between civil society and government institutions, specifically:
• Support to the “Como vamos” surveys and methodology with Chamber of Commerce networks and participation of National Statistics Institutes;
• Planning synergies and support to coordination meetings with SICA on Citizen Security and Civil Society;
• Review and support to a virtual platform for the Regional Network of Civil Society Observatories (ROC);
• Support to regional ROC conference with UN presentation on crime prevention and citizen security;
• Support and advice regional baseline indicators on victimization and citizen perceptions;
• Review and advise M&E survey, other public opinion polls and surveys for enhancement of information sources on Citizen security
• Provide assistance on meetings of civil society to develop security and coexistence policies
• Assessment to provide strategic grants for CSOs in core countries;
• Support the South-South Exchange on citizen security, best practices and effective strategies;
• Support to project development for the identification of pivot organizations to generate information ;
  
• Facilitate meetings between the national level, governments and civil society representatives;
• Advise national implementation process;
• Coordination of capacity needs assessment, development of capacity building plan, training and technical assistance
• Establish the baseline of civil society experiences and/or capacity to generate information for the design of citizen security policies;
• Develop and implement monthly meetings “Citizens for Security” as well as to monitor the monthly reports;
• Advise on the Gender Strategy implementation and coordination with national level authorities;
• Facilitate the implementation of workshops on gender equality, RBM, M&E, quality control, youth and crime, Como Vamos South-South cooperation, media awareness, and diploma courses for police and media;
• Develop Partnership Strategy with USAID and OBSICA for information management in Central America.
• Support the development of national teams within UNDP Country Offices
• Provide monitoring support to the CPR LAC Advisor for reporting cycles, including reports to donors and partners.
• Assist and review monthly reports to the different components: Acountability reports; Engagement, reports, and advocacy documents with stakeholders; Report of special activities, countries and IRs; Quarterly, annual and final progress reports.

Competencies

• Extensive knowledge and demonstrated understanding of UNDP/UN’s conceptualization and approach to citizen security, in the framework of human rights and human development;
• Knowledge and technical expertise in citizen security, information management, in particular in the establishment and development of violence and security observatories;
• Expertise in working with counterparts in national and local-level government, particularly the security and justice sector (police, attorney general offices, forensic medicine institutes, justice operators and courts, health sector, etc.), information management bodies, civil society, political parties, private sector, academia, and the donor community;
• Excellent skills and ability to use information management as a tool and resource for capacity development and institutional strengthening at local, national and regional levels;
• Demonstrated ability to prepare clear and rigorous reports, briefs, procedural and technical opinions, in English and Spanish, preferably with experience in UNDP and USAID funded project reporting;
• Personal organization, ability to multi-task and to work under pressure;
• Excellent managerial, interpersonal and team work skill.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in International Development, Public Policy, Economy or a related field;
• An advanced/research Masters or Doctoral studies degree in citizen security, violence prevention, human development and/or indicators analysis and information management will be an asset.

• At least ten years of experience in the management of large-scale multifaceted projects, in the areas of citizen security, violence prevention, local management of security and security information management, preferably of USAID and/or UNDP projects and programs;
• Work experience in the Central American region;
• Proven record of working with donors and funds/resource mobilization;
• Experience working with regional inter-governmental bodies, such as SICA, will be an asset;
• Demonstrated experience with information management systems, observatories and other indicator systems;
• Experience in project coordination and implementation on a sub-regional/and or regional level;
• Experience supervising multiple staff and project offices;
• Demonstrated experience in providing and delivering tailor-made and context-adapted assistance;
• Working knowledge of results-based management (results-based planning and M&E) and how to translate it into development assistance will be a strong advantage;
• In-depth knowledge of the Central America political, democratic and security context.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Spanish, both spoken and written is required;
• Working knowledge of French and Portuguese are an asset.

Application:

To apply to this consultancy, Please follow the instructions in the terms of reference published below the Reference No. 404 RSC 2014 in the next link:

http://www.regionalcentrelac-undp.org/es/adquisiciones.