UNDP Jobs - 63880- Trainer on Project Cycle Management

Trainer on Project Cycle Management

Location :

Various (Tbilisi, Sukhumi), GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

25-Feb-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Up to eight eighteen-day missions during three years

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP, with financial support from the EU, launched the Confidence Building Early Response Mechanism (COBERM), which aimed to build confidence amongst communities on both sides of the divide and encourage peace-building in view of conflict resolution in 2010. The second phase of the project was implemented during 2012-2015. COBERM is a neutral, apolitical and flexible grant making mechanism that supports grass roots initiatives in support of peacebuilding in the region. It is envisaged that the third phase of COBERM III will be launched at the beginning of 2016, for a duration of 3 years.

Addressing issues of limited interaction and trust among the conflict affected communities, the project main goals are to:

Support opportunities for confidence building through direct people-to-people contacts;
Build an enabling environment within and across divided communities to strengthen respect for peace and stability while addressing local needs;
Strengthen mutual complementarity between humanitarian responses and dialogue processes.

The following results are envisaged:

The joint EU/UN COBERM platform is widely recognized as an effective mechanism for comprehensive support to grass roots confidence building and dialogue processes through an empowered network of civil society actors;
At least 55 CSO projects address local needs and support people-to-people interaction to foster confidence building within and across divided communities for at least 20,000 people affected by conflict or at risk of conflict;
At least 50 Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian CSOs (of which more than 25% will be women’s and women-led organisations) have greater institutional capacities to mediate peace and confidence-building in constructive ways and address local needs;
At least 5 opportunities emerging though GID and other complementary dialogue fora operationalized through the COBERM Plus window.

One of the lessons learned from the previous phases of COBERM was the need of systematic capacity development of the civil society organizations, old and new. A capacity development component was implemented during COBERM II, when a series of trainings related to conflict sensitive programming and conflict analysis, as well as idea forums were provided for a total of 150 CSOs. These efforts will continue during the third phase of COBERM. This capacity development component aims to provide tools and skills to CSOs to enable them to contribute more substantively to peace-building processes by developing and implementing more visionary and strategic projects.

It is envisaged that the capacity building activities that will be undertaken under COBERM III will provide adequate support to CSOs to:

Better understand the concepts and tools for conflict prevention and peace building to formulate better responses in the area of conflict prevention and peace-building relevant to the given context;
Acquire new skills related to conflict sensitive programming using a gender perspective as well as receive information on innovative approaches and international best practices based on which they can develop projects that address local needs and foster confidence building within and across the divided communities;
Develop, implement and monitor more strategic and sustainable confidence building projects, including through using innovative approaches and tools;
Increase the understanding and consequently widen the space for women’s and women-led organizations to mediate peace and confidence building;
Facilitate partnership building and identification of common ideas;
Facilitate networking meetings among CSOs working on conflict prevention and peace building that will receive a COBERM grant;
Promote and encourage synergies and exchange of best confidence building practices among COBERM grantees;
Design concise and practical templates that help CSOs track and document lessons learned, innovative approaches used including their results as well as best practices.

The current call seeks to set up a roster of highly skilled international trainers that would be available periodically for short term assignments to conduct trainings on conflict prevention/ peace-building concepts, including tools to achieve such development objectives. It is envisaged that such trainings will be conducted up to 4 times a year, and up to 10 times during the life of the project.

The number of trainees is expected to vary according to the number of interested civil society actors in COBERM III and consequently will be known at a later stage. Based on previous experience, it is anticipated that the number of the participants per training will be up to 25.

Trainings will be held in Tbilisi and Sukhumi and/or a third country. Logistical support will be provided by the COBERM team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Given that a critical number of CSOs have already attended classical PCM trainings, the scope of work will be diverse and will aim to provide a) introductory PCM trainings and b) in depth trainings in following areas:

Strategic planning, baseline development, logframe, theory of change;
Monitoring and Evaluation, measuring and tracking project progress against the baseline and the logframe;
Promoting participation and ownership to ensuring relevance, effectiveness and sustainability;
Results-based reporting with strengthened monitoring and evaluation tools and approaches;
How to identify impact of project and formulate results, lessons learned in an analytical manner.

The trainings may be conducted jointly with representatives of the COBERM team who will familiarize CSOs with COBERM III strategy and approaches and provide an overview of the application process. Up to four trainings of such nature are envisaged during the duration of the project.

The consultant might be required to provide Individual consultations upon request from CSOs on specific PCM issues.

In consultation with CSOs, a number of periodic in depth trainings on other PCM related topics are envisaged. Exact topics will be determined in a participatory way, seeking inputs from the COBERM grantees. Up to four such trainings are envisaged during the duration of the project.

Deliverables:

Prior to delivering the training, the international trainer is expected to submit the training methodology, agenda, modules and handouts to COBERM for review and translation in local languages, as needed (2 weeks in advance or as agreed with COBERM team);
Conduct up to 3 trainings per mission ( e.g. up to two trainings for two groups of up to 25 people in Tbilisi and one training for one group in Sukhumi for up to 25 applicants) on project cycle management;
Upon request, facilitate networking meetings among CSOs that received a COBERM grant;
Upon request, provide one to one consultations to CSOs applying for a COBERM grant;
Evaluation of training and wrap up;
Summary of trainings for posting on the website (maximum one week after the trainings are finished on the field) prepared and a mission report on analysis of observations and recommendations from during the trainings, including documenting best practices/innovative approaches and needs assessment for future trainings (to be submitted by email one week after completion of trainings).

Tentative activity timeframe and responsible party:

Preparation and submission of training methodology, agenda, modules and handouts: 2 days (International Trainer – Home based);
Preparation of trainings in Tbilisi: 1 day (International Trainer and COBERM Team);
Trainings in Tbilisi (up to 2 trainings): 2-4 days (International Trainer+ COBERM Team);
Individual consultations: 1-2 days (International Trainer+ COBERM Team);
Trip to Sukhumi: 1 day (International Trainer);
Training in Sukhumi (one training): 2 days (International Trainer and COBERM Team);
Individual consultations: 1-2 days (International Trainer +COBERM Team);
Trip back to Tbilisi: 1 day (International Trainer);
Preparation and submission of mission report: 2 days (International Trainer – Home based).

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

Interpersonal and communication skills:

Strong communication skills and proven ability to collaborate with a multitude of partners;
Flexibility, diplomatic skills and tact;
Experience in managing a multi-cultural team.

Professional skills:

Excellent analytical skills and sound judgment;
Teamwork, proven management and results-orientation;
Strong ability in managing politically sensitive issues, in a responsible way.

Technical aptitudes:

Strong oral presentation skills for discussion and running training on project cycle management with tangible results taking into account the local context.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters degree in social sciences, political science, development studies, or other related domain (minimum qualification requirement: 5 points);
PhD in political science, concentration in conflict prevention and peace-studies (additional 5 points).

Experience:

Substantive experience (at least 7 years) with PCM trainings on results-oriented development preferably in the areas of conflict prevention, peace building, including tools etc. (minimum qualification requirement: 7 years -10 points; more than 7 years - additional 5 points;
At least 2 years of international experience in the field of conflict prevention, peace-building and conflict-sensitive development would be an asset (minimum qualification requirement: 2years - 10 points; more than 2 years - additional 5 points);
Proven track of excellent training skills;
Ability to work in sensitive political environments;
Substantive knowledge of civil society development, especially in post-Soviet transitional context and Georgian context in particular (5 points).

Language:

Fluency in English is required;
Knowledge of Russian highly desirable (5 points).

Evaluation:

The offerors for International Trainer will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis. The offerors will be evaluated against combination of technical and financial criteria. Technical evaluation stage encompasses desk review and interview of applicants. Trainers not meeting any of the minimum technical qualification requirements will be automatically excluded from the list of candidates for further technical evaluation. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 points (70%) and for financial criteria 30 (30%). Offerors who pass 70% of maximum obtainable scores of the desk review (i.e. 50 x 70% = 35 points) as a result of a desk review of applications will be invited for the interview (max.10 points) and requested to provide training methodology (max. 10 points). Those offerors who pass 70% of maximum obtainable scores of the technical criteria (i.e. 70 x 70% = 49 points) will be considered as short-listed offerors and requested to provide financial proposal.

Financial Proposal:

A financial proposal will be requested from the shortlisted offerors, only. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. The payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables should be accompanied by the proposed number of installments. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal, including terminal expenses. This includes all travel to the duty station/third country/repatriation travel.