UNDP Jobs - 42658- International Consultant

International Consultant - Community Outreach Expert

Location :

Amman, Irbid and Mafraq, Jordan, JORDAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

08-Jan-2014

Application Deadline :

30-Dec-13 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

40 working days over 6 months

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

40 working days over 6 months

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

More than two years of violent conflict in Syria have resulted in massive movements of people within Syria, as well as into neighboring countries. By October 2013, more than 2 million people had registered, or were awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Of these, approximately 530,000 have crossed the border into Jordan. While some of the Syrians are living in camps, the majority — as much as 70 percent —are staying in urban centers, where they share space, resources and services with their Jordanian hosts. This influx has rapidly expanded the population of many Jordanian towns and has placed additional pressures undermining the coping mechanisms of public institutions, communities, households and individuals. Public authorities lack the resources to keep up their service provision, such as maintaining health and education services, providing adequate roads, transportation and street lighting, ensuring waste collection and disposal, and delivering core social services. These pressures are impacting on longer-term development outcomes.

In response to the present crisis, the Government of Jordan has requested the support of the donor community and of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme to address the impact of the Syrian refugees on host communities, particularly in the Northern Governorates. The World Bank’s Program – Emergency Services and Social Resilience (ESSRP) – was approved in mid-October with a total budget of US$ 53 million with grant funding from the State and Peace Building Fund (US$ 10 million) and the Governments of the UK and Canada.

UNDP’s Program – Mitigating the Impact of the Syrian Refugee through Support to Host Communities – is funded from various United Nations agencies and the Government of Japan. Both, the World Bank’s and UNDP’s Programs seek to provide emergency assistance to help Jordanian municipalities and host communities to address the immediate service delivery impacts of the Syrian refugee inflows. They also have a longer-term objective of building social resilience of the communities, as well as of central and local government structures to help them manage the ongoing and potential future crises. The implementation of both programs prioritizes the needs of the communities utilizing participatory approaches and supporting the development of local development plans.

This joint activity between the World Bank and UNDP is intended to enhance the joint impact of both World Bank and UNDP’s programs in terms of alleviating the social pressures on local communities and ensuring better coordination across programs through the utilization of common coordination mechanism and leveraging the institutions’ comparative advantage in strengthening local institutional capacity of community groups and local government councils to better articulate their needs and mobilize resources to solve common problems . Given the immediate needs and the urgency of addressing the situation in host communities, the utilization of UNDP’s expertise and its presence on the ground will help provide rapid implementation support to the World Bank’s program during the first year. It will also assist municipalities in engaging with communities in the development of medium-term development plans to generate employment, ease the rising social tensions between Jordan and Syrian communities and contribute to enhancing the resilience of both communities. This community-based program support direct citizen participation in the rehabilitation of their communities to address local needs

The value of this proposed partnership between the World Bank and UNDP goes beyond the scope of this project. It will support efforts on part of the donor community to collaborate in testing new approaches to addressing the issue of displacement beyond the humanitarian response by considering and addressing longer-term development impacts on host communities. It is hoped that this partnership will also serve as a pilot for possible replication in other neighboring countries facing similar challenges as a result of the Syrian crisis.

Duties and Responsibilities

The expert shall work in close collaboration with the UNDP/“Mitigating the Impact of Syrian Refugee Crisis on the Jordanian Vulnerable Host Communities” Project Manager, and Poverty Portfolio Manager.. He/she will be responsible to :

Advise on a stakeholder mapping and analysis at the local level in the nine target municipalities;
Advise on mapping of NGOs and CBOs supporting community organization and participation at the local level;
Advise on the identification and assessment of available communication channels and tools;
Provide recommendations for strengthening communications and community outreach, also based on an evaluation of current experiences;
Prepare and finalize communication and outreach Guidelines (Manual and Toolkit) for target municipalities, especially evolving around service delivery as mandated by the municipal law.
Finalize orientation sessions to target municipalities on the use and utilization of the Guidelines; including advising target municipalities to elaborate communication and outreach plans
Advise on the participatory evaluation of the Guidelines and the implemented communications and outreach activities (with municipalities and relevant stakeholders);
Finalize the Guidelines based on the results of the evaluation;
provide recommendations for municipalities to institutionalize systems for community communication and outreach within municipal working procedures and operations
Advise on mechanisms to be used to support municipalities in prioritizing community needs to be implemented through the ESSRP (June-December 2014)

The consultant is expected to submit an inception report detailing work breakdown structure (work-plan), literature reviewed, list of information required, list of stakeholders to be met, and the methodology in which the consultant intends to carry out the assignment through, within a week of signing the contract.

Competencies

Proven ability to work with a variety of people including government officials, international and national NGOs, local stakeholders, experts and consultants;
Demonstrated understanding of effective outreach and monitoring;
Excellent communication, interpersonal, presentation and facilitation skills;
Advanced knowledge of economic statistics, household expenditure and income survey statistics, balance of payment, financial governmental statistics, etc.
Good organizational and planning skills and a proven ability to adhere to deadlines;
Demonstrated research and analytical skills’;
Good knowledge of the UN system;
Proven technical report writing skills;
Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams;
Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines;
Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply;
Familiarity with and strong interest in development issues is desirable .

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

MA in Public Administration, media and communications, Social Sciences, Local Governance, Economics, or any other related field.

Experience:

Ten years of working experience in local community communication and outreach, and local planning;
Extensive experience in Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) building, structuring and balancing;
Excellent computer and word processing skills.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in Arabic and English.