Antecedentes

The Maldives has gone through drastic economic, political and social change over the past few decades. It progressed to the status of a middle-income country in 2011, making it one of the few countries who have made this progression in the last few decades. Even though the wealth of the country has increased significantly, this wealth is distributed unequally among the population, resulting in increasing financial vulnerability of many families around the country. Simultaneously, for the first time a multiparty system was introduced in the Maldives aiming for a democratic transition in the country in 2008.  But it also led to intense polarization within families and the society in general. This polarization further weakened an already deteriorating social fabric.

Evidence globally cites that deteriorating social fabric leads to social isolation, which increases vulnerabilities, making certain groups more susceptible to intolerance and violence. This further pave way for phenomena’s such as radicalization and violent extremism to strengthen its roots in the society. Violent extremist ideologies very often accompany terrorism, provide motivation and justification for these heinous acts and enable recruitment activities.

The Maldives National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was established through Presidential Decree (2016/3) in 2016. NCTC is the lead national agency for coordinating the counter terrorism and counter violent extremism efforts in the Maldives. Its responsibilities include coordinating a “whole of society” approach to Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) which includes gathering and analyzing intelligence on root causes of extremism, synchronizing relevant government authorities’ approach and responses to PVE, advising the National Security Council (NSC) and the President on terrorist and extremist risks.

In 2019, NCTC in partnership with UNDP in the Maldives began the process of drafting the first National Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism (NAP on PVE) for the Maldives. The NAP envisions a “whole-of-government” and “whole of society” approach and will involve a mix of responses from most government departments and will build, wherever possible, on existing programs and institutions. As it is vital that all programs engage communities and create a sense of ownership rather than stigmatizing sections of society, the NAP aims to bring together all groups in society including key agents of change, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the private sector. While this alone is not sufficient to ensure the success of the action plan, another key factor for success is communication. The community’s acceptance of these efforts will greatly depend upon the messages that follow the roll out of the action plan. Therefore, the communications of the action plan need to be strategic and able to engage the community.

In this respect, UNDP Maldives under its Integrated Governance Programme (IGP) in partnership with the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) seeks the support of an international consultant to develop a communications strategy for the National Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant will work in close coordination with the UNDP Maldives team and NCTC and will be

expected to undertake the following tasks:

Advocacy and communication strategy

The consultant should develop an advocacy and communication strategy to promote community engagement in the efforts of PVE and implementation of the NAP for 2019 – 2024. This should include:

• Identify the target audiences of the advocacy and communication strategy (i.e.: line Ministries, CSOs, local governments; MPs; media; academic circles; general public, etc.);
• Identify the communication objectives for each stakeholder (stakeholder mapping) at the national and local levels;
• Assess the communication capacities of all stakeholders;
• Identify the communication products and activities tailored to each target audience, using the NAP and in consultation with the stakeholders;
• Specify appropriate communication channels, dissemination methods and media such as video, print, web/online media, traditional media, and social media, among others, to effectively communicate key messages to specific stakeholders;
• Create a five-year work plan with clear deliverable outcomes, indicators and tools for the implementation of the strategy;
• Prepare a list of the resource needs (human and financial) and estimated implementation budget;
• Develop key messages for reproduction in presentations and speeches by members of the cabinet, Counter Radicalization Committee, Counter Terrorism Steering Committee and personnel of NCTC and key partners in implementation;
• Identify means and develop indicators to monitor and evaluate communications tools and activities, in order to measure the impact on achieving the overall objectives.
• The consultant should organise (logistics support from NCTC and UNDP) and conduct a workshop for the Counter Radicalization Committee, Counter Terrorism Steering Committee and personnel of NCTC and key partners in order to form a basis and buy-in for the strategy. The workshop should include but not be limited to:
  • Mapping of target groups, identifying communication objectives for each targeted audience and tailoring activities.
  • IThe consultant should consider legislative changes in the pipeline, NAP, and other relative documents.

Capacity building for journalists

• In relation to development of the advocacy and communication strategy the consultant should work with the identified pool of local journalists and identify the role of media on the implementation of communication strategy.
• With the aim of including media in the efforts of preventing and countering violent extremism, the consultant should conduct workshops for journalists on promoting peace and tolerance, countering hate speech and misinformation and the role of investigative journalism as critical tool in preventing and countering violent extremism.

End mission report

A detailed report identifying key challenges and limitations in developing the strategy and workplan and the training of key stakeholders and media agencies with recommendations for way-forwards.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant will work closely with the UNDP focal point and will be responsible for the following deliverables;

• Develop an advocacy and communications strategy
• Create a work plan with clear deliverable outcomes, indicators and tools for the implementation of the strategy.
• Conduct a workshop on developing advocacy and communication strategy
• Capacity building of journalists in preventing and countering violent extremism
• End mission report

The following table shows an indication of the duration for the deliverables;

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will develop the advocacy and communications strategy, create a work plan, conduct a workshop on developing advocacy and communication strategy, capacity building for journalists and end mission report which will be presented to UNDP and NCTC for validation. The consultant will be accountable to the assigned Project Officer of IGP, for each deliverable as stipulated in the proposal. Fortnightly meetings will be held with ARR Governance. A briefing and debriefing meeting will be organized with UNDP senior management at the beginning and end of assignment.

Duration of the Work

This assignment will approximately take 8 weeks (47 working days) and is expected to start in early October 2019. The consultant should come up with a clear timeline while submitting the proposal taking into consideration the estimated time durations for each deliverable as stipulated above.

Duty Station

Male’ and homebased. The consultant will travel to the Maldives for the first 15 days and work from home for the rest and travel again to the Maldives to conduct the workshop on developing advocacy and communication strategy and media capacity building and submit the end mission report from home.

Competencias

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies

• Knowledge about the UNDP programmes would be an advantage;
• Proven strong analytical abilities;
• Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
• Ability to actively generate creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving;
• General IT Literacy

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education

• A Master’s degree in communications, development studies or relevant discipline.

Experience

• This is a high-profile assignment requiring a consultant of substantive experience in prevention of violent extremism with diverse expertise in social sciences.    
• Minimum 6 years’ experience in advocacy and communications planning including experience working on government communications strategies.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working on communications of prevention of violent extremism or countering violent extremism. Prior experience working on a NAP is desirable.
• Experience working on gender-related issues including experience of working in the area of women and radicalization is desirable.
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience working with media organisations.
• Minimum of xx experience on conducting similar trainings and workshops?
• Demonstrated ability to produce high quality, creative communications materials and proven track record of previous communications achievements.

Language requirement

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required

Application process

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications. 

• A letter indicating why the candidate considers himself/herself suitable for the required consultancy;
• Submission of an updated detailed Personal CV or P11 form which can be downloaded from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc
• Lump sum financial quotation, with a breakdown of daily consultancy fee, daily subsistence allowance and ticket fees as applicable – clearly indicate the breakdown of daily fee and number of days of work; 
• At least two references from recent previous jobs or three references contact details

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