UNDP Jobs - 74759- SLE/IC/2017/042 Support to the Judiciary of Sierra

SLE/IC/2017/042 Support to the Judiciary of Sierra Leone to Develop a Training Module on Electoral Law, Roll-out of Training, Develop Case Process Flows and Assist in a Lesson Learnt Assessment and the Development of Standard Operating Procedures

Location :

Freetown, SIERRA LEONE

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

04-Oct-2017

Application Deadline :

29-Sep-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

80 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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 Sierra Leone is implementing a Conflict Prevention and Mitigation During the Electoral Cycle Project with funds from the Peace Building Fund (PBF) and the Department for International Development (DFID). It is an 18 months Project that was approved in April 2017. It supports key government and independent institutions as well as civil society organizations in mitigating conflict and violence throughout the electoral cycle.

This project seeks to contribute to a peaceful and secure environment during the 2018 election process in Sierra Leone through preventive and mitigating activities including the encouragement of peaceful dialogue, peace, advocacy, and the strengthening of early warning and response systems as well as the Judiciary, for fast tracking the settlement and resolution of election-related disputes and offences. It will also focus support to women, girls and youth organizations to strengthen their roles in preventing violence and enhancing the participation of women and girls in the electoral process.

The projects two outcomes are 1) Political dialogue, peace advocacy and violence prevention enhanced and 2) Public Security, civil protection, human rights promotion and peaceful response capacities sustained.

During the 2012 elections, the Judiciary faced some challenges in adjudication of electoral offences and petitions due to insufficient number of Judges and Magistrates employed to deal with the overall case load, including election related cases. Since the previous elections the Judiciary has received a new Chief Justice and following the support of government and donors several reforms have been effectively instigated in the Judiciary, including the development of the Judiciary’s 5 year Strategic Plan 2016-2021, retention of additional judges and magistrates, review of the bail and sentencing process, implementation of a new electronic case management system, the establishment of a public relations office as well as development of a curricula for the Judicial and Legal Training Institute (JLTI) supported under the Judiciary, UNDP and the US Department of State project.

A key component identified by the Judiciary in the formulation of this project was support to the fast and effective adjudication of electoral offences and electoral petitions to ensure access to justice and peaceful resolution of disputes throughout the electoral cycle as well as build on past successes.

The Judiciary established the need to add a training module on electoral laws and the role of the Judiciary and the electoral administration respectively to the new JLTI 2017 curricula. This will allow for training and capacitating of new Judges and Magistrates while at the same time letting more senior Judges and Magistrates reflect on what has worked and not worked previously. In addition, the need was identified by the Judiciary and justice chain to develop a case process flow for electoral petitions and offences for dissemination within the institutions as well as to the public for educational and informational purposes. The Judiciary and justice chain actors agree that following the conclusion of the present electoral cycle there will be a need for the extraction of lessons learnt and possibly review legislation or development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for electoral offences and petitions that can be employed for all future elections by the Judiciary and the justice chain.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP seeks to engage a consultant to support the development of a training module on electoral laws and the role of the Judiciary, case process flows for electoral offences and petitions in coordination with the Judiciary focal points, the Law Officers Department and the Police Prosecution as well as support the Judiciary in the roll-out of the new training module. Following the elections, the consultant will be expected to support the Judiciary and UNDP Judiciary focal point – INL Project Manager in a lesson learnt exercise with a focus on electoral legal framework analyse case data and experiences of the Judiciary senior management, Judges and Magistrates appointed to the electoral courts.

Inception report – after initial meetings with the Judiciary, justice chain institutions and UNDP detail method and approach that will be employed to achieve the deliverables of the consultancy. The report shall include a detailed timeline for the consultancy;
Based on previous needs assessment conducted for the development of the new JLTI curricula, analysis of relevant electoral laws, discussion with judiciary focal points for this project, and key justice chain stakeholders develop the training module for the JLTI curricula with due consideration to relevant national and international legislation and best practices;
Develop two case process flows, for (a) an electoral criminal offense and (b) and electoral (civil) petition process through the justice system, informed by laws, procedures and meetings with all key justice stakeholders;
Develop a training plan for the roll-out of the new training module, hold one day Training of Trainers and support the JLTI in the roll-out of the training Programme to all Judges and Magistrates. This shall include brief post-training evaluation report highlighting key issues and recommendations by participants and trainers (not more than 10 pages);
In collaboration with the Judiciary focal points assess and analyses legal aspects of the judiciary administration, the capability to implement the legal framework consistently, the role of the Judiciary in dispute resolution and election process supervision and the effectiveness of complaints and appeals processes with the aim to extract lessons learnt to inform the possible revision of existing legislation and the development of standard operating procedures for the Judiciary and justice chain institutions for effective case management in future electoral cycles.
Develop a final report on all the deliverables achieved and provide possible recommendations based on the consultancy work and findings relevant for the future electoral cycle for the Judiciary and UNDP.

Competencies

Highly motivated, with drive and commitment;
Professionalism and integrity;
Promotes knowledge sharing and learning;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Builds strong relationships with partners, focus on impact and results for the partner and responds positively to feedback;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Ability to work with recipient counterparts in building individual and institutional capacity.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational

Advanced degree in Law or any other relevant discipline.

Experience

Minimum 7 years of professional experience as a Judge, legal practitioner or as a law lecturer/professor;
Of which at least 5-7 years of prior work experience in the field of training and development of specific training modules for judiciary, prosecution, police and/or civil society and preferably in Sierra Leone /West African countries employing common law;
Demonstrated knowledge and experience in conducting needs assessments and developing training modules/curriculum, training materials etc;
Knowledge of the concepts of electoral law and complexities within this field will be an advantage;
Demonstrated experience and skills in the delivery of training of trainers and facilitating larger training programs.

Language Requirements:

Excellent writing, editing and oral communication skills in English.

Applicatiion procedure:

Though this position is advertised in the jobs.undp.org, this is a procurement process and will be evaluated as such. Any proposals with Financial and Technical proposals will not be considered. Because of the possible bulkiness, you are advised to submit your proposals in the procure.sle@undp.org given in the complete advert at the UNDP procurement notices via http://procurement-notices.undp.org/ 41065