Background

Guinea-Bissau has been in a vicious cycle of political instability since its independence, which primarily stems from a series of intertwined causes, including lack of access to justice and impunity. Despite the consecration of fundamental political, civil, economic and social rights by the Constitution, laws are barely implemented or enforced, resulting in limited and inequitable access to quality justice services for the population and an overall decline in confidence in the modern state system of justice institutions.

The State is unable to fulfil its mission to guarantee justice and security throughout the territory, particularly in rural areas and especially for women and children/youth. Since the independence, there has been a coexistence of both the formal justice system and forms of traditional justice system, based on customary law - which was recognized during the colonial period. The formal justice system is costly, slow and still widely discredited by the public, being viewed by many as manipulated and corrupt, serving only the needs and interests of the most powerful.

As a result, and for historical and cultural reasons, most conflicts are settled by local institutions in charge of solving conflicts, including the family, the heads of district, the village chiefs and/or the tribal chiefs and, more recently, the Legal Aid Centers (CAJ), through alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR) and restorative justice (RJ) is barely known or applied.

In view of national justice actors’ limited knowledge and training on RJ techniques and mechanisms, from both traditional and formal justice systems and civil society actors, it is vital to strength their capacities to better serve the Bissau-Guinean population’s needs with regards to conflict prevention and better access to justice. Henceforth United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through a PBF (United Nations Peacebuilding Fund) funded project, focusing on ADR and RJ, is organizing a RJ training for actors working on justice related issues in the country.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment

The objective of this assignment is to provide a RJ training to the Bissau-Guineans formal and traditional justice actors, as well as members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to enable them to adequately play a role in conflict prevention, build relationships and repair harm by enabling people to communicate effectively and positively.

Duties and Responsibilities

The international consultant, in partnership with a national expert, under the general supervision of UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and the technical supervision of the Chief Technical Adviser for Justice, is expected to perform the following activities:

• Review available documents to adequately understand the project, the Bissau-Guinean context this consultancy’s objectives;
• Produce the training contents, which should take into account existing legislation in terms of ADR and RJ – both international and Bissau-Guinean;
• Organize the training sessions, present the subject and help setting the ground for cooperation and complementarity between the traditional and formal justice systems;
• Draft a report summarizing the exercise and proposing adequate follow-up initiatives.

Deliverables

The following products are expected:

• A concept note – with the methodology and training contents to be presented to the target groups;
• 4 training sessions to national actors organized and conducted (around 3 days each);
• 1 sensitization and script preparation session to support national CSOs to further spread the acquainted knowledge throughout the country;
• A final training’s report.

Duration of the assignment

The assignment should be conducted within 30 working days.

Competencies

• Demonstrable ability to produce high quality training contents in a timely manner;
• Demonstrable ability to train justice actors;
• Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences, and speak clearly and convincingly;
• Strong capacity to communicate clearly and in a concise manner;
• Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills; Professional and/or academic experience in RJ and ADR methodologies/mechanisms and knowledge on its implementation;
• Ability to focus on impact and results;
• Strong work ethic;
• Strong inter-personal and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Preferably a master’s degree in law, political science or in other social sciences.

Experience:

• Proven at least 10 years of experience working on justice related subjects;
• Strong experience of at least 7 years on RJ and ADR at the international level;
• Strong knowledge and experience on the challenges and relationships between the traditional and formal justice systems;
• Proved experience in providing trainings in general and on justice related topics particularly;
• Experience in training and sensitizing justice actors – both from traditional and formal system;
• Knowledge and experience in the rule of law and access to justice fields, including cross-cutting issues such as human rights and gender; and rights-based approaches is considered an asset;
• Demonstrable experience in developing countries; Knowledge of Guinea-Bissau’s general country context is strongly desirable;
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages as well as web-based management systems.

Language:

• Proficiency in Portuguese is mandatory;
• Proficient spoken and written French and/or English is considered an asset.

Guidelines for application:

Required documents:

• A cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for this assignment;
• A brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the tasks, describing the tools and workplan proposed for this assignment;
• A financial proposal;
• A personal CV including past experiences and at least 3 professional references.

Lump sum contracts: The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel: All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Individual Consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
• Technical Criteria weight – 70 points;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Evaluation criteria:

• Education background - 10 points;
• Experience as defined in the ToR - 20 points;
• Competences as defined in the ToR - 10 points;
• Understating of the ToR - 15 points;
• Methodology and overall approach - 25 points;
• Overall quality of the proposal (comprehensiveness, structure, language and clarity) - 20 points.