Communications and Advocacy Trainer/ Individual Local Consul

Communications and Advocacy Trainer/ Individual Local Consultant for Livelihood Protection and Sustainable Empowerment of Vulnerable, Rural and Refugee Communities in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank 

Location:occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), specifically West Bank with travel to Jordan Valley (JV)
Application Deadline:February 9th,  2012
Additional Category:Women’s Economic Security and Rights
Type of Contract:SSA
Post Level:Individual Local Consultant
Languages Required:Arabic and English  
Starting Date: (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)    February29th, 2012
Duration of Initial Contract :4 months
Expected Duration of Assignment :4 months

Background:
The UN Women (UNW), grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since its inception in 1997.  UN Women oPt focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the oPt context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realisation of following strategic goals: Engendering governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.
UN Women oPt has been engaged in the area of economic security and rights since the inception of its “Sabaya Programme” in 2002 which aims to support women in marginalized areas in the oPt through activating community-based centers with the aim of achieving social, economic and political empowerment.  Economic security is considered an essential area of intervention to ensure linkages between meeting immediate needs and setting the ground for longer term development objectives, utilizing the Sabaya Approach as its model.  Several other programmes and projects have been established based on this model; the “Socially Responsible Development Planning: Women-Run School Canteens” supported by the Government of Norway; the MDG-F Program on Culture and Development in the oPt, supported by the Government of Spain; the ‘Establishing, Rehabilitation and Activation of Eight Women Centers in Gaza Strip and West Bank,’ supported by the Government of Saudi Arabia; the ‘Livelihood Protection and Sustainable Empowerment of vulnerable, Rural and Refugee Communities in the Jordan Valley’ funded through the Human Security Trust Fund which is a joint Programme executed by FOA, UNESCO, UNRWA and UN Women; and the ‘Financing for Gender Equality’ project supported by the European Commission.   UN Women continues to invest serious efforts in up-scaling its work in this area to tackle two main areas, increasing women’s employment through sustainable strategies and ensuring that economic rights are upheld.                 
The Livelihood protection and Sustainable Empowerment of Vulnerable, Rural and Refugee Communities in the Jordan Valley Programme primarily aims to improve the lives and dignity of Palestinian women, men, girls and boys in the Jordan Valley (JV).  Through one of its training component activities, UN Women will provide Women’s Centers with networking and facilitating access to information, services and resources.  Women and young girls will be encouraged to establish social support networks that promote their economic security and overall sense of well-being, whilst empowering them to act on their own behalf.  Marginalized women living under the poverty line will be targeted for the economic component; employed and unemployed female college graduates and women School drop-outs will be targeted under the educational services. UN Women will adopt the Sabaya Approach throughout this programme, and will capitalize on the recommendations of the Sabaya programme evaluation.
The programme will directly benefit the communities that comprise the four major clusters of the Jordan Valley:
-The North Valleys Bardalah (Tubas Governorate which includes Bardalah, Kardalah and Ein Al Baida);
-The Central Valleys Beit Hasan (Nablus Governorate which includes Alnassariyah, Alaqraabaniyah,  Alnawaji, Ein Shibli, and Beit Hassan);
-Northern Jericho Al Zubeidat (Jiftlik, Zubeidat, Marj Na’jeh and Marj Ghazal); and
-The South Cluster Adyouk Alfoqa (Jericho Governorate which includes Fasayel, Al’auja. Alnwei’meh, and Jericho).

Scope of Work:
Under the overall supervision of UN Women oPt Head of Office and the direct supervision of the Women’s Economic Security and Rights Project Coordinator, the consultant will be responsible for the development and implementation of communications and advocacy training courses.  UN Women, under activity 2.2.5.b of the ‘Livelihood protection and Sustainable Empowerment of Vulnerable, Rural and Refugee Communities in the Jordan Valley Programme’ will contract an expert trainer to design and implement 160 hours of communication and advocacy courses in line with women’s needs and with a particular focus on understanding advocacy and lobbying, identifying advocacy tools, preparing for and implementing advocacy campaigns, communication skills, how to develop communication and advocacy strategies.
The courses aim to scale up and build on the participants’ skills and previous trainings conducted under the supervision of UN Women during Year I (2011) of the Programme.  In order to validate needs of the women based on initial findings, ‘the need to further develop communication and advocacy skills,’ the conduction of workshops is required prior to implementation of courses.  Based on the pre-assessment, a work plan with a clear time-frame and specific geographic locations will be developed for the implementation of 160 hours of literacy courses.  Upon the completion of the training courses, a post-assessment will be required.  Detailed duties and responsibilities are stipulated below.
Duties and Responsibilities:
-Review the previous year’s training course (2011) and build on to scale up the communications and advocacy training according to the women’s needs and capacities;
-Draft a work plan for all activities, including pre and post assessments and training programme to be submitted to UN Women for review and approval;
-Hold workshops with women to validate a previous pre-assessment conducted in the four targeted clusters, Bardala, Beit Hassan, Zubeidat,and Douyk al Fouka;
-Submit the training outline to UN Women’s Project Coordinator for review and approval;
-Design a training course tailored and in accordance with the pre assessment and the women’s needs and capacities;
-Provide communications and advocacy training for women in the four targeted clusters, Bardala, Beit Hassan, Zubeidat,and Douyk al Fouka;  
-Administer 40 hours of literacy training in each of the four locations/clusters identified;
-Coordinate all activities with each of the women’s centers coordinators and with the trainees input;
-Regularly update UN Women on progress and challenges of the assignment;
-Provide printed material to the trainees as reference tool;
-Conduct a post assessment for the trainees at the end of the training in each of the locations/clusters identified;
-Report on results and impacts with emphasis on future needs of the women in the area of communications and advocacy;
-Submit a sign-in sheet for all sessions;
-Submit a mid-term report for UN Women’s review and approval;
-Submit a final report with the results of the training and lessons learned.

Time-frame:
The assignment is expected to start February 15, 2012 and to be finalized in a four month period.  All deliverables must be submitted and approved prior to finalization of activity.
Key deliverables (all deliverables will be produced in edited English):
1-Pre-assessment validation report;
2-Training work plan for the four locations/clusters;
3-Mid-term narrative report on the communications and advocacy training conducted in the four clusters;
4-Post assessment report; and
5-Final report highlighting concrete recommendations and lessons learned for future trainings based on women’s needs.

Competencies:
CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES:
-Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;    
-Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.
-Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. 

CORE COMPETENCIES:
-Ethics and Values: Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity;
-Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
-Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Initiative-taking; coaching and mentoring ability;
-Working in Teams: Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
-Communicating Information and Ideas: Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
-Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating synergies through self-control.
-Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Managing conflict;
-Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
-Substantial previous experience in communications and advocacy;
-Experience in implementation of communications and advocacy training;
-Experience in integrating communications and advocacy for gender development;
-Understanding the social, cultural and geographical context of the Jordan Valley;
-Strong communication skills;
-Results oriented, flexible and problem solving skills;
-Ability to communicate with women from different backgrounds;

Required Skills and Experience: 

Education:
Bachelor Degree in Journalism, Communications, Social Science or any related field from an accredited University.  Gender mainstreaming experience is a plus.
Experience:
-At least 4 years of relevant professional experience in  communications and advocacy training
-At least 3 years’ experience working with women and women’s organizations and provision of communication and advocacy  training to women’s groups
-Ability to interact with people from different backgrounds;
-Good interpersonal skills and organizational proficiency
-Knowledge of gender issues in the Palestinian context

Language Requirements:
Fluency in Arabic and good communication and drafting skills in English (comprehension, written, and spoken).

Submission of application: 
Interested candidates must submit application, including complete and up to date CV, as per deadline indicated. To: [email protected]

UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.