Vacancy: INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT TRAININGS OF WOMEN AND YOUTH ON PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN SOUTH SUDAN

Peacebuilding processes provide a critical opportunity to reshape the political, security and broader socio-economic landscape of a nation. However, women’s participation in mitigating conflicts, mediating disputes and building trust - from the community to the national level -have long been neglected in processes to building peace. This neglect can establish a pattern of marginalization that lasts long into the post-conflict period. Five UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009) and 1960 (2010)  and the United Nations Secretary General's reports on mediation support (2009) and women's participation in peace-building (2010) have repeatedly called for the inclusion of greater numbers of women in peace processes as well as in negotiations and mediations. Women's participation in peacemaking is not only a matter of gender equality. Women are crucial partners in shoring up three pillars of lasting peace: economic recovery, social cohesion and political legitimacy.

Inter-tribal and inter-ethnic conflicts are prevalent in South Sudan and women and children continue to bear the brunt of these with horrendous episodes of sexual violations.The failure to engage women in peacebuilding at all levels undermines women and men’s abilities to recover from conflict and rebuild their communities. Over the last decade, women have insisted with growing conviction that they have much to offer, and much to gain, from engaging in conflict prevention, reconciliation and peacebuilding.

In response to the call to strengthen women's representation and participation in mediation and peace processes and with the goal of improving women’s peace and security, UN Women in South Sudan supported the engagement and capacity building of women in peacebuilding, mediation and conflict resolution at the community levels by organizing a workshop on peacebuilding and conflict resolution for rural women in April 2013. The workshop was aimed at enabling rural women to (1) identify tools for helping them understand conflict, its causes and types (2) conduct their community conflict analysis (3) demonstrate skills for women in peacebuilding at personal and social level (4) identify existing local conflict resolution mechanisms in their community and (4) envision a sustained peaceful relations in their community. During the workshop, the 30 rural women participants also identified many frequent conflict drivers but emphasized that the youth in particular are involved as fighters in activities such as cattle raids in South Sudan and they too like women needed to be incorporated into active communities’ peacebuilding processes as both remain relevant to community development including making decisions for their own issues.
UN Women is committed to strengthening the abilities of community women to effectively influence peacebuilding processes through training in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. This would also include encouraging partnership with the youth and also training the youth in peacebuilding to help them also gain skills in community conflict analysis, gender responsive peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The Youth will be targeted with training activities that will help them with personal level reflection so as to change the attitudes, values, perceptions or circumstances on the belief that peace is possible through the transformation of the attitudes and behaviours of individuals. They will also be encouraged to identify the local level institutions that the youth and women can transform to institutionalize non-violent modes of handling conflict within their community including gender based violence prevention.

Building the capacity of women and youth through the promotion of knowledge and skills acquisition in the areas of conflict analysis, mediation, negotiation, conciliation, advocacy and early warning will strengthen the participation of both women and youth as decision-makers at all levels and increase a culture of peace in their communities.

UN Women is therefore seeking services of an international consultant to train women and youth at community level on peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

This consultancy will contribute specifically to outcome 4.2 of the South Sudan Country Office’s 2013 AWP, which states as follows:
Outcome: Gender equality advocates and community women effectively influence peacebuilding processes at the community level.

Methodology:

At the onset, the consultant and UN Women will have an inception meeting to clarify the terms of reference and plan the peacebuilding and conflict transformation trainings. UN Women will provide the consultant with all necessary and relevant background information.

Purpose:

The training of women and youth aims to strengthen their roles in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and conflict resolution through the promotion of knowledge and skills acquisition in the areas of conflict analysis, mediation, negotiation, conciliation, advocacy and early warning.

The training programme will be designed to:

• Create and broaden the understanding of participants on the importance of their contribution to the culture of peace in their communities;
• Increase participants’ awareness on the ways and means by which views, knowledge and skills concerning peace in their communities can be expressed through action;
• Build a critical mass of women and youth leaders to allow more women and youth to address the root causes of conflicts and to participate in problem-solving;
• Initiate the establishment of mechanisms for women and youth to share information on good  practices and lessons learned on peace building, mediation and reconciliation;
• Initiate the establishment of networks to facilitate cooperation between women and youth leaders, women politicians and peace researchers at national and community levels for mutual support  in implementation of early warning and early response to conflict; and
  Develop a common understanding of the impact of violent conflicts, especially from a gender perspective.

Scope and Tasks to be performed

The consultant is expected to perform the following activities among others:

• Conduct a literature review and desk analysis of the South Sudan conflict and traditional mechanisms for peacemaking;
• Develop draft training manuals and handbooks comprising interactive information education and communication materials to reinforce learning. These documents would take into cognizance the level of literacy for rural women and youth in South Sudan. The consultant could seek the assistance of a qualified community development artist with evidence of illustrations for peacebuilding;
• Prepare an inception report setting out the methodology and training plan, including time frame;
• Together with UN Women, develop a set of criteria for identification and selection of participants to the TOT;
• Organize and conduct two 10-day community level Training of Trainers (TOT) trainings in the areas of peacebuilding, mediation and conflict transformation for identified women’s and youth groups; and
• Develop a concept note suggesting possible ways to establish women’s and youth networks to promote peace at community level in South Sudan, through peacebuilding, mediation and conflict transformation education.

Expected Outputs:

• Increased understanding of 30 women and 30 youth on the importance of their contribution to the culture of peace in their communities;
• Capacity of core group of community trainers on peace building, mediation, early warning and conflict resolution strengthened Mechanisms through which women and youth can express their views, knowledge and skills concerning peace in their communities through action, including sharing best practices and lessons learnt established;
• Networks to facilitate cooperation between women leaders, women politicians, youth and peace researchers at national and local levels, for mutual support, early warning and early response to conflict established.

Expected Deliverables:
The key deliverables will be the following:

• Literature review including best practices and lessons learned on women’s role in mediation and reconciliation from around the world and their strategic application in the South Sudan context;
• A manual and handbook for trainers on rural women’s peace building and community conflict transformation;
• A manual and handbook for trainers on Youth peacebuilding and community conflict transformation;
• A final detailed training report. The report should include the participants’ evaluations of the training.

Planning and Organizing:

• Ability to plan work assignments, establish priorities and to meet strict assignment deadlines.

Coordination and monitoring:

• Ability to build strong relationships with clients and to focus on impact and results;
• Demonstrated aptitude to build effective partnerships with a diverse group of stakeholders;
• Capacity to coordinate monitoring activities in the field, to mentor programme/project staff and provide guidance and support.

Communications:

• Compelling communication (verbal and written) skills, including ability to prepare reports, formulate and defend sound recommendations and articulate options concisely conveying maximum necessary information.

Teamwork:

• Excellent interpersonal skills; capacity to recognize and respond appropriately to the ideas, interests and concerns of others;
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity. 

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, international relations, political science, law or other related field with concentration in conflict prevention and peace-studies.

Experiences:

• Knowledge of issues concerning women’s human rights and gender equality specifically in the context of conflict and post conflict environment;
• At least five years’ experience in conducting peace building and conflict transformation;
• Substantive experience (at least 3 years) in conducting trainings on results-oriented development in the areas of peacebuilding and conflict prevention;
• Have experience with transfer of knowledge, participatory approaches and/or facilitation, particularly with adult audience.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in spoken and written English essential.