Consultancy Services Conflict Resolution Training Program - Islamic Relief Lebanon

Conflict Resolution Training Program

Terms of Reference for Consultancy Services

“Training and Coaching”

Funded by

European Union

Implemented by

Islamic Relief – Lebanon

2018

Introduction

“Islamic Relief believes that all children have a right to personal dignity and protection from abuse and it recognizes the special responsibility and duty of care it bears to create a safe environment for children within the projects and programs it manages and supports. The interests of child safety and protection should be paramount to any other interest which might compromise it”.

In order to offer multidisciplinary protection and social stability activities for children from host community and Syrian refugees to fulfil their needs, IRL will provide youth resolve project in South area-Saida, inside a community based rehabilitated centre, and outreach activities as well. The intervention will be managed by IR team in cooperation with local NGOs, the local community, local consultants, shelters’ leaders and children parents.

IR seeks to contract local consultant (individual/firm) to train 100 youth who will be able to play effective local in their community.

Background and Problem Statement

After more than seven years of civil war, the Syrian conflict has generated massive protracted displacement -to Lebanon country- of over one million refugees, the majority of whom reside in non-camp and/or urban settings in countries such as Lebanon.

In Lebanon, for example, since 2010 more than one million Syrian refugees have arrived, contributing to a situation of rapid, unsustainable urbanization in an already vulnerable and fragile context. This poses new and diverse challenges to authorities, humanitarian actors and receiving host communities, who – in addition to refugees and IDPs themselves – are struggling to adjust to long-term social, economic and demographic shifts and pressures associated with displacement.

One such challenge is how to foster social stability and mitigate rising social tensions between refugees and host communities in these non-camp, urban contexts. Tensions have emerged between refugee and host communities and between local communities and administrative authorities. In the case of Lebanon, this is described as leading to a potential tipping point. In an effort to protect and enhance the somewhat fragile stability, key strategic objectives have been identified throughout Youth Resolve project funded by EU; for national, international and local stakeholders. This valuable project funded by EU aims to demonstrate that social stability (defined loosely as the nature and set of relationships between individuals and groups and between those groups and the institutions that govern them in a particular environment) matters for humanitarian action. Studies show that rising social tensions between communities have the potential to generate secondary conflict in host countries. Access to basic goods and services and livelihood opportunities are also influenced by social tensions. As tensions rise, for example, isolation becomes an unfortunate coping mechanism for displaced populations – keeping women at home and children out of school. With economic competition leading to frustration, scapegoating and discrimination, access to equitable employment opportunities decreases among refugee men. This may also contribute to domestic violence, drug abuse and participation in radical collective action and crime. These challenges call for new, more holistic approaches to humanitarian response and serves as the basis for Islamic Relief’s Social stability project initiative in collaboration with other partners.

Objectives of the training

Under the context of conflict resolution and social stability, IRL within “Youth Resolve project” intends to deliver full package training as part of capacity building targeting 100 youth. The consultant will be working part time / 3 days per week including conducting the sessions followed by coaching sessions over 10 months depending on the work plan. Thus conflict resolution context tackle the fragile inter-communal relations and social tensions between host community and refugees living in those communities, and seek to improve social stability and PSS service delivery through youth volunteering, soft skills development, and psychosocial awareness activities for caregivers.

In order to ensure that a strong training package is delivered to 100 youth to equip them in the knowledge of high quality regarding analyzing their environment for possible sources of conflict. They shall learn the ability to anticipate conflict and take preventive measures to prevent conflict from escalating. They shall also learn basic conflict resolution and mediation techniques.

These courses will be aimed at empowering a network of youth in Saida with the confidence and skills to take a central role in conflict resolution and management initiatives in their communities.

Consultant main objective:

Delivering clear curriculum technics and methodology which at the very minimum, should include the following areas of knowledge and learning:

Promote conflict prevention and reconciliation on issues of cross cultural and social component and resource conflict, gender-based violence, and identity conflicts in Saida.

Increase the capacity of local civil society represented by youth to build public awareness through collaborative work with refugees and host communities addressing issues of resource conflict.

To create effective means for dialogue between stakeholders on the conflict issues.

The Consultant approach to conflict analysis and baseline shall be grounded in the guiding principles of our work: participatory; culturally sensitive; affirming and positive while honest and productively critical and valuing knowledge and approaches from within the context.

To identify the role of socio-cultural Baseline common in conflict and peace; processes Key Conflict Analysis.

Delivering any required pedagogical support material (i.e.: training manuals, lesson plans, training material, etc.).

Developing training methodologies/techniques, this may include creative tools such as games, audio-visuals, group discussions, demonstrations, and practice sessions with feedback and role play, pending the target audience.

Ensuring or creating feedback loops that allow for suggests, modifications, or grievances related to the sessions or exercises in order to adapt to changes occurring in the work environment, based on the feedback from trainees and IRL.

Ensuring that all youth are trained adequately, and have a solid understanding of the training material. This will include administering a test for youth prior and after the training, to assess the training’s quality and relevance.

Developing pre-posttests, collecting pre-post data and submitting a final electronic report.

Responsibilities

The Consultant will advise on conflict context. He/she will conduct a specific needs assessment of psychosocial knowledge and experience for youth, provide advice on the strategic direction of the program, develop a psychosocial assessment system as pre and post evaluation for the youth, design a viable training program and provide capacity building to 100 youth after assessing their skills and verify their needs also will conduct coaching sessions during the project duration /10 months to emphasize the practical implementation of all topics that has been taken in training.

Capacity building

The consultant will provide professional training to youth and based on identified training needs through pre-test questionnaire. He/she will also train them on how to use the new assessment forms and effectively utilize planning and implementation process.

Report and Formulation of Recommendations

At the end of his/her assignment, the consultant will prepare monthly reports and final report in English. The report should contain collected assessment data, an analysis of the findings, the scope of the psychosocial impact and the consequences based on pre and post -test has been done for the trainees and the training activities.

Training outlines titles:

The trainer(s) will be committed to deliver the following training and the related materials (in Arabic) following the topics:

Training Topic

Introduction to conflict and post conflict resolution:

Background

Understanding conflict resolution

key findings/contributions and recommendations

Methodological and conceptual gaps- Determine the level of knowledge among youth on the issues of gender based violence, resource conflict, and identity conflict.

Assess and develop the level of skills and potential among targeted group of youth in promoting conflict prevention and reconciliation through their communities.

Methodological coaching/training about concept of tensions between refugee and host communities includes:

Structural causes: Structural vulnerabilities that pre-date the Syrian crisis, such as high levels of poverty, resource scarcity, lack of effective governing institutions (or support for institutions).

Socio-economic causes: Differences in religious, cultural and social norms between refugee and host communities and lack of social networks.

Proximate causes: Access, affordability and quality of housing (rapidly rising rental prices, poor quality of living conditions and the perception of exploitation).

-Economic competition over jobs (formal and informal employment) and livelihood opportunities.

-Access to and quality of basic education (concerns of overcrowded classrooms and lack of quality or access) and basic public goods and services (such as water and electricity, solid waste collection, healthcare).

 -The role of social, local and international media and the framing of issues.

Requirements:

Qualified candidates (individuals and firms) are invited to apply for this task. The candidate (individuals and firms) can apply for one or more of the mentioned training topics.

a. Academic Qualifications:

University degree in social science, sociology, political science or any other related field. MA is a plus.

b. Years of Experience:

A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in local level capacity building skills and peacebuilding/dialogue processes.

A minimum of 3-5 years in conducting conflict assessments, conflict analysis

c. Competencies:

- Excellent Facilitation skills

- Excellent training skills

- Excellent reporting skills

- Proven impartiality and cultural and human rights sensitivity. Ability to build strong relationships with local actors using inter-personal skills to network effectively

- Excellent analytical, negotiating, and communication skills

- Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines and show flexibility

- Excellent command of Arabic language and good command of English. French is a plus

- Good knowledge of the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanese Host Communities

Proposal Submission and Evaluation

The Technical Proposal shall clearly include, but not necessarily be limited to the following items:

Introduction (including the consultant’s understanding of the required assignment).

Qualifications and relevant experience of the consultant (attach CVs of proposed person/ team).

Proposed approach and methodology for conducting the assignment with preliminary time schedule submission and Evaluation of Technical Proposal.

Submission and Evaluation of Financial Proposal

Only the applicants, who receive 45 points or more in the technical score, will be considered in the evaluation of the financial proposals.

The financial proposal shall show all the direct costs related to the implementation of the assignment, while other operational costs such as transportation, communications, etc. can be implicitly included.

Please use the following table, and do NOT add any additional budget lines, to facilitate evaluating and comparing the financial offers.

Proposals evaluation

The evaluation of proposals and selection of the consultant will be made using the Quality and Cost Based Selection, with a total score calculated out of 100%, of which 70% is the weight of the Technical Proposal and 30% is the weight of Financial Proposal.

Only Technical Proposals will be opened on the submission date. Financial Proposals remain sealed until the technical evaluation is completed.

The consultant with the highest total score (sum of technical and financial scores) will be considered as the winner of the consultancy assignment and will be invited for contract negotiations and ultimately to sign the Contract in month of September.

The Technical and Financial Proposals of the successful bidder and negotiation minutes will become part of the Contract.
 

Proposal submission

Consultants shall submit Technical and Financial Proposals in a package containing two separate envelopes as follows.

The first envelope must be marked “TECHNICAL PROPOSAL” and shall contain one original hard copy of the technical proposal.

The second envelope must be marked “FINANCIAL PROPOSAL” and shall contain one original hard copy of the financial proposal.

All offers shall be signed and stamped by the consultant.

No financial information shall be contained in the Technical Proposal otherwise the offer will be cancelled and excluded from the evaluation process.

Consultants shall not be entitled to compensation related to costs of preparing the proposals.