Vacancy Notice – Security Expert

Background

Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a global non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting political participation and democratic governance worldwide. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, DRI operates across Western Asia and North Africa (WANA), Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe. It maintains country offices in Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya (operating remotely from Tunisia), the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine, collaborating with various international and local partners across several countries. In addition to its physical presence, DRI is actively engaged in promoting Digital Democracy in many other areas.    

Since 2016, DRI Lebanese country office has been raising awareness and advocating for evidence-based policies and public debates that foster democratic and accountable governance, the rule of law, and political participation in Lebanon, in cooperation with civil society organisations and public officials. Particularly, DRI is working to expand the democratic space for a civil society-led debate on systemic change in Lebanon, encouraging citizens to actively participate in the governing of their own country in an inclusive and participatory manner.  

In the framework of its project titled: “Voices from the Field: Supporting Independent Reporting in Lebanon”, DRI is acting as an enabler of collaboration between young journalists and independent media outlets. The project aims at strengthening journalistic integrity and impartial reporting, combating the spread of fake news on mainstream and digital platforms and fostering a community of independent journalists dedicated to high-quality reporting on topics related to liberties, democratic rights, internal displacement, and political concerns during and post-crisis.   

In this context, DRI is currently recruiting a Security Expert to conduct one full-day training to a group of 17 Journalists to build their security awareness and help them navigate the risks they might encounter while covering news on the field.

Your duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of DRI’s Programme unit, the Expert will:

• Develop interactive and detailed training modules, a training session plan, and all accompanying background materials (½ expert day);
• Prepare pre- and post-training test modules to be shared with the participants before and after the training sessions, once validated by DRI;  
• Deliver a tailored, one-day training workshop for up to 17 participants, following an interactive, engaging approach, on security awareness and response, e.g., challenges in reporting war and crises, field safety, hostile environment awareness training (HEAT), in addition to travel Security and field security awareness/preparedness (one expert day);

• Once the training is completed, submit a training report summarising the training outcomes and the pre- and post-training tests results, reflecting the trainees’ increase in knowledge as per the template provided by DRI (½ expert day).   

Your skills and experience:

• At least 5 years of professional experience in consulting with international organisations in at-risk countries on security issues;
• At least 5 years of proven training experience on security topics;
• Training journalists during their field work on security skills is an asset;
• Deep knowledge of the Lebanese political, cultural, socio-economic, and security context;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic;