Facilitator Consultancy

TERMS OF REFERENCE for Facilitator Team for Local Dialogues in Lebanon 1. Introduction A Citizens Agenda: Towards Institutionalizing Public Participation in Political Decision Making Wide citizen consultation on and participation in national policy making is a key component for ensuring democratic reform in Lebanon. International Alert, FRAME, and Legal Agenda combined efforts and consulted with the Lebanese Parliamentary Administration to design a citizen-led public participation model that traverses restrictive parliamentary bylaws and allows for the dissemination of evidence-based citizen priorities, with particular emphasis on under-represented segments of the Lebanese population, including non-partisan actors, women, and youth. To contribute to stronger democratic processes and more sustainable, effective and legitimate democracy, Alert proposes to pilot a citizen-led public participation and engagement program, to expand the space for citizen participation in policy-making,  promote pluralism across geographic and sectarian boundaries, and to demand better and more responsive decision-making from elected representatives. Identifying common priority issues through local discussion groups and disseminating the issues, along with legal briefs, would assist in building a common thread that unites citizens in an issues-based common platform presented through a series of national forums at the Lebanese Parliament. The Alert and Frame team will run 24 facilitated dialogue sessions in each of the twelve locations selected in the inception phase. These will engage approximately 400-480 stakeholders. After local discussions are complete and thoroughly documented, a preliminary report including Citizens’ reform priorities will be drafted outlining common priority reform areas in which the views of the 400-480 stakeholders converge. At this stage, the preliminary report will be shared with Legal Agenda who will draft short briefs (1-2) pages on 10-12 issues identified in the discussion groups. The legal briefs will include legislative history, status quo, and options for reform. These will be presented at the six facilitated dialogue sessions with Legal Agenda as key participants. One session will be held in each of the six provinces and will bring together key representatives that participated in the first phase of discussions (approximately 72 persons). The provincial meetings will serve to narrow the 12 issues to four issues for further elaboration. Legal Agenda will prepare more in depth legal briefs (6-10 pages) on each of the four priority issues. Their role will be to provide necessary legal and judicial background information and assist in channelling the discussions towards practical legal and policy aims as well as to disseminate the findings through their monthly publication. After the finalization of the citizen priorities report and all legal briefs, an information package will be prepared and disseminated to all participants in the discussion groups, members of parliament, and both traditional and new media. These will also be presented at the national-level public discussions, which will take place in coordination with the Arab Institute for Parliamentary Training and Legislative Studies at the Lebanese Parliament, ensuring widespread media attention. Participants, issue experts, members of parliament and the media will be invited to attend the moderated discussions, which will be fully video-produced. Upon completion of the national discussion series, a roundtable discussion with the most active participants will be organized in order to build consensus around drafting a letter to be submitted on the Parliamentary Administration requesting more open and regular public consultations, and a continuation of citizen-led discussions, and participation in parliamentary work. The letter will be officially submitted to the Parliamentary Administration, which will have 30 days to respond to the recommendations outlined in the letter. The entire program would span 22 months from inception to completion. 2. Objectives of assignment The objective of the assignment is to facilitate discussions across Lebanon to bring out the priorities that citizens believe should be addressed by the government to improve their communal wellbeing. 3. Scope of work We aim to hire a team of 3 to 4 facilitators to cover the wide geographic area of the project. There will be 24 sessions in total across Lebanon during the first phase of the program, with each discussion session taking a maximum of 4 hours. Sessions will be digitally voice recorded and video footage will be taken. Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: Assist in the design of the discussion guide and facilitation sessions Facilitate the local discussions across the  across the country 4. International Alert responsibilities IA will provide the consultant with: a)   Relevant programme information   b) Transportation to and from areas where local discussions are conducted c)   Venue provision and discussion group participant recruitment 5. The expected output The implementation of 24 local discussions that  explore citizen priorities and concerns, how they experience the problems that arise from those priorities in their daily lives, how they affect their standard of living and how they envision effective solutions. . 6. Competences and experience The consultant should have more than three years experience in facilitating discussions geared towards bringing out specific outputs from participants. Due to the wide geographic scope of the project and its timeframe, flexibility of the discussion group facilitation team will be a consideration.  7. Time frame The dialogues will be held between July and November 2014.  The consultant will be expected to engage with the programme managers prior to the start of the dialogues. 8. Procedures and deadline for submitting proposals We encourage interested applicants to apply as a team of 3 or 4 facilitators given the geographical coverage and number of sessions to be held. Teams are thus expected to self-manage the availability of their members for the sessions the project schedules. Those wishing to be considered for this consultancy should submit their CV and quotation to the following email address prior to June 30, 2014: nbekdache@international-alert.org For more information, please contact International Alert on Telephone: 00961 1 744037