NGO Job at Search For Common Ground (SFCG)
South Sudan: Baseline evaluation: Facilitating Access to Justice in South Sudan
Organization: Search for Common Ground
Country: South Sudan
Closing date: 05 Jan 2017
1. Context
About Search for Common Ground
Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international conflict transformation NGO that aims to transform the way individuals, groups, governments and companies deal with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA, and Brussels, Belgium, with field offices in 35 countries, SFCG designs and implements multifaceted, culturally appropriate and conflict-sensitive programs using a diverse range of tools, including media and training, to promote dialogue, increase knowledge and determine a positive shift in behaviors.
The Project
Ongoing uncertainty and instability in South Sudan underscores the fragile justice system that has thus far failed to provide effective legal remedies to the most vulnerable segments of South Sudan’s population, particularly women and youth in marginalized rural communities across the country. Compounding the supply-side challenges to the establishment of a vibrant and healthy justice system is the lack of capacity amongst rule of law actors to effectively carry out their duties in a manner that respects human rights and the needs of citizens. Additionally, the absence of information, trust, and confidence in the justice sector has limited the ability of the citizenry to demand effective legal remedies, and a lack of capacity in civil society has hindered their ability to fill the critical gaps in the current justice system, placing the responsibility in the hands of limited interventions by international actors.
To address these issues, the Access Partnership Consortium (APC), consisting of Search for Common Ground (SFCG), in partnership with the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) and the Initiative for Peace Communication Association (IPCA), is proposing a two year project with the following overall goal: To improve access to justice services that provide legal remedies to rural and marginalized citizens in five South Sudanese counties.
This overall goal will be achieved through a three-pronged approach that will: (1) increase demand for effective justice services, (2) improve supply of quality legal remedies for the most marginalized populations, and (3) produce community-rooted research leading to policy reform to ensure nationwide impact.
The project’s theory of change is:
If marginalized citizens have increased access to an improved justice sector, and this access is complemented by interconnected media and civil society support, then the foundation will be laid for a more functional and equitable justice sector, and improved peaceful coexistence at the community level.
The project has three activity streams:
Activity Stream 1: Improved demand for legitimate and effective justice mechanisms that address the needs of the most vulnerable populations.
Objective 1: Citizens are aware of their legal rights and duties.
· Result 1: The APC generates an increased demand for legitimate justice services through increased community knowledge of and familiarity with their legal and human rights and the judicial system.
· Activities: Radio magazine and drama production; participatory theater and community dialogue forums; public info campaign; and justice newsletter.
Objective 2: Citizens, including indigent individuals accused of serious crimes, are provided with legal aid.
· Result 2: Legal aid clinics, advocates, and paralegals have increased capacity to offer pro-bono legal aid services increasing citizen access to legal aid services.
· Activities: Legal aid clinics and the provision of pro-bono legal aid services; assessment of mobile and special courts; support to legal aid advocacy and paralegals; assessment of the referral system; and legal education.
Objective 3: CSOs more effectively facilitating access to justice, with an eye towards project sustainability.
· Result 3: Increased program sustainability through improved capacity and increased engagement in justice system activities by target CSOs.
· Activities: CSO capacity building; technical trainings; and rural justice fund.
Activity Stream 2: Improved supply of quality legal remedies that meet the unique needs and rights of marginalized populations.
Objective 4: Rule of law actors, including police, prosecutors, and prisons, are provided with increased support to carry out their core functions.
· Result 4: Increased trust in rule of law actors through improvement in their ability to carry out their duties in line with human rights standards.
· Activities: Police and prison officer trainings; training curriculum; prosecutor trainings; gender accountability modules; rule of law actor coordination forums; and an assessment of future law activities.
Objective 5: Justice service providers, including customary law courts and statutory courts, are providing citizens (including women and youth) with effective legal remedies.
· Result 5: Improvement in the performance of local justice providers -particularly with regards to the needs of women and youth- leading to increased engagement with justice mechanisms.
· Activities: Statutory and customary law trainings; mentoring program for justice actors; provision of legal resources; community legal meetings.
Activity Stream 3: Community-rooted research leading to policy reform.
Objective 6: Develop a law and policy package on legal aid.
· Result 6: Increased capacity of the Directorate of Legal Aid and Human Rights to execute its functions related to legal aid provisions.
· Activities: Legal expert to support Directorate; assessment of barriers to access to justice; support to grassroots legal aid efforts.
Objective 7: Local and national level policy makers and donors have access to knowledge gained from research on rural justice issues and project implementation to strengthen reforms to legislative and policy framework.
· Result 7: Increased access to authentic information to improve access to justice.
· Activity: Justice and conflict research; integrated research
2. Objectives of Study
SFCG seeks a consultant to conduct a baseline study for this project. The objectives of the study are as follows:
- Investigate the intersection between justice and conflict in South Sudan (and relevant gaps and opportunities)
- Conduct a needs assessment to determine the capacities of the following groups in supporting access to justice:
- Justice sector
- Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
- Police and prison officers
- Assess the project Objectives, Indicators and Theory of Change (TOC), and potential to carry out Objectives 4-7 in the scope of the project.
- Conduct a risk assessment in order to ensure “Do No Harm” and conflict sensitivity are respected in the project.
3. Geographic Locations
Together, the donor and implementing partners will determine the five project locationsbased on a set of criteria including preexisting APC presence, previous experience with INL programming, ongoing access to justice interventions, need for project activities, potential for sustainability, marginalization, and potential for access (conflict and security). Special consideration will be given to Protection of Civilians sites (PoCs), such as in UN House and Bor, where displaced populations oftentimes lack access to fair and unbiased justice mechanisms.
The baseline will be used to determine final project locations. Potential locations include[1]:
- Juba County
- Bor
- Mingkaman
- Torit
- Rumbek
- Nimule
The baseline will be conducted in three of the five locations selected for the project (depending on the budget). Of these three there must be urban and rural population representation.
4. Baseline Questions
The evaluation questions will be developed by the external consultant on the basis of the questions below, specifically seeking to identify the following in target communities:
Conflict and Justice Contextual Assessment
- What long-term and recent developments have affected conflict dynamics and access to justice?
- What is the state of work supporting ‘access to justice’ in South Sudan? What are the current approaches being taken? What are the gaps (and entry points to address them) and opportunities for improved systemic response?
- What are the key drivers and triggers of conflict? What unifiers and dividers shape conflict?
- How do existing conflicts affect access to justice?
- What does ‘peaceful coexistence’ mean to citizens?
- What mechanisms currently support peaceful coexistence?
Assessing Access to Justice
- How do citizens define and understand access to justice?
- Which citizens/demographic groups experience marginalization in communities, and does it affect their access to justice? What are the barriers to accessing to justice?
- Capacities and Service Provision
- What are the capacities of the justice sector in providing services to all?
- What role do the media, civil society, and security sectors play in the delivery of justice, and what are their capacities in supporting access to justice? Assess the current reach and relevance of media and civil society justice campaigns or programs.
- To what extent do media, civil society, and justice sectors coordinate to improve and expand justice services?
Theory of Change and Program Design
- Considering the current status of project indicators, objectives and theory of change, are there recommendations for adaptations to improve the potential impact of the project?
Risk Assessment
- What are the contextual and project-related risks that require monitoring throughout the project?
- What can the project do to assure it is conflict sensitive and respects “Do No Harm” principles?
5. Methodology
The baseline will apply a mixed-methods approach consisting of a literature review[2], quantitative survey, as well as qualitative methods (Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)). The consultant will be responsible for finalizing the literature review, designing the final methodology, developing tools, training of enumerators, data analysis, and drafting of the report. The Project Team will review all tools as well as collect qualitative data in at least three locations (in consultation and coordination with the consultant). The baseline/needs assessment will include questions developed with theSouth Sudan Law Society and other entities to look at the intersection of justice and conflict in the country.
Deliverables
SFCG expects the following deliverables from the external consultant:
- A baseline plan (inception report) detailing a proposed methodology, tools, calendar and written evaluation tools for a baseline study;
- Training of enumerators;
- Supervision and participation in data collection;
- Oversight of the data coding process;
- Submission of the databases to SFCG;
- PowerPoint presentation of findings;
- Analysis of the data collected and production of a draft evaluation report in English, for review by SFCG staff and partners;
- A Final Report in English (40 pages max in length, excluding appendices) that consists of (unless otherwise agreed upon with SFCG):
- Table of contents
- Abbreviations
- Executive summary of methodology, limitations, key findings and recommendations
- Background information (project specifics)
- Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis and limitations of the study
- Research findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives/evaluation criteria and should cover all indicators)
- Indicator table showing all baseline indicators
- Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography.
Logistical Support
The consultant(s) will be responsible for organizing their own logistics for data collection (vehicles, fuel, and drivers), and this must be budgeted into the study. SFCG South Sudan will provide support in arranging the logistics. At least one SFCG staff member will be available to support qualitative data collection for this study.
In addition, SFCG and partners will share the following elements with the external consultant: Background materials including the project proposal and logframe, M&E plan, etc.
6. Timeline
Jan 15 Consultant contract signed
Jan 31 Finalize Inception Report including literature review and tools
Feb 7-8 Training
Feb 9-27 Data collection
Feb 28-Mar 3 Data entry
Mar 8 PowerPoint produced for findings workshop
Mar 9 Findings workshop
Mar 17 First draft of baseline report
Mar 22 Review of baseline report
Mar 28 Final draft of baseline report submitted
TOTAL TIME ESTIMATED 72 Days
7. Budget
The budget will not exceed 30,000 USD.
8. Requirements of consultant
- The following skills and experience are expected by SFCG for our evaluator for this project:
- Proficiency in English and Arabic (written and spoken);
- More than 5 years of experience in project evaluation, including collecting data in interviews, surveys and focus groups;
- Experience in conflict analysis and working with justice and civil society sectors;
- Experience working with international organizations;
- Experience conducting quantitative surveys and analysis;
- Evaluation methods and data collection skills;
- Familiarity and experience with South Sudan contextual challenges.
In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles[3]:
- Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
- Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
- Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
- Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.
In addition, the consultant will respect SFCG’s evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG’s evaluation guidelines: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilt/dme_guidelines.html
How to apply:
Applications
To apply, interested candidates (individuals or teams) are requested to submit the following two documents:
- Curriculum vitae;
- A technical proposal proposing a methodology for the baseline together with a financial proposal for the completion of the aforementioned deliverables and a short cover letter.
Note: Only two documents can be submitted, so the technical and financial proposals must be combined, along with the short cover letter.
Applications must be submitted to our recruitment website here before 5 Jan. 2017. For questions or clarifications, please contact alemon@sfcg.org.
[1] Yambio and Yei were originally identified as potential locations in the proposal, but due to the current security situation in these locations they were removed from the list in favor of more accessible and secure locations (specifically, Rumbek was added to the list).
[2] The literature review should engage with recent research from the British Council on access to justice in South Sudan.
[3]Adapted from the American Evaluation Association Guiding Principles for Evaluators, July 2004