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Consultant for Development of Durable Solutions Training Materials

IRC in Iraq

IRC established programs in Iraq in 2003 to address the overwhelming needs of displaced people in Iraq and the neighboring countries. Since re-establishing its presence in Iraq in November 2007, the IRC has been assisting thousands of internally displaced families in the northern and central governorates in Iraq in the sectors of protection, gender based violence, shelter, education, and emergency humanitarian assistance.

Since 2008, displaced families have begun to return, however communities continue to experience violence and hardship, both in places of displacement and in areas of return. IDPs and returnees, often living in IDP settlements, continue to lack access to essential services, face problems related to return or (re-)integration and do not understand their options for durable solutions or how to influence the process of establishing a durable solution for them and their families.

The IRC is implementing a project that will work closely with six IDP communities in an effort to strengthen their own self-protection mechanisms by providing a combination of protection and advocacy training, livelihoods and microenterprise opportunities, and gender based violence prevention and awareness activities.

The protection aspect of this project will assist IDPs in gaining the tools necessary to take an active and leading role in influencing decisions directly affecting the communities where they have sought refuge. The IRC will provide a representative group of IDPs from each community with leadership and representation training, focusing on rights awareness and advocacy skills. The aim of this training is to provide the IDPs with the tools needed to recognize violations of specific rights, identify stakeholders responsible for providing those rights, and develop a strategy to advocate on behalf of the community in response to identified violations of rights.

SCOPE OF WORK: The IRC is seeking a consultant to take the leading role in developing a new training guide and companion facilitator’s manual for protection and advocacy that will serve as the basis for the training that will be conducted in IDP settlements in Baghdad. The finished product should serve as a guide for trainers who will build the capacity of communities to undertake community-led advocacy on a number of self-identified protection concerns by the communities of IDPs, refugees and other persons of concern.

The guide should be in the form of “Traininig of Trainers” format - composed of “educational” blocks for IRC staff, partners and trainers to undertake “advocacy and protection trainings” for the target populations.

The primary goals of the consultancy are: 1) to review current training methodologies, guides and tools in protection and advocacy at the community level; 2) to compile a Protection and Advocacy Training Guide, highlighting methodologies and technical components necessary to build the skills of communities to be able to design advocacy campaigns for themselves; and 3) to train IRC trainers so that they are equipped to use the materials in trainings. The IRC may include a second trainer for this portion of the project based on language and training needs.

Training materials and techniques that are provided should maximize participant information retention and ensure that participants are equipped with the tools to apply the knowledge gained to their daily lives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Offsite: • Review existing protection and advocacy training modules and develop work plan for the development of protection and advocacy guide within one week of beginning the consultancy. This workplan will be reviewed by the IRC technical staff. • Draft a training manual covering a variety of protection and advocacy topics, based on materials existing training methodologies and modules and those that need to be created for this project specifically. These modules should be geared toward audiences with a low level of education, reflective of IDP audience who will be trained during this project. Each module should be approximately 2-4 pages and should include a balance of interactive training tools as well as relevant information on the topic.

• Draft a facilitator’s guide that will outline training module timing; provide training techniques to use while providing the training to both literate and illiterate audiences; and include techniques to measure immediate impact of trainings. The training module should provide the trainers with a step by step guide to facilitate the trainings—including hands on exercises, explanations on how to run each segment of the training and ways to engage the participants more fully. The tools used should not rely on PowerPoint presentations as access to technology in the field is not guaranteed.

Onsite: • Provide Training of Trainers for the Protection Officers who will implement the advocacy training for the IDPs including training techniques that will maximize participant information retention as well as teach them to apply the knowledge gained. Techniques both for literate and for illiterate audiences should be covered. Other IRC protection staffs that are field based and working with IDPs will also be in attendance. The IRC may hire a second trainer to assist with the training portion of this consultancy to ensure that all technical and language needs are fulfilled.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS: The IRC will provide the consultant with relevant materials already in existence that the IRC has created or used in protection and advocacy trainings. The consultant will be provided with project documents, relevant Iraqi laws, guiding principles on internally displaced persons and any other international legal documents that the consultant requests. The IRC will also provide existing training materials used in Iraq as well as the IRC Advocacy Manual.

DELIVERABLES: • A training manual • A facilitator’s manual • A 5-7 day training in Iraq for IRC staff (trainers) in the use of the manual. The ToT will be held in Baghdad (ideally), but could also be organized in Erbil.

TIME FRAME: The consultant will prepare the written materials at his/her home base. Within the first 5 days of the consultancy, the consultant will have to produce a draft outline of the Training Guide to the Iraq Technical Team for approval. The consultant will then in maximum 15 days draft the training guide in line with the requirements outlined above. After the written documents have been approved by IRC, the consultant will travel to Iraq for approximately 10 days, spending at least five days training field staff. All written documents and the training sessions will be provided in English. A maximum of 5 days for the inclusion of adaptations based upon the training in Iraq can be included.

The consultancy must be finished by February 1, 2012.

REQUIREMENTS: • Advanced university degree, preferably in Advocacy, Human Rights or International Law; • Experience developing training modules on advocacy and community mobilization or experience in directly implementing these activities in the field; • Experience as a professional consultant for humanitarian aid organizations; • Expertise in protection, durable solutions and IDP situations; • Arabic language skills a plus; • Good facilitation and presentation skills; and • Sense of humour and willingness to travel to Iraq.

Apply at: http://www.rescue.org/careers