Request For Expression Of Interest For Consultancy Services

Consultancy Services in Conducting Technical Studies and Other Related Activities to Support to the Nar 2021-2025 Strategic Plan in Areas of Governance and Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Research and Capacity Building
Never Again Rwanda

We are a Rwandan peacebuilding and social justice non-governmental organization that was established in 2002, in response to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.We aim to empower citizens of diverse backgrounds from Rwanda and the Great Lakes region with opportunities to become active citizens for a peaceful society.For the last 19 years, we have emerged as a peacebuilding influence, a thought-leader in governance, citizen participation and youth engagement. We are currently operating in over 20 districts countrywide, and working with residents from over 250 communities


Consultancy Services: Never Again Rwanda is looking for multiple individual consultants to provide consultancy services in conducting technical studies and other related activities to support to the NAR 2021-2025 strategic plan in areas of Governance and Human Rights, Peacebuilding, Research and Capacity Building.

BACKGROUND

Never Again Rwanda (NAR) is a peace building and social justice organization founded in response to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. NAR is one of the leading national peace building organizations with nearly 20 years of experience. Guided by a vision of a nation where citizens are agents of positive change and work together towards sustainable peace and development. NAR aims to empower Rwandans with opportunities to become active citizens through peace building and development. NAR places a particular emphasis on youth as the future of a peaceful society.

NAR has worked in 19 districts in areas of peacebuilding, governance & human rights, youth engagement and research with the goal of delivering on our commitment to empower a community that enjoys sustainable peace, development and social justice. Our activities focus on helping reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so that our communities can sustain progress.

NAR 2021-2025 strategic plan focuses on meeting goals within the mandate and capability of NAR, better implementation modalities and synergetic programmatic outcomes. The key is strengthening advocacy and citizen-voices by establishing strategic partnerships and issue-based coalitions to collectively advocate for issues of concern and influence policy processes.

Anchored in five pillars of Peacebuilding, Governance and Human Rights, Research, Youth Engagement, Strategic Partnerships; NAR’s 201-2025 strategic goals are:

To empower citizens with non-violent means of resolving conflict, build trust and promote trauma healing and genocide prevention
To promote participatory and inclusive decision-making processes and advance rights-based approaches
To become an established think tank through quality research
To increase the capacity of the youth to become peace agents, improve their livelihoods, advocate for their rights and those of the vulnerable populations in their community
To build strategic partnerships for policy engagement and advocacy

Pillars brief
Peacebuilding
We are empowering citizens with non-violent means of resolving conflict, building trust and promoting trauma healing and genocide prevention. Through the Peacebuilding pillar, we train our beneficiaries, especially young people in critical thinking and dialogue facilitation skills. We also equip them with principles and values of peace education. We create and facilitate spaces for peace to bring together youth and community members from diverse backgrounds to discuss their traumatic sensitive issues in order to support each other in the healing process through dialogue. We convene a group of university students and young professionals from different countries in Africa and beyond every year, to inspire current and future peacebuilders through an intensive 2-week peacebuilding institute.

To accomplish these goals, NAR is leveraging its technical, coordination and administrative strengths to provide integrated policy advice, evidence-based solutions, quality assurance and management services. This approach is supporting NAR deliver a growing national and sub-national portfolio of activities in Rwanda.

Governance and Human Rights
We are promoting participatory and inclusive decision-making processes and advancing rights-based approaches. We employ citizen-centered approaches to mobilize citizens to participate in policy and decision-making. Our interventions and activities aim to bridge the gap between citizens and decision-makers by creating spaces for dialogue through encouraging government accountability, responsiveness, transparency, and supporting citizen participation in the governing processes. We create citizen forums to build the capacity of citizens to better assess their needs and priorities, strengthening their link with policymakers, which minimizes the vertical space between the beneficiaries of public policies and decision-makers, thus strengthening the accountability of local authorities.

Research
We are contributing to the creation of new knowledge and designing interventions based on a strong understanding of the context. We undertake multidisciplinary research on a wide range of social issues to create new knowledge and ensure that our interventions are based on a strong understanding of the context. In all our research projects, we use the participatory action research methodology that calls for greater involvement of research participants, at all the stages of the process. We pay extra attention to the opinions voiced by the people that are being affected by the social phenomena, which brings a lot of sensibility and nuances to the research findings.

Purpose
The aim of the Call is to establish a qualified pool of consultants who can deliver professional services on a long-term basis for the independent assignments carried out at NAR.

Your Role
As independent consultants you will work in a team of motivated development professionals on different projects aiming at building responsive and accountable institutions, promoting inclusive participatory governance and fostering resilient and peaceful communities across Rwanda.

You will implement assignments ranging from long-term technical assistance to short-term consultancy for Never Again Rwanda.
You will be responsible for conducting and delivering assignments in the fields of Peacebuilding, Governance and Human Rights and Research. You will be involved in the full range of consulting responsibilities: research for evidence-based advocacy, inputs for better project implementation, design approaches and methodologies for efficient capacity building. You will actively contribute to further developing our portfolio. You have a clear client-orientation, and are up to date with trends and developments in the fields mentioned above. In addition, you have relevant experience in at least one (but ideally more) of our service areas: policy analysis and advocacy; technical assistance and capacity building; or research, monitoring and evaluation.

We’re looking for people who are passionate about making a difference and consider themselves supportive, intelligent, imaginative and principled. You should also have experience in some or all of these areas:

More specifically the consultant’s roles and responsibilities under the governance pillar will be:
To implement assignments involving high quality research, policy advice; evidence of developing effective systems including all governance documents, policies and processes for decision making and monitoring.
Draft and/or input on required briefs for NAR including position papers on issues pertinent to our work interventions
Undertaking the necessary research, literature review to assist NAR articulate its new position, thinking in a new area of work under its governance portfolio.
Development of knowledge products for the Effective Governance Team.
Support the organizing of knowledge events (national and regional).
Based on analysis, provide technical advisory services on possible actions and entry points in response to emerging needs/trends.

More specifically the consultant’s roles and responsibilities under the peacebuilding pillar will be:
undertake and/or supervise specific research and analysis where appropriate ensuring adherence to high standards
Gather, select and analyze information related to peace building issues in Rwanda, from different sources;
Support implementation of specific activities where dedicated additional peacebuilding expertise is identified as needed in coordination with program manager (additional to training, e.g., facilitation of events);
Closely collaborate with the research team on studies whose agenda is linked to concept of peacebuilding
Draft mandated publications, briefing notes, activities, reports for planned activities related to NAR’s peacebuilding interventions;
Ensure the coherence of the peace building overall activities and other ongoing peace or mediation efforts, and how they can reinforce one another;
Identify needs and provide support for capacity-building on conflict management and sustainable peace through advice, expertise, and technical support;

More specifically the consultant’s roles and responsibilities under the research pillar will be:
Developing research and studies for the company.
Selecting appropriate data and literary sources for research purposes.
Designing questionnaires and research sub-tasks.
Conducting experiments, survey sessions, and data collection.
Analyzing and organizing gathered information.
Drafting and finalizing research reports for presentation.
Identifying key areas of concern and areas of improvement in research design and implementation.
Discussing findings with other researchers and members of the organization.
Presenting your work in written and verbal form to different stakeholders.

More specifically the consultant’s roles and responsibilities for capacity building will be:
Identify training and capacity building needs of the programs planned activities.
Develop action plans based on the capacity building roadmap and training strategy to achieve NAR’s capacity building targets.
Conduct assessment of the existing training infrastructure in the Department and develop action plan to improve their capacity to lead the training interventions
Assist in / liaise with the senior capacity building expert in development of course content and training programs aimed at capacity building.
Preparation of Develop training modules, training tools and guidelines
Support the research team work. undertake any other assignments, which may be assigned from time to time

Qualifications
The desired skills and experience of the consultants include the following:

Governance
Minimum 7 years of previous working experience in research, statistics and report-writing on governance issues, with at least 5 research papers with international or regional organizations;
5 years of relevant professional working experience on Rwanda in the area of Governance.
Knowledge of wider governance issues;
2 years of previous working experience on relevant topics in connection to the NST1 in particular on the objective of strengthening partnerships between Government, private sector, citizen, NGOs and FBOs to fast-track national development and people centered prosperity.
Excellent analytical, working and drafting skills and experience of providing policy advice at the international, regional or national levels;
Cultural and political awareness, diplomatic skills, ability to adapt and ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering results.
Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work and to work under pressure and tight deadlines.
Technical expertise in and experience in facilitation of coalition building and thematic working groups for advocacy and policy influencing,
Strong written and oral communication skills for high-level policy audiences
Expert skills in policy analysis and issue-based stakeholders’ relationships analysis.
Sensitivity to details and inclusion issues.
Ability to write powerful change influencing materials (policy notes, issue-based policy briefs, background papers, discussion documents, human interest stories, etc.) and to engage high-ranking government policymakers.
Extensive working experience with civil society or international cooperation in a policy influencing or advisory role.
PhD or master’s degree in performance Improvement, Governance studies, political sciences, development studies, law, or any other relevant field in social sciences.

Capacity Building
At least 7 years progressive working experience in providing quality capacity building to organizations in areas of governance, advocacy, policy influencing, participatory approaches, research, documentation, data analysis, reporting and learning.
Prior experience in conducting capacity gaps and needs assessments.
Experience in designing and providing technical accompaniment including on the job trainings, learning by doing, etc.
Strong capacities and experiences in designing quality capacity building materials.
Demonstrated experience in developing training curricula, including workshop agendas, presentations, and training exercises, games, and drills.
Conversant with innovative approaches and strategies for capacity building of adult people
Experiences in conducting out of the box thinking sessions and facilitate high level cross-learning, policy dialogues and experience sharing.
Strong experience in producing and disseminating knowledge management products.
Strong experience in the use of participatory approaches and expert knowledge in Participatory Action Research (PAR)
Experience and skills in scientific data collection, analysis, and reporting
Significant experience in NGO capacity building, training, and facilitation in Rwanda and region
Strong facilitation and training skills required.
Proven record of delivering high quality professional outputs.
Excellent speaking and writing skills in English.
Ability to work within tight deadlines.

Peace Building
Possess a minimum of 7 years significant professional experience in peacebuilding or development programming through a ‘peacebuilding lens’
Proven technical expertise, policy and program advise on peacebuilding projects/activities
Deep knowledge of peacebuilding concepts and methods
Proven understanding of Non-Governmental Organizations and civil society development.
Knowledge of facilitation methods and experience in practicing facilitation in multi-stakeholder environments
Must demonstrate track record in working independently and as part of the team.
Have the ability to maintain positive relationship with organization partners and meet deadlines.
Master’s degree or PhD in peace and conflict studies, Peacebuilding, Psychology, Psychiatry, or other related fields

Research
7 years' experience as a researcher or study leader.
Demonstrable research skills such as data analytics, statistics, or survey design.
Impeccable writing and organizational skills.
Proficiency in research design, research report writing, and source analysis.
A thorough knowledge of research procedures and best practices.
Team-working and communication skills.
Ability to conduct research independently.
Knowledge of research and experimental techniques for gathering both qualitative and quantitative data.
A history of published articles, studies, or research work.
Master’s degree in relevant field of study such as mathematics, information science, computer science, statistics.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments
Interested consultants must send a financial proposal based on Daily Fee. Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the consultant in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed if applicable.

Document Submission
Documentation required
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal using the template provided in Annex II. Financial Proposal to be submitted in Rwandan Francs (Frw)
Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;

Proposal Submission
All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy (Governance Consultant, Peace Building Consultant, Research Consultant, Capacity Building Consultant and submitted via e-mail info@neveragainrwanda.org

Note that proposals submitted via any other mode than email address provided will not be accepted.

Note: Incomplete and joint proposals will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity.