Call for a consultant to develop a curriculum on conflict transformation and community mobilising

Context

forumZFD is an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO), established in 1996. We are working in the field of conflict transformation in eleven countries in Europe, the Middle East and South-East Asia. forumZFD has been working in Lebanon since 2009 in three different programmes: Dealing with the Past, Capacity Development and Community Mobilising. Get more detailed information about our organisation here.

Our Approach:

Together with its partners forumZFD jointly develops local capacities within civil society and supports their projects for nonviolent conflict transformation to work towards change in attitudes, behaviour and structures. As forumZFD’s work is partner-focused, our role is to support local stakeholders in developing and implementing projects. Therefore, our approach includes training, coaching, mentoring, development of manuals and handbooks as well as co-implementation of projects and activities.

The Project:

Based on the experience of two previous community mobilising projects, forumZFD, in partnership with two local organisations in Lebanon will implement a project. Through this project, we intend to work directly with a group of around 15 community activists on conflict transformation in their communities. Through training and mentoring, the project intends to equip community activists with the necessary methods and tools on Conflict Transformation and community mobilising in order to constructively and proactively address local conflicts.

The Task

Within the community mobilising project, we aim to establish a comprehensive, accessible and sequential curriculum that covers concepts on conflict transformation and community mobilising. A curriculum that equips activists with the skills and tools in order to mobilize their community and work on conflict transformation in their local communities. This curriculum should include topics including, but not limited to: conflict behaviour, conflict analysis, conflict sensitive project design and management. The curriculum will be a compilation of current literature and knowledge produced by forumZFD as well as other sources on conflict transformation and workable tools to be used by the activists. An objective of the project is that the community activists, through the trainings and follow-up mentoring have:

• a deeper understanding of conflict transformation (e.g. being able to analyse a conflict as well as understand and use conflict analysis tools), conflict sensitivity, Do No Harm, as well as other related tools/concepts that they could apply within their community.

• the skills, the tools and the confidence to deal with conflicts in a constructive and non-violent way, such as communication skills (NVC, active listening), mediation, and facilitation.

• improved their skills and knowledge to design their own sustainable projects (e.g. planning, budgeting, time-management, evaluation, reporting).

• an increased ability of constructive and resource-oriented self-reflection (on the level of the community, personal journey, project).

Purpose/ Objectives

Building on the lessons learned of previous community mobilising projects, forumZFD seeks to find an expert in order to develop a curriculum. The consultant will use the resources of the previous training cycles, restructure and adapt them to the local context, as well as add to them wherever needed. In order to do so, the consultant will work together with the trainers and project coordinators of the previous community mobilising projects to see what resources are already existing and how to supplement them. The goal of the process is to come up with a curriculum that is:

• Comprehensive: covering all relevant topics for a community activist in order to be able to work on conflict transformation with her/his community such as: conflict behaviour, conflict analysis, conflict sensitive project design and management as well as other topics to be deemed relevant by the consultant and the project team
• Sequential: the curriculum should begin by covering the basics and further dive into more complex and workable topics
• Adaptive: the curriculum should present different modules that are complementary, but flexible enough to adjust to the activists needs and the realities on the ground
• Creative: include creative methods and new approaches on conflict transformation and community mobilising
• Practical: allowing to implement the learnings directly in the local context
• Accessible: easy to understand

Deliverables:

• Curriculum of compiled concrete tools and literature list
• Handouts and materials to be used and distributed in the trainings

Remuneration:

Applicants are requested to submit an itemized budget with the expenses especially the daily rate of and days needed to perform the proposed consultants in- and outputs. Remuneration will be based on the deliverable.

Timeline:

The consultant must provide us with a timeline. All deliverables must be completed by the 31st of January.