Country: occupied Palestinian territory
Closing date: 07 Mar 2017
Terms of Reference (TOR)
Advocacy and Media Training and EU Power Analysis Workshop
1.Background
Oxfam is a member of Oxfam International (OI) – an international confederation of 17 organizations working together in 90 countries with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. On a global level, OI strives to help communities suffering as a result of natural disasters, climate change, conflict, injustice and poverty. OI helps those communities who are most in need, whatever their race, creed, religion, ethnicity or nationality. Oxfam has been working in OPTI since 1982 and supports humanitarian, development, campaigning and advocacy programmes both in the West Bank and Gaza including East Jerusalem.
Oxfam works with local civil society partners in order to amplify their voices and increase their influencing capacity, in alignment to Oxfam’s Country strategy (OCS) and influencing strategy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israeli (OPTI). Palestinian and Israeli Civil Society partners play a crucial role in influencing international stakeholders to increasingly hold Israel accountable for respect of international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights (HR). Capacity-building for our partners is aimed at increasing their influence, both in the nature of the advocacy work they do and in building internal organizational strength in advocacy capacity. Media and advocacy training for staff actively and/or for those who would potentially be engaging in advocacy work of their organizations will help advance both these capacity building aspects.
Considered as a crucial international stakeholder, Oxfam also seeks to build a program that will give our partners an orientation for with the EU and its institutions, including power analysis, and give practical tools to building an advocacy strategy with this crucial target.
Oxfam will hold a 3-day workshop for strategic partners and for ally organizations. The first two days will focus on advocacy and media training and the third day will focus on the EU. .
This workshop will address these sensitivities and promote brainstorming to deal with challenges that Israeli CSOs face in the area of international advocacy particularly within the context of the Israeli occupation and the sensitivities stemming from their perceived mandate and borders for influence.
2.Overall Objectives of the assignment
· The purpose of this workshop is to strengthen internal capacity within the Israeli CSOs to promote their advocacy goals and strategically include them throughout their programmatic work, and also promote cooperation on joint advocacy issues between organizations and between Oxfam and its partners and allies.
3.Scope of work and Deliverables of the assignment:
The assignment will be conducted in full coordination with Oxfam and will target Israeli Civil Society Organizations – partners and Allies of Oxfam in OPTI. The organizations will be invited based on needs identified and discussed with Oxfam.
The Specific Objectives are:
· Provide practical tools, practice and confidence for conducting advocacy work with international actors;
· Strengthen advocacy strategy within the organization and for the need to train additional staff members for advocacy tasks, raise awareness to the benefits of such processes and initiate process of developing advocacy strategy plans within local CSOs;
· Promote an open discussion of the challenges and need for international advocacy and its role within the wider framework of the CSOs programs and projects;
· Identify needs of CSOs in capacity building in order to fully develop and implement international advocacy strategies within their organization;
· Develop risk analysis for the activities of CSOs within a context of shrinking civil society space;
· Develop MEAL tools for setting targets and indicators and measuring outcomes of advocacy work;
· Provide practical knowledge and tools about the EU and its institutions in order to enable better access for local CSOs when approaching the EU, including understanding of the power analysis and strategic goal setting;
Questions to be addressed in
What advocacy tools can be useful in the context of the OPTI?
Lessons on best practices from advocacy efforts in the context of other conflicts and how they can be applicable to the OPT context.
Drafting of advocacy messaging: what is your process? How do you test it? Do you take gender into consideration?
Identifying opportunities for advocacy in the OPTI: a dynamic brainstorming/analysis based on the experience of CSOs on how to best bring the voices from the OPTI to decisions-makers abroad.
What risks for the routine activities of the CSOs might arise from promoting international advocacy efforts? How can these risks be mitigated?
Internal capacity: Who should be doing advocacy within your organization? What untapped potential is there? Do you think enough about gender when selecting advocates?
The key tasks of the assignment are:
Task1: Develop training materials, documents and methodology
Task 2: Carry out and facilitate a 3-day training workshop
Task 3: Prepare a workshop summary report highlighting key observations, recommendations and next steps.
- The Duration and Schedule of the assignment:
The timeframe of this assignment is schedule for a maximum of 7 days commencing on March 15th2017 and completed no later than March 30th 2017. It is the responsibility of the consultant to ensure that the number of days earmarked for this consultancy is adhered to. All materials produced in the course of the consultancy are the property of Oxfam. The consultant will not share any internal documents provided by Oxfam with the outside world without the explicit written permission of Oxfam.
During the assignment, the consultant will deliver on the outputs described in the table below. Documents will be submitted in English in electronic format: Microsoft word format/PDF.
The following is a suggested timeline (availability and revised timeline should be submitted by the consultant in the expression of interest). Timelines may be subject for review during contract signature with Oxfam.
Key tasks and Deliverables
Description of Outputs
Proposed # of Consultancy Days
Task 1: Develop training materials and relevant documents
The consultant will submit the proposed training methodology, agenda, training plan, Power Point Presentation, exercises, that will address international advocacy, developing media strategy with special focus on EU context for Oxfam’s approval.
2 days
Task 2: Carry out and facilitate a 3-day training workshop (in-country)
- The workshop should be interactive, and draw from the experiences of the participating organizations in order to contextualize the advocacy, media strategies and EU expertise provided by Oxfam’s consultants, it should provide brainstorming and food for thought alongside the introduction of practical, easily implemented initial tools. In addition it shall include a seminar session requiring the participants to put together a plan for an advocacy strategy or write a specific project that integrates components of advocacy, so that the participants will have a document they can put into action in their organization. Finally The workshop will include a hands-on practice session demonstrating how to perform a power analysis and will prepare a targeting plan within the EU, relying on organizational knowledge, cooperation with other Civil Society actors, and the expertise within the EU provided by the consultant.
3 days
Task 3: Prepare a workshop summary report highlighting key observations, recommendations and next steps.
Submit a draft workshop summary report and debrief Oxfam;
Finalize the report based on Oxfam’s revisions and comments.
Submit final report to Oxfam
2 days
Total # of Estimated days for the assignment
7 days
5.Payment:
A payment plan will be developed upon consultation and agreement with the selected consultant prior to signing the service contract. Payment installments will be issued upon receipt of deliverables as agreed between Oxfam and the selected consultant and following submission of official documents as prescribed below:
A.. Individual consultants, private companies, are eligible to apply, subject to the availability of official documents of registration in the country/state where located, as follows:
B. Companies registered under the Palestinian Authority (PA) are required to an official tax invoice;
C. Companies registered under the Israeli authorities are required to submit an official tax invoice;
6. D. International and local consultants must abide by the Israeli Tax Law in considering the Israeli income tax in their price offer Budget:
The maximum budgeted amount for the full consultancy assignment is 4,200 EUR.
The contract will be awarded to the administratively and technically compliant bid that is the most economically advantageous, taking into account the quality of the services offered and the price of the offer. Oxfam reserves the right to negotiate, accept or reject any or all proposals and quotations at its sole discretion and to pursue or act further on any responses it considers advantageous.
The consultant’s travel costs including flight ticket, airport pickups and drop-offs, internal travel, and hotel accommodation will be covered by Oxfam. The consultant will be reimbursed for meals and project related incidentals only given the prior approval of Oxfam.
7.Consultancy Service Requirements:
This consultancy is open to both local and international consultants who will fulfil the following requirements:
• Academic degree in social sciences, development studies , journalism or media;
• Extensive knowledge in influencing in the context of CSOs.
• Extensive knowledge and skills in workshop and training facilitation;
• Experience in participatory M&E methods;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and analytical verbal and writing skills in English;
• Strong knowledge and understanding of context in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel
How to apply:
1.Applications
Oxfam invites bids from individual consultants or firms with the experience and skills described above. Bids must include the following:
• A letter of motivation outlining how your experience, skills, qualifications and professional background fit with the required deliverables (maximum one page) attaching at least two concrete examples of similar work demonstrating the consultancy service requirements.
• A Curriculum Vitae (CV) detailing relevant skills and experience including three contactable referees (maximum two pages).
• A financial offer that covers all consultancy related costs inclusive of VAT (excluding training logistic costs that will be covered by Oxfam) in PDF format;
• A proposed detailed timeline and work plan that includes the basic methodology based on the key deliverables described above; (the selected consultant will be requested to adjust the work plan for resubmission- as the first deliverable, following the signing of the consultancy contract with Oxfam).
The bids should be submitted via email addressed to Naama Baumgarten-Sharon**:** naama.baumgarten-sharon@oxfam.itwith a copy to Anton Naber:anton.naber@oxfamnovib.nl received no later than midnight GMT, March 07th 2017
