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Search for Common Ground (SFCG) recruitment for a Consultant

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Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and a European office in Brussels, Belgium, SFCG’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. SFCG seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. With a total of approximately 600 staff worldwide, SFCG implements projects from 55 offices in 34 countries, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. The organization is an exciting and rewarding place to work, with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff that is committed to its mission and values. You will be joining a highly motivated staff with a good team spirit and there will be opportunities to grow in the role. We are recruiting to fill the position below:     Job Title: Consultant: Institutional Learning - Listenership Assessment Location: Maiduguri, Borno About the Project The overall objective for the project is to support increased accountability and transparency in political parties in Nigeria. The project is being implemented in Sokoto, Adamawa, Ebonyi, and Bauchi states, over 11 months. It is based on the theory of change that If citizens are well informed about policy issues and party platforms, then political parties and candidates will be encouraged to develop issue-based platforms with clear positions on policies that address citizens’ concerns. It has two specific objectives an five expected outcomes:

• Objective 1: Increased capacity of local radio stations to provide accurate, reliable, and conflict sensitive information on policies, legislative agendas, and party platforms:
  • Local radio producers improve their capacity in the design and production of conflict sensitive and inclusive radio programming.
  • Context-relevant curricula for the radio programs are available.
• Objective 2: Increased communication and exchange of information on policies, legislative agendas, and party platforms between citizens and political parties and elected officials:
  • Listeners in each state are more informed about relevant policy issues and the position of political parties and elected officials on such policies.
  • Political parties and elected officials are more informed about the needs and concerns of their constituents.
  • Citizens in each state have a better understanding of public policies and the extent to which they affect their lives.

Listenership Assessment Purpose of Listenership Assessment:

• At the start of project implementation, Search needs to gather information to inform the development of radio programs that increase the exchange between citizens and political parties on policy issues and provide information on the work of the parties and elected officials in advancing policies as well as the role of citizens within this space. To this aim, a listenership assessment is planned in Sokoto, Adamawa, Ebonyi, and Bauchi states. The objectives of the survey are to determine:
• The reach and preferred radio station of listeners in different locations in the selected states
• The listening habits of the audience in the selected states including prime times and days of radio listenership, preferred format and length for radio programmes, and preferred language for radio programmes, among different demographics and in different locations in the states
• The preferred methods of publicity of the radio program, and feedback mechanisms among different demographics and in different locations in the selected state
• The perceptions and attitudes of citizens regarding accountability and transparency in political parties
• Relevant themes relative to the goal and objectives of the project which could be included in the radio programmes
• Findings from this survey will be used to inform programme planning and implementation, shared widely with project participants and partners, and presented during SFCG Nigeria programs. The reports – with sensitive details redacted – will eventually be published on SFCG’s website and shared with other learning networks in order to enhance the broader field of peace-building in Nigeria and the world.

Methodology The assessment, while mainly quantitative, will adopt a mixed method approach. Data will be collected in both rural and urban locations within the states, with respondents sampled from locations in each senatorial district of the state, including the capital city of each state. This is to determine the radio station with the widest coverage per state. Data collection methods will be a survey, and focus group discussions with disaggregated groups such as adult males, adult females, male youths and female youths. Quantitative data will be collected from an average of 390 respondents per state, with respondents sampled from the capital city of each state, as well as locations in each senatorial district of the state (130 questionnaires per senatorial district). Focus group discussions will also be conducted with a minimum of four FGDS per senatorial district, based on disaggregated groups, and with two key informant interviews per location. Thus, technical offers should include details on logistics and roll-out of the study: locations (LGA and community/town) where the study will be conducted, who the target respondents will be and why, how will they be identified or recruited, how data collection and data quality assurance will be carried out, as well as how data analysis will be done. Tools for the assessment will be developed by Search’s DME staff in collaboration with the consultant and/or team. The inception and final reports will be developed by the consultant and/or team with Search’s input. The tools will be administered in the identified communities and the data analyzed by the consultant and/or team chosen to perform this research. Deliverables The baseline assessment deliverables are:

• An inception report detailing the proposed method, study matrix, and work plan. It is to be approved by Search’s DME staff before starting data collection.
• Draft report for review by SFCG staff and other stakeholders
• Final Report (maximum 30 pages, excluding appendices), consisting of but not excluded to: Executive Summary, Methodology, Findings and Analysis, Conclusions, Lessons Learned and Recommendations. The report should be structured according to the evaluation questions. A template for baseline research within Search will be provided.
• All data collected for this research including audios and transcripts for all interviews, and quantitative data entered in a template, based on the methodology used
• Appendices, including data collection tools and list of interviewees
• A power point presentation of the report.

Required Profile Education:

• Graduate Degree in Media, Communications or other relevant Degree is an added advantage;

Experience:

• 5 years or more of experience in evaluations and large-scale qualitative and quantitative studies with international organizations;
• Experience in evaluating programs relating to social behavior change communication, media, journalism;
• Prior work experience in the study locations;
• Demonstrated experience in leading large scale research in the specific context of the study locations, including ability to recruit a research team locally as needed;

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent written communication and report writing skills in English
• Prior work experience in North East Nigeria
• Ability to communicate fluently in Hausa and Kanuri
• Ability to be Gender Sensitive and flexible with time and work schedule
• Logistical Support

SFCG will provide the following Logistical Support to the Consultant:

• Transmission of background materials (project proposal, meeting notes, etc.)
• Availability of a meeting room in Maiduguri as required;
• Meeting arrangements with stakeholders and beneficiaries as requested by the consultant

Time Frame:

• The assessment will take place between March and April, 2019, with preliminary findings due end of March and the final deliverables due Mid April, 2019

Budget and Terms of Engagement:

• All production costs incurred will be covered from the consultancy fee.
• 5% withholding tax will be deducted at source from the total cost of the consultancy fee for a firm.
• 40% of the consultancy fee will be paid when initial the contract is signed, 30% will be paid upon submission of initial findings and the remaining balance of 30% will be paid on final completion and submission of satisfactorily deliverables.

The consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles 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: https://www.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SFCG-External-Evaluation-Guidelines-FINAL.pdf How to Apply Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply Application Instruction Interested candidates are invited to send an application through the link above. The title of the application should be: “Listenership Survey - Nigeria Communication Programming” and the application should hold four attachments:

• 1 technical offer detailing the methodology, time frame and size of the evaluation team proposed (max 4 pages);
• 1 biography of the evaluator/ evaluation team demonstrating relevant experience/ knowledge (max 5 pages);
• 1-2 examples of past large-scale research where candidate was the lead evaluator;
• 1 financial offer (Excel) detailing the costs of the budget detailing honorarium, accommodation and traveling costs, field recruitments if necessary;
• 2 references of organizations who can verify the quality of the consultant’s work.

Submitted offers will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and selection made according to the following criteria:

• Quality of the financial offer: realism of the proposed costs, adequacy between the budget and the technical offer;
• Consultant's ability to conduct qualitative and quantitative studies, knowledge of methodology and field of research;
• Consultant's ability to conduct the study on time;
• Consultant's ability to recruit local data collection teams on site;
• Quality of reports proposed by the consultant as a sample;
• Other: the quality of the drafting of the offer will also be evaluated.

Note

• The system only has the functionality to upload two documents per application. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
• Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls please
• Please see our website: www.sfcg.org ​for full details of our work

  Application Deadline: 8th March, 2019.

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