Civil Rights Defenders seeking consultants to conduct training on monitoring and documentation of human rights violations 

Civil Rights Defenders is looking for a consultant to design and conduct training on MDR for human rights defenders. Please read ‘Terms of Reference’ below.

Terms of Reference 

Conduct Training on Monitoring and Documentation of Human Rights Violations 

Contracting Party: Civil Rights Defenders  

Reports to: Aklile Solomon, Africa Department 

Project: Resilience and Protection for Human Rights Work in Ethiopia 

1. ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS DEFENDERS 

Civil Rights Defenders is an international human rights organisation based in Stockholm, Sweden, that partners with and supports human rights defenders (HRDs) globally. It has extensive experience in supporting HRDs most at risk. Civil Rights Defenders working through flexible, context sensitive and, when needed rapid interventions to support local actors who are at the core of ensuring the respect of human rights.  

Civil Rights Defenders works in the Africa region with the same mission of partnering with local HRDs and civil society to support local efforts that promote and defend human rights in the region. Civil Rights Defenders works closely with its local partners to create enabling internal capacity and external environment that ensure their continued presence and the impact of their work. 

Civil Rights Defenders is an expert organisation that partners with and supports human rights defenders (HRDs) globally. We have extensive experience in supporting HRDs by working through flexible, context-sensitive, and, when needed, fast interventions in order to support local actors who are at the core of ensuring respect for human rights. Our vision is a world of democratic societies in which we all enjoy our civil and political rights.     

Civil Rights Defenders works in the Africa region through close collaboration with local HRDs and civil society to support local efforts that promote and defend human rights in the region. We work to create an enabling internal capacity (skills, knowledge and resources) and external environment that ensure the continued presence and the impact of their work.   

Civil Rights Defenders has been partnering and working with local civil society organizations in Ethiopia with the aim of enhancing the role of human rights organizations and human rights defenders for an impactful participation in the protection and promotion of Human Rights in Ethiopia. With this objective, the project aims at contributing to create enabling environment for human rights work through increasing safety and organisational capacity of HRDs. 

2. BACKGROUND

Systematic collection, verification, and analysis of information to assess human rights situation in a country is an important tool of accountability. This tool has been used by CSOs, HRDs and international human rights mechanisms to get reliable data and information that can be used for advocacy and other processes of redress.  

Human rights monitoring, documentation, and reporting (MDR) is conducted by few organizations in Ethiopia. Where information is available and documented, it is conducted by limited number of organizations in a scattered manner. Most of these organizations conducting monitoring are not doing it systematically. More importantly, information gathered through monitoring is not adequately documented or reported. There is a gap in forming concrete recommendations and following up on the recommendations. As a result, many human rights violations remain unacknowledged and without redress. 

Human rights organizations do not have internal resources such as well-developed internal systems and trained or experienced human resource. Increasing the pool of resource by equipping HRDs with knowledge and skill will strengthen MDR capacity of CSOs.         

3. DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT 

Civil Rights Defenders is looking for an experienced consultant to design and conduct a training on MDR for human rights defenders.   

The objective of the assignment is to develop a tailored training for human rights defenders that can build their ability to conduct regular monitoring and documentation. The training should also equip participants with an ability to enhance their organizational MDR systems.  

4. SCOPE OF WORK AND EXPECTED DELIVERABLES 

a) The consultant is expected to deliver a training on MDR in accordance with the description and objective stated above. The training deliverable includes: 

b) Conduct pre training assessment to assess the knowledge and understanding of participants. 

c) Develop tailored contextualized skills-based training on monitoring, documentation and reporting for HRDs and human rights organizations. 

d) Develop resource materials for participants that can be used for practical exercise and later enhanced to form a component of their organizational internal system. 

e) Deliver a 5-day training on MDR. 

f) Conduct post training assessment to evaluate results from the training including increase in knowledge and skills. 

g) Develop assessment that will be used by civil rights defenders later to evaluate adoption of knowledge and skills. 

h) Develop narrative report including but not limited to evaluation of participant’s skill after the training, documentation of lessons learned and recommendations for civil rights defenders future engagement. 

5. DURATION OF WORK 

The assignment will be tentatively conducted for 10 Days from 01 December 2023- 15 January 2024 tentatively as follows: 

• 3 days to prepare for the training. 
• 5 days to conduct the training. 
• 2 days to compile report.  

REQUIRED EXPERTISE AND QUALIFICATIONS 

Required Qualifications  

• Extensive knowledge on human rights law, practice and jurisprudence is required.  
• Extensive knowledge and experience of monitoring, documentation and reporting in Ethiopia is required.  
• Deep knowledge and understanding of gender in the country including gender perspective to human rights violations and how women are uniquely affected is necessary. 

• Experience working with human rights defenders, CSOs and local communities in Ethiopia is an added advantage.     

Preferred qualifications  

• Strong communication, presentation, and public speaking skills.  
• Strong organizational and time management abilities.    

Ethics  

• An understanding and strict adherence to all human rights principles provided in international instruments and jurisprudence is mandatory.  
• An understanding of the unjustness of inequality (whether based on gender, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity, citizenship, economic status, etc.) and a commitment to strive for social change towards equity and justice. 

7. Payment schedule 

The consultants will receive the total payment upon the completion of all deliverables and approval by civil rights defenders. 

8. Application 

Interested applicants should send the following documents to Africa@crd.org by 15 December 2023. Applicants should use the phrase “MDR Training – Ethiopia” in the subject line to submit their application.  

1. CV and Relevant experience of those that will be involved in the project.  

2. Brief proposal that shows the draft content of the training and financial proposal. 

9. Criteria for selection   

Selection will fully be based upon the proposal submitted by the applicant. The technical proposal will be 70 percent and the financial proposal will have 30 percent weight.  

Evaluation: Technical proposal (70 percent) 

1. Applicant Qualification (30 percent) 

• Qualification of those involved in the project (10 %) 
• Knowledge and experience on project evaluation (20 %) 

2. Proposed Methodology (40 percent) 

• Technical understanding of the scope of the work, proposed methodology and timelines for deliverables (40%) 

3. Financial proposal (30%) 

• The best offer made and consideration of best value for money will be used in the financial evaluation.