Vacancy : Advocacy Consultant on Political Participation.

Terms of Reference (TOR)

Advocacy guidelines for DPO engagement with stakeholders on political participation

THE GENERAL ELECTION NETWORK FOR DISABILITY ACCESS (AGENDA)

Position:                                            Advocacy Consultant on Political Participation.

Period of Performance:                 1 September – 30 October 2016

Location:                                           Jakarta, Indonesia

Background

The General Election Network for Disability Access (AGENDA) is a creative partnership between the International Foundation of Electoral System (IFES), disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs), and election-focused civil society organizations (CSOs) in Southeast Asia. The AGENDA network's principal objectives have been to promote election access in Southeast Asia and ensure that access to disability-inclusive political processes is on the human rights agenda of regional bodies.

Southeast Asia is home to an estimated 90 million persons with disabilities. They face many barriers in their daily lives, including difficulties exercising their most fundamental right as citizens: the right to engage in the political life of their communities. Despite their numbers, governments, electoral institutions and political parties often fail to adopt strategies to reach out to citizens with disabilities. Until recently, there have been few systematic attempts to understand the sheer scale and variety of the challenges facing persons with disabilities in the area of political inclusion in Southeast Asia or to offer practicable solutions. There have also been few efforts to share comparative good practice and to monitor implementation of reforms mandated by international conventions and state laws to improve election access for persons with disabilities.

Advocacy plays significant role in any efforts by individuals, groups or institutions in achieving policy reform. Although many advocacy tools are widely available, none specifically address DPOs seeking direct engagement with government officials on political participation for persons with disabilities. In recognition of the need to improve access to political and electoral opportunities for persons with disabilities throughout Southeast Asia, AGENDA would like to strengthen the capacity of DPO partners to engage government, election administrators, media and other electoral stakeholders on election accessibility and political participation.

AGENDA is seeking an Advocacy Consultant to develop Advocacy Guidelines and conduct an advocacy training. The Advocacy Guidelines should be a resource toolkit on strategic advocacy planning for DPO that work to improve election accessibility and political participation for persons with disabilities. The advocacy resource toolkit will be used in trainings with AGENDA partners and the DPO community. The Advocacy Consultant would co-facilitate a training in Jakarta.

Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the AGENDA Program Manager, the Advocacy Consultant will undertake the following activities:

·         Develop a user-friendly Advocacy Guidelines on Political Participation. The guidelines should be relevant for DPOs and should cover the meaning and importance of advocacy, ways to analyze internal and external environments, agenda setting and develop strategic advocacy plan. The Advocacy Guidelines are expected to include case studies and technical skill exercises.

·         Conduct up to three (3) group interviews with DPO members to gather information about experiences with advocacy related to political participation, current practices, and any potential areas of need or gaps. Findings from these interviews should be incorporated into the Advocacy Guidelines.

·         Design a one-day training for 20 participants, based on the Advocacy Guidelines on Political Participation.

·         Serve as a trainer in the training for the DPOs.

·         Write a brief report (5-10 pages) on the advocacy training, including challenges, successes, and lesson learned for future implementation.

Deliverables

The Advocacy Consultant is expected to provide the following deliverables:

·         Advocacy Guidelines on Election Accessibility and Political Participation.

·         Interview notes and findings (3-5 pages) from group interviews.

·         Training materials, including agenda, presentations and hand-outs.

·         Report (5-10 pages) on the one-day advocacy training.

Interested candidates may send their applications and list of their previous works that related to Advocacy to:

vacancy@ifesindonesia.org  latest by 26 July 2016

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

No phone inquiries.