Terms of Reference
Consultant Writer for the ASEAN Foundation S Rajaratnam Endowment
ASEAN Community Forum Report
During the 27th ASEAN Summit, the ASEAN leaders adopted the ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together document as the reference for the next chapter of ASEAN community building efforts. The document contains the blueprints of the ASEAN Political Security Community (APSC) 2025, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2025, and ASEAN Social Cultural Community (ASCC) 2025 which essentially serve as the roadmap towards an ASEAN Community 2025.. As surmised in ASEAN 2025 at A Glance, the focus of the ASEAN community building in the next 10 years will be, among others:
- Greater emphasis on the peoples of ASEAN and their well-being;
- Enhance awareness of ASEAN and its Vision of a politically cohesive, economically integrated and socially responsible Community;
- Engage all nationals of ASEAN Member States through effective and innovative platforms to promote commitment and identification with ASEAN policies and regional interests;
- Ensure fundamental freedoms, human rights and better lives for all ASEAN peoples.
The
above goals are in principle shared and understood by ASEAN at the
institutional/elitist level, but limited at the community and grassroots
levels. It remains to be seen whether peoples of ASEAN know about them,
really understand and share what is being envisioned and captured in
the ASEAN 2025. As pointed out in ERIA report (2015), there are two
distinctions of ASEAN identity, i.e. institutional identity and communal
identity. The former is reflected by all ASEAN institutions, programmes
and initiatives, and processes; while the latter is about peoples’
participation in the initiatives and processes, and about the sentiments
of the “we feeling”, the “ours feeling” and “we are in this together”.
Nevertheless, as stated above, the disconnection between these two
identities unfortunately remains a challenge.
Responding
to such challenges, the ASEAN Foundation has been mandated to perform
as a platform to forge more people-to-people engagement/connectivity
outside the circles of the inter-governmental institutions. In this
regard, within the period of March 2017 – April 2018 and through the
support from S Rajaratnam Endowment, the ASEAN Foundation have organised
three (3) ‘S Rajaratnam Endowment - ASEAN Community’ Forums, that all
aim to assist in narrowing the gaps between ASEAN’s institutional
identity and ASEAN’s communal identity. The Forums will not only evolve
around forging people-to-people engagement, but it will do so in a
manner that will also contribute concretely to the ASEAN’s key issues
and blueprints that matter for the well-being of the ASEAN peoples.
To
date, the ASEAN Foundation organised two S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN
Community Forum series, in 2017. The forums brought around 82
participants from 74 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across ASEAN to
discuss topics on Rural Development, Women Economic Development and
Micro-Small-Medium-Enterprises (MSMEs), Dynamic ASEAN (Sustainable
Development), Sustainable ASEAN (Environment Protection), and Resilient
ASEAN (Disaster Management).
The
Forums resulted in increasing and advancing the CSOs participant’s
understanding of ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and awareness of ASEAN and
its development agenda. The forums also allowed the CSOs participants
to discuss, collect and synthesise their voices, opinion and
interpretations of the respective characteristic and elements of the
ASEAN Community Pillars. The Forums provided key recommendation and
action plans which will be shared with the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN
relevant bodies.
Meanwhile, on 14 – 15 March 2018,
the ASEAN Foundation will organise the third S Rajaratnam Endowment –
ASEAN Community Forum which would focus on the topic around 1). Youth
and Education; 2). Culture and Information; and 3). Culture of Peace[1].
These topics will see how different community participants from
different background in ASEAN coming from the three sectors explore
alliance building and collaboration with corporates and policy makers to
come up with solutions in narrowing the gaps between ASEAN’s
institutional identity and ASEAN’s communal identity in the region.
For more information, visit: http://aseanfoundation.
JUSTIFICATION
The
purpose of this procurement is to contract a consultant who will be
working on the 3rd S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum which
is going to be held on 14 – 15 March 2018 in Singapore. The report on 3rd S
Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum outlines the overall
objectives of the forum covering reported activities result in the
programme agenda. The report includes all result from the two-day forum
both at the plenary and world café sessions.
The
production of the SRE – ASEAN Community Forum helps the ASEAN
Foundation to attain effective and efficient use of resources and be
more accountable to donors and other stakeholders and Civil Society
Organization (CSOs) participants who participated the forum. This is to
build credibility for the organisation and to inspire confidence that
the organisation is worthy to receive the contribution and investment,
made.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES
Under
the supervision of the Programme Manager and overall guidance of the
Executive Director, and in close collaboration with relevant staff, the
consultant will perform the following tasks:
- To develop the concept of the ASEAN Foundation report which address objectives of the S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum.
- To formulate its draft content by extracting and collecting information from the forum proceedings including presentations of guest speaker, thematic resources persons, the CSOs action plans, and post forum evaluation report.
- To extract key information from presentation materials during the plenary session.
- To incorporate the information from the post forum evaluation report into the forum’s report.
- To prepare the first draft, subsequent drafts and final version of the S Rajaratanam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum Report; including fact-checking and proof-reading (including after the report goes to the designer)
- To identity relevant photos, graphics, etc from the ASEAN Foundation’s library to go with the text
- To liaise with graphic designer on a regular basis on the development of the S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum report
- To deliver the S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum S Report
OUTPUT
- Final text as word document, including table of contents, photo caption and credit information, for the S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum Report.
- Proof Reading of design layout to ensure text and graphic are error free
EXPECTED RESULTS/DELIVERABLES
- First draft of the report submission: 30 March 2018
- Final draft of the S Rajaratnam Endowment – ASEAN Community Forum submission: 13 April 2018
TIME FRAME AND RENUMERATION
The consultant will work for ten working days spread out from 23 March to 13 April 2018.
It is noted that due to the nature of the project, there will be
periods of time when no actual writing will occur because the writer
will be waiting for either text clearances from ASEAN Foundation and /
or layout from the designer.
QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS
- University degree in communications, social sciences or other related fields
- At least over five years of progressive work experience in a relevant field
- Previous experience in writing the high-level forum report writing experience
- Previous experience in copy-editing and fact-checking
- High level proficiency in standard computer software, in particular, Microsoft word and Excel.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, of publication standard
- Persistence in follow up, tact and diplomacy
- Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines
All interested applicants to send application, stating the position with the following documents to procurement@
- Application letter and time table on how the assignment will be carried out completed with clear deliverables
- Curriculum vitae
- Samples of writing
- Financial proposal specifying a total lump sum amount highlighting deliverables.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: 20 March 2018
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