Consultant - Budget Advocacy Training At Mercy Corps

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Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation. With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria, causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs. Over the years, Mercy Corps' strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Budget Advocacy Training

Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Employment Type: Contract

Background
The Northeast Conflict Management and Stabilization (NE-CMS) Program is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to improve security and reduce support for violence in Borno State in Northeast Nigeria. Following two previous phases of the program starting in August 2016, the NE-CMS program entered Phase III in August 2019 for an additional two-year implementation period, which is expected to result in:

• Citizens are more civically engaged, and civilian government are more transparent and inclusive in addressing community needs around service delivery
• Communities demonstrate improved trust and social cohesion within and between actors at the local level
• Local decision-making and peacebuilding processes are equitable and inclusive of marginalized social groups, especially youth and women.

The consortium aims to achieve these outcomes through a range of activities:

• Engaging government in capacity building and mentorship, supporting traditional leaders and communities to conduct advocacy and accountability activities;
• Encouraging dialogue and psychological trauma healing among diverse stakeholders to generate trusting relationships, nurture reconciliation, and mitigate potential future crises; and
• Establishing parallel safe spaces for women and youth to ensure that they can effectively contribute to peacebuilding. NE-CMS operates in five targets LGAs, namely: Maiduguri Municipal Council (MMC), Jere, Dikwa, Damboa, Gwoza. A key output expected of Outcome one of NE-CMS, as stated above, is Capacity Building for Participatory Governance. This assignment will contribute significantly to delivering on this output, hence the actualization of Outcome 1 of the NE-CMS program.

Consultancy Objectives

• The overall objective of this consultancy is to empower Good Governance Committees (GGC) Women Council (WC) and Youth Support Network (YSN) in NE-CMS supported LGAs with the knowledge and skill to effectively engage the public service budgeting process, financing and procurement processes, and the confidence to influence allocation and release of funds for identified community needs.
• One recurrent issue emanating from community dialogue meetings is the difficulties faced by GGC and community members to get government stakeholders, especially at the LGA level, to meet identified and documented community needs successfully. Some of these needs require a robust understanding of public service budgeting. By the end of this assignment, therefore, participants should be able to:
  • Describe the public service budget process, how it works and how to engage. This will include budget tracking (how to “follow the money”) from allocation, release and implementation.
  • Carry out budget analysis of local government programs and use the information to advocate for policy change at the local or State levels.
  • Appropriately define community issues and problems and recognize its importance for budget advocacy development;
  • Recognize the relevance and importance of developing a budget advocacy strategy;
  • Explain social inclusion in budgeting and gender-responsive budgeting;
  • Understand the critical elements of an advocacy strategy and draft budget advocacy strategy as the workshop's immediate output.

Deliverables and Timeframe: (November 16 – December 18, 2020):
For effective mandate protection training, the Consultant will be expected to develop training modules to cover the following areas:

• Public service budget process, how it works, and how to engage
• Budget Analysis and Monitoring
• Stakeholders in budget advocacy; analysis and engagement
• Gender awareness and gender-responsive and socially inclusive analysis and budgeting
• Problem definition and analysis and the development of budget advocacy objectives
• Developing a gender-responsive and socially inclusive budget advocacy strategy.

Methodology:

• The workshop will adopt a combination of direct presentation, syndicate group work and presentations / Brainstorming exercises, question and answer sessions, and case studies to ensure all participants' full participation.
• The Consultant will develop handouts and reference materials for participants. Take-home assignments will also be given to participants to ensure that they continue to practice and implement learning.

The Consultant will report to:

• Program Manager, NE-CMS

The Consultant will work closely with:

• Governance and Advocacy Coordinator, NE-CMS.

Skills and Experience Required
The Consultant is expected to have the following skills and qualifications:        

• Advanced degrees in economics, development studies, social sciences, or related discipline;
• A minimum of ten (10) years' experience in conducting and supporting capacity building activities in budget advocacy and related fields;
• Demonstrable experience in working with communities in Borno State.
• An understanding of the socio-political and economic context of Borno state;
• Excellent writing and communication skills in English
• Ability to facilitate training in Hausa; Kanuri language a must;
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and work well with diverse people.
• Must be resident in Maiduguri, Borno state

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Application to: mdg-quotations@mercycorps.org using the "Job Title" as the subject of the email.