National consultant to support the international expert assessing Human Rights education/National Dialogue.
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Vacancy
Background:
The OSCE Permanent Council Decision No. 588 from 2003 specifically mandates the OSCE Presence in Albania (hereinafter “the Presence”) to work in the area of parliamentary capacity-building. Based on previous support the Presence has provided to the Albanian Parliament, Switzerland is committed to entrust the Presence with extra-budgetary contribution for a four-year long project “Support to Parliament and Civic Education in Albania”. In order to determine the work to be carried out during the four-year period, an inception phase of a few months is necessary to re-confirm the areas for support and ensure multi-stakeholder partnership and endorsement. The inception phase will enable the Presence to carefully design as well as sequence the concrete support for the long-term project. The inception phase will comprise a number of specific assessments, know-how exchanges among stakeholders to assess good models and practices, as well as a few workshops with international experts in Tirana. An international expert, supported by a national consultant, will be recruited during the inception phase to be in charge of consolidating a comprehensive four-year project plan in close cooperation with the beneficiaries, using previous assessments and incorporating the results from the newly commissioned assessment studies (including one assessment on e-law and digitalization of the archives of the Albanian parliament), exchanges and workshops conducted during the inception phase. The general areas of intervention for the four-year project are:
• Outcome 1: Parliament administration fulfils its functions in an efficient and effective way. • Outcome 2: Parliament improves its legislative, oversight and representation functions by better representing their constituents and holding the executive branch accountable. • Outcome 3: Citizens claim their space in democratic developments of the country, are prepared in holding MPs accountable, and are active in influencing reforms.
Support to Albanian Parliament With respect to the direct support to the Parliament, the inception phase will be used to further elaborate on the future work in some areas that refer to the outcomes one and two and are directly based on previous interventions and respective groundwork done by the Presence.
Support to Civic Education The participation of citizens in processes of a country’s development is very important for democracy. Besides this, the task of citizens is to nurture institutions and practices that are compatible with local conditions and conducive to democratic aspirations. Civic education is the first step toward citizens becoming more aware of their rights and responsibilities. As related to the third outcome, taking into account the bulk of work already being done or planned to be done by other national or international partners, two main areas of intervention are foreseen to be tackled by the Presence, based on its previous work, and in consideration of pressing issues:
• Comprehensive and continuous education programme on electoral matters, in close cooperation with the Central Election Commission (CEC) in Albania leading to inclusion in curricula, based on previous work done by the Presence, Council of Europe and other actors in this field. • Human Rights education/National Dialogue and feasibility of institutionalised and curricula approaches. The awareness of citizens and their ability to hold institutions and their elected representatives accountable is a pre-requisite for a participatory democracy. In countries that have suffered from extended periods of non-democratic governance, the transition towards participatory approaches is particularly difficult and encompasses an extended process during which external support and encouragement for such participatory processes is needed. In particular in Albania that suffered a severe and isolationist regime after WWII until the changes in the 1990s, the participation of citizens in governance is lagging far behind. Thus, a broad public dialogue and discussion about the effects of the past regime is necessary for the society as a whole to come to a deeper understanding and practices for firmly rooting democratic processes in the political culture of Albania. Unlike other countries that underwent the transition to democracy in the 1990s, Albania has not established a broader framework in which to engage comprehensively with its past - to address the systemic, grievous and sustained violations of the rule of law and human rights that affected, and continue to affect, society at large. New momentum on the discussion of human rights violations of Albania’s former regime was built up with the establishment in 2015 of an independent body elected by and reporting to the Parliament for dealing with transparency and accessibility of historical documents for the public. The Presence has helped foster an inclusive and constructive national discourse about the goals and expectations of the government-proposed activity – and the many issues that citizens are concerned about in this essential and challenging national process. The Presence is in a unique position to support a depoliticized platform for discussion on this topic, as an impartial organization with expertise in promoting constructive dialogue about rule of law and human rights issues, and with the capacity to involve the Parliament, numerous actors from the government, the independent institutions, and civil society in a balanced way. Dialogue about the past is in line with the Presence’s mandate to promote the rule of law and human rights. Contemporary challenges towards consolidating democracy in Albania will be better addressed with improved awareness of Albania’s past. The feasibility of more institutionalized approaches, including on curriculum development will be explored during the inception phase to guide and plan the support during the four-year project phase.
The Presence is recruiting a national consultant to support the international expert assessing Human Rights education/National Dialogue to feed into the design of a four-year parliamentary support project. The national consultant will also provide written translation during 5 days as indicated by the international expert and oral translation during the 5 day visit of the international expert.
Tasks and Responsibilities:
A national consultant will be hired on a special service agreement by the Presence for the inception phase. The work of the national consultant will be closely guided and coordinated by the international expert and will be a combination of desk research, oral and written translation (5 days in total as guided by the international expert) and for interviews with stakeholders to be conducted by the international expert as well as logistical and organizational support to the international expert during his/her working visit announced two weeks prior (a total of 5 days in Albania).
The national consultant is expected to:
• Provide oral and written translations needed for the completion of the tasks, upon request of the international expert (5 days).
• Provide logistical and organisational support as well as oral translation to the international expert during one in-country visit of the international expert (5 days).
Expected Output/Deliverable:
• Provide two monthly reports on the conducted work and achieved results (maximum of 3 pages, Times New Roman 12, 1 space). The monthly reports should list all the tasks performed, meetings arranged or conducted, documents reviewed, and respective outcomes or results. The reports will be shared with and approved by the international expert. The reports will be delivered by the national consultant to the OSCE project management team following the closure of the months May and June, by the 5th working day of the following month.
Necessary Qualifications:
• Have a university degree in human rights, political science, social science, law, project management;
• Experience in assisting governance support projects, ideally with education or human rights topics;
• Experience in oral and written translation Albanian-English-Albanian;
• Computer literate;
• Fluency in English.
Remuneration:
The fee will be paid after delivery of each document in the following manner:
1. First instalment of 50 % of the total fee will be paid after the monthly report of May due by 7 June.
2. Second instalment of 50% of the total fee will be paid after the monthly report of June due by 6 July.
How to apply:
All applications are due by 15 April 2018. If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE's on line application link found under link https://jobs.osce.org/. The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer a contract with modified Terms of Reference or for a different duration. The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the organization. Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.