CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Issued on: 25 February 2014
| ORGANIZATIONAL LOCATION: |
UN-HABITAT |
| DUTY STATION: |
Home Based |
| FUNCTIONAL TITLE: |
Consultant (Quick Guides Series) |
| POST DURATION |
6 months - part-time |
| CLOSING DATE: |
7th March 2014 |
BACKGROUND
The Cities Alliance is a global partnership for
urban poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in
sustainable development. It aims at supporting cities, local and
national governments and their partners in the developing world in
addressing the above challenges to capture the gains of urbanisation
and taking advantage of the above opportunities, for the benefit of
their citizens.
UN-Habitat, in cooperation with the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and
the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), successfully developed
the Quick Guides Series for Policy Makers for Housing the Poor in Asia.
This series of 7 Guides has been very well-received in many countries
and used in a number of workshops and capacity building events
organized by ACHR regionally. The demand for these guides to be
available in local languages resulted in the translation to Vietnamese,
Hindi and Bahasa. The success of the Asian guides triggered a demand
from different partners of UN-Habitat to have it adapted to Africa.
The Quick Guides Series for Africa was produced through a joint work
program between Cities Alliance and UN-Habitat. It provides national
and local officials as well as policy makers in African cities with
tools and practical knowledge that help them to enhance their
understanding of low-income housing issues so that they can make
informed policy decisions that benefit the poor.
With rapid urbanization accompanied by a complex set of challenges
and opportunities, the leaders and policy managers of many of Africa’s
states, cities and towns have by and large failed to come to terms with
the reality and implications of rapid urbanization. As a result, we
witness across sub-Saharan Africa, poorly managed cities and towns and
wasted potential. At its starkest, this failure is manifested in slum
living conditions exacerbated further by a high rate of slum growth. The
latter is virtually identical to urban growth rates in general,
suggesting that the doubling of the urban population over the next 20
years will involve the creation of more and more slums. The reason we
have not been able to reverse this trend of slum growth as a
consequence of population growth are many and complex.
The Quick Guides Series provides policy and decision
makers with guidelines and knowledge of how to reform the housing
sector and design well-informed housing policies and strategies.
The Quick Guides are presented in an easy-to-read format, including
an overview of trends and conditions, concepts, policies, tools and
recommendations in dealing with the following themes:
- Quick Guide 1- Urban Africa. Proposes
a range of policy and action frameworks that can steer urban
development in positive directions, using the resources of
knowledge and experience that exist within urban communities
across Africa.
- Quick Guide 2 - Low-Income Housing. Describes
several ways of addressing low-income housing in African cities
at the program and project level. It focuses on well-tried methods
of improving the housing and living environments of people living
in slums and informal settlements, and providing adequate housing
for future generations of urban poor.
- Quick Guide 3 - Land.
Looks at the different forms of land tenure which operate in
African cities and examines some of the problems and benefits of
these different land tenure systems.
- Quick Guide 4: Eviction.
Explores how communities facing eviction have organized
themselves and drawn on the support of community-based networks
and institutions in Africa and globally to find alternatives to
the destruction of their settlements. The guide presents
guidelines to help governments and policy makers to develop better
formal procedures to minimize evictions and to ensure that
resettlement, if inevitable, follows international standards
- Quick Guide 5: Housing Finance. Introduces
some of the key concepts of housing finance and provides a quick
overview of how a housing finance system works. It also addresses
how to integrate formal and informal housing finance systems and
offers tips for policy makers to enhance access to affordable
housing finance, especially by the urban poor.
- Quick Guide 6: Community-Based Organisations.
Considers how governments and policy makers can work together
with community-based organizations to address the problems that
poor people experience in urban settlements and find viable
long-term solutions to their housing needs.
- Quick Guide 7: Rental Housing.
Considers the characteristics of good quality rental housing and
sound landlord-tenant rental arrangements, and presents policy
options to promote and regulate the expansion of rental housing
(especially for the urban poor).
- Quick Guide 8: Local Government.
Provides a brief overview of local government in Africa, and the
urban challenges (and opportunities) to which local government
bodies need to respond. It also shows how physical development,
economic development and social development need to go hand in
hand in order for interventions to be effective and sustainable
and presents some key tools for local governments to use when
adopting these approaches.
The primary target audience of the quick guides is African Policy
makers at national and local levels. The secondary target audience will
include organizations that support African Policy makers at national
and local levels. This may include housing policy advisors, and NGO
leaders in policy advisory, lobbying, advocacy, training, facilitation
and capacity as well as practitioners and academia with a keen interest
in understanding housing in Africa. Along with these organizations
Cities Alliance members and strategic UN-Habitat partners, in
particular, their program managers and task team leaders will be
prioritized within this group.
The overarching goal of this consultancy is to
facilitate the increased understanding by African decision makers of
low-income housing issues so that they can make more informed policy
decisions that benefit the poor. This will be done by:
- Creating a set of training packages out of each Quick Guide to be
used by government training institutions in Africa to build the
capacity of African policy makers.
- Holding a training event with the dual purposes of:
- Testing the training packages with African policy makers
- Providing training for trainers at government training institutions throughout Africa
RESPONSIBILITIES
Objectives of the Consultancy
The specific scope of work for the Learning Specialist will include, but not be limited to, the following interrelated tasks:
- Development of training packages: The Learning Specialist will
develop a complete set of training materials for each quick guide to be
used by government training institutions in Africa to train
officials. Each set will include a 3-4 hour seminar, an assessment of
learning needs, clearly defined objectives, methodology, session
outline, syllabus, reading list, profile of the target audience, one
pager draft text to introduce the guides via an email campaign, etc.
The training packages will be accompanied by a learning strategy and
corresponding learning plan for training institutions to use these
materials effectively.
- Partnership building: In collaboration with the UN-Habitat
Project Manager, the Learning Specialist will identify anchoring
training institutions and select local government associations or
networks to utilize the training packages. In order to facilitate access
to a larger number of participants, the Learning Specialist will
identify partners with a competency in training and capacity building
to integrate the Quick Guides training program into their training
portfolio and create synergies and collaboration for capacity building.
Cities Alliance and UN-Habitat will develop an assessment methodology
and criteria for the selection of the relevant anchor institutions for
this purpose which would take into account geographical representation,
expertise, institutional capacity, etc.
- Testing and roll-out of the training and capacity development
program: develop and deliver a 2-3 day event for the dual purpose of
testing the training packages with African policy makers, and holding a
Training of Trainers for government training institutions.
- Providing monitoring, support and feedback to government training institutions during the roll-out phase.
Specific Tasks and Deliverables and Timelines
The indicative schedule for delivery of specific services and outputs are as follows:
Key Activity Component
|
Consultancy Services and outputs
|
Deliverables and
Schedule
|
1. Development of a training package
|
Objective 1: Development of a training packages
|
March 2014-June 2014
|
a) Deliver set of training materials (3-4 hour learning seminar for each of the 8 guide books)
|
30 May 2014
|
b) Develop a learning strategy and corresponding learning plan for training institutions
|
15 June 2014
|
2. Partnership building
|
Objective 2: Partnership Building
|
April 2014-July 2014
|
a) Have identified
anchoring training institutions and selected local government
associations or networks for the delivery of the training program
|
30 April 2014
|
b) In collaboration
with Habitat Project Manager, secure collaboration of at least 10
institutions in Africa willing to use the training materials.
|
15 June 2014
|
3. Testing and roll-out
|
Objective 3: Testing and roll-out
|
July 2014-September 2014
|
a) Learning event to test training packages and roll-out training and capacity development program to institutions
|
July 2014
|
b) Delivery of final training packages, refined by learning event
|
15 August 2014
|
c) Support institutions utilizing package and report on use of training packages by institutions.
|
15 September 2014
|
QUALIFICATIONS
Education
- Advanced University Degree (Masters or equivalent) in a field
deemed relevant to the subject areas covered by these Terms of
Reference such as Pedagogy, Education, Adult Training, Capacity
Development, and Housing.
Work Experience
- A minimum of 5 years of experience in training, capacity development, at least 2 of those at an international level;
- Demonstrated ability to establish base-lines to measure impact of training, learning and/or capacity development processes;
- Previous experience in designing and/or undertaking capacity
assessments, training programmes and learning events in developing
countries;
- Experience in housing development and urbanization in Africa is desired.
- Ability to work independently;
- Proven capacity to deliver quality results on time, and demonstrate quality in work products.
Language
- English and French are the working languages of the United
Nations. For this consultancy, excellent spoken and written English is
required, including demonstrated writing and editing skills;
- Knowledge of French is an asset.
Remuneration
- 24,000 USD plus travel and expenses.
- Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy
period. The fees will be paid as per agreement. For this consultancy
payments will be done in three instalments, based on the completion of
the outputs as detailed above.
See UN website http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/index.html
Applications should include:
- Cover memo (maximum 1 page)
- CV in the PHP format, accessible through the INSPIRA
website (inspira.un.org) Please note, if using INSPIRA for the first
time, you need to register in order to activate your account, which
will allow you to log in and create a personal History Profile.
- The PHP should be attached to the application as a PDF file.
All applications should be submitted to: Fernando Cabrera (fernando.cabrera@unhabitat.org)
UN-Habitat
P.O. Box 30030
Nairobi, Kenya
Email: fernando.cabrera@unhabitat.org
Deadline for applications: 7th March 2014
UN-HABITAT does not charge a fee at any stage of the
recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or
companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and
requesting the payment of a fee, please contact: recruitment@unon.org |
|
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