Consultancy to conduct a baseline study for South Sudan and Ethiopia peace program

Background

American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC works with communities and partners worldwide to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace. AFSC has more than 100 years of experience building peace in communities worldwide and works in the following ways: bridging and convening, community organizing and civil society strengthening, advocacy, research, and analysis. It seeks to change situations and systems that lead to violence. Much of AFSC’s work includes support to dialogue and capacity building opportunities led by the affected communities.

About the Program

AFSC South Sudan Program and AFSC Ethiopia/Salama Hub are implementing a five-year program from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2028 that aims to enhance peace and stability in South Sudan and Ethiopia.

The program is designed to be inclusive, targeting peacebuilders from a wide range of organizations and community structures, including CBOs, FBOs, youth and women-led organizations, differently abled groups, local community structures such as peace committees, CSO members, peace ambassadors, and community members.

The program intends to create spaces for peacebuilders to heal their trauma through one-on-one counselling, group therapy, self-care, and debriefing sessions. Peacebuilders will be equipped with Alternative to Violence Program (AVP) and Healing and Rebuilding of Communities (HROC) approaches to reinforce their capacity to work with communities toward healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

The program will work with partners and participating CSOs on advocacy and relevant line ministries to influence policy and strengthen local, national, and regional policy agendas. This will contribute to strategic objective three of the joint AFSC/BftW HoA Advocacy strategy that intends to have communities participate in transitional justice processes that promote healing and reconciliation.

The program also intends to work with local government and religious structures comprising key leaders at the community level who work with communities to resolve conflicts. Strengthening their capacity for trauma healing, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution approaches will create strong local-level networks engaged in mediation, reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing toward sustainable peace. The program also intends to strengthen the capacity of CSOs, faith leaders, and transitional justice focal points to understand the four pillars of transitional justice and how they can support community members in engaging in the transitional justice process and promote reconciliation at the grassroots level.

Specifically, AFSC will implement the program through two local partners in South Sudan and two local partners in Ethiopia.

Program locations:

South Sudan:

Juba (Rejaf, Juba, Munuki and Lokiriri Payams), Mundri County – Mundri Payam, Mvolo County -Mvolo & Yeri Payam and Kuajiena Payam -Jur River (County)

Ethiopia:

Oromia (Diga district in East Wollega zone) and Benishangul-Gumuz regions (Bambasi woreda, of Assosa zone, in Ethiopia.

The goal of the baseline is to establish a comprehensive understanding of how peace and stability in South Sudan and Ethiopia have been enhanced within the target area. This will inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of effective peacebuilding interventions. The exercise will involve assessing the state of community social cohesion and community engagement in the transitional justice process. The information gathered will be used to implement measures that ensure interventions are relevant, targeted, and capable of achieving long-term peace and stability. Additionally, the baseline data will serve as a benchmark for measuring the project’s progress and impact over time.

The specific objectives of the baseline include:

1. In-depth assessment of the awareness, accessibility, and perceived effectiveness of current peace-building mechanisms/trauma healing processes within the target areas.
2. To identify potential partners, including local organizations, community leaders, and other stakeholders, who support and enhance peacebuilding, trauma healing, and policy reforms.
3. Assess the capacity of CSOs and Faith Leaders to influence policies around psychosocial support in South Sudan and Ethiopia.
4. Establish factors contributing to trauma, especially among the youth and women, and their ability to cope with experiences and current circumstances.
5. To collect data that will serve as baseline indicators against which the two objectives of social cohesion and transitional justice will be measured over time.
6. Establish the capacity of CSOs, FBOs, transitional justice focal points, and peace committees in South Sudan and Ethiopia on Transitional Justice processes.
7. Evaluate the enabling national laws and policies, necessary protocols in place, nationally and regionally to enhance stability and peace in South Sudan and Ethiopia.
8. Establish the level of awareness, access and use of national reconciliation processes by CSOs, FBOs and community members within the implementation zones.
9. To assess the extent of community involvement in existing peacebuilding activities, such as workshops, dialogues, and mediation efforts, and to identify barriers to participation.
10. Establish the states of the current peace-building spaces for peacebuilders to heal their trauma (through one-on-one counselling, group therapy, self-care, and debriefing sessions.)
11. Establish the peace building approaches being used to equip peace builders towards healing, forgiveness and reconciliations
12. Conclusions and recommendations that will enable the project to be effectively implemented

The consultant is expected to:

1. Provide Inception report: A concise inception report, including proposed approach, design and methodologies for the study.
2. Present a detailed workplan upon contract signing
3. Present data collection tools to be discussed and agreed upon with AFSC.
4. Draft baseline report in English: A maximum of 40 pages (Calibri 12), excluding annexes, case studies and executive summary. We encourage the inclusion of innovative communication products to convey the key baseline findings to the target groups.
5. Present and validate findings: The consultant is expected to present the draft baseline report to AFSC, implementing partners and relevant stakeholders for validation and target setting objectives.
6. Present final baseline report with similar requirements as draft baseline report and free of plagiarism.

Consultancy period

The consultancy is expected to run from 1st October 2024 to 30th November 2024. The final report should be submitted by 30th November 2024.

Applicant Requirements

Qualifications of the Consultant

AFSC is seeking qualified, experienced, proactive, and dedicated expert with knowledge in conducting baseline studies.

Required skills and experience:

1. The consultant should hold at least Masters-level training in project management, monitoring and evaluation, social sciences, applied statistics or any other relevant field.
2. Minimum eight years relevant experiences in conducting baseline studies, research, evaluations for development programmes in South Sudan and Ethiopia context.
3. Excellent understanding of trauma healing, transitional justice and peacebuilding in South Sudan and Ethiopia context.
4. Proven track record on quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis and participatory approaches.
5. Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with people from different backgrounds to deliver quality products within a short time frame.
6. Experiences and/or know-how of project implementation at the community level.
7. Be flexible, responsive to changes and demands and open to feedback.
8. Excellent writing and oral communication skills in English.