Capacity Building Associate (Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Aid)

Community security is an increasing concern in Cox’s Bazaar District. The influx of more than 740,000 Rohingya refugees since August 2017 has created security dynamics. It has also amplified pre-existing issues, such as drug smuggling and human trafficking. The situation in the refugee camps is especially troubling, given an increase in murders and kidnappings in 2019. Camp residents face a range of safety issues, such as theft, lack of lighting, drug use and smuggling, human trafficking, disputes over aid distribution, and gender-based violence. As the situation becomes more protracted, security issues in the camps and the rest of the district will become increasingly interconnected. The host communities are also facing the problem of enormous drug and human trafficking, disputes over livelihood and resource allocation, and domestic and gender-based violations. After successfully implementing the Community Recovery and Resilience (C2RP) Project for the host communities, it has been found that there is a critical need to support the host communities to ensure their safety and easy access to formal and informal justice and establishment of amicable coexistence between host and camp community. 

Based on the achievements, and lessons learnt of the C2RP Project in host communities, in 2020 the UNDP implemented a joint pilot programme in consultation with the UNHCR and IOM to support the camp communities. In this context, UNDP, UNHCR, and IOM have developed a community safety mechanism to strengthen the partnership and coordination among the APBn forces, District Police, District Administration, Judiciary and CiC’s and identify the issues related to security and social tension that need to be reduced and defend the criminal activities in camps and host communities. UNDP, UNHCR, and IOM successfully implemented the pilot programme and considering the lessons of the pilot programme, it is found that it has importance to work with the District Judiciary and District Legal Aid Committee to ensure legal protection, equitable access to both formal and informal justice mechanism of the vulnerable host and camp communities.

Therefore, the Enhancing Community Safety, Peaceful Coexistence and Access to Justice Project (CSPC) will hire “Capacity Building Associate (Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Aid)” to support programme functions on behalf of the Project in Ukhiya and Teknaf to successfully deliver operations services. Also, the “Capacity Building Associate (Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Aid)” will support the Enhancing Community Safety, Peaceful Coexistence and Access to Justice Project (CSPC) under the overall supervision of the Project Manager – CSPC, UNDP Sub-Office, Cox’s Bazar.           

The objective of this assignment would be to provide relevant program implementation support to the project, focusing on the development of community-based conflict resolution mechanisms and strengthening the capacity of government institutions to support legal aid services for the communities. The Capacity Building Associate will be responsible for supporting the project’s capacity-building initiative by developing need-based modules, learning materials, and awareness-building content for a wide range of participants from host communities. Furthermore, they will assist by providing technical input in designing field-level activities, contributing to the development of monitoring and evaluation strategies, assessing real-time performance, ensuring effective engagement of the communities, and coordinating with relevant government and non-government actors to overcome challenges and establish effective community-based dispute resolution mechanisms and case referral systems for legal aid support. Moreover, the Capacity Building Associate will also be responsible for the following duties and providing urgent support as per the requirement of the UNDP management.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support in  conducting comprehensive assessments to identify specific training needs within the community on community-based conflict resolution, conflict management, peacebuilding process, GBV and Violence against Children, youths and equitable access to justice for the communities.
• Support in developing training programs, and modules that address identified needs, ensuring alignment with project objectives and community requirements.
• Create accessible and culturally sensitive training materials, modules, learning materials and curricula on community-based conflict resolution, conflict analysis, conflict management legal aid and community peacebuilding process.
• Facilitate training sessions, monthly meeting, and awareness-building activities for community members, local authorities, and stakeholders including Mediators Forum and Union Legal Aid Committee, employing effective facilitation techniques to ensure understanding and participation.
• Support in enhancing  the capacity of community members to actively engage in peacebuilding, conflict resolution and justice-related awareness activities.
• Support in monitoring and evaluating  the effectiveness of the Mediation and Legal Aid programme, gathering feedback, field-level data, and making necessary analyses and providing technical input for programme development.
• Establish partnerships and support in coordination with the local partners, and stakeholders to achieve the overall objectives of the project. 
• Collect data to identify drivers of conflicts and the nexus between identities, culture, and conflict; develop community engagement strategies to support the mediation and legal aid programme in Teknaf and Ukhiya. 
• Support in preparing and sharing reports on training activities, progress on expected outcomes and challenges to project management and UNDP authorities.
• Maintain detailed records of training sessions, participant feedback, and relevant data to support reporting and future planning.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement:

The ‘Capacity Building Associate (Community Conflict Resolution and Legal Aid)’ will work under the direct supervision of the Project Manager – Enhancing Community Safety, Peaceful Coexistence and Access to Justice Project (CSPC), and in close coordination with the Operations unit of UNDP Sub-Office, Cox’s Bazar. The Project Manager will be the contract administrator for the assignment and will supervise the activities and evaluate her/his performance and approve the deliverables.

General (across the functions )
 Event planning and execution   Ability to plan, manage and execute of public and private events to ensure that they support and amplify individual communications and advocacy initiatives, as well as UNDP’s overall brand and mandate.

Digital & Innovation   Creative facilitation   

Ability to design workshops that considers and addresses multiple interests, agendas, worldviews; set out clear objectives and engaging activities; select appropriate tools, materials, resources that are needed to enable or support the activities. 
Ability to swiftly build rapport with participants and create a safe space (on- and offline) where they feel comfortable to share their views, concerns, experiences and reflections; supporting this with a range of tools to stimulate active participation. 
Ability to facilitate inclusive conversations, ability to work with a diverse set of people with different backgrounds, seniority and expert levels, using different approaches tailored to fit the people in the room, drawing out the perspectives and ideas of each individual and making decisions through deliberation and discussion across a group. 
Ability to pace a session, adjust to the abilities and energy levels of attendees and the nature or purpose of an exercise. Being flexible and able to improvise; adapting and changing approaches in response to the needs, while staying true to the intent and objectives of the session.

Digital & Innovation   Innovation capacity building   .

Ability to define and create the conditions for trying out new ways of working or introducing new problem solving approaches to an organisation. 
Ability to develop, manage and evaluate a learning curriculum that raises awareness, builds confidence, strengthens innovation capabilities around a certain method, tool or technique; or helps develop an innovation mindset. 
Ability to create the authorising environment (mandate, incentives) to embed and spread new ways of working. 
In-depth knowledge of one or more innovation methods, broad knowledge of innovation processes and innovation management. 
Ability to align a learning and development strategy with broader innovation strategy.

General (across the functions)   Public relations   Ability to build and maintain an overall positive public image for the organization, its mandate and its brand, while ensuring that individual campaigns and other communications and advocacy initiatives are Supported in reaching the public. 
2030 Agenda: Peace   Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Responsive Institutions   Community engagement for prevention, response, and social cohesion.

Min. Academic Education:

• Secondary Education or completion of High school diploma is required or
• University University Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, or equivalent field will be given due consideration, but it is not a requirement.

Min. years of relevant Work experience:

• Minimum six (6) years (with Secondary education) or three (3) years (with bachelor’s degree) of working experience in module developing/training and workshop facilitating/ reporting and documentation in the areas of consensus building/mediation/ADR peacebuilding and or conflict management. 
   

Required skills and competencies:

• At least 2 (Two) years of experience in working with local-level government and non-government stakeholders – including union parishad elected representatives/local leaders/ /mediators forum/legal aid actors/police/youths.
• At least 2 (Two) years of solid experience in conducting and coordinating community activities and events at the grassroots level.
• Experience in working with all Microsoft Office programmes

Desired additional skills and competencies:

• At least 2 years of experience in community-based conflict resolution mechanism and legal aid services, understanding of local conflicts, local governance structure and cultural background and sensitivity.
• At least 2 years of experience in facilitating community activities including consultations/awareness building/outreach activities, engaging government and non-government stakeholders, project partners and NGOs and community organizations. 
• At least 2 years of proven experience in designing and implementing training programmes, module development, budgeting and reporting on Informal dispute resolution mechanisms and legal aid for the communities, project partners, gov officials and CSO under development projects at the National level.
• At least 2 years of proven experience in data collection for need assessment and reporting, developing mechanisms for the formation of community-based mediators and legal aid forums, and ability to design and implement organization-wide strategies to support mediation and legal aid activities in post-crisis situations.
• At least 2 years of experience in above mentioned field or related work for NGO, INGO   would be an advantage.
• Experience of working in the Refugee context in Cox’s Bazar will be an advantage. 

Required Language(s) (at working level)  

• Fluency in English and Bangla is required.
• Fluency in Local Chittagonian language will be given preference.