Senior Civil Society Organisations & Political Expert 79 views1 application

Organizational Context

The European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) is a non-profit private foundation headquartered in Brussels a global remit. ECES promotes sustainable democratic development through the provision of advisory services and operational support in favour of all electoral stakeholders, including electoral management bodies, civil society organizations dealing with civic & voter education and election observation, political parties and parliaments dealing with electoral reforms, media, security forces and legal institutions dealing to electoral dispute resolutions.

ECES holds the Vice Presidency of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), the most important network of European civil and political society organisations working on democracy assistance. It is composed by 14 members from 11 EU Member States. EPD is the first Community of Practice on democracy assistance operating at the EU level advocating for a stronger presence of democracy support on the EU agenda. In this context, ECES and EPD have jointly crafted a strategy called “A European Response to Electoral Cycle Support – EURECS”, an innovative delivery mechanism to implement electoral and democracy assistance activities that are consistent with European values and EU policies.

Since its establishment at the end of 2010, ECES has signed over 70 contracts in support of transparent, credible and cost-effective electoral processes and the strengthening of democratic institutions in more than 35 countries mainly, but not only, in Africa and Middle East. In addition to that, the founders and personnel of ECES have acquired extensive field experience and, taken together, ECES can count on a specific knowledge and a well-established network in over 80 countries around the world.The EU is by far the largest ECES’ donor, however the organization has also signed contracts and partnered with many other organisations.

Project’s context

The Prevention of Electoral Violence in Ethiopia (PEV-Ethiopia) project is funded by the ICSP fund of the European Union. This action will seek to establish a coalition of like-minded non-state actors in order to form a stronger voice in political- and electoral process in Ethiopia. The NSA coalition established under the project will be capacitated and closely assisted in carrying out activities that cumulatively contributes to the prevention, mitigation and management of election related conflicts and potential violence in the run up to, and following, the scheduled 2020 elections. In light of the reform process and opened space for NSAs, it is essential that NSAs receives substantial support to make a meaningful contribution allowing self-sufficiency beyond this action and following the 2020 electoral cycle. The action has in view to prevent, mitigate and manage election related conflicts and potential violence and recognizes the unrivalled impact that a coordinated and targeted NSA coalition may have. Therefore, the NSA coalition will be the main delivery mechanism through which the project will implement activities closely assisted by project lead, ECES, and associates.

As such, the NSA coalition will therefore not only receive capacity building and institutional support but also on-the-job training by planning, implementing and evaluating activities foreseen within this project.

 This action is built around seven interconnected result areas. These are:

• Production and dissemination of base-line data, with policy relevance;
• Establish an NSA Coalition and capacitating the coalition, and a wider span of NSAa, in Election Observation and civic/voter information;
• Skills enhancement in leadership and conflict management, media monitoring and journalist capacity building essentially but not only for the NSA coalition;
• NSA-led election conflict prevention, mitigation and management activities spanning from grassroots conflict coordinators to an informal, flexible mediation group of elders;
• Capitalising on existing Early Warning structures and capacitate with electoral conflict prevention capacities, while establishing a distinct election conflict Early Earning by merging into what already exists and fill the gaps;
• NSA-led Election Situation room;
• Civic and voter education outreach and NSA-led dialogue with traditional structures exploring the role of youth in pro-peace messaging.

The project will be implemented by the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) in partnership with Ethiopia-based Forum of Federations and GoInnonvation. All activities will start and end within the 18-month time-frame in view to leave behind durable tools and capacities for long-term sustainability. The project will place particular importance on liaison with planned or ongoing initiatives, funded by the EU or EU member states a priori, that intersect with the activities foreseen in this project document.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Under the strategic guidance of FoF and supervion & reporting of ECES Country Representative in Ethiopia, and the Project Coordinator, the Senior CSO & Political Party Expert will provide expertise and technical support to the CSO’s in its engagements with Political Parties

The specific tasks to be undertaken by the consultant include:

• Draft periodic (weekly, monthly) and on-spot reports on political and electoral context and updates in Ethiopia;
• Support and liasing with CSOs in project activities implementation;
• Organise activities for poltical parties and CSOs as per project proposal
• Support CSO’s in collecting relevant information based on the templates developed for political party monitoring and campaign finance
• Assist CSO’s in processing and analysis of information generated from political party monitoring and campaign finance ;
• Support in training, capacity building and events for CSOs;
• Serve as Resource persons at capacity building workshops organized by ECES staff and other stakeholders and ;
• Develop and review documents for publications on political party monitoring, campaign finance and code of conduct;
• Liasing with CSOs on a regular basis on project activities implementation;
• Perform other activities as per ECES Country representative and Project Coordinator request.

VALUES

• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the ECES;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling ECES’ values and ethical standards.

Reports to:

• ECES: Project Coordinator, ECES Country representative and ECES Executive Director, FoF: For Strategic Guidance

Duration:

• 16 Months

Job Requirements

Recruitment Qualifications

Education:

• University Degree in Political Sciences, Law, International Relations or Other related field

Experience:

• Minimum ten (10) years of professional experience within the field of democracy and/or electoral support with at least ten (5) years working with CSOs and Political Parties;
• Understanding of the civil society organisations and political parties trends that are currently prevalent in Ethiopia;
• Proven work experience with international organization and electoral assistance projectsM
• Strong planning, analyctical, communication and writing skills;
• Ability to perform effectively under high pressure, hardship conditions and long working hours.
• Capacity to handle with diplomacy and in responsible and flexible manner political sensitive issues.

Language Requirements

• Excellent working level of English language, writing and speaking. Fluency in Amharic and any other non-Ethiopian language are considered as an asset.

How to Apply

Please email your CV and covering letter to [email protected]