The Representation of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan is seeking candidates for the following vacancy:
Vacancy Title: Consultant for the Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas Project (RAHA)
• Qualified candidates should express their interest in a motivation letter indicating the vacancy title under the subject line. The letter should ideally provide summary of the candidate's strengths and relevant experience in architecture or civil/structural engineering preferably with development background and/or previous experience with UN or other donor’s projects.
• Activities financed by the donor to RAHA are implemented in a conflict sensitive manner and follow the “Do Not Harm Approach” explained in the guidelines below.
• Electronic applications should be addressed to the e-mail address: RAHAConsultancy@unhcr.org no later than 15 November 2012. All applicants should fill the personal history form (P-11).
• Applications received are not acknowledged.
Terms of Reference for International Consultant
1) Project Title: Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) Project
2) Starting date of this assignment: 01 January 2013
3) Total length of this consultancy assignment: Two-year period with one month break after 11 months as per UNHCR regulation. The International Consultant is expected to be in Pakistan four (4) times a year and stay four (4) weeks per visit.
4) Duty Station: UNHCR Sub office – Peshawar, Pakistan
5) Line Manager: Head of UNHCR Sub Office – Peshawar, Pakistan
6) Missions: Consultant will be based in Peshawar, Province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Pakistan and will undertake regular missions to project sites in district Peshawar, Malakand Division and other districts where the RAHA donor-supported projects are being or will be implemented. Field missions will be undertaken in close coordination with UNHCR RAHA Programme Management Unit (PMU) in Peshawar.
7) General Background:
The aim of the RAH Programme is to promote regional stability and compensate for the social, economic and environmental consequences wrought on Pakistani communities by the presence of more than 3 million Afghans over the past 30 years. For the 1.7 million registered Afghans remaining in Pakistan after the large-scale repatriation since 2002, the Project will promote peaceful co-existence with local communities until conditions in Afghanistan are conducive for their return.
The drift of refugees into the urban areas after camp closures and the withdrawal of food assistance in refugee villages have put pressure on the Pakistani mainstream education, health, water and sanitation services particularly in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta. Afghans concentrated in and around villages and camps have contributed to the degradation of the environment accelerating the deterioration of the physical infrastructure, forests and livestock grazing areas. The intermediate humanitarian support for education, health and sanitation services, currently provided through the UN to support Afghan and local communities, is not a sustainable solution to the issue.
A shift from humanitarian to development assistance is essential. Addressing the consequences of the strain on local Pakistani services requires concerted efforts from the international community to share the responsibility of protecting Afghan rights while in Pakistan, compensating local communities for hosting Afghans, and providing time for Afghanistan to stabilize politically and economically enough for Afghans to return home voluntarily, safely and with dignity. This shift will boost Pakistan’s economic and social development programmes in the poorest provinces where the impact of Afghan refugees has been most severely felt.
The overall objective of the RAHA Programme is to improve livelihoods, rehabilitate the environment and enhance social cohesion within communities of refugee-affected and hosting areas. Public services will be improved and policies made more effective by strengthening the capacities of the government, community institutions and vulnerable groups. The One-UN Programme’s cross-cutting issues relating to human rights, gender equality, civil society engagement and refugees will be addressed. Peaceful co-existence between the communities will safeguard a more predictable stay for Afghans until they can return to Afghanistan.
RAHA is a five-year initiative between the Government of Pakistan (SAFRON/CCAR/EAD), the UN System and Implementing Partners. Under the framework of the One-UN in Pakistan, RAHA is a Joint Programme Component of the Disaster Risk Management Joint Programme within the UN Delivering as One. The ‘RA’ (refugee-affected)-component of the Programme is being implemented through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and focuses on areas where large concentrations of Afghan refugees have resided in the past but have since left. The ‘HA’ (hosting area)-component of the Programme is being implemented through UNHCR with support of local NGOs and government line departments (Implementing Partners) and focuses on areas where refugee villages still exist and where Afghan refugees continue to be hosted by Pakistani villages.
RAHA is a good example where humanitarian and development actors can work together. In the first phase of the donor funding, RAHA remained a successful initiative despite the challenging security environment. The role of International Consultant in the first phase was vital to the success of the RAHA component supported by the donor to RAHA and to maintain the high standards of projects implemented.
8) Purpose and Scope of Assignment:
The implementation of the RAHA projects funded by the donor to RAHA will be supported by an International Consultant. The Consultant will provide technical advice, oversight and participate in monitoring of donor-supported projects throughout the project cycle, to ensure quality standards and adherence to agreed-upon standards and criteria.
The Consultant will provide technical advice to the PMU in Peshawar including implementing partners through the following activities:
(i) Providing advice on the merits, including technical feasibility and sustainability, of the project proposals received and assessed by the PMU prior to their submission to and endorsement by the Provincial Task Force (PTF);
(ii) Ensuring that proposed projects do not overlap with other projects financed by the donor to RAHA and other donors;
(iii) Regularly reviewing the progress of project implementation through project site visits, among others;
(iv) Supporting UNHCR in the impact monitoring of the interventions;
(vi) Organising specific trainings for IPs and partners, as needed;
(vii) Making sure the activities financed by the donor to RAHA are implemented in a conflict sensitive manner and follow the guidelines of the “Do No Harm Approach” as per attached document.
9) Reporting Requirements
The Consultant will submit monitoring reports and recommendations to the UNHCR Head of Sub-Office Peshawar and copy to the Senior RAHA Coordinator and to the donor to RAHA within one week after completion of the field mission, at the latest, covering the following:
a) Observations during the evaluation and assessment of project proposals;
b) Progress of implementation including technical assessment, difficulties and problems encountered including delays in implementation and any conflict enhancing effects of activities;
c) Project completion and future actions.
10) Qualification and Experience of Consultant:
It is expected that the International Consultant is an architecture or civil/structural engineer preferably with development background. He/she will be expected to demonstrate the appropriate qualifications and experience for the tasks outlined in the terms of reference.
He/she should have a minimum of 20 years relevant professional experience in developing or transition countries, ideally with references from similar community-driven infrastructure and socio-economic projects within the region. His/her experience should cover project planning, management and coordination, with emphasis on project monitoring. Previous experience with the donor to RAHA and/or UN or other donors’ management procedures and guidelines is an added value.
He/she should have good language and communication skills, familiarity of operational environment in Pakistan, be fluent in English (fluency in Urdu and Pashtoo would be an asset) and a good understanding of the wider socio-economic aspects and cultural sensitivities of the region.
As the International Consultant will be working within the existing UNHCR management system it will be very important that he has good social, team and communication skills.
12) Level of expertise required as per paragraph. 83 of the UNHCR consultancy policy:
Level A Level B Level C ? Level D
Consultancy fees amount to approximately USD 60,000/year, excluding travel costs.
Closing date for receipt of applications: 15th November 2012.
Guideline for Consultants on the Do no harm-approach:
Ensuring conflict-sensitivity throughout
planning, implementing and evaluation of projects
Based on some studies, a significant number of countries where development cooperation activities are in place display conflict potentials. For these countries the conflict-sensitive design of development projects/ programmes has been made a requirement particularly by certain donor governments. To this end, the application of the Do no harm-approach (DNH) in planning, implementing and steering projects is required and should be applied already during the first stages of project planning (feasibility), on an ongoing basis during project implementation and also when evaluating projects. The following provides a short overview of the method.
What is conflict-sensitivity?
Conflict sensitivity means taking into account the two-way influence that exists between the conflict and measures, with the goal of avoiding any negative, conflict-aggravating impacts, and strengthening positive, de-escalation peace-promoting impacts.
1) Background of the Do no harm approach
Beginning in the early 1990s, a number of international and local NGOs collaborated through the “Local Capacities for Peace Project” to learn more about how assistance that is given in conflict settings interacts with the conflicts. Although it is clear that, by itself, assistance neither causes nor can end conflict, it can be a significant factor in conflict contexts.
The collaboration was based on gathering and comparing the field experience of many different NGO programmes in many different contexts. Through this, the “Local Capacities for Peace Project” was able to identify clear patterns regarding how assistance and conflict interact and subsequently developed the following approach.
2) Brief Description of the Do no harm approach
The DNH approach is a descriptive tool that: 1) identifies the categories of information that have been found through experience to be important for understanding how assistance affects conflict; 2) organizes these categories in a visual lay-out that highlights their actual and potential relationships; and 3) helps predict the impacts of different programming decisions. It, ideally, includes six steps:
Step 1: Understanding the Context of Conflict
? Identify the geographic and social space which is relevant to the project
? Identify which inter-group conflicts have caused violence or are dangerous and may escalate into violence
? Analyze how the project relates to that context of conflict
Among the elements to consider are (a) historical issues and how they play out in the present; (b) external influences and how they affect the local context; and (c) which issues are broad in their impact, affecting a large number of people, and which are narrow, affecting a smaller number of people yet still important.
Step 2: Analyze dividers and sources of tension
? Analyze what people divides and what serves as source of tensions
Some dividers or sources of tension between groups may be rooted in deep-seated, historical injustice (root causes) while others may be recent, short-lived or manipulated by subgroup leaders (proximate causes). They may arise from many sources including economic relations, geography, demography, politics or religion. Some may be entirely internal to a society; others may be promoted by outside powers.
Step 3: Analyze connectors
? Analyze through what factors people, although they are divided by conflict, remain also connected across sub-group lines
In every society in conflict, people who are divided by some things remain connected by others. Markets, infrastructure, common experiences, historical events, symbols, shared attitudes, formal and informal associations; all of these continue to provide continuity with non-war life and with former colleagues and co-workers now alienated through conflict.
Step 4: Analyze the project
? Analyze the details of the (planned) project: it is never an entire project that goes wrong. It is the details that determine impact.
Do a thorough review of all aspects of the project: Where and why is support offered, who are the staff (external and internal), who are the intended recipients of assistance, by what criteria are they included, what is provided, who decides, etc.?
Step 5: Analyze the project’s impact on the context of conflict
? Analyze the interactions of each aspect of the project with the existing dividers and connectors.
Each aspect of the project should be reviewed for its actual and potential impacts on dividers and connectors. Who gains and who loses (or who does not gain) from the assistance? Are we missing or ignoring opportunities to reinforce connectors? What resources are we bringing into the conflict? What impact are the project’s resource transfers having on dividers on sources of tension; and on connectors?
Step 6: Considering, generating and testing programming options
? Generate alternative options for the project to weaken dividers and strengthen connectors and re-check the impacts of the new approach on the dividers and connectors
If the analysis of 1) the context of conflict, 2) dividers, 3) connectors and 4) the project shows that the assistance exacerbates intergroup dividers or weakens connectors, then the design of the project shall be changed in a way that eliminates its negative, conflict-worsening impacts
3. Gathering information and presenting results
Local knowledge is key for the DNH approach. Generally, the politico-economic analysis presented in the matrix below serves as a starting point especially for step 1 which then needs to be enriched with local information on the conflict context of the project.
During project preparation/ feasibility, the Consultant is required to establish hypotheses on possible unintended conflict-related impacts of the project. To this end, information on connectors and dividers shall be collected during field visits (one-on-one interviews and group discussions). The likely interaction of the planned project with the dividers and connectors shall be discussed with the main project stakeholders (e.g. during DNH-workshop) in order to develop the above-mentioned hypotheses.
During project implementation, the Consultant is required to support the Project-Executing Agency (PEA) in assuring the DNH approach throughout the duration of the project. To this end, it is recommended to introduce DNH monitoring in a structured way, for example: 1) do local survey for baseline data on dividers and connectors, 2) hold semi-annual workshops with project stakeholders on interaction of project with identified dividers and connectors as well as necessary adaptation measures, 3) train staff in DNH method and/or require service providers to be informed about DNH, 4) integrate outcome of DNH checks in semi-annual reports to the RAHA donor.
During project evaluation, the Consultant is required to assess the achieved results through a conflict-lens and equally apply the DNH approach. To this end, it is recommended to review identified dividers, connectors as well as interactions of the project with dividers and connectors. Again, field-visits and workshops are recommended.
Results should in all cases be presented to the RAHA donor in a format similar to the following table.
Do no harm-Matrix
Main conflict lines and root causes relevant for the project area (based on politico-economic analysis by GIGA)
Examples:
• Absence of economic opportunities for youth in province xy is a contributing factor to insecurity as youth are becoming increasingly attracted to criminality
• Limited availability of boreholes and wells in the district results in herders conglomerating around water points, leading to conflicts over livestock and water resources
Dividers (based on interviews, focus group discussions etc.) How could the project unintentionally strengthen dividers? Proposed/ Implemented adaptation measures (indicate potential need for action by the executing agency and RAHA donor)
Examples:
• Deepening conflicts or rivalries between communities: single villages claim not to be represented and threaten to block project activities
• Deepening conflicts between displaced people living in refugee camp and local residents
• Demobilisation Commission does not keep up to its promise to select Ex-combatants for project measures
• Project follows non transparent identification processes
• Distribution of goods and food to refugees creates envy and anger among local residents
• Leaving ex-combatants under the false impression that the project does not deliver the promised benefits thereby creating violent protests
? Analyze sites and participant lists for ethnic/group balance, ensure full transparency/ availability of information for the identification of participants for project activities
? Introduce measures from which also local residents benefit (in consultation with executing and the donor)
? Mediate between ex-combatants and demobilization commission, e.g. by taking along the local chief to the commission to express their concerns
Connectors (based on interviews, focus group discussions etc.) How could the project unintentionally weaken the connectors? What to do about it?
Example:
• Promoting joint use of common resources and assets
• In weakening – instead of strengthening - community leadership to take responsibility for managing common resources for common benefit. For example, user group models for O&M may prove to leave out local leaders
? Build leaders’ management capacity, give follow-up support |
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