CONCORDE’s Aidwatch hiring consultant for annual report, deadline December 17th!
CONCORD, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development, is seeking a:
CONSULTANT TO PRODUCE THE AIDWATCH ANNUAL REPORT
CONCORD is the confederation representing European NGOs for relief and development at European level. Its 24 national associations and 18 international networks represent over 1600 NGOs. CONCORD leads reflection and political actions on key development issues and regularly engages in dialogue with the European institutions and other civil society organisations.
The AidWatch Initiative is a pan-European lobby and campaigns initiative monitoring and advocating on the quality and the quantity of aid provided by EU member states and the European Commission, which was launched in 2006. The network is an active group of civil society aid experts from across the 27 EU Member States, working collectively to hold EU MS to account on their aid quality and quantity commitments.
Each year, AidWatch launches an annual report on the quantity and quality of European aid. This report is launched in countries across Europe and used to inform coordinated European lobby work to influence policy makers and hold governments to account on their aid pledges. CONCORD has now published four annual AidWatch reports which have received significant recognition from national governments and EU and international institutions.
The AidWatch annual report will be produced by a consultant employed by CONCORD and based in the CONCORD Secretariat in Brussels for approximately 63 days from January to mid-May. The consultant will work in close cooperation with the AidWatch Report Group, which will provide technical expertise for the drafting of the report, and the AidWatch Coordinator.
Summary of tasks:
The consultant will have overall responsibility for:
· Writing the text of the overview chapter of the report (pan European analysis)
· Designing and coordinating the development and compilation of the aid quantity questionnaire which will be then sent to the national platforms in order to write the country pages of the report
· Compiling and producing country pages and country graphs
· Carrying out data analysis on the annually released OECD data
· Coordinating with AidWatch country contacts in completing the questionnaire
· Supporting the AidWatch Coordinator to design and run capacity development activities on quantity and quality issues covered in the AidWatch report questionnaire 2010
· Regular participation in teleconferences of the AW Report group; participation in meetings of the Media group for developing report messages; participation in meetings of the Advocacy group when needed
· Support to the AidWatch Coordinator on communications (media and campaigns) activities
Proposed days:
The bulk of the work will need to be carried out during the months of March, April and the first half of May (the report is likely to be launched between 6th and 11th May 2010). This means that the consultant would need to be employed around 4 days per week during March (19 during the month) and April (17 during the month), and until the launch of the report (5 days from 3rd to 7th May).
January would be the period for preparing the capacity development workshop(s) – logistics and development of training materials / design of workshop(s) – and finalising the questionnaire. This would require a minimum of 10 working days (2,5 days per week commencing January 4th 2009) during the month of January.
February and March would be the period of providing ongoing support to the AidWatch country contacts for completion of the questionnaire. This would mean a minimum of 12 working days in February (3 days per week) and 19 days in March (4 days per week as referenced above).
This would result in a total of 63 days. However the AidWatch Advocacy Group would have the option of reviewing the number of days allocated to the consultant depending on developments in the timeline / agenda for the report production up to a percentage of 16% (e.g. 10 days)
The current proposal is for the consultant to be hired at a charge-out rate of € 250 per day, which for 63 days would be a total of €15,750.
Report content and format for consultant to carry out
Content focus
Maintain a content focus on core quantity and quality issues based on inputs from members at the AidWatch seminar. A final decision on the issues to be analysed will be taken by the Advocacy and Report groups and is likely to include some or all of the following issues:
Quantity
o ODA budget and cuts
o Debt relief
o Student costs
o Refugee costs
Quality
o Ownership and mutual accountability
o Conditionality
o Transparency
o Evaluation
o Gender equality
o Predictability
o Untying aid
o Technical assistance
o Climate change and aid
o Division of Labour
o Poverty focus
Format of the report
o Overview chapter
o Country pages (questionnaire filled in by national platforms / country page graphs compiled centrally from OECD data) + EC page
Candidate profile
Successful candidates for this post will respond as much as possible to the following profile:
Essential
– Experience of quantitative data analysis (including use of OECD databases)
– English mother tongue or equivalent
– Excellent writing and editing skills; ability to write about complex issues in an engaging way
– University level education; a post-graduate degree in a relevant field is also desirable
– Excellent knowledge of aid quantity and quality issues
– Knowledge of IT tools for producing graphs
– Ability to design data collection questionnaires on aid and support members of a multicultural network to complete them effectively
Desirable
– Ability to plan and deliver informal capacity development workshops on aspects of aid quality and quantity
– Experience of working in the NGO environment and with complex multicultural networks
Deadline for applications: Thursday 17th December 2009, 7 pm Brussels time
Interview date: 21st December 2009
Start date: January
Please send your CV and cover letter to abozzini@concordeurope.org