State of the African Union Research Project in 10 African Countries Short-term Consultant

_____________________________________________________________________________________ Invitation to bid for a six month consultancy assignment‘State of the African Union’ Project

Applications Required by February 18, 2010

Terms of Reference

I. Consultancy Objective:Eleven organisations namely The Institute for Democratic Governance (Accra), Southern Africa Trust (Midrand), FAHAMU (Nairobi), AfriMAP Project, Open Society Initiative (Johannesburg), Centre for Citizen Participation on the African Union (Addis), Centre d’Information et de Documentation sur les Droits de l’Enfant et de la Femme (Algeria); Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (Egypt); Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (Senegal), Oxfam GB (Nairobi) and the Centro de Aprendizagem e Capacitação da Sociedade Civil (Mozambique) have committed to research the current status of the implementation of key AU Instruments1 at country level and identify best practices and challenges and strategies that could be deployed to enhance implementation and monitoring.On behalf of these organizations, Oxfam seeks to hire a short-term consultant to assist in coordinating a State of the African Union Research Project in 10 African countries

2 The overall advocacy goal is to support the African Union and Member States to institute their own implementation and monitoring mechanisms. The outcomes of the study will be used to engage with member states at national and regional levels. The country reports will be launched at country level while the continental report will be launched at the AU Summits in 2010/11.

Duties and responsibilities:

The consultant will support the Project Manager to coordinate and communicate effectively with various agencies and actors to implement the objectives contained in the research work plan.

This will include among other tasks;
· Assist the Project Manager to draft monthly updates and convene and document periodic teleconferences for Continental Advisory Research Team members;
· Assist the Project Manager to support in-country host institutions to identify peer country research reviewers, organise and document national level meetings;
· Follow up, convene and document teleconferences for the lead-researcher to brief and be updated by the country researchers on the progress of the national reports
· Maintain a comprehensive electronic and physical filing system for the project
· Liaise with participating organisations on other aspects of the project

III. Expected outputs:

· Country Research reports from the respective countries detailing the status of implementation of AU commitments, successes/challenges and suggestions on strategies to fast-rack implementation and monitoring
· Regional Audit Report of key AU monitoring and evaluation mechanisms including success and challenges in assessing members states compliance with AU protocols/decisions on various issues.
· Power point presentation of the harmonised country and regional audit reports.

IV. Timing:

March - August 2010V. Management: For overall guidance and delivery of expected outputs, the programme assistant will report directly to Mary Wandia, Gender Justice and Governance Lead, Oxfam on behalf of the CART.VI.

Required Skills and Competencies

Essential

· Masters’ Degree in Social Science;
· At least 2 years relevant working experience in research, data collection and analysis, and monitoring and evaluation involving projects of a multi-sectoral and multi-country nature
· Experience in working with civil society and/ or with state representatives or African intergovernmental organisations;
· Strong interpersonal skills including a proven ability to liaise with a diverse group of stakeholders (civil society and government officials in particular);
· Fluency in spoken and written English
· Excellent organisational skills including the ability to work with minimal supervision, to set priorities and to deliver tasks on time;
· Based in Nairobi and availability to work from March 1st

Desirable

· Fluency of French is an asset
· Knowledge of the African Union Conventions, Protocols, Declarations and plans of actions in the areas of human rights, democracy and socio-economic development.

VIII. Expressions of interest

Interested persons resident in Nairobi should email their applications to: mwandia @ oxfam.org.uk by 2:00hrs GMT, Thursday February 18, 2010.

Applications should include:
· An up-to-date CV and a summary of experience related to the required competencies and skills above;
· Cover letter indicating interest and fees.

1 These include the: African Charter on Human and People’ Rights (1990); AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003); African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child(1990), Abuja Call for Accelerated Action Towards Universal Access to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Other Related Infectious Diseases Services (2001), Maputo Plan of Action for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights 2007-2010 (2006), Africa Health Strategy: 2007–2015, African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003) and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007) , Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty), African youth Charter, African Convention on Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and the NEPAD-Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Plan (CAADP)

2 Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana and Rwanda

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