SCOPE OF WORK FOR: TO BUILD EHRC CAPACITY ON EARLY WARNING AND RESPONSE TO HUMAN RIGHTS EMERGENCIES

Launched in February 2019, the USAID-funded Feteh (Justice) Activity in Ethiopia provides flexible, rapid technical assistance response to its Ethiopian partners in the process of legal and judicial reform. Feteh’s partners include the Federal and Regional Attorney General’s Offices; the Federal and Regional Supreme Courts; the House of Peoples’ Representatives; constitutionally mandated democratic and human rights institutions such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the Ethiopian Institution of the Ombudsman, and the Public Defender’s Office; civil society organizations, legal and academic institutions, and the media.

Work Plan Reference(s)

This Scope of Work relates to activity 3.1.2.2. of Feteh’s Extension Year 1 Work Plan, under which Feteh will support the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission`s efforts to Coordinate emergency responses and build the internal capacity of staff for the duration of 3 to 6 months.

Background

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (the EHRC) is mandated to promote and protect human rights in Ethiopia as provided under Proclamation No. 210/2000 as amended by Proclamation No. 1224/2020 on the Establishment of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. EHRC is mandated to monitor, investigate, and provide recommendations on human rights violations. EHRC can carry out investigations upon receipt of complaints or its initiation.

Over the last year, parts of the country have been experiencing a wave of conflict, violence, disturbances, and unrest which resulted in deaths, bodily injury, destruction of property, and large-scale displacement. In light of these emerging situations, EHRC has included an early warning and rapid response as one of its key areas of work. While EHRC is fleshing out the exact scope of emergencies, the current understanding of human rights emergencies includes incidents of conflict, unrest, disturbances, protests, state of emergency declarations, natural disasters, health emergencies, and the like that result in human rights concerns/violations.

In carrying out its work on emergencies, EHRC has enhanced coordination between the Head Office and Branch Offices to ensure the steady flow of information on emerging human rights issues; developed standardized templates to simplify the reporting process for Departments in the Head Office and Branch Offices; identified key events in the year that could lead to unrest and violence; monitored events that have in the past turned violent and produced situation reports identifying areas of concern and proposing recommendations. Most recently, EHRC has developed a rapid response strategy with which it intends to strengthen its response to emergencies. EHRC is also in the process of developing its early warning strategy to contribute to either averting or mitigating emergency incidents.

Considering the surge in emerging human rights incidents in Ethiopia and EHRC’s broad range of responsibilities it was found important to reinforce EHRC’s capacity by engaging one (1) Local Consultant to support EHRC’s early warning work and its responsiveness to human rights emergencies.

The following provides details of the scope of work for the engagement of a Local Consultant as indicated above.

Assignment

The general objective of the assignment is to enhance EHRC’s role and institutional capacity in early warning, and in monitoring, documenting, reporting, and responding to emergency human rights situations. The assignment further aims to enhance EHRC’s technical and human resource capacity to effectively carry out early warning work and respond to emergency human rights situations, through the implementation of its newly developed rapid response strategy.

Based on the specific request of EHRC, Feteh intends to engage the services of a Local Consultant to provide support to EHRC in developing and implementing an early warning strategy, and in implementing the newly developed rapid response strategy. The Consultant would also develop a database, standardized templates, and procedures, a staff development program, and build the capacity of EHRC to effectively respond to emergency human rights incidents under the overall guidance of EHRC’s Director of the Office of the Chief Commissioner (OCC).

Tasks

• The Local Consultant under the overall guidance of EHRC’s OCC Director will perform the following activities:
• Support the development and implementation of an early warning strategy;
• Develop a central database to track and document emergency human rights incidents as well as actions taken;
• Develop appropriate templates that would assist in monitoring, documenting, reporting, and responding to urgent human rights issues with the support of the International Expert,
• Produce a report on the required technical and human resource inputs to promptly and appropriately respond to emergency human rights incidents;
• Develop sustainable staff development and training plan on emergency response for staff in the Head Office and Branch Offices;
• Identify the key stakeholders, institutions, and networks in the country relevant for information collection and verification, as well as responding to urgent human rights incidents; and
• Develop strategy to enhance coordination and collaboration between the EHRC and the identified stakeholders, institutions, and networks.
• Ensure alignment of planned activities with EHRC’s mandate and overall strategic directions;
• Build capacity of relevant EHRC staff and ensure sustainability and ownership;
• Consider the changing context of the country and socio-political dynamics; and
• Engage with key stakeholders, including civil society organizations, and ensure coordination to avoid duplication and enhance impact.

Deliverables

• The Local Consultant shall produce the following deliverables.
• Inception report outlining the methodology and timeline to conduct the assignment;
• Report on the required technical and human resource inputs to promptly and appropriately carry out early warning work, and respond to emergency human rights incidents based on the newly developed rapid response strategy;
• Central database to track and document emergency human rights incidents, as well as actions/interventions taken;
• Templates to assist in early warning, and in monitoring, documenting, reporting and responding to emergency human rights situations;
• Roster of key stakeholders, institutions, and networks relevant for information collection and verification, as well as responding to urgent human rights incidents;
• Strategy to enhance coordination and collaboration between EHRC and the identified stakeholders, institutions and networks;
• Staff development and training program on emergency response and early warning for staff in the Head and branch offices;
• Training of trainers of Head Office and branch offices on the staff development and training program;
• Training for relevant staff in line with the staff development and training program;
• Coordination of EHRC’s early warning work, and response to emergencies and provision of continuous technical support to enhance EHRC’s capacity on early warning and response to emergency human rights situation;
• A brief completion reports.

Supervision

The Local Consultant will be under the direct supervision of EHRC’s OCC Director while carrying out the assignment, and will contractually report to Feteh’s Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party during this assignment.

 Level of Effort

The proposed Level of Effort for this assignment is up to a maximum of 130 (one hundred and thirty) workdays. The authorized workweek is five (5) days per week and eight (8) hours a day.

Location and Period of Assignment

The Local Consultant will work with the EHRC in Addis Ababa with extensive traveling to the regions.

Minimum Qualifications

• University degree in Law, or other related fields;
• Technical knowledge of human rights and/or humanitarian response;
• Experience working on the field in conflict and post-conflict settings, preferably in Ethiopia;
• A minimum of three (3) years practical experience in human rights and/or humanitarian work;
• Experience in carrying out assessments and analytical work in the context of emergencies, conflict prevention, and/or conflict;
• Proven experience in actively engaging in preparedness and response programming to protect human rights in emergencies;
• Experience engaging with reputable institutions that work on early warning and emergency response;
• Strong analytical, communication, and writing skills including experience in drafting strategy documents, as well as technical guidelines such as SOPs;
• Experience in networking, liaising with different counterparts, facilitating consultations, meetings and workshops;
• Excellent Computer skills: MS Word, Excel, Power Point, and database software;
• Proven experience in staff development and capacity building;
• Excellent Amharic and English communications skills; and
• Knowledge in other local languages is desirable.