Back Community Engagement and Outreach Consultant

Project Context and Scope
The Gambia is grappling with the adverse impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, leading to unpredictable weather patterns, higher temperatures, storms, and ecosystem damage. These issues are undermining peace and stability in the country, with agriculture suffering from reduced rainfall, and rising sea levels threatening freshwater sources. Climate-induced land degradation through flooding water from the ocean is causing agricultural lands to become too salty and with reduced productivity, resulting in lower yields, abandoned land, and conflicts over productive areas. Productive land is reducing over time due to salt intrusion causing pressure on available arable land by both the surrounding communities and those that move into these areas. Women, primarily engaged in rice farming, which is a staple food in The Gambia, are disproportionately affected due to competing needs of the arable land that is needed by climate-induced migrants for agriculture and livestock for pasture. Most women do not own land, although in some cases they have access to the land for agriculture production through negotiations with landowners. The increasing competing demand for arable land is therefore causing a reduction in food production, limited access to land by women and conflict among and within communities that surround the productive lands. This land degradation is also influencing migration patterns, including irregular migration, and rural-urban migration, contributing to declining food crop production, increased dependence on imports, food insecurity, poverty, inequality, declining agricultural productivity, and resource conflicts. 

Against the above background, FAO, WFP and IOM are implementing the project titled “Empowering Communities in The Gambia to prevent, mitigate and resolve land related conflicts exacerbated by climate change” funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund. To address the main conflict factors of climate exacerbated conflicts over land and natural resources within and between communities; the project is implementing a gradual/incremental approach, whereby community members between and within the targeted areas will be jointly engaged to use technical land reclamation and management practices to increase production and productivity of degraded lands to address food and nutrition insecurity vulnerability, climate induced migration, and create a conducive opportunity for local communities to take part in community-based resources management to address environmental degradation for sustainable and long term use. The project will also enhance availability of climate information and services to ensure that livelihood plans are climate informed and livelihood options are chosen based on seasonal forecasts and appropriate advisories. The project will work with a range of stakeholders to address the above challenges in 10 targeted communities which are located in North Bank region, Central Bank region and Lower River region; Jokadou, Lower Badibu, Upper Badibu, Upper Saloum Cluster, Sami, Niamina West cluster, Kiang East, Kiang West Cluster and Jarra West that were identified based on a vulnerability assessment  conducted by FAO.

As part of the project’s outcome to strengthen capacities of local government structures, district tribunals, communities and other local conflict resolution mechanisms in targeted communities, IOM aims to implement a range of activities. These not only include community engagement activities to facilitate exchange on climate, peace and security challenges to increase learning and adaptation among the communities but also assessments to inform green livelihoods interventions that will be supported as part of the project.    Organizational Department / Unit to which the Consultant is contributing
Migration Management Unit   Tasks to be performed under this contract  

• Conduct field visits to the 10 targeted communities for design, implementation and monitoring of project’s activities
• Provide technical, administrative and logistical support for the community engagement and assessment activities 
• Conduct mapping of key stakeholders in the targeted communities to be engaged during project activities
• Facilitate open communication and dialogue between organizations and community members, ensuring diverse perspectives are heard. 
• Support development of methodology and necessary tools to implement the green livelihoods assessment
• With IOM team, conduct and facilitate community needs assessments to understand local priorities and challenges and generate detailed reports
• Develop and implement strategies to reach diverse community segments with relevant information and resources
• Collect, analyze, and interpret community feedback to inform decision-making and project implementation. 
• Provide training and capacity building to community members and organizations to enhance their engagement skills
• Draft key findings of the assessment and conduct validation with relevant stakeholders
• Produce a final draft of the assessment report and provide recommendations with a gender lens 
• Perform such other duties as may be assigned.   Performance indicators for the evaluation of results

  At the end of the assignment, the consultant is expected to have:

  📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

  ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

  • Provided technical, administrative and logistical support for 10 community engagement activities
  • Drafted detailed reports outlining the proceedings and results of the community engagement activities 
  • Supported methodology and detailed work plan, including any interview questionnaires, guidelines etc. for the livelihoods assessment 
  • Supported IOM with data collection and analysis for the assessment in 10 communities
  • Drafted the assessment report based on a format agreed at the inception stage
  • Supported validation workshop with key stakeholders and partners to discuss the draft and initial findings of the assessment; as well as final draft of the assessment report, taking into consideration feedback received during the validation workshop and ensuring that a gender lens has been utilized throughout.   Education
  • University Degree in Development Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, or a related field

    Experience and Skills

  • A minimum of five years of experience in The Gambia on supporting community engagement activities on migration, environment and/or climate change
  • Experience in structurally formulating and supporting research studies on Environment and Climate Change with a focus on green livelihoods
  • Experience in planning and facilitating community-based participatory approach to conduct community needs assessments to understand local priorities and challenges
  • Experience in mainstreaming is desirable
  • Demonstrated experience in producing quality reports in English language 
  • Excellent oral and writing skills 
  • Excellent organizational skills and being detail oriented

    Ability to work independently and as part of a team. 

  • Experience in working with capacity building of government, especially at the local level, for capacity building, training and engagement work is desirable
  • Experience in either/or conflict mitigation, conflict resolution, conflict prevention, conflict transformation, risk reduction and crisis management, conflict management and/or peacebuilding is desirable 
  • Experience of working in a UN agency or International NGO is an asset Languages
  • Full working proficiency in English is required IOM’s official languages are English, French and Spanish. Proficiency of language(s) required will be specifically evaluated during the selection process, which may include written and/or oral assessments.   Travel required
  • Travel duties are mandatory specifically to the 10 targeted communities. Related costs will be covered by IOM as per standard rules and procedures.  Required Competencies   IOM’s competency framework can be found at this link. Competencies will be assessed during the selection process.   Values - all IOM staff members must abide by and demonstrate these three values:
  • Inclusion and respect for diversity: Respects and promotes individual and cultural differences. Encourages diversity and inclusion.
• Integrity and transparency: Maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.

All applications should include a functional email address, mobile numbers and detailed curriculum vitae (CV).