Participatory Facilitator / Trainer to Carry out a Series of Training-of-trainers in Disaster Risk Reduction

Consultancy for Participatory and Learning approaches in Disaster Risk Management Training-of-Trainers

1.BACKGROUND

Catholic Relief Services Vietnam is a US non-governmental organization that has been operating in Vietnam for nearly 20 years. CRS projects assist local counterparts to build capacity in the areas of Education, HIV/AIDS care and treatment, Disaster Risk Reduction and emergency preparedness and response. Currently, we are implementing a number of Disaster Risk Reduction projects in Northern Central Vietnam. The Community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) programs through a strong capacity building and learning process. Over two years, the   project will directly benefit 35,000 local people (8,183 households) in one of the vulnerable districts of Quang Nam province, among the worst affected by hydro-meteorological hazards. The Together- Strengthening Community Resilience Project will support the foundational objective of reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience of at–risk population, traditionally underserved and recovery needs from the recurrent disasters unmet.  

The project aims at strengthening capacities at commune and village levels to ensure increased participation of local communities in the DRR planning process, especially women and youth from the most vulnerable households,  to further link the Village level DRR plan and household preparedness activities to government plans.  The project will adopt a high quality participatory training-of-trainer’s approach and will promote/create a group of community-based facilitators at the village level, who will further facilitate the village-level DRR planning and households preparedness process with the Women’s Union and VTFs and Youth Unions and local authority.   

CRS is looking for a highly qualified and experienced participatory facilitator / trainer to carry out a series of training-of-trainers in disaster risk reduction for approximately 10 CRS staff and partners in a five-day training.  The training-of-trainers modules need to be designed with the highest quality and current approaches:

1.Highly participatory training modules that focus less on concepts and more on examples and community-led disaster risk reduction plans designed based on community-led assessments
2.A training methodology that will promote replication to extend the training modules that allow TOT participants’  skills to be adapted to their respective contexts,
3.Provisions for  constant feedback so that the training continues to meet TOT participants’ needs
4.Field testing by the participants to practice their new skills and test the tools with the communities

Primary activities

Participatory and Learning approaches in Disaster Risk Management training-of-trainers will serve as a road map for CRS and Partner staff to advance the critical areas of community based disaster preparedness for current and future programs by:

1.Strengthening the facilitation skills of CRS and partner staff while building knowledge on how and what participatory tools are critical to be used to reduce risks to disasters.
2.Together with CRS, training CRS and Partner staff to facilitate communities to develop a community map, understand/identify and analyze their own risks and vulnerabilities and prepare a Community Based Disaster Risk Management plan (CBDRM) plan for implementation, using CRS’ Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CDBP) How to Guide and other resource materials available.
3.Ensuring participants have clear understanding of early warning and easy to use materials to be used by community households.

2.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 

Participatory and Learning approaches in Disaster Risk Management training-of-trainers will train participants to:

1.Understand the importance of people’s participation in community based disaster planning programs.
2.Understand and apply adult learning principles in CBDP planning process.
3.Facilitate the process of community-driven vulnerability and capacity assessments around disasters
4.Understand the participatory approaches and various tools that promote people’s participation in CBDP programs.
5.Understand how to use the CRS Learning Guide, prepared during the consultancy, for the project and questions in the community level CBDP planning, review and implementation process.
6.Understand how to document community level learning and processes
7.Understand how the Participatory approach can build the community’s capacity to develop and implement a relevant and sustainable Disaster Management Plan. 
8.Understand the Early Warning messages and corresponding actions needed by the households and community members

3.EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

1.Increased awareness on “how to facilitate” CBDP planning at the community level, specifically around the context of Disaster Preparedness and households level focus of the project
2.Enhanced understanding of the project participants on PLA tools – what, why, when, how to use
3.Greater understanding on number of villages to be covered and nature of participants to be organized for specific PLA tools
4.Identified key strategies for CBDP program to ensure increased community participation

4.JOB REQUIREMENTS

Preparatory Work:

1.Review of project documents (Proposal, CRS Community Based Disaster Preparedness How to Guide, MACF/CRS Resilience and Recovery project learning guide). 
2.Develop specific timetable and agenda together with DRR team and CRS DRR Technical Advisor

Deliverables:

3.Training modules developed based on the CRS Community Based Disaster Preparedness How to Guide
4.Facilitate five-day training-of-trainers for CRS and partner staff
5.Checklist or guiding questions for facilitators for each tool to be used in the  CBDP
6.Forms or questionnaires for Focus Group Discussions, Key Informants Interviews
7.Analysis of data/information collected through the participatory exercise to identify key capacity building needs at the household level
8.Documentation of in-field findings, observations and recommended key strategies and activities for DRR project

Communications:

The consultant will report to  

1.Thi Nguyen, CRS Vietnam Project Manager, DRR programs
All steps in the process will include communications with:
2.Snigdha Chakraborty, CRS Vietnam Country Manager
3.Amy Hilleboe, CRS  Senior Technical Coordinator for Relief, Resilience and Recovery - to provide input around content, especially on how well Best Practices from various CRS CBDP projects can be integrated and how the learning guide can be adapted in to the first training

5.TIMELINE

The consultancy is scheduled to take place Early June, 2014 until July, 2014 (23 days in total)

6.CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS:

1.Minimum of five years successful training and facilitation experience in disaster preparedness and response
2.Proven excellent training and facilitation skills
3.Respect to the local cultures and communities
4.Knowledge of community based disaster preparedness
5.Exceptional communication skills
6.Competent leadership abilities
7.Fluent in Vietnamese and strong aptitude in English, verbal and written
8.Ability to deliver outputs under pressure
9.Flexibility

7.APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Institutions and Individuals interested in this job are invited to submit your applications via email to Catholic Relief Services, Ms. Tr?n Th? Thu H?ng, at: [email protected]

Applications should include:

i)Expression of Interest;
ii)A concise technical proposal;
iii)A tentative work plan with indicative budget,
iv)CVs demonstrating relevant capacity and experience.

Deadline for submission: by 27th May 2014

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Nguyen Thi – DRR Project Manager
Tel: 04. 37738300, ext: 140
Email: [email protected]

CRS is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or HIV/AIDs.