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District Facilitator - Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh Project Phase II

Dhaka

  • Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Location: Dhaka
  • Grade: Consultancy - SB-3 (SC6/SC7), Service Contract, Local Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Democratic Governance
    • Civil Society and Local governance
    • Governance and Peacebuilding
    • Project and Programme Management
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

The formal justice system in Bangladesh is under tremendous pressure with much workload and inadequate number of officials and staff to dispose the cases. Dispute resolution at the local levels may reduce the backlogs of cases in the formal justice sectors. The Village Courts Act 2006, later amended on September 2013, entrusts Union Parishad (UP) to offer justice services for both petty civil and criminal disputes. This justice delivery service aims to enable local peoples resolving their petty disputes and conflicts amicably at their door steps for establishing local peace and harmony for broader development and human rights establishment.  
 
After successful implementation of the pilot phase of Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh project (2009-2015), the Local Government Division (LGD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD&C) is on the way of AVCB II, a 4 year (2016-2019) long project, with financial and technical support of the GoB, European Union, and UNDP covering 1080 UPs in 27 Districts of eight divisions. The overall objective of the project is to improve access to justice for disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Bangladesh. The expected output of the project is the village courts in selected UPs are activated, functioning and responsive to the needs of the local justice seekers. Programmes are targeted to create awareness of the community members, service providers and other relevant stakeholders about village courts and its function through a number of awareness-raising and community mobilization initiatives. Besides, the project will develop an outreach strategy which responds to the differing needs and information sources for different segments of the population. 
 
There are 5 technical components such as Programme Coordination, Capacity Development, Advocacy-Communication and Outreach, Legal Reform and Monitoring and Evaluation has been working to reach objectives. Involving national institutions like NILG, PATC, JATI, BPA the project has a plan to develop the capacity of the stakeholders on village courts. Besides, as a part of implementation strategy it will include hiring NGOs to help LGD for grassroots level capacity building, social mobilization and eventually activating village courts under the technical support and supervision of project management team. In addition, two committees encompass with inter-ministerial officials, Project Steering Committee (PSC) and Project Implementation Committee (PIC), oversee the project. Under this context, project is required District Facilitators to maintain close coordination with local administration and to facilitate as well as to monitor partner NGO’s activity in the respective areas. 

 

Duties and Responsibilities

The District Facilitator will report to National Project Coordinator (NPC) and work under the overall guidance and supervision of Programme Specialist. S/he will also work in close coordination with Project Coordination Officer and maintain liaison with other project team members and other relevant stakeholders as a district level focal person for AVCBII Project. His/ her role will be very much to “facilitate’ the activities related to field level programme implementation, capacity development, advocacy, monitoring and ensure quality of village court services while selected partner NGOs will play supportive role to ensure capacity and awareness raising activities.  S/he will oversee partner NGO activities as well as field monitoring and certify finance and programme reports.  S/he will maintain required coordination with government counterparts and Union Parishads members in respective district. S/he will be deployed at district level and work with District administration keeping attached to the respective DDLG.
 
Key Responsibilities: 
 
  1. Work as a district focal person of AVCB Phse-II project and ensure effective implementation of different actions to be designed under Programme Coordination, Capacity Development, Advocacy-Communication, Legal Reform and Monitoring and Evaluation component through coordination with Project Management Team, local administration (DCs, DDLGs and UNOs) and UP Chairmen, partner NGOs and other relevant stakeholders.
  2. Maintain close liaison/coordination with local administration specially DCs, DDLGs, UNOs, UP Chairmen, local NGOs, partner NGOs, media and different committees lying at district, upazilla and union level and facilitate effective participation of local administration in project implementation and monitoring. 
  3. Assist local administration (DC, DDLG and UNO) in preparing and implementing training plan including training budget following the guideline of Project Management Unit (PMU) and ensure proper documentations (both programme and finance and operation)
  4. Coordinate the District Trainers Pool as an integral part of it and ensure their participation in conducting different capacity development training for UP representatives, UP secretaries and Village Courts Assistant (VCA) at the district and upazilla level;
  5. Organize/conduct/ participate different trainings, meetings, workshops, seminars, conferences, etc. to be held at district, upazilla and unions level to meet the objectives of the project; Coordinate with the local administration and PNGO in organizing trainings/ meetings/ workshops/ opinion sharing meeting with relevant stakeholders at Union, Upazilla and District level;
  6. Build and facilitate working relationship with the District Judiciary (e.g. District Judge, CJM), Legal Aid Committees, Case Management Committees and Police Stations (e.g. Police Super, Officer in Charge), District Bar Association, Media and other relevant networks/ NGOs to update project progress and assist relevant individual/ agencies facilitating case referral; 
  7. Assist local administration in organizing District and Upazilla level NGO’s coordination meetings under this project and share the status of outreach activities in the meeting as well as collect the meeting minutes for required follow up;
  8. Coordinate with local NGOs and partner NGOs and ensure outreach activities on village courts by them; 
  9. Assist PMU in preparing mapping on NGOs working on social development, access to justice and legal aid issues in project areas;
  10. Distribute and ensure uses of IEC and other materials as per the guideline provided by the PMU; 
  11. Support related individuals/ agencies to form District and Upazilla level Village Courts Management Committees following the guideline and make them functional monitoring Village Courts performance;
  12. Support related individuals/ agencies regarding implementation of Decentralised Monitoring, Inspection and Evaluation (DMIE) system following the guideline;
  13. Monitor and report the capacity development, monitoring and outreach activities on VCs performed by local NGOs;
  14. Conduct frequent field visit at the union under the assigned district(s) and monitor the progress of Ejlas set up and Village Courts performance (i.e. proceedings regarding the application/ petition, satisfaction of service recipients, case referral, quality of VC judgments, enforcement rate of VC’s decisions, documentation of VC proceedings, role of women (quality and quantity) in VC decisions, etc.) 
  15. Maintain the database/ documentation of the progress status of the activation of the village courts and relevant information in the assigned district(s);  
  16. Improve quality of partner NGO’s deliverables (both programme and finance) through monitoring and proper guidance;  
  17. Assist PMU in organising different events at local level;
  18. Collect the monthly, quarterly and annual progress report from the PNGOs and review achievement as per plan and target;
  19. Prepare and submit monthly, quarterly and annual reports following the prescribed formats;
  20. Conduct field-based study on thematic issues as per the guidelines of PMU;  
  21. Document the lessons learnt under the guidance by M&E and Research component;
  22. Any other duties as assigned by the PMU.
 
IMPACT OF RESULTS
 
The key result has an impact on the overall success of the project as well as country programme to reach UNDAF/ CPD goals. In particular, quality inputs on technical issues will ensure the smooth operation and implementation of this project at field level which contribute to activate the village courts across the project areas.
 

 

Competencies

The incumbent will contribute to develop the capacity building of the respective Union Parishad to activate the village courts through technical inputs and will maintain strong coordination with the local elected representatives, local administration, judiciary and police. Hence, it is required the respective person needs to have previous experience of similar interaction.
 
Corporate Competencies
 
  • Ability to work in a team and interpersonal skills are required;
  • Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards (human rights, peace, diversity, understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, results orientation (UNDP core ethics) impartiality;
  • Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
  • Displays culture, gender, religion, race, nationality, age sensibility and adaptability;
  • The incumbent should also be competent and knowledgeable as regards justice issues, specially creating justice opportunities for the rural people;
 
Functional Competencies
 
  • Capable and agreed to drive motorcycle and shall have valid driving license;
  • Report writing skills, as well as communication and presentation skills are required;
  • The incumbent must be able to travel alone in remote areas for periods of several days.
Management and leadership
 
  • Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback, timely responses to queries;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Demonstrates strong administrative skills and results oriented approach to work.
  • Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;

Development and Operational Effectiveness

  • Ability to engage with high ranking UNDP Managers, Government Officials and international donor community and provide policy advisory support services;
  • Ability to identify opportunities, conceptualize and develop project reports;
  • Ability to analyses situations and act accordingly;
  • Ability to effectively support in strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to formulate and manage training programme and design relevant training materials;
  • Ability to implement new systems and affect staff behavioral/ attitudinal change
 Knowledge Management and Learning
 
  • Promotes knowledge management and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example: Excellent knowledge of capacity development theory and the application of methodology: good understanding of capacity assessment methodologies;
  • Excellent ability to identify significant capacity development opportunities, ability to get capacity built, excellent ability to demonstrate national capacities built (mastery of the tools and their application);
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
  • Display understanding of the relevant contemporary ICT tools and continuously act towards personal capacity development;
  • Excellent communication skills (written and oral): Sensitivity to and responsiveness to all partners, 
  • Respectful and helpful relations with all UN/UNDP staff.
 

Required Skills and Experience

Education
 
Minimum Bachelor degree in Social Science/ Law/ Management.
 
Experience
  • Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in providing programme support to field level with involving national and international organizations/ national governments or legislatures is must;
  • Practical experience working on thematic issues such as local government, women empowerment, advocacy and awareness raising, capacity development, human rights and other relevant areas is  mandatory;
  • Experience on project management and implementation, coordination with the local administration, local government representatives, district judiciary, police - partnership and communication skills with various stakeholders is essential; 
  • Having technical skills on project monitoring and reporting and analysis and documenting of the project output in field context is desirable; 
  • Experience in working with UNDP or any UN agencies in programme implementation would be an advantage;
  • Experience in working with similar responsibilities and village courts would be an advantage;
  • Technical skills on MS office (e.g. both Bangla and English typing) and networking is  essential;
  • Good communication skills and effectively maintain liaison with the relevant stakeholder is required; 
  • Capable and agreed to drive motorcycle and must have valid driving license for motor cycle/ light vehicle.
Language requirements 
  • Excellent in reading, writing, listening and speaking in Bangla and good for the same in English. 
 

Disclaimer

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

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This vacancy is now closed.
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