Call for applications: Senior political journalism expert / self-employed individual

Context of the mission

CFI is a French media cooperation agency mainly funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, and is responsible for coordinating and implementing public aid policy for promoting and enhancing the media in developing countries. CFI is currently involved in around thirty projects that fall within four major programmes: media and pluralism, media and enterprise, media and development, and media and human resources.

CFI is a member of the consortium implementing the "Enhanced Support to Democratic Governance in Jordan". Its objective is to support Jordan's reform process towards consolidation of deep democracy and to promote inclusiveness of policy and decision making processes, focusing in particular on participation of women and youth.

The programme has three main components: Parliamentary Strengthening (1), Electoral Assistance (2), and Support to the Political Party System (3) in contributing to democratic governance.

The implementation duration is four years, covering the full legislative term of the Parliament and the entire electoral cycle, providing crucial support for the upcoming local and governorate council elections in August 2017 as well as for the next cycle of elections in 2020 and 2021.

With a total budget of EUR 12,7 million, the programme is co-funded by the European Commission (EUR 12 million), and by the project implementer, a consortium of European specialised organisations led by the European Centre for Electoral Support ( ECES) (EUR 0.7 million) and including CFI.

As vector of transparency and information to citizen, the media play a crucial role in the democratic process. The programme's cross-cutting media component ( JDID), implemented by CFI, includes the training of political journalists, but also awareness-raising of parliamentarians to communication with the media. CFI will also support the Independent Electoral Commission in the set-up of a media monitoring unit for the coverage by the media of the campaigns and elections.

Project objectives

CFI's main objective within the ESDG Jordan is to create the conditions for more accurate and professional coverage of political, parliamentary and electoral news in Jordan.

Beneficiaries

• Political journalists based in Amman and Governorates
• Members of Parliaments (MPs)
• The Independant Electoral Commission (IEC)

Intervention logic

As part of the reform of the Jordan HoR (project component 1), CFI will implement the following activities:

• Interactive MP to people radio programs
• Political knowledge seminars and Political journalism skills training
• Creation of an online platform with fact sheets on Jordan politics and a kit for election reporting
• Creation of a media center: Equipment of the media center, MPs media training and organization of a media and Parliament conference

The support to electoral reform (project component 2) will comprise the following activities:

• Support to IEC external communication with the set-up of a media monitoring unit for the coverage by the media of the campaigns and elections
• Elections reporting training session

Finally, CFI will organise of a two-day forum on Social media and politics (project components 1, 2, 3), foreseen at the end of 2018.

Project expected outcomes

• Improved Jordanian citizens' information on politics and elections, through a better coverage of news by the media.
• Better understanding by the media of the electoral system, the process and election issues and electoral process.
• Enhanced respect of electoral legislation by the media through follow-up and analysis campaigns and elections media coverage by the IEC
• Emphasis on the role of social media in the coverage of political events.

Services description

Services expected are the following (the expert is expected to present an offer for both componants) :

3.1. Trainings

Component 1:

• Political journalism skills training
• MPs media training

Component 2:

• Elections reporting training session

3.2. Training support material

• A detailed training plan by teaching sequence specifying the objectives, expected results, tools and educational process should be provided to CFI at least 10 days before each training.

A draft plan should be provided with the application form to this tender.

• Drafting presentation sheets and fact sheets that will be integrated to the "CFI training catalog" likely to be replicated in future projects related to support to democratic governance.

3.3. Educational follow-up, reports drafting

• Participation to the selection of trainings participants, educational follow-up
• Drafting of activity reports for each training session
• Assessment of participants' productions following the trainings, as part of project impact monitoring and evaluation
• Drafting of a final activity report, which will include a summary of the actions implemented and a list of recommendations and proposals, the lines of action that it would be relevant for CFI to continue, amplify or change for the next projects related to support to democratic governance.

3.4.Consultation and coordination and with other experts involved in the project

Assignment duration

Approximately 320 worked days between December 2017 and March 2021.

Expected results

• Train 240 journalists on political news coverage, through 24 training sessions
• Train 200 journalists on election news coverage, through 20 training sessions

Deliverables

Training plans (see details above) and training presentation sheets

• Written, audio or visual documents, and educational material to be handed over to participants
• Assessment reports on participants' progress
• Narrative execution reports after each training session

Language proficiency

• Arabic native language
• English
• French appreciated

Fields of expertise

• Political journalism
• Vocational training for experienced journalists
• Media training for non-professionals

Qualifications

• At least 20 years of coverage of political news in Jordan.
• Proven extensive experience of training in the field of media.
• Proven extensive experience of training to non-media professionals.
• Proven extensive international experience.

Starting date

December 2017

Status

Self-employed

Timeframe of application

The date for receipt of the applications is set as December 4th, 2017.
Application files should be submitted electronically by e-mail only to the following address: amr@cfi.fr

Deadline for receipt of applications: December 4th, 2017
to the attention of: Adeline Mayeur
CFI / Mediterranean Asia Department
62 avenue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy les Moulineaux - France

Submission of applications and bids

Applications will include:

• An application form containing the information to assess professional, technical capacity of the candidate:
• References of the applicant for similar services;
• Up-to-date CV with experiences and qualifications

If CFI notes that the above parts are missing or incomplete, it may decide to ask all the concerned candidates to produce additional documentation within a period of 7 days from the request.

• A bid including:

• A technical bid of 5 pages maximum meeting the conditions of the terms of reference, with an intervention methodology which will indicate the way in which the incumbent will implement the service and explanations on the proposed pricing;
• The applicant will explain its understanding of the expectations of the service in a memorandum of understanding; it will report its own experience on how to approach the mission by justifying its approach through its knowledge of the issues in the project (knowledge of Arab countries and the issues of refugees) and the results of its past experiences.

• Proposals for training plans specifying, for both topic (political and election coverage), the teaching program by pedagogical sequence, the objectives and expected results of the training,tools and educational process.

The final planning of the activities is the responsibility of CFI project managers and will be made in consultation with the contractor, the partners and beneficiaries on the ground over the period covered by the contract.

The applicant will indicate its availability from December 2017 to April 2021, and especially during the next 6 months (trainings are expected to start in January 2018 and will be deployed until April 2021).

• The financial proposal will be attached to the technical proposal and should provide the following details (complete the attached price schedule):

• Flat rate per day (including the price of intellectual services and all other costs as detailed in 2.1)
• Number of days of intervention planned (including: preparation, training, reporting)
• Total flat rate cost of the service over the entire duration of the contract

The answer may be written in French or English. Any incomplete form will be rejected.

Competitive procedure with negotiation related to the commission of training services as part of the "Enhanced Support to Democratic Governance in Jordan" (ESDG Jordan) project:

TERMS OF REFERENCE AND TENDER RULES