Job Description

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Indonesia invites applications from individual consultants/firms/research organizations dealing with freedom of religion or preventing/countering violent extremism to develop i) a training module on the Non-Adversarial and Human Rights Approaches to the Promotion of Tolerance and Protection of Minority Rights.

The training module will be used to equip those interested or working to the promotion of tolerance, peace, protection of minorities.

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Background*
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, has long been regarded as a tolerant and pluralist country. However, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) most recent annual report, in 2019 “religious freedom conditions in Indonesia generally trended negatively” due to growing incidents of religious intolerance, the criminalization of blasphemy, and continued threats from hardline and other intolerant groups. Violations to religious freedom tend to have the greatest impact on minority groups such as Ahmadiyya and Shi’a Muslims, Christians, believers outside Indonesia’s six officially recognized faiths, and ‘nonbelievers.’
Indonesia also faces challenges of rising hostilities between Indonesia’s Islamists and pluralists. The hostilities partially arose from their different approaches in responding to the issues perceived as Muslim affairs in Indonesia. For example, while pluralists demand Islamists to be more friendly and tolerant to those regarded as practicing different interpretations of shariah, the latter accuses the former to be too liberal and just condoning the intention of Muslim ‘enemies’ to destroy Islam. This is particularly problematic for the millions of moderates in dealing with fundamentalist groups that often use Islam as their arguments to their intolerant acts. Indonesia also faces challenges in dealing with peripheral followers of the banned Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI) and Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) - - who are at risk of further isolation from more tolerant religious leadership.

In response to the negative trends in religious intolerance, recent promises from Indonesia’s newly appointed Religious Affairs Minister to uphold the rights of religious minorities came to light. The promise is to be implemented under among others the so-called “moderasi beragama” (moderation in religious practices) program. Intended to maintain harmony among different religious groups and to prevent religiously motivated violent extremism, “moderasi beragama” promotes tolerance and non-violence to be adopted by any religious organization members. In the infographic of the program, the Religious Affair Ministry defines tolerance as a situation where every religious member respects differences and gives space to those from different faith and religion to practice their belief and to express their views.

In order to push for changes on the grounds, any programs intended to promote tolerance and protection of minorities need to also promote the use of non-adversarial approaches to ensure how to embrace collaboration, audacity, tenacity, empathy, and results. The non-adversarial approaches aim to promote more tolerant communities without causing to sideline any other groups. The approach can be done by enabling every religious group to address their religious concerns with understanding on differences and act on commonalities they may have with others. The non-adversarial approaches also aim to enable the minorities to access any platforms to share their views, to voice their grievances and interests, and to take part in inter-faith interaction and collaborative activities.

To implement these non-adversarial approaches into the promotion of tolerance, peace, and protection of minorities, intermediary roles of civil society organizations (CSOs) working to promote tolerance, peace, and protection of minorities are essential. To optimize their roles, CSOs need to build their own capacity to understand concepts of tolerance and freedom of religions and beliefs, as well as protection of minorities according to the national and international standards, non-adversarial approaches, and techniques to perform outreach and engagement activities with ‘hard to reach’ groups as well as with online and offline media. The non-adversarial approaches will include concepts and techniques on conflict transformation and alternative dispute resolution. The engagement skills will also include processes to building trust with communities, hard-to-reach communities, and religious actors, as well as conflict-sensitivity and psychosocial assistance; aside from enabling the minority groups to organize among themselves, to collaboratively advocate for their rights, to influence government policy-making, and to maximize the use of online media to instill powerful messages of peaceful coexistence and collaboration based on commonalities or shared interests.
For the purpose of capacity building for CSOs, media, and religious leaders working to promote tolerance, peace, and protection of minorities, Search seeks a consultancy service to help build a training module on the use of non-adversarial and human rights approaches in the promotion of tolerance, peace, and protection of minorities in Indonesia. In addition to the non-adversarial approaches and engagement skills, the training will also address the concept of tolerance based on the applicable national and international standards, such as the Common Ground Approach (CGA).
This initiative is part of the SFCG project entitled “PROTECT: Promoting Collective Effort Towards Resilience and Tolerance in Indonesia.” Through this project, SFCG aims to increase understanding about the importance of religious tolerance while broadening ‘whole of community’ collaboration and raising awareness at the public and government levels around the importance of protecting the rights of minorities.

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Development of the training module*
The consultant(s) will be required to collect and review the existing literature (books, reports, articles, etc) and training materials on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and non-adversarial approaches (conflict transformation, alternative dispute resolution), and the use of on/offline media for their promotion. Based on the review, the consultant(s) will be required to produce an outline of contents for the training module.
Once the outline is mutually agreed upon with the SFCG team, the consultant(s) will be required to develop the draft of the training module, lead the consultation and testing processes with SFCG stakeholders, and incorporate inputs or feedback generated from the processes. Last, the consultant(s) will finalize the training module.

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Methodology*

• *The analysis will be primarily based on a qualitative methodology to gather key data in order to develop the training module on the use of non-adversarial and human rights approaches in the promotion of tolerance, peace, and protection of minorities, though proposals for alternative methodologies are welcomed. Furthermore, the consultant(s) will be requested to conduct several stages of analysis, including:

Document reviews regarding current practices and gaps in existing training on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and non-adversarial approaches, and the use of media to their promotion. The consultant(s) must work closely with SFCG team to make sure all relevant documents and materials available inside and outside SFCG repositories are collected, reviewed, and used as a reference for the training module development processes. When necessary, the consultant(s) should also conduct individual interviews or focus group discussions with relevant experts in the field of the promotion of tolerance and protection of minorities in Indonesia.

Scope of Work:

• Undertake the document reviews, interviews, or consultative meetings with experts to collect relevant materials, current best practices, and gaps in the training on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and nonadversarial approaches, and the use of media for their promotion.
• Develop a training module on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and non-adversarial approaches, and the use of media for their promotion that can be used to train CSOs, religious leaders, and Media practitioners both in person or through online platforms.
• In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the training module should be designed for use as both conventional (in person) and online training.

Key Duties of Consultant(s):

• Collect, analyze, and document information related to tolerance and protection of minorities training and practices in Indonesia and other countries.
• Interview key experts in the field of tolerance and protection of minorities.
• Propose outline of contents be included in the training module on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and non-adversarial approaches, and the use of media for their promotion.
• Produce a draft of a training module on tolerance, protection of minorities, human rights-based and non-adversarial approaches, and the use of media for their promotion.
• Lead or participate in the consultative meetings with SFCG stakeholders to invite inputs and feedback to drafts of the training module.
• Incorporate feedback and inputs generated from the stakeholder's consultation into the revision of the draft.
• Lead or participate in the user testing processes of the training module.
• Incorporate inputs and feedback generated from the user testing processes into the drafts.
• Finalize drafts of the training module.

Deliverables. Within the consultancy period, the consultant(s) is expected to complete the above-mentioned scope of work. The deliverables are as follows:

• Inception report and work plan completed within the first 7 days. The inception report should have detailed steps on processes needed to complete the assignments including the methodological approach that will be used and a list of preliminary documents that are relevant to the training module. The inception report and the list of preliminary documents need formal approval from the SFCG Indonesia team before starting the processes to work on assignments.
• Draft of the outline of contents to be included in the training module and key aspects of each content. The report is subject to the SFCG Indonesia team’s review. The report should be submitted in an MS Word document.
• The first draft of the training module. The draft should include at least the objective of each learning session, its methodology, its processes, its hand-out materials, and a tool to assess progress in learning.
• Second draft of the training module, the draft should be tested and revised incorporating feedback and inputs from the testing processes with SFCG team and/or SFCG stakeholders.
• Final drafts of the training module. The review and feedback may take multiple rounds depending on the quality of the report. No final payment will be made until the report is formally approved by the SFCG team. One copy of the final report should be submitted in MS Word format.
• The consultancy period will be between Feb 14th to March 15th, 2022. The applicant is expected to propose the minimum number of person-days required for the assignment. The consultant(s) preferably should be based in Jakarta.

Remuneration:

• The schedule of payment of the consultancy fee is as follows:
• 20% will be paid upon approval of an implementation plan and Inception Report.
• 20% will be paid upon approval of the 1st draft of the training module report submission.
• 20% will be paid upon approval of the 2nd draft of the training module report submission.
• 40% will be paid upon approval of the final draft of the training module report submission.

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No Payment (second installment) will be made unless the report is approved by the SFCG Indonesia team.

Supervision of the Consultant(s) The consultant(s) will work under the Program Manager in collaboration with program staff of SFCG Indonesia.

Qualifications:

• Strong expertise in human rights based approaches, especially in the area of freedom of religion and protection of minorities;
• Experience in training and module/guideline development;
• Proven track record of writing a high quality fully edited report in English and Bahasa;
• Strong understanding of violent extremism, conflict, social analysis in the context of Indonesia is highly desirable;
• Work experience in Indonesia;
• Fluent in English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Interested candidates should send their CV, technical proposal, financial proposal (detailing the cost calculations), and one sample of a training module produced by the applicant to phandayani@sfcg.org by Feb 14th, 2022. Only short-listed offerors will be contacted for further consideration. Telephone calls and office visits for inquiries are not entertained and may lead to the applicant’s disqualification

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.

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EU citizenship is required for placement in our Brussels office

Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls please. Please see our website www.sfcg.org for full details of our work. All Search Employees must adhere to the values: Collaboration- Audacity - Tenacity - Empathy - Results. In accordance with these values, Search enforces compliance with the Code of Conduct and related policies on Anti Workplace Harassment, Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Conflict of Interest and Anti-fraud. Search is committed to safeguarding the interests, rights, and well-being of children, youth and vulnerable adults with whom it is in contact and to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for children, youth, and vulnerable adults. Search for Common Ground does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.

Job Type: Full-time