Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Senior Technical Advisor

The Carter Center – Democracy Program

Consultant – Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Senior Technical Advisor

The Carter Center is guided by a fundamental commitment to promote human rights, alleviate human suffering, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health conditions. Following involvement in the 2011 Presidential and Legislative elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Center’s Democracy Program is now working to enhance the role played by domestic Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as they advance a more credible electoral process based on democratic elections standards. The Center plans to accomplish this by hosting a series of trainings for these stakeholders.

Position Summary

The Center seeks a highly-qualified, motivated and energetic consultant with extensive experience developing and/or administering training materials to serve as a ICT Senior Technical Advisor in the DRC to aid in conducting a series of trainings and providing ongoing technical support to CSOs.

S/he will administer training materials previously developed and tailored for the CSO audiences, but may be tasked with updating materials as needed. This position will be based out of Kinshasa with travel to the provinces required throughout the contracted period.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should have full professional capacity to communicate and as needed, draft materials in English. S/he should have full professional proficiency in French. S/he should have a Bachelor’s degree in a related field, with an emphasis on information technology and applications to international development and public policy, at five years program related experience, or equivalent combination of experience, education and experience. Experience working in the DRC and/or other post-conflict developing nations, strong leadership skills and a cross-cultural understanding are strongly encouraged. The ideal candidate will have some experience conducting trainings in a diverse setting. The following skills are also strongly preferred:

· Comfort integrating modern technology into Carter Center projects;

· Knowledge of ICT and mapping software (including Google Maps and related web-based mapping tools) and to write simple scripts in PHP;

· Familiarity with Microsoft Office software, social networking, and mobile messaging software;

· Working knowledge of one or more data analysis software packages including SPSS and Excel;

· Knowledge of data base systems such as Access and Filemaker;

· General knowledge of how computing and communications technology into modern social science field methods; and

· Ability to translate complex technical language into simple terms for persons with little to no prior exposure to communication technologies.

Duties

Under supervision of the Atlanta Project Manager, the primary responsibilities of the ICT Senior Technical Advisor will include:

· Supporting, and representing as requested, the Carter Center’s project in the DRC to support the strengthening of technical capacities of domestic election observation organizations.

· As needed, contributing to the design of training materials, including training manuals and other tools, with input from the Center’s Atlanta staff

· Attending a 2-day Atlanta training on International Election Standards, hosted by The Carter Center, including an overview of information and communication technologies currently being developed for Carter Center missions

· Conducting research, writing background analysis and working with partners in the field.

· Maintaining ongoing contact with CSOs and key stakeholders, including domestic and international technology professionals, donors, DRC-based NGOs and others who support the Center’s work in the field.

· As requested, negotiating subgrant agreements with potential CSO partner organizations. Oversee implementation of subgrant agreements and capacity-building training to ensure fulfillment of contractual obligations and reporting requirements. Help evaluate the Center’s selection of CSO subgrantees based on an assessment of CSOs technical capacity and knowledge.

· Organizing stakeholder meetings with Carter Center Atlanta staff present in the DRC, as needed.

· Providing regular analysis, advice, and reports to the Center regarding events that may impact support and training for domestic groups. Submit weekly overall field reports to Atlanta, as well as quarterly progress reports, and other written and oral briefings, as necessary.

· Providing input and edits to project reports, as needed.

The ICT Senior Technical Advisor will be expected to make (4) separate trips to the DRC to conduct and help carry out project activities. The (4) trips will include:

1) Conducting an ICT Training for domestic CSOs in Kinshasa

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions: Building on the international obligations training, this multi-day training will be held for representatives of CSOs and domestic observation groups on geographic information systems, the Center’s open-source data collection tool, “ELMO”, and other ICT solutions. This training will be technical in nature and will provide participants with the basic skills to use ICT software to collect and analyze electoral, political and other trends.

2) Helping conduct three trainings in Congolese provinces on domestic election observation strategies

Regional Partner Trainings: Using existing master trainers and a few key partner NGOs in Bas-Congo, Katanga and the Kivus, this training will be aimed at a cadre of domestic long-term, human right and election monitors. An additional 10-20 domestic Long term observers, per province, will be selected by the Center and partners from among their staff based on interest, availability and skill level. Each will collect qualitative and quantitative data to serve as the basis for regular reports on the state of human and electoral rights in the provinces during the 2012 and 2013 electoral process (produced with ongoing Carter Center assistance).

3) Providing short term (1-2 weeks) consultation in the field to CSOs who previously received ICT trainings, troubleshooting any difficulties they have encountered in using ICT, ensuring their adequate comprehension of technical material learned and providing additional support as needed.

4) Considering in part lessons learned during the short term consultation trip, provide long term (3months) consultation in the field to CSOs to aid in their long term observation efforts leading up to the 2013 local elections. This will include CSOs have proper materials and knowledge to gather credible data using ICT tools such as SMS, GIS (if adequate), ELMO and other data collection tools. (S)he will also contribute to the development of related data collection tools.

The pay rate for the DES Senior Technical Associate is commensurate with experience.

Please send cover letter, CV and a list of references:

Ms. Chansi Powell - Program Associate

The Carter Center

453 Freedom Parkway

Atlanta, Georgia 30307

E-mail: drcelectionstandards@gmail.com