Country Conflict Analysts to perform desk studies (work remotely)

(See update in blue below.)

Background

Cure Violence (formerly CeaseFire Chicago) is an international non-governmental organization working to interrupt and stop the spread of violence using disease control and public health methods that have been used by the World Health Organization and other organizations to address AIDS, cholera, diarrhea, and other leading causes of death in the world. The Cure Violence Strategy has three core activities that work in concert to disrupt the transmission and reduce the prevalence of violence in a community. These activities are interrupt transmission; identify and change the thinking of highest risk transmitters; and changing group norms. Additionally, data and monitoring are used at all levels to measure and provide constant feedback to the system.

The Cure Violence Public Health Strategy has been successfully applied to violent communities throughout Chicago and has been adopted in several other cities in the United States as well as in other countries including Iraq and South Africa. The approach is designed to shift community norms away from treating violence as an acceptable behavior and instead use these norms and social pressure to stop violence before it occurs.  Each replication of the model is specifically adapted to address the type and level of violence and to take into consideration the cultural, political, social, and other aspects of the local situation.   

Task

Cure Violence seeks to identify experts to produce country analyses based on existing and available documents and the expert’s existing network within the country in question.  These country analyses would be used to help understand the local dynamics that influence or drive violence (type of violence, key parties involved, key individuals within these parties, key individuals who can reach those involved in the violence, historical/cultural/political context, potential sources of information on violent events, potential partners for working to interrupt the spread of violence) in all countries where there are high levels of violence.   A detailed understanding of the local situation and large network of personal contacts will be required to carry out this research properly.

These studies will be an important part of Cure Violence’s adaptation of the methodology to address the specific situation in each country.  While we are interested in hearing from experts for any country experiencing high levels of violence, we are particularly focused at the moment on expanding our work in the Middle East and North Africa and Central and South America.

Output

The desired output would be a report, in Word format, no more than 25 pages in length, providing a detailed review of the local dynamics that influence or drive the violence in a particular country. 

Methodology

The consultant will undertake desk research from his or her home office.   

Time-frame

This consultancy is expected to take up to a maximum of twelve consultancy days from time of engagement.  At this time, Cure Violence is collecting statements of interest from potential experts in order to have a roster of experts available for short-term consultancies as and when the opportunity arises. 

Application procedure

Interested candidates should submit the following to jobs_cureviolencedc(at)volkersolutions.com:

1. Expression of Interest in the form of a letter (no more than 2 pages) outlining their relevant experience, suitability for the consultancy, and countries of interest;
2. resume;
3. Expected fee (expressed as a daily rate) justified by previous earnings;
4. Contact information for two references for similar work.

NOTE: All materials should be submitted IN ENGLISH. 

The closing date for applications is Friday, 28 February 2013.

For more information about Cure Violence, please visit our website: http://www.cureviolence.org