Developing creative campaigning strategies
Call for Consultancy
Objective: Support LGBT organisations, especially in the global South and East
to develop and implement innovative public campaigning strategies.
Background of project:
Any significant progress for LGBTI people’s meaningful access to their universal Human Rights and their inclusion in all parts of society can only rest on deep transformations of social acceptance of sexual and gender diversities.
Hivos has been supporting organisations worldwide over many years to develop public campaigning strategies, and sees this as an important priority focus for its future role.
The IDAHO Committee has been focusing for the past years on providing ideas for action and some strategic support to organisations taking action around the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The organisation’s analysis for its mid-term plan review has confirmed that support to developing creative campaigning was a priority expectation from the field.
The two organisations are therefore engaging, with additional financial support from the Arcus Foundation, in a joint pilot phase to develop, in consultation with major stakeholders in the field, an international initiative aiming to enhance the sector’s capacities to develop efficient, cost effective, innovative, locally relevant creative public campaigning strategies and to increase its interconnections with other social change movements.
The project is inspired by
- other similar initiatives in related fields such as “waging non-violence” project, New tactics in Human Rights resource center, creative visions, Common Cause, Beautiful Rising, etc.
- experiences of building resource centres such as the Stigma action network, the “re-think” project,
- examples of practitioners networks such as the New Tactics practitioners circle or the Advocates for Youth Activists Network, among many others.
The project is being developed in close consultation with key stakeholders in the fields of
- advocacy for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression
- non-violent creative campaigning
While the pilot phase will be carried out by the IDAHO Committee, the project will have a much broader focus than the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The pilot phase will also determine the best suited organisation and governance for the future phases of the project.
Specific objective of the project:
The project aims at
- Taking stock of existing analysis and expertise in the field of public campaigning on LGBTI issues
- Researching, documenting and analysing public campaigning and the field of social change activism, with a special focus on online campaigns and innovative tactics.
- Identifying resources, focusing on the development of ideas and methodologies for action, and monitoring and evaluation tools. These resources will be pooled into a permanent resource centre, which will integrate the resources already compiled by the IDAHO Committee and other social change actors
- Expanding the existing network of social campaign practitioners which will act as a permanent expert resource platform on creative campaigning
- Set up a “Creative campaigning resource hub” on sexual orientation and gender identity issues, based on the collection of campaign material and ongoing analysis of campaign tactics and approaches
- Ensuring the transfer of learning to local LGBTI organisations. Specifically, the project will set up a learning group of between 10 and 20 activists who will act as a first “batch” to test out the capacity building approach
The project is seeking an experienced campaigner in order to develop and supervise the pilot phase of this project.
Main responsibilities of consultant:
Consultant will be expected to fine-tune and carry out a strategy to respond to the project goals. Specifically, consultant will have the following responsibilities:
Part A: Ensure development of knowledge and expertise
- Take stock of existing resources, networks, platforms, etc.
- Support local LGBT organisations partner to this project to generate expertise out of their contexts
- Identify relevant experts in the field, build the terms of reference of their inputs, negotiate contracts and supervise their production
- Produce analytical content from consultant’s own experience in social change processes, campaigning tactics, etc.
- Specify the terms of reference of the collection of campaign material by external resource persons to constitute the initial campaign data base and supervise the collection process
- Supervise the production of a core campaigner “handbook”
PART B: Support capacity development of LGBT organisations
- Resource centre
- Develop the terms of reference for an interactive resource centre, integrating currently most effective online tools.
- Supervise the technical execution of the resource centre by external technical resource.
- Create and facilitate a permanent resource group of creative campaigners
- Training cycle :
- Identify with the participating organisations an initial learning group of up to 20 activists to take part in the project’s first cycle
- Set up the annual’s cycle content, calendar, methodology and tools (to be integrated with the resource centre. Supervise all the cycle’s execution, including contracting with expert participants.
PART C: Ensure management and governance of project are properly integrated and developed
- Ensure the IDAHO Committee board and the project’s steering committee are fully engaged
- Expand the ownership of the project by the global community of LGBTI organisations
- Participate in the elaboration of the terms of reference of all other external resources to the project and supervise execution of their duties.
- Report monthly on project’s progress
Expected outputs:
At the end of the one-year pilot phase, the project should have delivered:
- A scoping study of existing resources and tools in creative campaigning and social change processes
- A series of analytical papers on past campaigns, both in the field of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression and other relevant social fields
- A Manual for creative campaigning, outlining key principles, tactics, tools. Length of text should be approximately 10000 words
- A training/mentoring cycle for up to 20 advocates from all world regions
- A series of 5 public webinars on specific topics related to creative campaigning
- A fully functional online interactive resource centre, with an initial database of about 200 campaign materials and tools
Consultant will be expected to deliver a monthly activity report to the project leaders and associated partner organisations to this project
Expected qualifications:
Consultant should have a very solid first hand experience in campaigning, preferably in a country from the global South or East, and preferably involving campaigning on some of the following issues:
- Religious fundamentalism
- Mental illness, including conversion “therapies”
- Right to health
- Freedom of expression
- Rights of the Child
- Education, including homo/transphobic bullying
- Same-sex unions
Consultant should also be strongly familiar with approaches consisting in:
- Mobilising allies
- Using non-confrontational approaches
- Integrating Arts and cultural activism
- Developing a Human Rights based approach
- Confronting narratives of cultural imperialism
Consultant should have
- a solid academic background, or a proven ability to quickly identify and access relevant academic inputs
- A good connection to LGBTI groups worldwide, and a good understanding and/or sensitivity to the diversity of contexts, issues and approaches.
- Experience in training processes and instruments. Experience in facilitation of trainings or workshops is a plus
- Strong connections to campaigning experts globally
General skills:
- Excellent written skills in English
- We welcome knowledge of other languages
- Excellent networking skills
- A good sense of interpersonal relationships in a culturally diverse setting
Terms of contract:
The assignment covers the period September 2015 – July 2016, though it is strongly envisaged that this assignment will be extended beyond that date, possibly as a full time employment contract.
Consultant will work from home. Communications fees and all other work related expenses will be compensated. The current budget does not foresee office space rental.
While consultant will be free to manage time load, the assignment is expected to equal at least a 50% of full time work load.
Consultant will be required to provide monthly invoices in conformity with resident country’s regulations and laws.
The IDAHO Committee is an equal opportunity employer.
Application process:
Candidates are expected to submit a brief (2 pages maximum) intention note on how they envisage to carry out the above-mentioned tasks and submit their expected fees for the entire mission.
Candidates might chose to respond in a joint application between several experts. In this latter case, applications should detail each participant’s individual responsibilities and fees.
All involved applicants need to submit their résumé, but the IDAHO Committee welcomes applicants who prefer not to disclose name, gender, age, nationality, or any other characteristic which they feel could influence the consideration of their application.
Applications should be sent by email to Joel Bedos at jbedos@dayagainsthomophobia.org before September 9th
The selection process and interviews (via skype) are expected to take place in September
