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United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

Campaign Specialist / Sustainable Urban Development Expert

Nairobi, Kenya

Terms of Reference for Consultancy: To develop a strategy for the Global Campaign for Sustainable Urbanization

A. Background

UN-HABITAT’s Campaign history

In 1999, UN-HABITAT started using the “Campaign” approach as an important advocacy vehicle. The Campaign approach marked a shift from the 1990s, when UN-HABITAT was mainly implementing its mandate through global programmes and technical cooperation projects. In early 2005, two evaluations reviewed UN-HABITAT Campaigns on Urban Governance and Secure Tenure. The evaluations confirmed that the Campaigns have made significant positive contributions to the work of UN-HABITAT. The evaluations concluded that the Campaigns have been successful in awareness raising, mobilizing political will, and promoting dialogue on important issues related to sustainable urban development. As such the value of the Campaigns was recognized by governmental and non-governmental organizations alike.

However, the evaluations also concluded that stronger and better-run Campaigns would be even more effective and offered several important recommendations for strengthening the campaigns, namely:

• Enhance the strategic role of the Campaigns so that they become the driving and organizing framework for all UN-Habitat activities;
• Raise the status and enhance the visibility of the Campaigns;
• Strengthen the linkages between the campaigns and the global programmes and with technical cooperation initiatives;
• Clarify the Campaigns’ role at global, regional, national and local levels;
• At the national level, the campaigns should be seen as a process for political mobilization, awareness, advocacy and attracting visibility;
• Ensure more definite, predictable funding level, determined on the basis of a strategic plan.

In April 2005, the 20th session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT requested the Executive Director to develop a “forward looking strategic plan” for the Global Campaign on Urban Governance and for the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure. The discussions about the future of the Campaign approach became inextricably linked to the outcomes of the broader six-year Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP, 2008-2013) that was approved by the 21st Session of the Governing Council in April 2007.

The Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP)

“Sustainable Urbanization” is the overall theme and objective of the MTSIP. Consistent with UN-HABITAT’s catalytic role, the MTSIP underscores a need for a more systematic approach to partnership and networking. It provides for the mainstreaming of building partnerships and networking in the enhanced normative operational framework at the global, regional, national and local levels.

The plan’s overall strategic goal is to “support governments and their development partners to achieve more sustainable urbanization.” It aims to promote policy and institutional reform and impact at scale. UN-HABITAT will play a strengthened catalytic role, emphasizing partnerships and the development of a new enhanced normative and operational framework.

Five mutually-reinforcing Focus Areas (FAs) have been identified as an integrated approach to realizing more sustainable urbanisation:

1. advocacy, monitoring and partnerships;
2. participatory urban planning, management and governance;
3. pro-poor land and housing;
4. environmentally sound basic urban infrastructure and services; and,
5. strengthened human settlements finance systems.

Four thematic task forces have been established to kick-start the implementation of the MTSIP, under the Steering Committee coordination. The four task forces are:

1. Results-Based Management and Knowledge Management
2. Resource Mobilization and Allocation
3. Human Resource Management
4. Enhanced Normative and Operational Framework

The Enhanced Normative and Operational Framework (ENOF) is intended to enable UN-HABITAT to play a leadership and catalytic role in promoting sustainable urbanization in at least 30 countries by 2013. The ENOF responds to two of the principal objectives and outcomes of the MTSIP – to align normative, capacity building and operational activities as pre-investment packages to bring pilot initiatives at the country level to scale, and to work as a true catalyst in partnership with other UN agencies and Habitat Agenda partners. It builds on and strengthens existing synergies and partnership arrangements within a coherent framework which will reduce transaction costs both within the organization and vis-à-vis donors and partners. The new Global Campaign on Sustainable Urbanization will play a key role in this regard.

A Single Global Campaign for Sustainable Urbanization

A single Global Campaign for Sustainable Urbanization will be established with the overall objective of supporting the implementation of the MTSIP. The MTSIP designates the “Global Campaign for Sustainable Urbanization” to serve as an important vehicle for advocacy and mobilizing partnerships and promoting networks. In this role the Campaign will spearhead policy and advocacy work at the global and regional levels and will coordinate the development of normative tools in support of the implementation of the enhanced normative and operational framework at the global, regional, country and local levels.

The strategic objective of the Campaign is to strengthen the catalytic role of UN-HABITAT through advocacy and integration among global regional and national activities; and to provide a clear platform for partners and enhanced networking; as well as improving resource mobilization.

The Campaign will be have a strong outward looking function, as well as a function to promote internal coherence. The relative weight of the diverse roles of the Campaign needs further clarification. Some of the proposed roles are listed below:-

• Campaign will be a vehicle to better package, position, and promote the agency’s work.
• The Campaign will help to bring together all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector by strengthening partnerships for promoting sustainable urban development.
• The Campaign will act as a driver of substantive coherence between the focus areas and the global programmes, with potential for galvanizing, integrating, and scaling-up.
• The Campaign will play a normative role within UN-HABITAT in developing an agreed set of values, principles and policy options to realize sustainable urbanization.
• The Campaign will reposition UN-HABITAT at the country level.

In order to clarify and concretize the roles of the Campaign further, the ENOF Task Force is mandated to develop a “Concept Paper” for the Campaign. In parallel, a series of policy papers are being developed for specific focus areas. Close interaction will be required between the development of the Campaign concept and the development of these policy papers. There will be particular opportunities for convergence between the development of the Campaign concept and focus area (ii) participatory urban planning, management, and governance, as well as focus area (iii) pro-poor land and housing. These policy papers are being developed within the same time frame which will create opportunities for streamlined consultation and validation processes.

B. Purpose of the Consultancy

The purpose of the consultancy is to develop a strategy for an effective, multi-layer, multi-year advocacy campaign for sustainable urbanization. The Campaign is expected to provide a coherent umbrella for focus areas of the MTSIP through normative debate, advocacy, knowledge management and networking.

C. Specific tasks of the consultant(s)

The consultant(s) will undertake the following specific tasks under the overall supervision of the ENOF Task Force Co-Chairs and in close consultation with the ENOF Task Force:

• Study relevant documents forming the basis for the establishment of the Campaign
• Preparation of Inception Report, outlining the proposed methodological approach
• Hold individual consultations, focus group meetings and envisioning workshop(s) with UN-HABITAT staff in Nairobi, Kenya (Mission of 2 weeks to UN-HABITAT Headquarters in Nairobi and possibly other UN-HABITAT duty stations)
• Consultations with local government associations, external support agencies, development banks, and other relevant potential campaign partners to assess demand and engagement
• Develop a Draft Campaign Strategy
• Consultations with partners to assess demand & engagement
• Present the draft strategy in Expert Group Meeting attended by critical Campaign partners, members of the MTSIP Task Force, subject area experts, communication specialists and other relevant actors to seek their feedback and collect the comments/inputs for the final strategy (Mission of 1 week to EGM venue)
• Integration of Campaign into MTSIP focus areas and resource mobilization strategy
• Validation of the draft strategy at the 4th World Urban Forum in Nanjing, China (Mission of 1 week to WUF)
• Develop phased proposals for internal organizational alignment to improve working relations, focus and efficiency
• Develop operational guidelines for campaign work at all levels
• Finalization of Strategy
• Presentation and refinement of the strategy in consultation with UN-HABITAT staff (Mission of 1 week to Nairobi -- or to other gathering of potential Campaign partners)

Throughout the process UN-HABITAT inter-divisional interaction and consultations with partners should be promoted, with a special role for the Information Services Section (linkages with communications and branding) and key inputs from the Regional Offices (regional variations of the campaign).

D. Final Product of the Consultancy

The final document submitted by the consultant(s) should include the following components:

1. Definition of sustainable urbanization, why it is important, and how it is linked to the focus areas of MTSIP, namely, (a) participatory urban planning, management and governance; (b) pro-poor land and housing; (c) affordable and environmentally-sound basic infrastructure and services; and (d) strengthened human settlements finance systems.
2. Clarification of the relative weight of the normative, advocacy, knowledge management and networking roles of the Campaign at the global, regional, national and local level, within the MTSIP Enhanced Normative and Operational Framework
3. Elaboration of the Campaign’s objective(s) in a way that is specific, measurable, achievable within the proposed time frame;
4. Identification of key Campaign partners and their potential contributions to the Campaign’s objective(s);
5. Identification of the target audiences and required changes in behavior/understanding
6. Potential campaign messages from focus area policy papers. Messages should help clarifying the linkage between a particular Focus Area, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and the overall goal of Sustainable Urbanization. Message should meet five criteria, namely: i) concise; ii) clear; iii) consistent; iv) convincing and v) compelling;
7. Identification of Campaign platform and media for awareness raising, including Habitat Ambassadors for visibility, Habitat Partner Universities for education and research, thematic networks as key campaign agents
8. An overall advocacy frame and specific advocacy strategy for each target audience group including: specific objectives, messages, outcomes, specific activities, steps, tools to implement and rough estimate of costs;
9. Proposals for Campaign governance, including both external partners and UN-HABITAT, including the structure, roles and responsibilities of a Campaign Secretariat, identification of priority activities with partners, joint resource mobilization, etc.
10. Proposals for potential institutional improvements to UN-HABITAT’s institutional structure and organizational alignment required to make the campaign work should be identified, including identification of links between campaign messages and key flagship reports, such as the Global Report on Human Settlements and the State of World’s Cities Report; Identification of links between the Campaign and Habitat Country Programme Documents; Identification of links between the Campaign and UN-HABITAT events such as the World Urban Forum, World Habitat Day.
11. Operational guidelines for the campaign: In which circumstances are we launching campaigns? What are the criteria for selecting countries for launching the campaign? How should the campaigns be conducted?
12. Guiding principles and benchmarks for designing and implementing performance measurement systems to assess progress towards implementation of the Campaign
13. Roadmap and budget for 2008-13

D. Deliverables

The main deliverables from the consultant(s) will be:

1. Inception Report, outlining the proposed methodological approach
2. Scoping Report, based on consultations with external partners, to identify the potential gap to be filled by the Campaign and the potential role of partners in achieving the Campaign’s objective(s)
3. Draft Campaign Strategy
4. Final Campaign Strategy

E. Provisional Timeline

F. Required qualifications and experience of the consultant(s)

• Advanced degree ( Masters or Ph.D.) in field related to sustainable urban development;
• At least 10 years of experience in designing, developing and implementing advocacy strategies, including advocacy work in developing countries;
• Familiarity with UN system and processes and good knowledge of emerging UN issues;
• Good understanding of challenges and innovations in the field of sustainable urban development;
• Good conceptualization ability including track record of expertise in developing advocacy strategies across multiple stakeholders; skills to conceptualize a major UN or NGO Campaign
• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver realistic plans, observing standards and timeliness.
• Good network and relationship with mass media;
• Have excellent presentation and communication skills and the ability to effectively communicate complex information in a clear and concise manner to all audiences;
• Have excellent moderation skills to lead focus group discussions and result-oriented participatory meetings involving experienced professionals; ability to synthesize diverse opinions and views expressed in participatory meetings
• Ability to work effectively with a diverse team of people, fostering team spirit through building trust and commitment to common objectives;
• Fluency in spoken and written English; knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.

G. Contract period, level of engagement, duty station and deadline for submission of application.

The contract will be for 4 months, spread over 6 months starting June 1 2008. The proposed level of engagement will be a Special Service Agreement at P5 level. Payments of fees will be linked to the delivery of outputs. Approximately 5 weeks of travel will be required, which will be organized and paid for separately by UN-HABITAT. The consultant(s) will report to the Co-Chairs of the MTSIP ENOF Task Force Chair or their designated representative.

The deadline for submission of applications for the consultancy is May 15 2008. Depending on the applications received, UN-HABITAT reserves the right to split the consultancy in two mutually supporting consultancies with different sets of tasks.

H. Contact information

Applications for consultancy including Curriculum Vitae should be emailed to Raf.Tuts@unhabitat.org and Pamela.Odhiambo@unhabitat.org