NDI NEPAL NITI SAMBAD PROJECT: POLICY REVIEW AND BOOKLET EDITOR

Under the USAID funded Niti Sambad Project, NDI Nepal is partnering with IFES and IRI to improve systems of governance in order to: increase the levels of transparency, inclusivity and accountability of the federal parliament; support the Election Commission of Nepal to institutionalize best practice; and empower political parties to function more effectively, inclusively and efficiently. Within the current ‘Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS)/Niti Sambad (‘Policy Dialogue’) Project, this Terms of Reference (ToR) outlines the overall Scope of Work for a national consultant to provide technical assistance - for up to eight months - on two of NDI Nepal’s key publications – ‘Policy Review’ and ‘Internal Political Party Reform Booklet’. 

Background:

During Year 4, with the aim of examining how policy makers deal with the pandemic and other policy issues relating to political accountability and transparency within the new federal system. NDI Nepal produced four editions of its Policy Review, which communicated policy analysis on a range of policy issues to 750 external stakeholders. Therefore, during Year 5, CEPPS/NDI will produce three further editions focusing on the political participation of persons from the LGBTQI+ community; climate change; and political issues facing the Dalit community. CEPPS/NDI will publish virtual and hard copy editions of the publication to be published at the end of each quarter. After the publication of each edition, a roundtable discussion will be organized to discuss the issues raised in each edition. 

Furthermore, to help the main political parties to deepen their democratic internal party processes, and based on the implementation of a similar initiative in Year 4, during year 5, CEPPS/NDI will produce a booklet on internal political party reform, in virtual and hard copy format, engaging senior and mid-level political party representatives to help this issue gain a higher profile in the domestic political lexicon. The booklet will address those issues relating to different marginalized communities based on gender, religion, language and geographical location. Once published, CEPPS/NDI will organize a national conference held in Kathmandu to discuss the themes discussed in the booklet.

Responsibilities:

CEPPS/NDI will aim to contract a local journalist to act as editor for both publications. In so doing, she/he will work under the supervision of the designated Senior Program Officer in the Political Party Program and under the overall supervision of Political Party Program Director. She/he will be responsible for producing three editions of Policy Review and the booklet on internal political party reform from November 2021 and June 2022.  In particular, she/he will be responsible for ensuring that the content of the publications is of a high quality in terms of accuracy, credibility, authority, readability and relevance. Therefore, she/he will be responsible for delivering the following responsibilities:

• To identify suitable writers and names of potential editorial board members; 
• To coordinate with the writers, translators, and designer in the preparation, of each publication; 
• To review all submitted articles, both in Nepali and English, acting as copy editor; 
• To attend and contribute to Editorial Board meetings whenever convened;
• To provide support in organization of all activities linked to both publications;
• To be available for meetings with the NDI Nepal team when required. 

Contract Period:

Based on a four-day working week, this consultancy is scheduled from November 2021 to June 2022.