Consultancy: best practice case studies of civilian-led support to people-centred security sector practice
Search for Common Ground, Belgium

About the organisationFounded in 1982, Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international non-governmental organisation working to end violent conflict and build healthy, safe, and just societies. Using innovative tools, Search seeks to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA and Brussels, Belgium, Search is present in over 35 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Central South, and South-East Asia.

About the ProjectJust Future is a 5 year program (2021-2025) funded by the government of the Netherlands through the Power of Voices instrument and implemented by a consortium of six NGOs (Cordaid [lead], Search, TLO Afghanistan, WANEP, ASSN and WIPC). Just Future aims to improve the accessibility, responsiveness, and accountability of security and justice institutions and to promote inclusive political decision-making and peace processes, achieved by mobilising civil society for collective advocacy. The program is active in six countries (Afghanistan, Burundi, DRC, Mali, Niger, and South Sudan) and at the international and African regional levels.

Background to the request for technical supportAlongside more traditional security initiatives led by security and defence forces (SDF), a range of civilian actors are working to better address population’s security needs, including by helping bridge the gap between SDF and communities, by introducing new approaches to improving security services in line with the priorities of communities, or by supporting civilian actors and communities themselves to contribute to addressing security needs. These initiatives are often under-recognised or poorly understood by national and international security actors, sitting outside the traditional security reference frame due to the actors involved, the non-traditional methods employed, and being often undertaken at a very local level.
As part of its Just Future intervention, Search supports collaborative efforts, grounded in local priorities, insights, and evidence, to make the case for more responsive, effective, and people-centred security sector policies in countries of intervention and security sector support by international and regional partners.
To support the evidence base for these efforts, Search seeks a consultant to collect and compile case studies of and lessons for effective civil society- or civilian-led initiatives that support people-centred security sector practices in the countries of intervention.
The case studies will be identified in consultation with Search and key partners from Just Future and approved by Search. Where relevant, Search will share or facilitate the sharing of relevant programmatic documents and facilitate the identification of personnel for consultations on the case studies.
Objective of the assignmentThis assignment will contribute to filling the practical evidence-gap in terms of how security practices can integrate more civilian-led, people-centred approaches: what approaches and methods have been shown to work well, what are the factors for success, how do such approaches complement more traditional hard security approaches, how and by whom can such approaches be implemented, supported, and scaled.
Towards this, the assignment will bridge the gap between practitioners and security policy-makers/policy-shapers via an accessible and practical report compiling case studies of and lessons for effective civil society- or civilian-led initiatives that support people-centred security sector practices. This report will be used by Search and partners to inform advocacy for more responsive, effective, and people-centred security sector policies.
Key Tasks and Deliverables
The consultant will:

• Coordinate with Search in planning a research methodology and identification of 4 civil society- or civilian-led initiatives on people-centred security practices in Just Future countries (Afghanistan, Burundi, DRC, Mali, Niger, South Sudan) to serve as case studies;
• Carry out an investigation (information collection and analysis) of these case studies entailing desk and field research/key informant interviews as necessary; the analysis should:

assess effectiveness of approaches, explore complementarity with traditional "Hard Security" approaches, examine implementation, support, and scaling mechanisms, generate practical and actionable recommendations;

• Discuss findings from the investigation with Search (for instance though regular, brief check-ins as the assignment progresses and a dedicated exchange on a summary of findings to be produced before report drafting);
• Develop a report compiling the case studies and lessons, entailing initial drafting and revisions as necessary.

The consultant will deliver: