Afghanistan: International Proposal Writer and Researcher
Country: Afghanistan
Closing date: 15 Sep 2013
Background
EQUALITY for Peace and Democracy (EPD) established by a team of Afghans, who believe in equal rights and inclusiveness, is a professional, non-governmental and non-profit organization with a vision to transform Afghanistan into a peaceful, prosperous and democratic nation where all Afghans enjoy equal rights without any form of discrimination. EPD’s mission is to empower and strengthen civil society organizations, associations and networks at the community and policy level to initiate and implement holistic solutions for vibrant development of the country towards peace and democracy.
EPD is aiming at massive mobilization of women and youth as agents of change in the areas of peace and reintegration and good governance through partnering with community based as well as policy based civil society organizations and networks. EPD is providing the platform for women and youth organizations and groups to work together and develop and achieve joint objectives.
We are looking for an international proposal writer and researcher to help the senior management in the development of project concepts, proposals for fundraising as well as development and implementation of research tasks and projects.
The incumbent will be responsible for the following tasks:
Proposal Writing:
- Determine proposal concept by identifying and clarifying opportunities and needs; studying requests for proposal (RFPs); attending strategy meetings.
- Meet proposal deadline by establishing priorities and target dates for information gathering, writing, review, and approval; entering and monitoring tracking data; coordinating requirements with contributors; contributing proposal status information to review meetings; transmitting proposals.
- Gather proposal information by identifying sources of information; coordinating submissions and collections; identifying and communicating risks associated with proposals.
- Develop proposal by assembling information including project nature, objectives/outcomes/deliverables, implementation, methods, timetable, staffing, budget, standards of performance, and evaluation; writing, revising, and editing drafts including executive summaries, conclusions, and organization credentials.
- Prepare presentation by evaluating text, graphics, and binding; coordinating printing.
- Maintain quality results by introducing and using templates; following proposal-writing standards including readability, consistency, and tone.
- Obtain approvals by reviewing proposal with key providers, project managers and Executive Director.
- Improve proposal-writing results by evaluating and re-designing processes, approach, coordination; implementing changes with the EPD senior management.
- Build capacity of local staff in proposal writing and research.
- Accomplish organization goals by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
Research:
- Responsible for development of research methodology including sample size, coverage, draft questionnaire and research tools;
- Ensure that research methodology is developed based on cultural norms and traditions of Afghanistan;
- Information collection from the relevant required sources;
- Conduct desk review of all required relevant materials;
- Arrange and attend meetings when and where needed together with the EPD relevant staff to get their opinion on the research topic (with government officials, relevant partners and donor organizations);
- Develop drafts of questionnaires and ensure sharing and inducting comments from relevant staff, partners and stakeholders to ensure inclusion of their comments/suggestions;
- Conduct research in the center and provinces based on the initial research plan and ensure proper reporting of the field visits including FGDs and KII to EPD Staff;
- Ensure smooth and accurate data collection process; error checking and arranging for revisiting the sites through national staff, when and where necessary;
- Reports: Preparing final draft reports and sharing them with relevant government counterparts and stakeholders; collect feedbacks and incorporate the necessary and relevant comments into reports; finalize reports after feedbacks; submitting it to the relevant program manager with all supporting documents.
- Designing the layout of the report; ensure quality translations; coordinating and follow-up of printing material.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in English, Communications, Journalism, Social Sciences or similar discipline or equivalent experience.
- Excellent English language skills (speak, read, write). Outstanding grammar and research skills are essential.
- Knowledge and understanding of one or both local languages (Dari/Pashtu) an added asset.
- Minimum of 4 years’ experience as a writer/copywriter/proposal writer/researcher.
- Knowledge of and interest in Afghanistan and the ability to understand cultural sensitivities.
- Previous experience of working with Afghan community an added asset.
- Experience using research methods and journalistic standards.
- Outstanding communication skills, particularly the ability to write emotive and compelling stories
- Strong attention to detail; strong analytical skills with the ability to extract pertinent information.
- Ability to simultaneously balance multiple assignments with strict deadlines.
- Self-motivated, highly creative, with a strong ability to work both in a team setting and independently.
- Intermediate proficiency level in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop/InDesign).
How to apply:
If you are willing to work with an enthusiastic team and you have the required experience, skills and talent to be successful in this exciting role, please submit your resume and a writing sample (preferably a project proposal and/or research paper) with your salary expectation to the following e-mail address by 15 September, 2013: epd.afghanistan@gmail.com
This position is open for all internationals especially with good knowledge about Afghanistan.
Please write the post title and/or vacancy number in the subject of your e-mail.
Only short listed candidates will be contacted for the interview.
