Call for applications Community of Practice on LGBTI and Mental Health

Learning together and from each other is a powerful means to improve development co-operation – OECD

Mental health has gained a lot of visibility in the last couple of years, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak and the consequent isolation most of the world population experienced. From a survey shared with partners of the Power of Pride programme we realized that partners need mental health tools to support their LGBTI community and trauma informed work was found by partners as fundamental to contribute to the mental health of the community. Similarly, mental health support that is both accessible and affordable for people from the LGBTI community was highlighted as a crucial need. With this in mind we are looking for people who will be available (around 4-5 hours per week) to be part of a community of practice on LGBTI and mental health.

• Description/Background

Power of Pride (PoP) is an international development programme, implemented by COC Nederland, ILGA Asia and Pan African ILGA (PAI). The programme’s vision is working towards diverse and inclusive societies where LGBTI people can participate to their fullest potential. In order to contribute to this vision, we work inside-out. This means we support local, regional and international LGBTI organisations in their efforts to bring about change from within their own communities. This principle applies not only to the definition of the programme’s priority areas, activities, budget allocation, but it also influenced the definition of its learning agenda. In guiding our learning activities, the inside-out principle means we want to explore themes that are relevant to the communities we work with.

As part of the learning agenda, PoP will be running a series of Communities of Practices that will be working on different themes that have been provided by our very own country partners and chosen by the Program Team (PT) with the advice of International Advisory Committee (IAC).

A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something and who would like to build new skills and generate new knowledge.

These Communities of Practice will play a central part of the PoP Learning Agenda and will shape our formal learning plan within the alliance. Through the CoPs , we will work on learning questions for areas that are in need of further research, information and/or improvements. The CoPs will be set up by different partners who have different experiences and expertise. Together, this CoP will be granted funding to implement a (pilot) projects based on their first recommendations in order to form final evidence-based recommendations for the Programme.

In order to start off our Learning agenda, Power of Pride wants to set up the first Community of Practice (CoP) in October 2022 on the topic of: LGBTI & Mental health.

The CoP’s tasks will be to:

• Define a learning question(s) to research and create a plan for the CoP with (a) clear goal(s), deliverables and budget are outlined.
• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of the work plan and ensure finalisation of the deliverables on time.
• Submit mid-term and end-term report highlighting progress, use cases and lessons learned.
• Present CoP findings and leassons learned in (PoP) learning event(s).

The PoP Alliance is calling for applications of individual activists, scholars and alike from Africa, Asia and the Netherlands to help us develop new knowledge, tools and cooperation in the field of LGBTI and mental health.

• CoP composition

The CoP will consist of up to 8 – 10 members, with a diversity of participants in representation of specific subcommunities, age, geographical area and expertise. Applicants are not required to be part of the PoP programme, but shall be located in Africa, Asia or the Netherlands.

Members need to show experience in working with the topic, skills that they see as helpful and motivation to join the CoP.

• Appointment of CoP members

Members will be selected by the decision-making body of PoP: the Programme Team (PT). The PT will make the appointment following advice on short-listed candidates from the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning working group (PMEL WG) of the programme.

• Rules of engagement and operation of the group

The group will be chaired by a CoP member, who will be jointly selected among CoP members.

In principle, the group shall meet at least four times within the running year to discuss matters related to the tasks of the group. These meetings will be online, except for the first and potentially the last meeting, which will be held in person in a location that will make it safe for all participants to gather.

The PMEL working group will be hosting a two to three day meeting for CoP members at the very start of the CoP. In this meeting CoP members will define the main goal for the group and its consequent milestones, workplan and budget. These milestones will be used by the PMEL working group to provide some remuneration for participants along the progress of the CoP.

CoP members should be prepared to attend other meetings systematically, contribute actively to discussions in the group, be involved in preparatory work ahead of meetings, examine and provide comments on documents under discussion, and act, as appropriate, as ‘rapporteurs’ on an ad hoc basis.

CoP members should make a decision on the main language of engagement and production. They can choose between English and French as the two main languages of the program. All CoP productions: agenda for meetings, minutes and final product of the CoP should be in the agreed language and translations to the other language will be organized by the PMEL working group so all documents are accessible in both languages.  

The group should adopt its opinions, recommendations or reports by consensus.

The members of the CoP may invite experts with specific expertise with respect to a subject matter on the agenda to take part in their work on an ad hoc basis, as long as this can be covered by the CoP budget.

The CoP members will report to the PMEL working group of PoP, who will allocate one of its members to support the CoP throughout.

• Application procedure

Anyone based in Asia, African and the Netherlands is invited to submit their application to the PMEL working group via the survey link below. Note that while applicants can be part of a CSO, CBO or an NGO, applications will be done on a personal basis and applicants alone will be hold accountable for fulfilling the position shall you be selected.

Applications can be completed in English or French.

• Deadline for application

Applications can be submitted until September 18, 2022 via the links provided above.

• Selection criteria

The PMEL Working group will take the following criteria into account for advising the International Advisory Committee and the Program Team in their final decision.

• The need to ensure a balanced representation among the LGBTI communities.
• Proven and relevant competence and experience in areas relevant to the tasks of the CoP, this includes management/coordination as well as thematic expertise on LGBTI and mental health.
• Availability of members to participate in meetings and commitment to work between meeting to prepare the output of the group, such as pilot report or research reports and the like. It is our expectation that each member will need to be available to committee 3 to 4 hours a week for a total of 12 months.
• Sufficient proficiency in  English and/or French
• Members of the Power of Pride International Advisory Committee cannot join the CoP

• Selection procedure

The selection procedure will consist of an assessment of the application performed by the PMEL working group against the selection criteria listed here, followed by the establishment of a short list of suitable candidates through interview process, which will be presented to the PT, who will ultimately appoint the CoP members.

When defining the composition of the group, the PMEL working group and the PT shall aim at ensuring, as far as possible, a high level of expertise, as well as a balanced representation of relevant know how areas of interest, while taking into account the specific tasks of the group, the type of expertise required, as well as the relevance of the applications received.

For any further information please contact: Juliana Mejia Jaramillo at [email protected].