Call for mentors: Capacity-building program for well-established and start-up media outlets in Moldova

A group of partnering Moldovan and international organizations is seeking for professional and experienced trainers/mentors to provide capacity-building and mentoring services for well-established and start-up media outlets in Moldova.

The Program is funded by the European Union and implemented through a group of partner organisations led by Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation consisting of the following organisations: Thomson Media gGmbH, CU SENS, People in Need Slovakia (Relief and Development & Media Departments), People in Need Czech Republic (the Human Rights Department) as well as Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

The details of the engagement are outlined further below. The Consultant is required to perform the Services and no substitution shall be accepted.

About the Project

This project strives to support a more favourable environment for local independent media outlets in the Republic of Moldova to strengthen their capacities, independence, self-sustainability, and professionalism to be able to produce high quality, fact-based, balanced, and reliable local journalistic content.

The program is open to participants from local media outlets that are already providing reliable and truthful information to their constituencies and act independently of any political or religious influence. The media can be formally based in Chisinau but must have regional issues as their main focus. Besides well-established media, the project welcomes applications from local media start-ups as well that have been in business for at least 6 months.

With this project we hope to contribute to the resilience and development of independent local media as well as media start-ups in Moldova so they could continue providing relevant, truthful high-quality information to their communities.  

About Mentoring

The training and mentoring program will be based on a detailed assessment of the particular situation of each participating media.

Overall conclusion is that a blend of mentoring and capacity building activities contributes best to media outlets’ operational and financial resilience. Thus, the mentoring programme is closely interlinked with the capacity building programme for media outlets.

The scope of mentoring will focus, but not exclusively, on the following areas:

• Content creation and format development providing relevant and reliable information using a variety of new formats;
• Business plan development, financial sustainability, and diversification of revenue.

Opportunities for grants will be made available to participating media in line with this project, which will support the initiation and implementation of proposed solutions by the trainers/mentors.

Mentoring implies a continuous support to media outlets in their journey towards strengthening their financial resilience. Mentoring also means working on building personal capacities of beneficiaries in order to create change necessary for successful knowledge and skills implementation. Mentors address specific needs of media representatives, providing media with specific knowledge and skills to the chosen representatives of the media, support during the practical use of acquired knowledge and skills and feedback and recommendations aimed at tackling weaknesses and advancing strengths. It will be a one-to-one approach either in person or online. Mentors should thrive to ensure trust building and follow up their mentees’ trajectory of change. Mentors will receive all information needed to customise the targeted support for each outlet they will work with. 

SCOPE OF WORK

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

The main tasks of mentors are: 

• Preparation: Participate in online meeting with project team for briefing regarding the training and mentoring programme.
• Communication: Regular communication with Project Coordinator from respective organization as required; Communication with project team members from implementing organisations, if need be, while mentoring media outlets.
• Training/Direct Mentoring: Organise and hold training/mentoring sessions with media outlets in a suitable format to support the implementation of their activities and adapt the approach as needed.
• Progress Monitoring: Track the progress of media outlets and provide progress input by completing the short reports as indicated in deliverables.
• Reporting: regular reporting to Project Coordinator from respective organization (monthly timesheets sent) and final inputs about the mentoring process with recommendations for the future.  
• Writing articles: creation of case studies and blog posts for website/social media (only if needed and after consultation with the project coordinator).

Deliverables

• Baseline Monitoring Report including time frame of mentoring activities as per template with media outlet information
• Interim Mentoring Report with reflections on the progress of media outlets based on template
• Final Mentoring Report with conclusions about the mentoring process, media outlet and recommendations as per template
• Contribution to website/social media / case study if necessary.

The training/mentoring programme will be implemented from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. Applications will be accepted in English, Romanian and Russian. Please note that with submitting an application, you consent to the processing of your personal data by People in Need Czech Republic. A copy of your CV will be kept on record during the selection period of this project. According to Art. 7 GDPR, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Eligibility Criteria

• The trainer/mentor shall be operating in Moldova;
• have at least 2 years of experience in the respective field of expertise;
• be able to communicate in Russian and/or Romanian

Selection procedure

Based on the express of interest of each trainer/mentor, the group of partnering organizations will assess the applications together with the needs of the project participants. According to the findings on participants needs, respective and most fitting trainers/mentors will be selected. Further, the selection of trainers/mentors will be discussed and agreed within the group of implementing partners as well as with the project participants.

HOW TO APPLY

If you want to participate, please send your CV and motivational letter to the following email address: corina.boaghi@peopleinneed.net