The overall goal of the RLS North Africa Office is to promote innovative and creative initiatives in the region, support social justice, bottom up political participation, and cross-societal dialogue. We cooperate with people and political representatives from the region and work with progressive NGOs, unions, social movements, think tanks and alternative media platforms.

As part of our economic program, we organize training courses in economics for civil society components, parties and journalists, in the belief that large groups of society should be able to understand and discuss economic issues, and especially the impact of the dominating neoliberal policies in the region.

In the international context, neoliberal policies and austerity measures are not only pushed for by, financial circles and their political representatives, but also through global academic exchange and technical assistance programs. As neoliberal policies are often portrayed as being “without alternatives”, we want to highlight exactly this: the alternatives to market-driven economies that result in a growing gap between the rich and the poor; alternatives that return economics to the service of all parts of a society. Furthermore, relevant debates are often dominated by a small number of experts, while economic knowledge is lacking within in political, civil society, and journalistic circles.

In order to improve the level of awareness, discussion and participation in decision-making, we contribute in empowering these components through education and through the dissemination of critical thinking, by providing spaces for alternative economic approaches, and by facilitating dialogue and exchange of experiences at the regional level with a focus on just development that respects economic and social rights as an integral part of human rights.

Call for offers

This call for offers is open to trainers and economic experts – including experts with training experience with media –, either individuals, institutions or organizations operating at the local and regional level, whose expertise, competencies and fields of work are directly linked to one (or more) of the objectives of the training program and to the specific expected skills and the area of interest as described following:

1.  General objectives of the economic training program:

Building capacity in the field of economics, for civil society, political parties and journalists, to simplify concepts and disseminate economic information and bring it up for public debate (economic laws, loan agreements, international treaties, annual reports and financial statements, budgets, statistics, etc.)

Deepening the critical thinking among the components of civil society, parties and journalists and developing their skills in the following areas:

Understanding the basic economic concepts and gaining the ability of putting economic actuality in its political and historical context, debunking the neoliberal economic policies, and be able to critically analyze economic and social issues.

Understanding the ongoing structural economic reforms, their political backgrounds and their economic and social implications.

Linking the pillars of the neoliberal capitalistic globalization (free trade, transnational corporations, financialisation of the economy, deregulation..) with local policies and understand its economic and social consequences.

Exploring alternative economic currents and opening up to alternative experiences.

Specific expected skills for civil society and political parties:

Improving their abilities to:

Develop initiatives (proposal of law amendment, civic initiatives, awareness campaigns..)

Building advocacy and negotiation capacities within their institutions, in order to improve the level of democratic participation in decision-making.

Improve the ability of networking with likeminded groups and persons in order to develop areas of joint political and civic actions.

Specific expected skills for journalists:

Improving their competencies:

In developing research methodology in economic and financial information(how to select and verify sources and how to deal with economic information).

In covering economic issues in the print, audiovisual and electronic media and develop critical approaches in order to enable open discussion and contribute to public debate on important economic issues in particular in the following journalistic genres:

Reporting on economic issues;

Managing TV and radio economic debates;

Economic blogging and economic data visualization journalism.

 2.  Topics /Areas of interest:

Free trade policies, bilateral investment treaties, (FTA and DCFTA with EU…) and their role in shaping the structural transformation of the countries in the region.

Development policies in general, and in particular sovereign industrial, agricultural, monetary policies (that aim to ensure jobs, sustainable development, food, energy, water, and environmental sovereignty and just redistribution )

Debt, official development assistance, loan agreements, conditionality policies and the role of donor countries and international financial institutions (EU, IMF, World Bank) in designing the economic policies of borrowing countries.

Economic bills and laws ongoing under the IFI’s imposed structural reforms in the region.

Budget, Finance Laws, and Fiscal policies.

 3.  Description of Tasks:

The selected experts and trainers are expected to:

Design the content, specify the topics of each training (related to the above described areas of interest) , and schedule the annual program of training sessions in cooperation with the economic program manager of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Coordinate with other selected experts and trainers on the content, the methodology and the exercises delivered to achieve the specific objectives for the different target groups.

For each training session, Selected experts and trainers are also expected  to deliver the following outputs :

• A concept note, describing each training content, key learning points, and expected outcomes for each target group, and a detailed schedule of each training.
• A presentation containing the content of the training to be presented and distributed to participants.
• Printed hand-outs – to be provided to the participants to guide their learning.
• Any other material supporting the training activity as necessary.
• Collect feedback from participants.
• Write a report on the training delivered.

4.  Qualifications required for the trainers:

University level education or professional qualification in areas of trainings and education in fields described above (Economics, Law, political science, Social science, Journalism, Data/social media journalism, …)

Excellent knowledge of the economic currents and especially heterodox approaches.

Good knowledge of the regional economic and political context.

Previous experience with civil society organizations and progressive networks is an advantage.

Required language skills Arabic, and French or English.

5. Application procedure:

To participate please send an offer containing:

A curriculum vitae of the candidate or a presentation of her/his institution, or organization; that includes the field of expertise of candidates, competencies and references in line with the above described topics/objectives/expected skills .

A five-page concept note (maximum); with brief overview of the relationship between the candidate’s field of work and the economic issues raised in the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s economic training program.

A financial offer detailing the cost of 1 session of training (including the number of and the daily fees of preparation and the daily honorarium rates of trainers).

 Submission of offers:

All offers should be sent by electronic mail, under email subject “RLS-ECO-Trainings 2017” to the address: benzina@rosalux.org

 Application deadline:

The deadline for submission of offers is 06 May 2017.

For further information, please contact:

Rim Ben Zina

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, North Africa office

23 Rue Jugurtha, Mutuelleville, Tunis

Tel : +21652688099

The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Is an Internationally operating, progressive non-profit institution for civic education that is close to German left party (DIE LINKE). RLS is one of the six political institutions in Germany that are all politically affiliated with, but administratively independent from distinct political parties in parliament.

Through its work, the RLS promotes a critical analysis of society and sponsors networks of liberal, political, social and cultural initiatives. It is an international activist in the area of development cooperation and calls for equal dialogue between the North and the South.

We provide a platform for thinking and for knowledge production and dissemination through various instruments like lectures, research, trainings, study visits, publications, and socially engaged artistic productions.

The main focus of our work is the study of the relations between Europe and north Africa and how they affect societies and people. These relations are manifold and include European policies vis-a-vis North African countries, trade relations, debt policy, development aid, investment policies. We strive for international relations in the spirit of solidarity and social justice.