Consultant Conflict Analysis and Strategic Accompaniment; Syria project

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a global fellowship of churches committed to promoting Christian unity, justice, peace, and human dignity. Since 2012, the WCC has accompanied locally led peace building initiatives in Syria through sustained engagement with religious leaders, civil society actors, and local communities.

Building on more than a decade of experience, the current phase of the programme seeks to strengthen civic mediation, social cohesion, and inclusive peace building by supporting locally owned dialogue processes, community-based conflict monitoring, and cooperation among religious and civic actors. The programme combines local accompaniment with national dialogue mechanisms, early identification of emerging tensions, mediation support, and evidence-informed programme management.

Working closely with the Geneva-based programme team, implementing partners, and field coordinators, the consultant will provide strategic advice on dialogue, mediation, and preventive engagement, drawing on contextual analysis and information emerging from local peace building processes. The consultant will also contribute to ensuring that programme interventions remain conflict-sensitive, contextually relevant, and responsive to developments in Syria's transition.

• Provide periodic political, social and conflict analysis relevant to the programme's priority locations and areas of intervention.
• Analyse emerging tensions, conflict drivers, stakeholder relationships and opportunities for preventive dialogue and mediation.
• Support the interpretation of information generated by local coordinators and early-warning networks, identifying recurring patterns and priority transition-related concerns.
• Provide strategic advice on the development and accompaniment of sensitive dialogue and mediation processes.
• Contribute to strategic reflection on priority issues emerging from dialogue, mediation, and community-level peace building processes, particularly those affecting social cohesion and Syria's transition.
• Advise the programme team on conflict sensitivity, do-no-harm principles, risks and opportunities for constructive engagement with relevant actors.
• Support strategic reflection and adaptive programme management in response to developments in Syria.
• Review and quality assure conflict analyses, strategic papers, concept notes and other relevant programme documents.
• Prepare concise analytical notes and recommendations for programme management and, where appropriate, other stakeholders.

• Periodic conflict and context analysis notes.
• Strategic assessments of selected priority issues or mediation processes.
• Recommendations for preventive engagement and adaptive programme management.
• Quality assurance of selected analytical and strategic documents.
• Contributions to programme strategy reviews and reflection meetings.

The specific deliverables, their scope and timing will be agreed with the WCC programme team during implementation, taking into account programme priorities and the actual number of working days requested.

Given the sensitive context in which the programme operates, the consultancy requires a high degree of confidentiality and discretion. All materials developed under the consultancy will remain the property of the WCC, and their circulation will be subject to WCC authorisation. The consultant will be expected to respect these confidentiality requirements and comply with the WCC Code of Conduct.

The consultant is expected to commence work as soon as the selection and contracting procedures are completed. The initial contract will run until 31 August 2027, with a maximum of 90 working…