“As we continue to do our work, we are keenly aware of the dark times we live in: new forms of authoritarianism on the rise; oligarchies and dictatorships as strong as ever; military build-up in multiple and escalating geopolitical battles; continuing regression of human rights; persistent systemic inequality and injustice. Alongside the steady worsening of political and physical risk to activism, we also cannot deny how these realities take a daily toll on our sense of confidence in a just future and, consequently, on our state of mind and well-being. It has become increasingly clear that collective care and self-care as integral to the act of resistance”.

- Kamala Chandrakirana, 2022. Radical Geographies.

It's been a phenomenal year of staying resilient through political crises and the tapering end of the pandemic, however, we still carry with us the shock, grief, heaviness, disbelief, and sense of urgency from the last two years. Towards the end of 2022, instead of sprinting to the finish line, we hope to tread gently and prepare for the next year with kindness, healing and compassion towards ourselves and each other. And so, Urgent Action Fund, Asia & Pacific will take a pause between 24 Dec 2022 - 8 Jan 2023 to rest and recharge its batteries.

During this period, the UAF A&P team will step away from work, including grantmaking, emails, and meetings. Collectively, we are taking this time to rest and rejuvenate. We will resume our operations on 9 January 2022. Our grant applications remain open during this pause, however, we will resume processing applications after we return.

Our organisational pause is our way of engaging in the practice of collective care and wellbeing as a feminist value and as an act of strengthening resistance and resilience. We aim to embody the strength in care that enables us to move critical resources into the hands of those that need it most — women, girls and non-binary communities that bear the brunt of crises in our regions.

With this pause, we prioritise internal collective care, and understand its importance in our ability to support the feminist movements in Asia and the Pacific.

We look forward to being in touch and resume grantmaking with renewed energy, inspiration, and vigour when we return from this pause in the new year.

Download Terms of Reference here

Short-term contract

UAF A&P’s ORGANISATIONAL REVIEW AND STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR 2024-2029

In its fifth year of operations, UAF A&P is keen to undertake an organisational review of its journey and growth as the only feminist rapid response fund working across Asia and the Pacific. The review’s insights, learnings, and recommendations will inform the five-year strategic planning process that the fund wishes to undertake to guide its organisational journey from 2024-2029. We hope to invest and engage in a process that offers clarity, collective enthusiasm, ownership and co- responsibility among staff, Board and other key stakeholders in the UAF A&P ecosystem about these priorities.

Towards this, we seek proposals from a team of contractors who can hold space, curate conversations and lead UAF A&P through the review and strategic planning process through 2023.

About the fund:

UAF A&P supports the resilience and resistance of movements led by women and non-binary activists in Asia and the Pacific by co-creating a safe environment for them to sustain their work and thrive. Guided by feminist values, individuals, organisations, and their communities are provided urgent grants and strategic support to strengthen their safety and well-being. Our mission is to resource the resilience of women and non-binary human rights defenders by strengthening and sustaining their networks of support and webs of safety and care. As a fund, we began grant- making in 2018, and to date have re-distributed over 4mn dollars to human rights activists, communities, and collectives across more than 25 countries of Asia and Pacific. Our strategies are multi-faceted and linked to a transformative agenda of achieving social justice, building a solidarity economy and re-imagining cultures, including the culture of giving in Asia and the Pacific.

What we seek from the review:

• Devise an evaluation of how we have progressed against our organisational learning question “What will it take to support the resilience and thriving of women and non- binary activists in Asia and the Pacific, and create a safe and caring environment that sustains their work?”
• Generate a collective assessment from UAF A&P’s core ecosystem comprising of its advisors, board members; donors; grantees; other allied women’s funds, including UAF sister funds; and team members.
• Draft a document that will serve as the reference and background for the strategic planning process that will follow the review

Our vision for the 5-year strategic planning:

UAF A&P wishes the planning process to be a collaborative, participatory process that includes a methodology that makes the best use of our biggest knowledge base – our team members; our grantees, current and past; advisors; board members; and our partners and sister funds. The process must result in:

• A progressive and flexible feminist map for 2024-2029 that sets out a context analysis of our work; and lessons we learnt from our review that we will take forward to response to intersectional crises and opportunities human rights defenders and their communities confront.
• An articulation of our core feminist values that will continue to be our guiding light as we face conflicts, crises, and other intersectional difficulties; and opportunities to forge resilience by focusing on thriving and creating new futures.
• An elaboration on our core strategies that will help the team to expand or contract as needed during moments of opportunities or crisis as needed.

What kind of an approach do we seek?

UAF A&P commits to be intentional in its approach to strategic planning: this process should help us to define the conditions we need to cultivate to ensure we are able to flexibly respond and reimagine the needs of our staff, the individuals, and communities we support. Our monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning approach is anchored in the Emergent Learning approach that is true to our feminist values and ways of working. We would like the chosen contractors to use methodologies that align with and complement our MEAL approach.

We are keen to continue to mount our new strategic plan for 2024-2029 on an approach akin to a bamboo scaffolding that gives us room to bend and bow with changing winds of the times ahead. We seek to be responsive and adaptive to changing civil, economic, cultural, and political conditions and funding opportunities by harnessing the collective wisdom of our ecosystem. We seek to strengthen our collaborations and draw strength from collective action.

Some core principles to the approach we would like the contractors to adapt are:

• We pay attention to learning from the past, current realities and future visions for the sake of moving towards collective vision

• Flexibility - to accommodate individuals’ schedules, contextual changes, and time zone differences

• “Just enough” strategy will include most vital elements to clarify the direction of travel and conditions needed for UAF A&P, but will encourage flexibility rather than rigidity

• Change is constant, and so any strategy must be designed to support reflexivity and adaptation

• Conversations between stakeholders are needed to learn lessons, share understanding and develop new ideas collectively

• Learning is at the center, so there are no failures, but rather learning processes and insights are valued and integrated into strategy

This is a carefully paced process, rooted in deepening trust between different people/teams in the UAF ecosystem.

Timeline: UAF A&P Board and team are convening in February 2023, and we would like the review processes to kick off at the meeting there.

We hope to align the timelines of the review and strategic planning sub-processes to the various convenings and meetings that members of our ecosystem will be at, along with finding virtual spaces to convene online for brainstorming, and consensus building. The contractors will be guided and advised by an advisory group comprising of UAF A&P staff members and board members along with the Co-Leads. While the timelines can be mutually agreed by the selected team of contractors and UAF A&P, we desire the reflective review to be concluded by May 2023, and for the strategy setting and writing processes to commence by June 2023. Discussions for this phase should ideally coincide with our annual staff reflection huddles that are scheduled usually in July-August every year.

How to apply?

We seek a team of contractors with:

• Supporting skills and experience to develop methodologies, facilitate conversations and steer convenings through 2023 to conclude a review of our journey so far.
• Research and analytical skills to conduct a multi-stakeholder study in person and virtually will be essential
• Past experience of facilitating and authoring organisational strategic planning and ability to divine the current needs and capabilities of UAF A&P and forecast our growth and expansion, and build a broad and flexible plan that supports our experimentation and creative approach.

We are looking for a team of two or more contractors with a range of diverse skills to support us through 2023 through the two key organisational processes of the review and strategic planning. If interested, please write to us with a proposal of how your team will carry out these distinct but interconnected projects, brief bios of your lead contractor and supporting contractors, a brief note on your skills and compatible work undertaken previously. As stated earlier, we are keen to seek proposals from contractors who have previously worked with feminist funds on programmatic reviews and strategy planning.

Please also include the professional fees with a break-up of the number of days required for the design, facilitation and drafting of the review and strategic plan.

Please send in your expressions of interest on or before 15 January 2023 to info@uafanp.org with the subject line “Proposal for Organisational Review and Strategic Planning Facilitation”.

Download the Terms of Reference here.

Deadline to Apply: 31 May 2022

Location: Remote (based in Asia or The Pacific)

Reports to the Board Transition Committee of the UAF A&P Regional Board

Start date: immediate

Urgent Action Fund Asia and the Pacific is looking for a short-term Governance Board Contractor to facilitate the smooth transition of the UAF A&P Board, while maintaining strong leadership, regional representation, and diversity.

About the Fund:

Urgent Action Fund Asia & the Pacific (UAF A&P) supports the resilience and resistance of movements led by women and non-binary activists in Asia and the Pacific by co-creating a safe environment for them to sustain their work and thrive. Guided by feminist values, individuals, organisations, and their communities are provided urgent grants and strategic support to strengthen their safety and well-being. We collaborate to resource and promote a feminist culture of sharing and care that centres empathic relationships that prioritises people and planet over profit.

UAF A&P was set up in response to the need for a regionally based rapid response fund. The first consultation with women and non-binary human rights defenders from Asia and the Pacific was in Shillong in Northeast India in June 2015. A pathway for establishing Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and the Pacific was charted, and on 24 October 2017, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Urgent Action Fund Asia and Pacific was launched during the celebration of 20 years of Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, the founding Sister Fund. The UAF A&P Board approved and adopted its constitution in November 2017.

The Regional and Country Boards of UAF A&P will be undergoing a transition during the period of 2022 – 2023.

The Governance Board Contractor will work with the Board Transition Committee to facilitate the smooth transition of UAF A&P Boards, and research and recommend approaches to support an engaged and dynamic Governance Board. This work will be conducted over 3 months and is to be completed by July 31 2022

OUTPUTS

A. Support the Board Transition Committee to facilitate Board Transition

1. Facilitate a participatory process that supports the Board transition
2. Consolidate skills, identities and roles of sitting Board members
3. Develop a process for the Board Transition Committee to identify new members
4. Recommend to the Board Transition Committee a process for exiting founding members

Towards this, we seek the contractor to:

• Assess and anticipate skills and talents needed for Board positions, and develop a tool for seeking nominees for Board positions
• Recommend a suitable timeline for Board transition
• Recommend how to celebrate the legacy of 'retiring' board members
• Draft a nomination process and communication strategy to identify suitable candidates for positions on the UAF A&P Board
• Advise the Board Transition Committee on the future composition and structure of the Board

B. Supporting Governance Review

1. Develop a Code of Conduct, Performance Review and Complaints Mechanism for the Board
2. Review Regional Board governance documents and recommend changes to the Board Transition Committee

Towards this, we seek the contractor to:

• Review Board governance on the parameters of inclusiveness, adherence to common values, internal practices, and overall Board effectiveness
• Develop a conflict resolution tool for the Board
• Develop an engagement strategy to support all Board members to contribute to the successful working of the Board
• Review and clarify Board member responsibilities and portfolios
• Develop the Code of Ethics, Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest guidance
• Develop a Board Orientation manual

Skills & Competencies

• Experience in working with multi-regional social justice movements, and leadership teams of women, non-binary and queer-led, feminist organisations
• Over 10 years of experience in developing and executing feminist leadership and governance strategies
• Strong written and spoken communication skills
• Ability to work across multiple time zones and cultural contexts

Reporting & Work Environment

The contractor will report to the Board Transition Committee of the UAF A&P Regional Board and should be able to work remotely and virtually with Board members, Co Leads and staff.

Suggested Timeline

How to apply:

Applications will be compiled by the Executive Support Facilitator and reviewed by the Board Transition Committee. Interested candidates may apply for the position by emailing spremchander@uafanp.org with the following:

1. Updated résumé/CV
2. A brief proposal explaining their overall approach
3. A proposed budget, including the proposed number of days of work within the proposed timeline
4. Two relevant references

Deadline to Apply: 12 April 2022

Location: Remote (based in Asia or The Pacific)

Reports Primarily to the Resource Mobilisation facilitator

Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Asia and Pacific (UAF A&P) is a regional women’s human rights and feminist fund that protects, strengthens and sustains women and non-binary human rights defenders within the two regions at critical moments. We intervene quickly when human rights defenders are poised to make great gains or face serious threats to their lives and work. We use online, text and mobile applications to respond to requests from women and nonbinary human rights defenders across Asia and the Pacific.

UAF A&P builds the resilience of women and non-binary human rights defenders and their
movements through the following programmes:

1. Rapid Response Grant-making: We award rapid response grants to women and non-binary human rights activists and defenders in Asia and the Pacific. Activists apply for grants of up to 5000 USD in any language on any day of the year.
2. Enabling Defenders: We support women and non-binary defenders and their networks to create holistic systems of safety and care to strengthen their resiliency towards addressing the continuing risks and threats they face.
3. Activating Philanthropy: We leverage our relationships with donors and non-traditional groups to create and link different forms of resources to support women and non-binary defenders and activists.
4. Knowledge Building and Learning: We use our platforms to amplify voices and experiences of our grantees and partners to create new narratives on strengthening feminist movements.

In 2021, UAF A&P conceived a new Strategic Framework to steer our work across 2021-2023, developed through a collaborative process involving Staff, Board, Advisors, and Grantee Partners in 2020. The Strategic Framework deepens, clarifies, and reinvigorates UAF A&P’s founding vision to support the resistance and resilience women and non-binary activists and their movements across Asia and the Pacific, and create a safe and caring environment that sustains their work.

UAF A&P has a co-leadership structure with two Co-Leads sharing responsibility, power, and accountability, in order to embody and practice principles of feminist leadership. It currently has a team of 16, based in 9 countries.

Resource Mobilisation and Activating Philanthropy:

As the first regionally based Urgent Action Fund in Asia and the Pacific, UAF A&P aims to expand the reach of its Rapid Response Grant programme across these two regions, ensuring response that is contextual, to deepen impact across diverse regional, pan-national, and local movements that co-exist here.
We aim to implement this through a multi-pronged strategy towards resourcing resilience that is integrally linked to the agenda of building a solidarity economy, which requires re-imagining of cultures. Sustainable resourcing to build and strengthen resilience requires more than occasional or one-off donor contributions. It involves long-term commitment to create a system of solidarity that functions not only socially, through women-led networks of sharing and caring, but also economically, through investments and collaborative ventures. We believe that reimagining of cultures is imperative in Asia and the Pacific because the threats faced by women defenders – at home and in public life – are grounded in persistent stereotypes about ‘the good woman,’ as well as in prejudices against the outspoken and public woman. The re-imagining needs to be built on women’s visions of their culture and their place in it. This can open meaningful spaces of safety and creativity and produce a new language, narrative and references that could generate care, pride and support from an engaged public. Such a re-imagining can also spark a culture of giving that can contribute towards forging a solidarity economy to support the resilience of women defenders.
UAF A&P seeks to grow and diversify giving in our regions in pursuance of our commitment to resourcing resilience. The Charities Aid Foundation research released in 2017 estimates that up to 2.4 billion people could be economically classified as ‘middle-class’ globally by 2030, and that if this growing middle-class was to dedicate 0.5% of their spending to charitable causes, it would generate US$319 billion a year in funds for civil society organisations. This represents two and a half times the total annual bilateral aid from OECD DAC members. A vast majority of this newly affluent population resides in fast growing middle and lower-middle income nations in Asia and the Pacific. However, while giving is growing in many of those countries, much more needs to be done to catalyse sustainable growth.

We are seeking a Resource Mobilisation Associate to support the Resource Mobilisation Facilitator and handle the activities of the UAF A&P Resource Mobilisation programme.

Position Description:

The Resource Mobilisation Associate handles the activities (including gift entries, donor acknowledgments, reporting, and donor data and grant management) of our resource mobilisation systems. The candidate will provide administrative services, systems management, and ensure seamless daily operations of all processes.

The ideal candidate is a systems thinker who can process information analytically – and is interested in applying those strengths to help create a deeper, evidence-based model of resource mobilisation, activating philanthropy and changing the culture of giving to sharing with care.

Core Responsibilities:

RM Support (primary)

• Support the RM team with specific donor requirements including reporting and proposals, as required.
• Serve as lead staff managing the donor software programme.
• Maintain and update all data entry, including larger donor gift recording and contracts
• Manage individual gift tracking, including pledge records and invoices.
• Generate acknowledgment and receipt of all contributions in a consistent and timely manner.
• Ensure accurate record-keeping of fundraising data and coordinate reconciliation with financial and programmatic systems.
• Write and revise RM operations processes and database procedures (as needed).
• Responsible for upholding best practices in project and data administration.
• Develop customised reports and provide analysis.

Donor Cultivation & Engagement (secondary)

• Work with the RM team and the Communications team to support the execution of all supporter and prospect communications, which may include appeals (direct and virtual), online newsletters, annual reports, e-blasts, graphic design, etc.
• Support logistics and project management for all fundraising campaigns, RM and other events.

Responsibilities include:

• Help prepare all written material for events; can include invitation production, mail-outs, managing RSVP database.
• Co-create flyers, signage, programme booklets, or any other printed material, as needed.
• Serve as communications support for community events, rallies, etc.

Qualifications and experience:

The Facilitator is contracted based on their knowledge of resource mobilisation within women’s funds ecosystems, and knowledge of working in feminist movements in Asia and the Pacific. We encourage women and non-binary professionals from East Asia, South East Asia, and the Pacific to apply. We will prioritise applications from women and non-binary persons from marginalised or under-represented countries or contexts from across Asia and the Pacific.

Core Capacities:

• Works collaboratively to secure input from and coordinate the efforts of multiple stakeholders, including internal team members and external contractors and networks.
• Works with attention to detail and sensitivity to confidential information.
• Enjoys and is adept at working with diverse individuals and groups.
• Enjoys forming new relationships that connect others to UAF A&P.
• Proactive problem-solving abilities: a highly driven, energetic, lateral thinker that has the ability to wear a number of different hats.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Experience in writing and editing in a variety of formats.
• Experience in mobilising resources for gender justice, human rights, and/or related movements
• Experience with basic data management concepts (via database, Excel, other)
• Some experience in non-profit development and fundraising - but more importantly an interest in building skills in the field based on data informed, evidence driven frameworks.
• A desire to work with a community-centric model of resource mobilisation.
  • Excellent English language skills (written and spoken). Being multilingual in languages spoken across Asia and/or the Pacific would be an added advantage.
  • Works collaboratively, has excellent interpersonal skills, is self-motivated and has a proven track record of strong ability for teamwork.
• Willing to travel for work.
• Committed to self and collective care.

Reporting & Work Environment:

They will coordinate and work closely with the organisation’s Co-Leads, Resource Mobilisation (RM) Facilitator, Communications and Learning Facilitator and Strategic Finance Facilitator. The candidate will report to the RM Facilitator and should be willing and able to work remotely.

Work hours and compensation:

This is a full-time position that requires the Facilitator to work 5 days or 40 hours per week with an annual compensation of US$32,000 - $37,000, depending on qualifications and experience, and includes a strong benefits package.

Anticipated start date:
Immediate

How to apply:

Interested candidates are invited to apply for the position by sending the following to info@uafanp.org:

1. Updated Résumé
2. A proposal or pitch detailing your interest and suitability for the role and showcasing your written and fundraising skills.
3. 3 references including one each from a supervisor, and someone who is from a women’s fund ecosystem.

We request applicants to create and/or use a ProtonMail account to send us their application dockets to ensure compliance with our strict security protocols.

We will do our best to communicate with all applicants in a timely manner on the status of their application throughout the recruitment and answer any questions applicants may have. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this process.

About the Urgent Action Funds

The Urgent Action Funds (the Sister Funds) is a global sisterhood of four independent funds (Urgent Action Fund –Africa; Urgent Action Fund –Asia and Pacific; Urgent Action Fund –Latin America and the Caribbean; Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights) each dedicated to strengthening the resilience and security of women human rights defenders and their organizations and movements. The Sister Funds have a twenty-year track record in the successful provision of rapid response security and protection support to WHRDS, maintaining an average response of just 24-72 hours and making urgent support accessible via online, secure, simple applications that are available in multiple languages 24 hours/7 days/365 days each year. The Rapid Response Grantmaking model is a unique funding model that allows urgent and timely financial response to women’s rights organizations for strategic, unanticipated and urgent interventions that advance women’s rights or protect the lives of women human rights defenders who often find themselves targeted for their activism. The Sister Funds also implement alliance building and advocacy initiatives in collaboration with other human rights organizations including ground-breaking initiatives, research and publications; provide women with tools needed for strategic engagements and policy advocacy and to encourage knowledge and information sharing in critical areas affecting women’s rights. The Sister Funds, together, weave a global network of support to women’s human rights struggles everywhere.

Our values

1. Power sharing, Interdependence and Co-responsibility

We are sisters that work to develop trust, share power, co-create and share responsibility of our sisterhood and our work together.  As an interdependent sisterhood, we recognize the importance of both shared decision-making grounded in a shared vision and honoring each sister’s power and autonomy.

2. Working with a Soul

Our sisterhood honors our shared humanity, love, and solidarity.  We prioritize care and wellness as a political act and the embodiment of these principles.  Working with a soul commits to tending care to how we work as much as the results of our work. We care for and love ourselves and each other.

3. Celebrate, Respect and Value Diversity

Our sisterhood is designed to celebrate and value our differences -- region, language, political and cultural context. It is these very differences that are our strength. Our sisterhood sees these differences as essential to our work.  We value the knowledge and approaches that each sister offers the sisterhood.

4. Collective Visioning and Experimentation

Our sisterhood was born to respond to urgent needs with a bold vision, resilience and courage.  Learning, action, and experimentation are all critical components of our collective practice as we work to change ourselves as well as the work we do together.

Position description

As the Sisterhood enters a new phase of deepened collaboration, we are seeking a part-time contractor that will provide administrative support to enable the Consultants, Working Groups and the Sister Funds Coordinator to effectively and efficiently collaborate with each other.

Core Responsibilities:

Scheduling Meetings and Note-taking

• Scheduling and setting up virtual and in-person meetings for the Working Groups (Leadership and Governance, Coms, MEL), Sister Funds Coordinator, and Consultants (if requested). This would include sending out doodle polls, coordinating with the Executive Support teams at each Fund, setting up Zoom meetings, and sending calendar invites.
• Serve as key contact for any scheduling requests with the leadership team
• General calendar management
• Note-taking and transcription

Organizational Tasks

• Storing and information on our shared cloud storage (Nextcloud)
• Updating and maintaining databases (e.g. donor database, consultant database, staff directory, image directory)
• Updating spreadsheets and other data entry tasks
• Creating filing systems
• Write and revise file storage operations processes (as needed)
• Creating email templates
• Administrative support for contract management, including following up on invoice payments for vendors and Consultants
• Support the delivery of good data management practices  (e.g. data security, privacy)

Event Management

• Event coordination (virtual and in-person), specifically researching and coordinating with vendors
• Provide logistical support, including travel management for the team, if needed
• Translation (Spanish)
• Translate key documents such as meeting agenda and notes from English to Spanish and vice-versa
• Provide interpretation at meetings, if required (we do have a pool of professional interpreters we work with for our meetings)

Layout/graphic Design

• Layout and simple graphic design for e-newsletters and Coordinator Updates, as needed

Who we are looking for

Core Capacities:

• Works highly collaboratively to secure input from and coordinate the efforts of multiple stakeholders, including internal team members and external contractors
• Works with attention to detail and sensitivity to confidential information
• Enjoys forming new relationships and values processes and relationships
• Enjoys working with diverse individuals and groups
• Proactive problem-solving abilities: a highly driven, energetic, detailed person that has the ability to wear a number of different hats
• An active listener – able to listen attentively, understand what are being said and retain information for note-taking
• Has strong time management skills and can re-adjust priorities as needed
• Excellent communication skills

Qualifications, Experience and Requirements:

• Proficient in both Spanish and English
• Based in a time zone different from Australia/Asia, with preference for those based in Latin America
• Experience with basic data management concepts (via database, Excel, other)
• Experience with administrative tasks
• Experience and proven track record working on busy, diverse and regional/global projects
• Experience in the non-profit sector, gender justice, human rights, and/or related movements would be ideal

We seek a person who:

• Is committed to self and collective care
• Able to thrive in a remote working environment
• Works collaboratively, has excellent interpersonal skills, is self-motivated and has a proven track record of strong ability for teamwork
• Align with our sisterhood vision, mission and values and practices
• Must have the ability to work effectively and flexibly in a fast-paced, virtual, multicultural and multi-time zone environment.
• Have strong capacity for adopting and working with new technologies and software

Job specifics

This position is part-time contractor work (32 hours/fortnight) from April 2022-March 2023.

How to apply

Interested candidates may send their updated résumé and a cover letter explaining their suitability and interest in this position, and relevant references (at least two), including at least one reference who has been their supervisor, on or before March 25, 2022 to adanlog@uafanp.org. Only shortlisted candidates will be informed by March 31. Interviews will be conducted remotely in the succeeding week.

We will do our best to communicate with all applicants in a timely manner on the status of their application throughout the recruitment and answer any questions applicants may have. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this important process.