Terms of Reference for Country Level Capacity Assessment Consultants

Location:  Kenya, Uganda, Niger, Nigeria, Mozambique, Lebanon, Jordan, Guatemala, Honduras

Target: COA organizations, COAFs and 4 groups of RHs per country

About We Lead

We Lead is a new, inspiring, innovative and powerful program that aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH-R) of young women. It focuses on four specific groups of young women: those living with HIV, those with disabilities, those who identify as lesbian, bisexual, trans or intersex, and those affected by displacement. The program puts these young women as rights holders in the driver's seat while supporting them to make sustainable changes for their SRH-R. The programme is implemented in nine countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central America: Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Niger, Mozambique, Lebanon, Jordan, Guatemala and Honduras. The We Lead consortium consists of six civil society organizations:  Positive Vibes,  Restless Development,  Marsa,  FEMNET, the CentralAmerican Women's and  Hivos Fund. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands is also part of the association. Hivos is the leader of the consortium and as such is responsible for the development of the processes of implementation.

In each country, the We Lead program supports young women's groups and organizations to connect with each other in the local Communities of Action (CoA) as well as strengthen their capacity to be able to advocate, claim, protect and promote their SRH-Rs.  Guided by the CS Strategy, the process of capacity strengthening needs to reflect dynamism and flexibility to accommodate the range of unique cultural, socioeconomic, and technical contexts in which we work. This will ensure that we support rights-holders (RHs) in such a way that by the end of 2025, young women with disabilities, living with HIV, affected by displacement or identifying as LBTI, are resilient and play a leading role within strengthened and inclusive organisations and movements that enjoy increased public support and have convinced duty-bearers and health-service providers to take steps towards implementing laws, policies and practices that respect and protect these young women’s SRH-R.

The Capacity Strengthening (CS) Strategy

CS strategy whose goal is to ensure resilient young women – mainly from four rights-holder groups - play a leading role in strengthened and inclusive organizations and movements which work together to defend and promote their SRHR. The strategy pursues three (3) outcomes namely a) Empowered and resilient rights-holders and CoA-Fs; b) Stronger and inclusive CSOs (local organizations participating in CoAs); and c) Enhanced political alliances within and across CoAs and with movements to advance rights-holders SRHR. We Lead has a four-step capacity development process: 1) Capacity and Needs Assessment, 2) Developing and implementing CS Plans, 3) Monitoring implementation of CS plan and strategy and 4) Evaluation, Documentation and Dissemination of lessons. CS efforts, in the context of We Lead program, aim at strengthening the voice and the influence, personally and collectively, of these groups of rights-holders and their organizations.

Capacity and Needs Assessment

The capacity assessment process will involve active involvement of CoA-Fs, rights-holders, local organizations leadership and staff to assess their strengths, needs and gaps in line with the requirements and objectives of the We Lead program. They will be the owners of the evaluation and will count on technical accompaniment in this process from Capacity Strengthening Linking and Learning Working Group, Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group and focal points. During the assessments, participants will engage in a critical dialogue internally and counting with technical support, using specific tools and methodologies to identify and rate capacities in key organizational and technical domains. Consultants (one global and nine country-based) will be hired for technical support. A CA tool has been developed which will be implemented after validation from the We Lead stakeholders.  Training will then be held on how to utilize the tool. After this, COA organizations, COAFs and RHs will self-administer the tool, establishing the status of their capabilities in the described areas. This aims to strengthen their capacity for self-criticism and analysis, as well as to promote the adoption and sustainability over time of this type of practice as part of organizational activities.

This will soon open up a dialogue per organization between CSL&L WG and each organization, to analyze and interpret the self-assessment and establish the final scores and conclusions. Each organization will have a report on its own assessment, with main agreements from the dialogue and final findings, which must include the strengths and the areas in which each organization requires strengthening. Based on the results, a global capacity building plan for organizations, with specifications per country, will be drawn up, establishing the organizational strengthening priorities with timelines.

CS actions have been taking place since the inception period and therefore the capacity assessments will not only assess the impact of CS interventions conducted but also assess the strengths, needs and gaps of the CoAFs, the right-holders and their organizations, and will guide the CS process and plans for 2023.

This TOR is therefore aimed at soliciting services of country based consultants support the process at country level. The consultants are expected to support in facilitating organizational dialogue meetings as well as focus groups among the rightsholders- working closely with the Capacity Strengthening Leads for the program.

Expected Output

The expected end product of the Capacity Assessment is an integrated country report that summarizes in a clear, concrete and strategic way, the key findings and recommendations for the CS processes. The report will include the following:

1. A digital file with the organizational assessments (one per organization) applied each one with its one pager assessment results.
2. A report on the baseline and current level of capacities (strengths, needs and gaps) of the organizations, with key recommendations to inform the CS processes and plans

• A report on the baseline and current level of capacities (strengths, needs and gaps) of the four right-holders groups, with key recommendations to inform the CS processes and plans

1. A report on the baseline and current level of capacities (strengths, needs and gaps) of the country CoA Facilitator, with key recommendations to inform the CS processes and plans
2. A country fact sheet on needs, gaps and recommendations.

Requirements

The consultant

• Has a good understanding of the Organizational and Programmatic Capacity Assessment processes

• Has a progressive and positive Knowledge and view of the SRH-R of rightsholders

• Believes in the values of We Lead and is accountable to them.

• Is interested in ensuring ownership by local organizations, young people and led by rights holders, and in finding innovative and creative solutions to achieve the objectives.

• You get energy when you can bring people and organizations together around a shared goal.

• Has the confidence to manage and facilitate groups and loves to do so.

• Is a good communicator, with strong interpersonal skills and natural empathy

• Is self-aware and comfortable with their own identity and a wide range of other identities, such as sexual and gender identities.

• Is engaging, inclusive able to build trust in others and maintain trust, and takes responsibility for personal performance.

• Is flexible, creative, innovative attitude, sense of humor

• Relevant degree or comparable work experience, and academic level of work and thought.

• Competence in English (for English speaking countries), French (Niger), Portuguese (Mozambique), Arabic (Jordan and Lebanon) and Spanish (Guatemala and Honduras) will be an added advantage

Planning and Financial arrangements

The contractual agreement will take the form of a consultancy as defined in the Hivos Consultancy Terms and Conditions.

Interested in applying?

Please submit a proposal clearly outlining your proposed way of working, activity plan and budget by 25th October 2022 to the email eastafricainfo@hivos.org