National Consultant-Conduct Capacity needs Assessment of Civil Society Organizations to identify key priority areas for a tailored ToT training (Re-advert)

Background

Ethiopia has adopted normative frameworks on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE). The normative frameworks are guided by the supreme law of the land, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution, that recognizes the right to equally enjoy all rights guaranteed under the Constitution for all women as provided under Article 35. The Country has also adopted policy frameworks that focus on the rights of women such as the National Action Plan on Gender Equality (2006 -2010), the Women Development and Change Strategy and Package (March 2017) and the Ten Years Development Plan that has gender sensitive development indicators and targets. The national policy and strategy frameworks on GEWE are strengthened by the international commitments the country has adopted including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA), Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), Sustainable Development Goals, Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, Agenda 2030, (SDGs) and Africa Agenda 2063. Besides its effort to implement these human rights and development frameworks on GEWE, Ethiopia has started the review process for the National Policy on Ethiopian Women (1993), which has been in place for more than two decades, to align it to international and national human rights and development frameworks and to adopt a transformative rights-based approach.

While the Country takes commendable efforts to implement these guiding principles in the promotion and protection of the rights of women, the challenge remains in securing the benefit and active participation of women from and in economic, political and social spheres. This is manifested through persistent gender inequality existing at all levels, emanating from deep rooted gender-based stereotypes and traditional gender roles. Unpaid care work, lack of access to educations, unemployment and under-employment, unequal representation in leadership and decision-making positions and rampant gender-based violence are just few of the hindrances women face. The situation worsens in humanitarian and emergency setting as clearly seen from the disproportional impact COVID 19 had on women and men.

Thus, it is undeniable that addressing these deep-rooted and long-lasting challenges requires coordinated efforts among all actors, including civil society organizations (CSOs), working on GEWE. Cognizant of this fact, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has been strategically engaging civil society organizations in strengthening solidarity and feminist movement building to bring desired changes on the gender equality agenda, globally and nationally. Similarly, UN Women Ethiopia Country Office has been closely working with CSOs, with an effort to ensure their voices are heard and captured in its programmatic interventions as well as normative engagements. UN Women ECO used various coordination platforms to engage CSOs including the Civil Society Advisory (CSAG) that is serving as a sustained engagement forum among CSOs. Through the CSAG, UN Women has been able to undertake various advocacy and capacity building initiatives to strengthen the capacity of CSOs in selected GEWE thematic areas including on evidence-based advocacy, accountability frameworks on GEWE and citizen generated data.

However, these efforts are not sufficient to meet the huge capacity building demand within CSOs to effectively play their advocacy and movement building role. This is partly due to the restrictive environment CSOs have been functioning under the previous CSO law prior to 2019 that limited their engagement in human rights and gender equality issues resulting in abating their capacity in numerous areas. Thus, building on these existing efforts and strengthening the capacity of CSOs to enable them to significantly contribute to the gender equality and the empowerment of women agenda has become critical. Thus, UN Women, in collaboration with the CSAG, is planning to undertake a capacity needs assessment to identify key priority areas to inform future capacity building initiatives involving CSOs. Furthermore, UN Women intends to hire a national consultant to conduct the needs assessment followed by a training of trainers (ToT) to selected CSO representatives who will be responsible to cascade the training to the larger CSOs in the Country based on the findings of the Assessment.

OBJECTIVES

The general objective of the assessment is to identify the capacity needs of Civil Society Organizations and to provide Training of Trainers based on the findings of the assessments.  Specifically, the assessment will:

• Assess, identify, categorize and set priorities for capacity development interventions focusing on resource mobilization; program development, management and evaluation, organizational skills, financial management, planning and reporting, results-based management, presentation skills, networking and strategic planning for newly emerging CSOs.
• Assess and evaluate whether the CSOs have been engaged in capacity development processes and identify:
  • Methodologies used and lessons learned
  • Budget and human resource allocated
  • Results obtained
• Evaluate the current readiness, level of awareness and capacity of the CSOs for implementing recommended capacity development plans on identified priorities.  
• Develop capacity development plan which is easy to turn into action including comprehensive programmes for Training of Trainers on prioritized thematic focuses that will enable to reach as many CSOs as possible.

Duties and Responsibilities

The national consultant will be responsible to assess the existing capacity of CSOs to identify training needs to respond to pertinent laws and policies governing CSOs, identification of challenges and opportunities that impact the capacity of CSOs and collection and analysis of lessons learned, and strategies employed by CSOs on the selected thematic focuses (refer to the objective of the ToR) and provide training of trainers using a user-friendly well-developed training manuals and tools. Overall, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: 

• Prepare an inception report with an action plan including mapping of newly emerging CSOs to complete the tasks assigned.
• Design a methodological approach for data collection including proposed sample size and sampling criteria for the assessment including qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
• Undertake review of background documents on CSO’s capacity including legislative institutional frameworks and undertake stakeholder analysis for the data collection.
• Analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected and prepare a draft capacity assessment report.
• Present findings of the assessment at a validation meeting and finalize the assessment report with identified areas of training, concrete action plans and practical recommendation to address the challenges identified.
• Based on the identified needs develop training manual and facilitator’s guide to conduct capacity development on prioritized thematic issues.
• Provide a training of trainers based on the training manual and facilitator’s guide to selected CSO representatives who will cascade the training. The training of trainers will include training on facilitation skills and practical protocol/guidance on administration of adult training.

EXPECTED OUTCOME

• Report on d capacity assessment of CSOs with reliable and timely data and analysis, with particular focus on newly emerging CSOs to guide future interventions of UN Women, CSOs, donors and development partners.
• Challenges and opportunities with clear mitigation measure to address identified capacity gaps of newly emerging CSOs will be identified.
• A set of recommendations to inform the planning and implementation of serious of capacity development initiatives on various thematic areas will be forwarded.
• A Training Manual and facilitators’ guide on prioritized thematic area needs.
• Critical mass of CSOs trainers on facilitation skills and on identified areas for capacity building   to roll out similar trainings to broader CSOs in the country

DELIVERABLES

The following key deliverables are expected to be submitted to UN Women ECO and the UN Women CSO-AG:

1. Inception report which clearly depicts the understanding of the ToR, details the agreements made between UN Women, UN Women CSO-AG and the consultant undertaking the assessment regarding the proposed research methodology and core tasks to be undertaken for this assignment.
2. Draft study report on the capacity assessment of CSOs, prioritized needs, level of readiness of CSOs and recommendations.
3. Attend and provide briefings on the inception report and draft study.
4. Final report of the assessment which incorporates the comments and suggestions made by UN Women and UN Women CSO-AG
5. An executive summary not more than ten pages which presents the major findings and recommendations of the assessment.
6. A Training Manual and facilitator’s guide on capacity needs assessment of newly emerging CSOs in Addis Ababa.
7. A Comprehensive Training Programme for a ToT and a final training outcome report after the conduct of the training.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling UN Women values and ethical standards.
• Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision.
• Able to work effectively within a team.
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability.
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands.
• Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly.
• Able to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.

Functional Competencies

• Sound expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Communications or knowledge management experience an advantage.
• Academic and practical research experience.
• Outstanding networking, team building, organizational and communication skills.
• Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, donors and civil society.
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds.
• Ability to produce well-written documents demonstrating excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• Experience in preparing training materials and conducting trainings.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Law, Gender Studies, Sociology, International Relations, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience.

Experience and skills

• At least five years of professional experience in development work and particularly on issues of gender and comprehensive background in consultancy work on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into concise, analytical written documents.
• Prior experience in facilitation of TOT training of similar nature
• Experience in producing quality and user-friendly training materials and facilitator’s guide
• Ability to carry out gender focused research and analysis that are able to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures and guidelines on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• Experience working with non-governmental organizations and knowledge of their working procedures.
• Ability to establish and maintain productive relationships with partners and other stakeholder’s and responds positively to critical feedbacks and differing points of view.
• Demonstrated ability to produce well written, well researched and high-quality reports is essential.

Language

• Fluency in oral and written English and Amharic is required.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
• Technical Proposal – including a two-page methodology on the proposed approach for the assessment (it will form part of inception report if selected).
• Financial Proposal - The prospective consultants will indicate all-inclusive lump sum (The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal) contract amount for the assignment in USD per delivery/output. UN Women will cover the logistics costs for administering the training and necessary costs for the participants of the training.

Note:

Applicancts must submit above Technical and Financial proposals via email  yodit.hailemichael@unwomen.org

with a subject " Conduct Capacity needs Assessment  "