Country: Kenya, Somalia
Closing date: 28 Oct 2016
BACKGROUND
Introduction
The Somalia NGO Consortium (SNC) is a membership organization of national and international NGOs that work together to create an enabling environment for the efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian and development assistance to all the Somali people. The SNC has been supporting NGOs for the last 16 years through its core activities in, coordination, representation, information sharing and advocacy. It has offices in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Garowe and Nairobi; it hopes to increase its presence in Regional State capitals in the coming years. The Consortium currently has 83 members working across Somalia.
The Somalia NGO Consortium staff, Steering Committee and the overall membership in January 2014 developed and adopted a comprehensive three-year (2014-2016) strategic plan based on the Consortium Mandate. The following objectives and priorities were set in the strategy following an assessment of the operating environment, organizational capacity and resources:
Humanitarian Voice: Support a strong and clear voice of a well-informed NGO community delivering various forms of assistance to those in need, in all regions of Somalia and Somaliland.
Favourable NGO Legislation: Collaborate with national authorities for legislation that will facilitate an enabling environment for NGOs to work across Somalia.
Access to community: Advocate for protection of civilians and safe predictable access by humanitarian workers to assist vulnerable population in conflict areas, and for the population to reach this assistance.
Donor policy aligned with NGOs: Engage with donors for policies that will minimize the blurring of humanitarian, development, stabilization and political/security objectives and programmes, and uphold good humanitarian donorship commitments for flexible, sustainable and timely funding for Somalia programming.
SNC Vision
To create an environment conducive for all stakeholders to improve the lives of Somali people.
SNC Mission
The Somalia NGO Consortium is a membership organisation of national and international NGOs that work together for an enabling environment for the efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian and development assistance for all Somali people.
SNC Core Values
· Transparency: Through effective policies, procedures and structures we ensure to be open and accountable to our members and stakeholders.
· Do No Harm: We are committed to ethical and responsible actions and activities in the service of communities and people.
· Empowerment: In all our actions we strive to develop people’s capacity and confidence to increase the strength of individuals and communities.
· Equity: We promote fairness in all our actions as guided by our mandate.
· Impartiality: We, in all our interactions, show no bias or prejudice against any particular person or group.
· Accountability: Through our policies and procedures, and in all our actions, we are transparent and accountable, answering to our partners, membership and stakeholders.
Challenges:
The year 2016 was marked by the first ever World Humanitarian Summit organised in Istanbul in May 2016. The Summit was the first time in the history of the United Nations that Member States, NGOs, civil society, people affected by crises, the private sector and international organizations came together on such a scale, with so many stakeholders, to commit to collectively and individually reduce the unprecedented level of humanitarian need and suffering in the world today.
Despite the continued commitment of donors to support humanitarian and development assistance in Somalia, the overall funds available for such interventions have been considerably reduced in the past two years, and is likely to keep declining in the coming years. To ensure delivery of targeted services to its membership and continued funding, the Consortium will have to review and possibly align its members’ and external stakeholders’ interests more closely through a review of its performance, strategy and possibly its mandate and build upon its strengths and competitive advantages in areas such as coordination, technical resources and influence derived from size and reputation of its member organisations.
Assessment and readjustment are key features of the Consortium’s strategic plan and mandate; the SNC secretariat at all times strives to adapt the Consortium’s strategic focus, to ensure relevance and on the basis of its members’ key priorities, with the aim of facilitating maximum impact on behalf of its membership.
In support of on-going membership outreach (either in bilateral meetings or via the monthly membership meetings), the Secretariat and Consortium Steering Committee herewith look to commission an external evaluation to:
- Galvanise member and external stakeholder feedback on the performance of the Consortium;
- Assess the implementation of the current strategy;
- Align its operations and structures to member priorities and to reflect the changing operating environment (which sees significant restrictions to access to vulnerable populations, sees the federal government increasingly demanding responsibility over aid coordination, challenging the existing aid framework, and severely restricted funding). At the same time, nascent but growing Somali civil society coordination structures provide opportunities but also potential challenges to the leadership and coordination role of the Somalia NGO Consortium.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Purpose
To assist the Somalia NGO Consortium in redefining its strategy as an agency for NGO representation and coordination in accordance with the changing context of aid coordination within Somalia.
Objectives
To assess the implementation of the former strategy
To identify the strategic priorities for Somalia NGO Consortium in order to develop a three year strategy
To review the SNC mandate
To review SNC services together with humanitarian and development oriented activities
Activities to be carried out
Following is the three-fold core focus, which will guide the design, process and outcomes of each of the activities listed in this section:
- Assessment of the last 3 years strategy implementation and response to the SNC Evaluation carried out in 2014.
- Review of the NGO Consortium’s mandate to assess its continued relevance and what its ‘competitive advantages’ within the NGO and wider civil society sector in Somalia are;
- Review the range and quality of services the NGO Consortium provides to its members, including activities oriented towards strengthening the delivery of humanitarian and development aid in Somalia;
- Determine the areas of focus and capacity requirements of the SNC for the new three year strategic plan
Scope of the study
A comprehensive desk study including review of the key documents of the Somalia NGO Consortium, the Federal Government Somalia (FGS, Somaliland and of its partners relevant to the above-mentioned objectives and details of this assignment; it will inform the overall analysis as well as steer the consultations with the NGO Consortium’s key stakeholders.
Consultations with key internal and external stakeholders of the NGO Consortium (e.g. UN, Federal Government of Somalia, Donor community, Somali Civil Society Bodies and NGO Consortium members) to solicit their views and inputs vis-à-vis the stated objectives of this consultancy
A draft inception report based on outcomes of desk study as well as consultations outlined in Task 1 and 2.
Development of a proposed strategy paper and a set of recommendations for the strategic changes in the NGO Consortium’s operating environment, ensuring the practicability of the new strategic direction.
Methodology
The overall assignment will be consultative and will make use of a mixture of qualitative methods of data collection, including secondary data review, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and workshops.
Task 1: A comprehensive desk study of relevant documentation, including the NGO Consortium strategies, evaluation reports, advocacy and research papers, Directors’ and Steering Committee minutes, and projects and other funding proposals; and as full a range as possible of relevant external documents, such as government policies, aid coordination and aid effectiveness frameworks and commitment documents, advocacy papers from wider civil society and studies related to the current challenges for the delivery of development and humanitarian assistance in Somalia.
Task 2: Consultations with a full range of relevant internal and external strategic stakeholders and actors through a range of methods including, but not limited to, one-to-one interviews, group consultations and facilitated workshops with representatives of key donors, UN agencies, Somali civil society bodies and networks, Federal Government of Somalia, humanitarian coordination. The task will be carried out mainly in Nairobi and Mogadishu, but will also include short trips to the NGO Consortium regional offices in Hargeisa and Garowe where consultations will be held with NGO Consortium staff, representatives of the NGO Consortium member organizations regional offices and any government and donors’ representatives deemed relevant.
Task 3: The results of Task one and two will be written up as summary initial report outlining perceptions regarding the NGO Consortium’s key capacity, strengths and shortfalls and outlining their relevance within the overall context of the NGO Consortium members’ interests, Somali civil society and the aid coordination context. The report will be submitted to the NGO Consortium’s Director, Steering Committee and members during a 2-day workshop ahead of Task 4 and will provide the immediate context and steer for carrying out Task 4.
Task 4: a final report will be developed, building upon the results of Task 1 to Task 3. The report will combine the analysis from Task 1 and 2 and the results of Task 3, but will continue to outline possible strategies, with their pros and cons, for SNC to pursue and also lay out a plan for putting in place the NGO Consortium’s institutional capacities, necessary to achieve the proposed strategies. The draft strategy paper, and the institutional capacity plan will be commented on by the NGO Consortium SC and its Country Directors Forum, and if possible by its core current and prospective future Donors. Consultant will incorporate comments to finalise the document.
Expected outputs
- Based on outcomes of Task 1 and 2, an initial inception report outlining:
o Perceptions, and where available evidence based analysis, of NGO Consortium’s institutional competence and capacity was to deliver its current mandate and strategic priorities (for the period 2014-16)
o Views of its members and key external stakeholders pertaining relevance of its mandate and role in the changing aid context;
- Based on outcomes of Task 3 – a 2-day workshop with NGO Consortium’s SC, Country Directors Forum and external stakeholders – the following key documents will be the outputs from the meeting:
o The NGO Consortium’s revised mandate and role aligned with the external context and its members and external strategic stakeholders interests and expectations;
o The NGO Consortium’s Strategy and key priorities for the next 3 years informed by its revised mandate and role, as well as by the interests and expectations of its members and strategic external stakeholders;
o Recommendations for institutional capacity development of SNC to deliver the ambition of the new strategy and priorities and a proposed action plan.
IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The assignment will be carried out by one external consultant (or a team) who will be responsible for conducting all aspects of the work and delivering the stated outputs.
The NGO Consortium secretariat will provide the consultant/team with logistics and administrative assistance in the identification of stakeholders, arranging meetings and visits to the NGO Consortium’s regional offices, and organizing the participatory workshop.
Overall management of the assignment will be the responsibility of the NGO Consortium’s secretariat under the guidance of the NGO Consortium’s Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will be responsible for selecting the consultant and for reviewing and approving the expected outputs.
Scheduling
The assignment will take place over the months of November - January 2016 with the following tentative allocation of working days (either consecutively or divided into two periods):
NGO Consortium 3-year strategy TOTAL 34 days
Desk study / preparation 4 days
Preparation of the consultations 2 days
Validation of the consultations 2 days
Interviews in Nairobi 3 days
Interviews in Somalia 3 days
Focus Groups Discussions 4 days
Visits to regional offices (incl. travel) 8 days
Writing Initial Report 3 days
Draft Document 3 days
Final Document 2 days
How to apply:
Candidates who are interested in the position should send their applications online to info@somaliangoconsortium.org to be received no later than Friday, October 28th 2016, 6PM. The application should be titled “Consultancy for Evaluation and Development of SNC Strategy” and should include the following:
§ Maximum one page expression of interest, detailing previous experience in strategy reviews and humanitarian coordination fora
§ Maximum 3 page - Resume/curriculum Vitae of the consultant and/or consultant team members
§ Strategy or research paper already conducted
§ 2 references
The Three year strategic plan (2014-2016) of the Somalia NGO Consortium can be downloaded here. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.