Consultancy Opportunity At Save the Children – US

Project Title: Organizational Capacity Development Approach for US Donor Audiences

Division: International Programs

Project Station: US (Home/Desk Based Research & Digital Interviews)

Dates: TBD (September – November)

Contact: Izy Voth, Administrator, International Programs

Background

Save the Children is increasingly committed to advancing its approach to localization and locally-led development with priorities to increase funding and capacity sharing of local partners. While localization began as a humanitarian initiative, it overlaps with concepts of local ownerships and locally-led development, and is now being embraced across the spectrum of Save’s programmatic and strategic efforts. Save the Children’s global Localization Initiative, the 2022-2024 Strategy Enabler “Shifting Power,” ongoing work of the global Localization Task Team (LTT) and Partnerships Working Group, our Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns (PAC) US Government Relations department’s work on locally-led development through the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), growing conversations over the past two years on decolonizing development, and public and private donor funding trends all underscore the increasing momentum towards partnering with civil society organizations (CSOs) to advance localization ambitions.

The Grand Bargain of 2016 ignited a focus on localization in the humanitarian sphere. Additionally, USAID is increasing its focus on locally-led development as outlined in Administrator Power’s speech at Georgetown University in November 2021, the roll out and upgrading of the New Partnerships Initiative (NPI), a new Local Capacity Strengthening Policy forthcoming, and an increasing visibility of programming and procurement trends linked with localization and locally-led development considerations.

In early 2021, Save the Children’s PAC and International Programs (IP) teams conducted a number of focus group discussions with colleagues across Save the Children on the topic of fostering local ownership in our programming. Through these discussions, the team observed that there was a wide diversity of methodologies, approaches, and tools for capacity strengthening of CSO partners in use across the movement, with no official tool or inventory of tools available to guide a movement-wide approach to Organizational Capacity Development (OCD). In response, Training Resources Group Inc. (TRG) was contracted in November 2021 to produce an OCD Inventory Report, which uncovered over 50 approaches and tools in practice, and pointed to an overreliance of OCA at the pre-implementation stages of the program cycle, with little energy or resources utilized to actually implement OCD plans throughout the span of a given award or partnership.

This lack of clarity on our approach to capacity strengthening with local partners impacts our ability to win both public and private funding bids from US donor accounts, who expect OCD for CSO partners as key outcomes of awards involving local and national actors – either as direct or sub-awardees. Thus, Save the Children needs a clear and coherent approach to capacity strengthening that is grounded in the organization’s localization and shifting power ambitions, enhances long-term relationships with strategic partners, and aligns with the strategic priorities of our main donor accounts surrounding OCD, localization, and locally-led development.

Purpose and Objectives

The objective of this consultancy will be to develop a clear, coherent, and practical approach for designing OCD for local partners, tailored to US donor audiences, building on the inventory review conducted in 2021. The approach will take into account international best practices for OCD, OCD tools and methodologies in practice across the Movement and captured in the inventory report, and the strategic interests and priorities of key US donor accounts related to localization and the facilitation of sustainable, partner-led OCD.

Taking the approach to Organizational Capacity Development for Civil Society Organizations developed by Save the Children Sweden (SCS) as a point of departure, the consultant will develop a detailed technical guidance note for the design of OCD for US-funded awards. Specifically, this technical guidance will support Save the Children teams to conceptualize how they design, resource, monitor, and report OCD programming for US donor audiences. To facilitate this, the consultant will engage in a combination of:

  • Desk review of methodologies, tools, and approaches identified in the OCD Inventory Report, notably the SCS OCD for CSOs guide, as well as the policies, strategies, and preferred methodologies for OCD of Save the Children’s priority US donors; and
  • Key informant interviews with relevant stakeholders across Save the Children in the US, Sweden and our country offices to better understand how these approaches can be effectively adapted to align with US donor priorities while remaining practical to those within Save the Children tasked with the design and delivery of OCD.

Accompanying this technical guidance, the consultant will also develop a basic orientation deck for colleagues responsible for leading the design of OCD in US-funded tenders and awards, providing a basic summary of the key points contained in the detailed technical guidance note, as well as a 1-page content guide including boilerplate language for OCD resonating with US donor audiences for use in proposals and external communications.

Key Questions

  • Which tools, approaches, or methodologies for OCD are favored by Save the Children’s main US donor accounts?
  • Of the OCD tools in use by Save the Children, which are most aligned with those prioritized by our donors and how could they be consolidated and aligned into a coherent approach targeted at US donor audiences?
  • How can Save the Children country offices practically and effectively reflect on their own capacities to deliver OCD, so as to structure, resource, and jointly implement OCD plans with local partners?
  • How could a general approach for OCD targeting US donors be adapted to reflect specific programmatic scenarios and/or funding mechanisms that may not be readily aligned with partner-centered and/or long-term OCD methodologies? – i.e. short-term humanitarian response; USAID Transition Awards; etc.

Scope

This consultancy will build on the outcomes of the OCD Inventory Review conducted late 2021, which will be provided to the successful tenderer. Importantly, the consultant will then need to take stock of the policy priorities and programmatic preferences for OCD among SCUS’s primary US donor accounts, including specific frameworks, methodologies, or tools prioritized by these donors for strengthening the capacities of L/NA organizations and/or partners. As outlined above, the consultant will take the OCD for CSOs Guide developed by SCS as the point of departure, and engage key informants from across the Save the Children movement, including country office colleagues, to ensure that the approach developed remains practical to those tasked with its implementation and realistic in its objective to contributing to the long-term organizational strengthening of local actors.

Organizations, Roles, and Responsibilities

  • Consultant will be managed by the US-based International Programs department, and work with representatives from departments working with US donor accounts.
  • Consultant Qualifications:
    • Minimum 5 years’ experience in partnership-based programming,
    • Minimum 5 years’ experience with working with NGOs/CSOs/CBOs,
    • Solid knowledge about the core elements of participatory Organizational Capacity Development processes, approaches and methodologies, and familiarity with localization/locally-led development,
    • Experience working with US Government and/or familiarity with USAID capacity development tools and priorities,
    • Excellent proven training/facilitation skills,
    • Familiarity with SharePoint and MS 365,
    • Proven excellent strategic and analytical skills
  • Candidates must submit:
    • CV(s)
    • Brief description of the proposed approach/methodology to be taken for this assignment
    • Illustrative workplan
    • One example of previous work/deliverables relevant to this scope of work
    • Preliminary budget – daily loaded rate (final budget to be negotiated based on final-agreed workplan)

Deliverables

  1. Detailed technical guidance for the design of OCD in US-funded awards, including guidance on how to plan and budget for OCD. Annexes will include existing tools e.g., Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) template, OCD Plan template, monitoring framework, etc
  2. Orientation deck for US and country-based colleagues who will be engaged in the design and delivery of OCD in tenders and awards, covering:
    1. The basics of an OCD approach that resonates with US donor audiences;
    2. Contents of the technical guide;
    3. Core responsibilities among teams tasked with designing and delivering OCD;
    4. Guidance on how to plan and budget for OCD during a proposal
  3. Boilerplate language describing the OCD approach that resonates with US donor audiences that could be used for proposals and external communications, max. 1 page

How to apply

To Apply: Send CV, approach/methodology, illustrative workplan, past performance example, and preliminary budget to Izy Voth at ivoth@savechildren.org

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