RE-ADVERTISEMENT: ORGANISATION CAPACITY ASSESMENT FOR PARTNER WORKING ON PROMOTING DOMESTIC RESOURCE MOBILIZATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA CONSULTANCY

1. Background and Introduction

1.1 Diakonia

Diakonia works for a just, equal and sustainable world free from poverty, oppression, inequality, and violence. The organisation’s Theory of Change is at the core of all our work. It is the vehicle with which we move within our focus areas towards our mission and vision, standing on our firm base of values. The results achieved by Diakonia and its partners over five decades strengthen the conviction that there is no stronger driver for change than when people know their rights and organize themselves in order to claim those rights.

This belief inspires Diakonia to contribute towards challenging unfair structures that prevent people from living their lives in dignity. Through the empowerment of people living in poverty and marginalization to participate in democratic processes as actors in their own right and by challenging duty bearers, real and sustainable changes can be made. Power analysis from an intersectional approach and a focus on gender equality are crucial for obtaining sustainable results. Women and girls are specifically prioritized in all of Diakonia’s work. Diakonia seeks to employ a rights-based approach to development in all programmes, including a special focus on its three mainstreaming areas of gender, conflict, and environment, and since May 2019, to operate based on Feminist principles.

Diakonia has about 350 partner organizations in 25 partner countries. There are country offices in most countries where we have partners. The regional offices are located in Bogotá, Nairobi, Jerusalem and Chiang-Mai. The head office is located in Stockholm.

In Sub-Saharan Africa Diakonia employs 100 staff at country offices in Mozambique, DRC, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Mali and Burkina Faso; and the Regional Office in Kenya. Diakonia’s Africa programme is currently funded by Sweden, Swedish individual sponsors, EU, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UN agencies and private foundations.

1.2 Africa Economic Justice Programme

The Africa Economic Justice (AEJ) is a regional programme supporting regional civil society organizations working in Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme’s main thematic focus is on economic justice.

This strategic programme offers a platform where new practices and innovative ideas on social and economic justice and economic empowerment of women are tested and developed. The programme is managed from the Diakonia Africa Regional Office since 2007. For more information please visit: https://www.diakonia.se/en/Where-we-work/Africa/Regional-programme-Africa-Economic-Justice-AEJ/

1.3 Domestic Resource Mobilisation Programme

Sub-Saharan African countries need to increase their domestic resource mobilisation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. If successful, they will be able to put aid and loan dependency behind them, and allow every woman, man, boy and girl to live a life in dignity.

Inadequate domestic resource mobilisation maintains African governments’ dependency on external resources, such as foreign aid and loans. The lack of domestic resources also leads to underbalanced national budgets where public services in health, education and social welfare receive fewer resources than needed to cater for the needs of the right holders, where women and children are extra vulnerable.

Despite the fact that most African countries recently stepped up their policy initiatives aimed at strengthening the mobilization and effective use of domestic resources, many loopholes still exist.

It is against this background that Diakonia engaged the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa to develop a programme on Promoting Domestic Resource Mobilisation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The programme aims to address some of the causes for the inability to expand and realise domestic resource mobilisation and is designed on the premise that Africa is facing challenges that can well be solved by cooperation between countries through regional integration.

The programme recognises policy formulation, review and implementation as a crucial strategy for development and aims to take advantage of existing regional policy frameworks to push for maximization of domestic resource mobilization. To achieve this, priority is to support and build the capacity of regional civil society organizations. The partners will lobby and engage key change agents at regional and national level to advocate for policies that support increased domestic resources.

The programme prioritizes five intervention areas linked to existing EAC, ECOWAS and SADC frameworks and policies. The intervention areas are:

1. Harmful tax competition between member states
2. Tax evasion and tax avoidance
3. Public debt management
4. Corporate transparency and accountability in the extractive sector
5. Institutional and programmatic capacity of regional CSO partners

2. Description of New Partner

2.1 SEATINI Uganda **

The Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) is a regional Non-Governmental Organization founded in 1996 soon after the World Trade Organization (WTO) Singapore Ministerial Conference, after realizing that Africa and Third World countries in general were marginalized in the WTO negotiations and other global processes. In October 2020, SEATINI joined five other programme partners who are also specialists in social and economic justice issues in the continent, with a specific focus on the proposed intervention areas. Within the DRM programme, SEATINI seeks to influence the formulation of equitable, inclusive and responsive revenue mobilization and accountability polices at national and East African Community (EAC) level with a specific focus on tax and debt, and to enhance the capacity of citizens and CSOs to understand and appreciate the rationale for fair, transparent, and equitable revenue mobilisation and accountability. **

3.Purpose of the Assessment

The purpose of the Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) is to establish partner’s strengths and gaps in management systems, structures, processes, and people in relation to their capacity to implement the DRM programme successfully and deliver on agreed results.

4. Scope of the Capacity Assessment

The assessment will prioritize establishing capacity development needs in the following areas: thematic and technical capacity, strategic communication, effective and innovative advocacy methods, governance, institutional and administrative capacity, monitoring and evaluation, results-based management, a rights based approach to development in all programmes, feminist based approach, including a special focus on its three mainstreaming areas of gender, conflict, and environment, with a view of strengthening capacities.

5.Methodology

Diakonia will hire a team of consultants to undertake this exercise. The team will develop a mix of qualitative and quantitative research approaches that should include the following:

a) A literature review of Diakonia and the partner organisations documentation e.g., partner’s strategies, programme proposal, Baseline study for the program, partner’s progress reports, Diakonia’s mainstreaming toolkits, etc.

b) Preparatory meetings and consultations with the Diakonia team and the partner

c) Undertake interviews/Focus Group Discussions with:

-The Diakonia AEJ team.

-The Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa (back donor).

-Key staff of the partner organisation.

-Other key stakeholders as deemed relevant

6.Outputs and deliverables

a) The consultant shall prepare and present an inception report (maximum 5000 words) outlining how the consultants will go about the study in more detail, i.e., the methodology, tools, etc. how the guiding questions will be translated into sub-questions etc.

b) The consultant shall prepare and present the draft OCA report to Diakonia, and the partners.

c) A final OCA report that incorporates input received from the partner and Diakonia, including a capacity building plan and realistic suggestions and recommendations on how the partner can address the highlighted capacity gaps in the short, mid, and long-term.

7. Envisaged timeframe

The assignment will begin ideally from September to November 2021. The draft report should be submitted no later than 29^th October 2021.

8. Requirements and Qualifications

The OCA will be conducted by a firm selected on competitive basis. The following qualifications will be considered:

• A minimum of a Masters’ degree and 5 years relevant work experience in providing Organizational Capacity Development services to regional organizations.
• At least 7 years’ experience in the development field working with Civil Society in Sub-Saharan Africa at regional level, particularly in EAC, SADC, and ECOWAS, and preferably good knowledge and experience on institutional strengthening of regional organizations (young, mid-level, and established).
• An in-depth understanding of the social, economic, and cultural context in which regional CSOs work.
• At least 7 years’ experience in conducting Organisational Capacity Assessments for regional organisations.
• Excellent analytical, writing and communication skills.
• Fluency in English and working knowledge of French.
• Strong facilitation, interpersonal skills, and the ability to communicate and work well with diverse people.
• Possess excellent coordination abilities.
• Be an excellent team player.
• Ability to work on demanding deadlines.
• Proven understanding and experience of human rights-based programming, progressive theories of change, participatory approaches, gender and environmental mainstreaming as well as conflict sensitive approaches to development.
• Be based/ have presence in Kampala in case of any travel restrictions.
• A good understanding of Diakonia’s thematic area of social and economic justice. This includes fair distribution of wealth and access to natural resources with the following specific thematic areas:
• Harmful tax competition between member states
• Trade and investment
• Tax evasion and tax avoidance
• Public debt management
• Corporate transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.

We are looking for consultant/s from Uganda who possess the required thematic and regional experience.