Request for Proposal – Financial Technical Advisor At The Freedom Fund

Introduction

The Freedom Fund seeks a Technical Advisor (TA) for the provision of financial review of partners that are engaged to deliver Freedom Fund pilot projects in Nigeria. Specific activity requirements are detailed in the ‘Scope of Work’ section below.

If you are interested in being considered for this service, please review the details below and prepare a submission, with supporting evidence, as detailed in the ‘Proposal Submission’ section.

Submissions are required to be received by the Freedom Fund at its London office no later than 3 May 2023.

Background and overview of The Freedom Fund

The Freedom Fund is a leader in the global movement to end human trafficking. We work to combat many different forms of extreme exploitation, including forced labour, sex trafficking, forced marriage and the worst forms of child labour. We work with frontline organisations to build community resilience against exploitation; support those exploited to live free, dignified lives; prosecute those responsible; and tackle the systems that allow human trafficking to persist and thrive.

The Freedom Fund in West Africa

In 2022, the Freedom Fund, in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, launched a pilot program in Nigeria and Liberia to explore the possibility of a longer-term “hotspot intervention” to address exploitative child domestic work in both countries. The project includes a formative research component to inform a round of 12 months grants to civil society organisations to identify the most effective interventions holding the most potential to address this issue. With the research phase coming to conclusion in the next month, the Freedom Fund is now preparing the identification of civil society partners in Lagos, Nigeria to plan their pilot initatives. As part of this process, we are seeking a technical assistance consultant to conduct a due diligence assessment for these potential partners.

Scope of Work

The TA is required to undertake the following activities on request from The Freedom Fund. Activities may be requested for all or some of the Partners selected in the intital phase within Nigeria. Work may need to begin as early as mid-May 2023.

1. Perform ‘Due Diligence Assessments’

Due Diligence Assessments (DDA) are an audit of the systems, processes and procedures that are designed and operated by the Partner to manage the activities within the Freedom Fund project. The DDA assesses existing systems, processes etc. against Freedom Fund mandatory standards and other requirements and reports areas of non-compliance, control gaps and other process weaknesses. The DDA should also consider compliance by the Partner with national laws, regulations and practices where these are appropriate for the project activities.

Typically, a DDA will include:

• • a due diligence self-assessment completed by the Partner. The self-assessment will indicate the Partner’s understanding of FF mandatory standards and other requirements plus the current compliance level. Note that the self-assessment will be completed and submitted by the Partner directly to the Freedom Fund and the TA will not be required to manage this stage. The completed self-assessment will be provided to the TA as part of the preparation for the work under the contract; – a site visit, carried out by the TA following receipt and review of the completed self- assessment together with relevant documents provided by FF and the Partner, as stipulated in the document checklist. The purpose of the site visit is to verify the content of the self-assessment as well as to independently assess the status of required systems, processes etc. (including compliance with national laws and regulations). – DDA report to be prepared by the TA and sent to the Partner for management response.

The completed report will then be sent to The Freedom Fund. The report will show the assessed compliance to Freedom Fund standards and recommend actions to be taken to address identified gaps or weaknesses. The DDA report is to be prepared and submitted using the standard template shown in Appendix I.

2. Monitor completion of ‘Due Diligence Plans’

There may be occasions where the DDA indicates significant weaknesses or compliance gaps against FF mandatory standards, but FF decides to enter an agreement with the Partner. In these cases, the partnership agreement will include a Due Diligence Plan (DDP) for the Partner, based on recommendations from the TA that states the improvement actions to be taken within a defined timeline. The TA is responsible for monitoring completion of the actions in the DDP by the stated deadline, reporting progress by the Partner on a periodic basis as agreed by the FF Program Finance Manager plus prompt reporting any slippage or other issues that may be of concern to FF.

Technical Advisor specification

In order to deliver the Scope of Work detailed above, the Technical Advisor is expected to meet the following specification. Please include details of the extent to which you meet the criteria, with supporting evidence if appropriate:

• Registered in Nigeria as a financial services or accounting consultant.
• Experience in planning and delivering internal audit or financial reviews of small program delivery organisations in the NGO sector throughout the country/region
• Detailed knowledge of national financial (including taxation) laws, regulations and reporting requirements
• No known conflicts of interest with other Freedom Fund partners or consultants.

(Any potential conflicts of interest are to be declared as part of the proposal so that they can be considered as part of the proposal review.)

• Knowledge of the Governance, HR and Administration requirements for small organisations
• Experience of developing and delivering technical training in financial processes and controls
• Fluent in English both written and spoken, including for technical and business applications
• Capacity to support multiple organisations through delivery of the scope of work described above without unreasonable delay.
• Preferance for consultants based in Lagos.