Background and Introduction to Somalia NGO Consortium

The Somali 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 Somali people. The SNC has supported NGOs since 1999 through its core activities in coordination, representation, information sharing and advocacy. It has offices in Hargeisa (Somaliland), Mogadishu (Somalia) Garowe (Puntland), Baidoa (South West) Kismayo (Jubaland) and Dhusamareb (Galmudug). The Consortium currently has 112 members working across Somalia and Somaliland as of December 2022.

The Somali NGO Consortium staff, Steering Committee and the overall membership commenced the planning process of six years strategic plan from 2021 – 2026 in November 2020 and following multiple stakeholder consultation meetings in Mogadishu, Garowe and Hargeisa, the strategy document was finalized and submitted to the secretariat in April 2021.

SNC Strategic Focus Areas (2021 – 2026)

The SNC Strategic Plan 2021-2026 is anchored on four (4) strategic focus areas. The focus areas are complemented with four strategic objectives under which strategic outcomes and outputs are defined, as well as the strategies for achieving the strategic outputs. This strategic intervention logic is further complemented with a Results Framework that outlines the measurement indicators, means of verification, and assumptions. The four strategic focus areas are summarized below:

1. Strategic Focus Area: Advocacy for enabling environment for improved humanitarian, resilience and development outcomes. Activities within this area of focus are aimed at ensuring that enabling legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks are put in place and implemented to operations of NGOs in Somalia.
2. Strategic Focus Area: Coordination of NGOs operating in the Somali context. Activities in this area are aimed at providing a platform/space that brings out a more coordinated and harmonized volice, agendas and collecitve actions on issues of interest to NGOs in Somalia.
3. Strategic Focus Area: Representation, Liaison, Engagement, Strategic Networking and Partnerships. Activities under this area contribute to two main outcome areas where:
   • Somali NGOs agenda receive and influence national, sub-national, regional, and global attention, support and action.
   • SNC retains strengthens representation of the Somali NGOs in the HCT, Humanitarian Donor Group, OCHA and it working groups (Civil Military Task Force, UN Clusters, Localization WG, Peace Building WG, Advocacy WG and the Communication WG); SHF Advisory Group, CEOs forum, IASC Co-Chair role on localization global agenda, and Global Localization Co-Chair.
4. Strategic Focus Area: Communication, timely information sharing and capacity strengthening for members. Under this focus area, activities will also contribute to the following two strategic outcomes:
   • Timely and effective member response and action as a result of enhanced communication, information sharing, feedback and capacity to the members.
   • SNC Structure and sustainability enhanced for improved member service.

SNC Vision: Stronger, Vibrant and Resilient Somali Communities.

SNC Mission: A coordination and advocacy platform focused on an enabling environment for effective and efficient delivery of humanitarian, resilience, and development outcomes.

SNC Core Values:

• Humanitarian Principles and Do No Harm
• Transparency, Accountability and Quality Service
• Access and safety
• Optimizing localization agenda and the locally available capacities
• Diversity, Inclusivity and Collective action
• Partnerships, Effective Coordination and Communication

Overview of the mid-term review of the strategy

The SNC strategic plan is covering 2021 – 2026 and has reached the mid-term period of the six years, it has become necessary to have a mid-term evaluation to measure the overall performance and identify areas of weakness that need improvement aligned with the strategic plan objectives (2021-2026). The mid-term review will emphasize on the SWOT analysis and give recommendations on SNC relevancy on the mandate and the strategic areas of focus and possibility of renaming the SNC. There are emerged ideas suggesting the removal of the “Somali” and also replacing the “Consortium” with Forum so as to be standardized with other similar NGO Platforms in the world.

The rationale of the mid term review is also to gauge whether SNC (looking at its strategy, structure and operations within the Somali context and existing coordination mechanisms) has been able to meet the rapidly changing social-political, development and humanitarian context within which our members operate but to also provide suggestive adjustments in this regard.

The review will also take stock and conduct an objective analysis of SNC achievements (with respect to the strategic results framework) providing the necessary evidence required for revision and making the necessary adjustments as required.

Description of the Assignment Purpose

The purpose of the fore-mentioned assignment is to assess the performance of the SNC strategy over the past three years and clearly define the progress made inline with the objectives that were set demonstrating clear outcomes and results. Despite the progress made, the mid-term review will also present the shortcomings and provide us with lessons learnt and recommendations for better performance in the next phase of implementation. It is anticipated that the simplicity of this format will assist the SNC to communicate its strategic ambition and role as a principled collective voice of NGOs operating in Somalia and Somaliland. The strategy review will incorporate insights and feedback from a wide consultation with stakeholders including those from the Steering Committee, members, staff, donors, UN partners, INGOs, N/LNGOs, government agencies, civil society and the private sector.

Objectives of the mid-term review

• Reviewing of the SNC vision, mission, core values, strategic mandate and geographical coverage and conducting an objective analysis of the extent to which the SNC is adding value to the work of NGOs (humanitarian and development) within the Somali context.
• Assess and analyze the institutional, structural and operational SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Weaknesses) of the SNC with respect to its capacity to deliver on its strategic mandate in Somalia.
• Explore opportunities around engagements with private sector, general public (including diaspora), and media/promotion in order to bring out additional innovation and value that can increase NGOs accountability in Somalia and SNCs potential for increased visibility (and that of its members) and to attract new memberships, partnerships and identifying additional funding sources.
• Assess the extent to which current staff capacity can meet the diverse demands of the strategy, develop related SNC internal capacity development needs and come up with costed capacity-building actions. This will look into issues such as organizational set-up, financial and administrative systems against the organizational mandate and the identified strategies and key intervention areas.
• Review the result framework drawn from the strategies and the proposed result areas and ascertain to what degree the framework has met the SNC ambitions.
• Review and assess the extent to which the current strategy meets the current NGO needs, challenges for both local and international NGOs and provide well articulated and backed recommendations.
• Provide recommendations for improving MEAL, research and knowledge management for the SNC based on the findings and contextual realities in Somalia.
• Develop a financial projection and fundraising strategy herein referred to as a “resource framework” for SNC. The projection should rely on financial statistics for the past three years.

Methodological Approach

The overall assignment will be consultative and will make use of a mixture of qualitative methods of data collection including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and workshops.

Desk Review:** A comprehensive desk study of relevant documentation including the Consortium’s strategy, evaluation and audit reports, advocacy and research papers, meeting minutes, funding proposals; and a full range as possible relevant external documents, such as advocacy papers from members or wider civil society and studies relating to the current challenges for the delivery of development and humanitarian assistance in Somalia.

Consultations:** Consultations with relevant internal and external strategic stakeholders and actors through a range of methods including, but not limited to, one-to-one interviews and group consultations. Emphasis should be placed on member organizations at HQ and field levels; however, the mid-term review interview should also include representatives of key donors and UN agencies, including humanitarian coordination mechanisms. The task will be carried out in Mogadishu, Kismayu, Baidoa, Dhusamareb, Hargeisa and Garowe where consultations and workshops will be held with Consortium staff and representatives of the Consortium’s member organizations regional offices and any other external stakeholder deemed relevant.

First drafting:** The results of the desk review and consultations will be written up as a draft mid-term strategic plan report outlining the following key aspects:

• SNC vision, mission, core values, geographical locations and the thematic focus areas – provide update on whether it is inline with the set objectives and indicators.
• Analysis of progress made or achievements in the intended outcome areas within the framework of the strategic results framework.
• Internal Strength and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats – SWOT.
• SNC internal capacity development needs and costed development plans.
• A reviewed result framework outlining outcomes areas, outputs, objectively verifiable indicators and targets.
• A financial projection and fundraising strategy for SNC in the coming three years.
• General recommendations to the SNC.

The draft of the mid-term review of the SNC strategic plan will be submitted to the Consortium’s Director, Deputy Director, Partnership Manager/Program Development Specialist and Steering Committee.

Expected outputs

• Inception report outlining the proposed methodology and data collection methods as well as a detailed work plan.
• A three-year mid-term evaluation report outlining the achievements, weaknesses and strengthen, opportunities and external challenges, giving recommendations for better-ness in the future and financial projection in the three years ahead.

Implementation and Management of the Assignment

• The assignment will be carried out by an external consultant or consulting firm who will be responsible for conducting all aspects of the work and delivering the stated outputs.
• The Consortium secretariat will provide assistance to the consultant in arranging meetings, if possible visits to the Consortium’s regional offices, with the support of the regional representative where applicable, and organizing the participatory workshop.
• Overall management of the assignment will be the responsibility of the Consortium secretariat under the guidance of the Consortium’s Director and Deputy Director in cooperation with the Consortium’s Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will be responsible for the selection of the consultants to carry out the work and for reviewing and approving the outputs of the assignment.

Scheduling of the task

The assignment is expected to take 25 working days spread in 2 months from September to October 2023 with the following tentative allocation of the working days:

S/N

Activities

Time Allocation

Desk review & preparation of inception report

4 days

Addressing feedback on inception report before sign-off.

2 days

Field work (including travel & debrief) – Hargeisa, Garowe & Mogadishu

10 days

Report writing

5 days

Presentation of report for feedback, & validation of proposed recommendations.

1 day

Finalizing report & recommendations

4 days

Total number of working days for the assignment.

25 days

Requirements of the consultant

• At least a master’s degree in a relevant field in the area of development planning, public policy, development studies, project management and monitoring and evaluation.
• At least five years of professional experience in strategic planning and management. Experience in research, policy development, management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), organizational development, change management, and programming related work is an added advantage.
• Minimum 5 years’ prior experience working in conflict and post-conflict settings especially Somalia and an in-depth understanding of the context.
• Good understanding of Somalia (including power dynamics) and the operating conditions for NGOs providing assistance in Somalia.
• Familiarity with the Somalia NGO Consortium.
• Proven experience undertaking strategic plan and M&E skills and experience.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating workshops will be an advantage.
• Excellent communication skills, with good spoken and written English. Somali speaking is desirable.

How to Apply

Candidates interested in the position should send their applications online to som.consultant@care.orgto be received no later than 6TH June 2023. The application should be titled “Consultancy for SNC’s 2021-2026 mid-term review of SNC strategic plan” and should include the following:

1. Expression of interest & proposed approach to carry the exercise (maximum 3 pages).
2. Financial quote.
3. Resume of the lead consultant and the proposed team
4. At least two strategy review plan/papers completed.
5. 2 references
6. Cover letter on personal interest in the assignment and understanding of the Consortium.

CARE is an equal opportunity employer promoting gender, equity, and diversity. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.