Technical Assistance for Co-facilitation of Advocacy Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop and Advocacy Strategy for NPI EXPAND Grantees in Ethiopia – Palladium
Consultancy and Training
Palladium
Project Background
The New Partnerships Initiative EXPAND: New Partners for Better Health (NPI EXPAND) Activity implemented by Palladium International, LLC (Palladium) is a five-year USAID-funded cooperative agreement (7200AA19CA00015; 2019-2024) with the goal of increasing the availability and use of high-quality services through local implementing partners. NPI EXPAND supports local partners in multiple countries to strengthen their organizational and technical capacities through a combination of grant-making and systematic capacity development.
In Ethiopia, NPI EXPAND is investing in local partners to undertake social accountability interventions toward more responsive and higher quality services in family planning and maternal, newborn, and child health. The project’s six partners will implement interventions in Amhara; Sidama; Southwest, South and Central Ethiopia regions.
As part of its organizational capacity strengthening initiatives for local implementing partners, in Feb 2023, NPI EXPAND supported a facilitated Technical and Organizational Capacity Assessment (TOCA) for its six local implementing partners to identify organizational and technical gaps in their capacity and performance. Based on the results of the assessment, NPI EXPAND will support the local partners to address their prioritized organizational and technical capacity gaps.
Purpose
Lack of advocacy strategies and limited knowledge, skills, and experience with health advocacy were identified as major organizational capacity gaps among partners. Thus, NPI EXPAND seeks to hire three qualified consultants to provide its six local partners with technical assistance to collaborate with NPI EXPAND’s Advocacy and Engagement Specialist and Capacity Strengthening Advisor to design and co-facilitate a Training of Trainers’ (ToT) on health advocacy and support each partner organization to develop advocacy strategies tailored to their specific needs (each consultant to support two local partners). The anticipated commencement date of the activity is in January 2024.
Scope of Work
NPI EXPAND will assign independent contracts to each of the three selected consultants.
One consultant will collaborate with the NPI EXPAND Advocacy and Engagement Specialist and the NPI EXPAND Capacity Strengthening Advisor to co-design and co-facilitate a ToT workshop on health advocacy for partners in January 2024. Two consultants will attend the ToT training to understand and gather relevant information for their work with the two partner CSOs to which they will each be assigned to develop organizational advocacy strategies.
Each consultant will support two local partners to develop organizational advocacy strategies and advocacy messages.
The strategies will be developed independently with the selected consultant(s) based on each partner’s organizational mandate, capacity and issues identified through NPI EXPAND partners’ community-level Social Accountability projects.
Following are the specific tasks anticipated in this consultancy:
Consultant 1: Co-facilitating ToT on Advocacy and Engagement:
- Collaborate with the NPI EXPAND staff leading the training to design the training and develop/adapt training materials.
- Co-facilitate a 5-day ToT workshop with the lead trainer in Addis Ababa. The lead facilitate will assign each consultant specific tasks in planning and implementing the training.
- Work collaboratively to develop a training report using a format recommended by NPI EXPAND.
All three consultants: Producing Advocacy Strategy and Advocacy Messages
- Prepare and submit a work plan for developing strategies and advocacy messages based on each partner organization’s availability in consultation with their management and NPI EXPAND staff in Ethiopia.
- Review foundational documents, understand the mandate of each organization and hold consultative meetings with key personnel.
- Identify the advocacy strengths and limitations of each organization, so they be considered when developing the strategy.
- Consult with the organizations’ management and NPI EXPAND staff regarding Community Score Card and other projects and identify advocacy issues, potential stakeholders, and data relevant to the strategy and advocacy material.
- Develop a communications plan for the advocacy strategy based on each advocacy strategy developed for the different target audiences including goals, mapping of key decision makers, and prioritized activities to materialize the strategies.
- Assess the advocacy landscape including regional and federal level civil society organization (CSO) proclamations/regulations and contexts in Ethiopia relevant to the health advocacy issues identified.
- Document relevant efforts and/or achievements on health advocacy in different projects including NPI EXPAND by local implementing partners; consult personnel who have performed relevant activities to learn from them and/or support NPI EXPAND partners with developing their advocacy strategies and messages.
- Complete analyses based on the data collected including the above sources to inform the design of the respective CSOs’ Advocacy Strategies.
- Prepare initial drafts of the advocacy strategies and discuss with the respective CSO management for their input. Every strategy should incorporate alignment to the strategic plans of the respective organizations, covering sectors that they contribute to, policies, legislations and regulations and other relevant national, regional, and global experiences.
- Revise the draft strategies based on the CSOs’ input and present them to NPI EXPAND and the CSO management for review and feedback.
- Revise the Advocacy and Engagement Strategies based on the feedback and present to the CSOs’ management and NPI EXPAND for final review and approval.
- Based on feedback from the CSO, submit the final version of strategy to the respective organizations management and NPI EXPAND.
- Submit the full package of relevant documents per CSO including final strategy, advocacy and engagement instruments, advocacy material/messages co-produced, training report as an annex to the organizations’ management and NPI EXPAND.
Deliverables
Consultant 1:
- Advocacy ToT workshop materials co-produced with NPI EXPAND staff.
- A 5-day ToT workshop co-facilitated with the NPI EXPAND Advocacy and Engagement Specialist and Capacity Strengthening Advisor.
- An Advocacy ToT workshop report co-produced with NPI EXPAND.
All three consultants:
- Advocacy issues prioritized for each of the two CSOs assigned to the respective consultant.
- An advocacy strategy outline for each of the two CSOs assigned to the respective consultant.
- An advocacy and engagement strategy for each of the two CSOs assigned to the respective consultant.
- Advocacy messages for each of the two CSOs assigned to the respective consultant.
Support the CSOs draft an advocacy action plan that will facilitate the implementation of the strategy. This may include various items such as the activities, the chronogram, the resources, the outcomes and the indicators for MEL, for measuring advocacy successes etc.
Please note that deliverables 1, 2 and 3 will be produced collaboratively with NPI EXPAND staff, whereas deliverables 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be independent and specific for each CSO to which the respective consultant is assigned.
Supervision and Reporting
The vendor will report to the NPI EXPAND Ethiopia Country Team Lead. NPI EXPAND Ethiopia’s Capacity Strengthening Advisor (based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) will provide direct technical and logistical support. The NPI EXPAND Capacity Development Director based in Nairobi, Kenya will provide the required technical backstopping to the country team.
Qualification of the Consultant
- This consulting opportunity is open for individual consultants who meet the following criteria:
- An advanced degree in Public Health, health education and behavioral science, social science or a related field.
- Hands on experience in the Ethiopian health sector programs and projects.
- Strong skills and experience in advocacy and engagement practice in the Ethiopian context preferably in the CSO sector
- Strong knowledge and understanding of Ethiopian Health System, preferably in the Social Accountability, Community Score Card, or Primary Health Care/Unit
- Excellent in facilitation skills through adults learning principles
- Proven experience in community-led advocacy
- Proven experience in producing advocacy materials in participatory approach.
- Proficiency in English.
- Timeline
- This consultancy is anticipated to take max of 40 days to develop two CSOs’ advocacy strategies and messages within a 4-month performance period starting January 2024.
- The consultant who will be identified to co-develop and co-facilitate the ToT workshop will have an additional 12 days will be added to his/her contract for a total of 52 days.
Qualified and interested candidates should submit their applications, including the following:
- At most 12 pages technical proposal describing the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, the methodology and process of implementing the scope of this assignment.
- Not more than 2 pages budget proposal specifying the consultant’s daily rate and other relevant budget details. Cost elements must be presented in ETB. Please note that NPI EXPAND will provide all the meeting and travel logistics necessary for the assignment.
- Updated CV describing relevant experience in advocacy.
- Contact information for at least two past clients for similar services.
