TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR TRAINING DIAKONIA PARTNERS’ ON FINANCE, OPERATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR TRAINING DIAKONIA PARTNERS’ ON FINANCE, OPERATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS

Background

Diakonia is an international Faith Based development organization rooted in two churches in Sweden, the Swedish Alliance Mission and the Uniting Church in Sweden. The organization currently works in about 26 countries in Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia by supporting local partners. Diakonia’s vision is a Just, Equal and Sustainable world. Our mission and goal is to change unfair political, economic, social and cultural structures that cause poverty, oppression, inequality and violence.
The Somalia Country Office has 3 programmes within its current 2016 – 2020 strategy plan: Democracy and Human Rights; Social Economic Justice and Emergency Response and Disaster Resilience. Diakonia is working with about 14 partners – 8 in Puntland and 6 in Jubbaland States of Somalia. The portfolio of partners includes organizations that Diakonia has worked with over a long period of time and others who are new. In addition, the portfolio includes a government ministry and a government office of human rights defense.
Capacity building and accompaniment are part of Diakonia’s added value to partners. Diakonia believes that in the course of our partnership, we must strive to add value and strengthen their capacity. Before engaging partners, Diakonia carries out assessments for new and continuing partner organizations to establish if they have (in the case of a new partner) or still maintain (in the case of a continuing partner) the requisite minimum standards and systems in accordance to the guidelines. It is also an organizational requirement that during the first year of the contract, a comprehensive capacity assessment is carried out to help determine any areas that need support by way of capacity building and accompaniment. The assessment also identifies available capacity assets and proposes how these can be leveraged in the programme. Subsequently, a detailed capacity building plan is developed and agreed upon between the partner and Diakonia for implementation during the contract period.
Diakonia wishes to call for interested bidders to support in carrying out the comprehensive partner capacity assessments.

The Somalia Country Office Programmes

The Somalia Country Office is currently implementing its 5 year strategic plan for the period 2016-20120 that is anchored on Diakonia’s global strategy. The country office has selected 4 thematic areas from among the six thematic areas that Diakonia pursues globally.
The four areas are Democracy, Human Rights, Social Economic Justice and Emergency Response and Disaster Resilience (ERDR). Currently, funding is available to support the Democracy and Human Rights programme, the Social Economic Justice and ERDR thematic areas. The Country office has 8 partners who are implementing the programme in Puntland State.
In the democracy intervention area, Somalia Country Office is working on;

creating a democratic culture;
women’s political participation,
Good governance;
Creating an enabling environment of civil society.

In the human rights intervention area, the work centers on;

the fulfilment of women’s rights;
The fulfilment of human rights commitments.

In the social economic justice intervention area, the focus is on;

Fair distribution of wealth and access to natural resources;
Decent work and fair income;
Economic empowerment of women;
Sustainable development and climate justice.

In the emergency response and disaster resilience, the focus is on;

Emergency preparedness, relief and recovery;
Strengthening resilience to disaster risks.

Purpose of the Assignment

In 2016 Diakonia has conducted capacity assessment for partners aimed at establishing the capacity strengths and gaps for Partners. Once the gaps were identified, a comprehensive capacity building plan for each partner has come out. On the assessment of operation including human resource, the overall score aggregated for all organizations was 61%, with the lowest and highest scoring 40% and 79% respectively.In regards to this Diakonia is now supporting areas of weaknesses identified as means to assist partners in having sound operational systems in achieving Diakonia and partners 2016-2020 strategy.

Objective of assignment
Planned Outcome

Enhanced Sound financial system in place for six Diakonia partners in Puntland.

Planned Output

The consultant will be expected to:

Assess the capacity of selected operation staff and provide training on financial management, procurement and human right of the above area.
Develop partner capacity in placing adequate internal control system (functional internal auditing);
having clear understanding of project and organizational annual budget process
Train accounting software such as QuickBooks, its functionality, training of designated staff.
Development of coaching and mentoring process by the consultant to support the partners on operationalization of the revised manuals.
Recommendation for adoption of a suitable Computerized Accounting Software for partners.
Documentation of the consultancy process through written report both soft and hard copies. The report should include a matrix detailing what was done to achieve each item of the terms of reference.
Develop the capacity of partner staff in planning and reporting financial report both to management as well as for donors such as monthly budget review, periodic, annual and audit report, comparing budget vs actuals.
Compliance with local laws and regulations (Taxation- as per Puntland/Somalia)
Produce an assignment report minimum 15 pages.

Key deliverables

The consultant will work closely with Diakonia and partner designated staff. All deliverables will be submitted to the joint team of Diakonia and partners on date as mutually agreed during the inception meeting. The consultant should submit following key deliverables,

Inception report: Outlining details of activities with proposed methodology and timeline/ delivery dates.
Schedule of the assignment and session plans.
Drafting certain policy and procedures based on partner financial capacity assessment.
Provision of QuickBooks software.
Assignment report in English

Methodology

The methodology will be proposed by the consultant. Consultant will work closely with Diakonia and partners as the designated contact point in setting up meetings, exchanging information, providing documentation, organizing and facilitating training to partners.
Furthermore, the consultant will prepare an inception report/proposal prior to the commencement of the assignment. The inception report/proposal will present the proposed methodology of the assignment, propose financial training on need based, organizing workshops, proposed timetable for the entire process and the cost for the assignment.

Timeframe

The financial capacity development of partners are planned to be undertaken in between November and December 2018. The following is a proposed time table that may be revised after discussions between parties.

No
Date
Activity Description

1
October 25th 2018
Submission of expression of interest, budget and CV

2
October 26th – 31st2018
Selection of consultant and Contract Award

3
November 1st– 15th2018 (2 weeks)
–          Desk review and partners assessment on capacity of operation areas through documents and manuals review.
–          Conducting the relevant trainings to partners based on covering present and future needs of the organization.
–          Provide Individual work with the partners focusing on internal controlling, role of internal controller and auditor
–          Support reviewing and developing manuals and procedures, review of QuickBooks and provide on the job training for the accounting system users

4
November 29thto  06th December 2018 (1 week)
Submission of draft manuals and procedures to partners and Diakonia.

5
December 08th– 18th(10 days)
Submission of the final versions of manuals and assignment report

Skills and Competencies of the Consultant

Diakonia Somalia Country Office seeks to engage the services of qualified and experienced consultants/consultancy firms to undertake this exercise. The consultants/consultant firms must have the following qualifications and experience:

An advanced degree in social sciences and development studies;
At least seven (7) years of professional experience in the finance management, procurement and logistics and also human resource.
Experience in development of operational manuals for organizations/institutions.
Demonstrated experience and knowledge of carrying out partner assessments and institutional capacity building.
Experience in working in Somalia;
Demonstrated ability to prepare and present analytical and rich partners capacity building report.

Applicants will be shortlisted based upon their expression of interest, budget and profile/CVs. The marking system is as follows

Submission of Applications

Based on the above, Diakonia Somalia Country Office is inviting interested individuals and/or firms to submit applications that shall include the following:

Consultants’ profile and Capability Statement describing the technical capacity and experience of the firm or group of individuals;
Names and resume of individuals or team members proposed and their roles in the achievement of the assignment;
Testimonials and 2 sample reports of similar assignments taken in the recent past;
Interpretation of these Terms of Reference;
Detailed implementation plan and time frames;
A budget proposal, including breakdown and justification, but excluding logistical costs like travel, meals, accommodation among others, which will be met by Diakonia at existing rates.

The applications shall be sent, in soft copyto Stephen.ndichu@diakonia.se andmuna.yusuf@diakonia.se
Deadline for application submission is Thursday 25th October 2018.




SOURCE: TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR TRAINING DIAKONIA PARTNERS’ ON FINANCE, OPERATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS

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