Individual Consultant on Delivery of Training on Strategic Planning for Civil Society Organizations in Azerbaijan

Background

The European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) value a dynamic civil society environment, which fosters pluralism and contributes towards sustainable development and inclusive growth. To support active engagement of the civil society in the national development, the EU and UNDP have launched a 3-year project “Developing innovation-driven and sustainable civil society in Azerbaijan”, an initiative that aims to build a strong and influential Civil Society Sector by fostering meaningful participation of the CSOs in policy formulation and policy debate, and enable them to better represent and voice the interests and concerns of their constituencies.

In order to contribute to the set overall goal, the project envisages a capacity enhancement programme, with the main objective being to increase the capacity of the CSOs representative in a number of key areas by offering them new knowledge of the contemporary methodologies and techniques as well as the opportunity for exchange and practical experience. As evidenced by the capacity needs assessment, more than 80 percent of CSOs indicated Strategic planning as a priority training need.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The purpose of the assignment is to strengthen the strategic planning skills of the CSOs to enable them to identify the organizational reform agenda they would like to work on for the next 2-3 years. The training is expected to help them understand interdependency between vision, mission, strategy, goals, objectives and plan of action, and take them through the process of defining a broad vision to developing a coherent strategy with well-defined objectives on key policy issues and then drafting a plan of activities. The training should support the CSOs in determining what they want to achieve and how they can achieve it. It should help in identifying the following:

· The problems to be addressed

· The critical issues they should respond to

· The goal and objectives to be achieved

· The capacity of the organization to achieve them

· The priorities taking into consideration the available resources

The training objectives and proposed content are the following:

Training objectives

To support CSOs in the formulation of a concrete, relevant and feasible strategic plan
To enhance capacity of participants in the formulation of strategic goals and in relating the goals to the SWOT analysis and/or similar frameworks
To enhance the capacity of the participants in identifying the strategic objectives in order to achieve the goals, by turning the strategic priorities into strategic objectives
To enhance their capacity in applying the SMART criteria and in formulating the indicators of success for the objectives

To understand the relation between strategic objectives and action plans, and on how to turn strategic objectives into action plans.

Key content

Formulation of the mission statement, the vision and values statements
Review of the organizational capacity of the CSO
Identification of the needs of the target group(s)
SWOT analysis and similar frameworks as preparation for the strategic planning process
Formulation of strategic goals and strategic objectives using the findings of the SWOT analysis or similar framework
Use of SMART indicators in the formulation of strategic objectives
Preparation of action plans with time frame, responsible party and estimated costs
Strategic planning in times of high uncertainty or crisis

SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of work of the selected Consultant will be around the following main tasks:

Design content and agenda of the training programme on Strategic Planning for civil society organizations; the final content and agenda should be based on the above outline and agreed upon in consultation with UNDP project team;;
Deliver 2 training workshops providing practical, easy-to-digest guidance to carry out strategic planning process; each training workshop should last no less than 12 hours;
Develop a template to guide the CSOs in designing their strategic plans and provide individual face-to-face mentoring sessions to CSOs to help adjust their draft strategic plans or address specific questions regarding the strategic planning process;
Conduct pre- and post-training evaluation;

Produce training report with key findings and recommendations for follow-up.

The main target audience of the training programme will be national and local civil society organizations working with a diverse population groups including but not limited to youth, women, people with disabilities, internally displaced populations, small entrepreneurs and others. The main sectors of their activity include:

Gender equality and women empowerment
Youth development
Social and economic studies
Education
Health
Support to people with special needs
Regional development

The trainings should reach out to around 50 CSOs and should be delivered remotely using Zoom platform or onsite, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The exact format of the training will be decided by the project at a later stage, before contract award. The Consultant shall be available for travel to Azerbaijan. Given high number of participants, the training should be delivered in a series of two (2) training workshops, each accommodating up to 25 participants.

Each training workshop is expected to last for 1.5 days using a mix of training methodologies including lectures, power point presentations, guided discussions, group work, practical exercises, case-study analysis and other. Relevant essential documents for the training, and instructions for trainees shall be shared prior or during the trainings. Face-to-face mentoring sessions are expected to be delivered to up to 10 organizations, and each session is expected to last up to one hour. The training will be delivered in English or Azerbaijani. For the training delivered in English, simultaneous translation into Azerbaijani will be provided by the project and should not be included in the proposal.

Final training contents, methodology and agenda should be designed and finalized in consultation with UNDP.

DELIVERABLES, TIMING AND TERMS OF PAYMENT

The Consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

No

Deliverable

Payment

Inception report detailing overall approach to the assignment, training methodology and content, to be submitted within 7 days from signing the contract;

20%

2.

Delivery of 2 training workshops to around 50 CSOs;

60%

3.

Delivery of up to 10 individual face-to-face sessions to CSOs (up to one hour each);

4.

Training report outlining the pre-& post- training assessment, general trainer's reflections on training workshops, overview of most common issues of concern, recommendations for improvements and statistical results of trainee feedback forms.

20%

The duration of the assignment is 15-18 working days within 3-month period, and the selected Consultant should be available immediately. The assignment is planned to start in August 2022.

Payment will be made upon certification of the satisfactory completion of the tasks and acceptance of the deliverable(s) by authorised UNDP personnel.

Competencies

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

I. Academic Qualifications:

· University degree in international affairs and/or social sciences, management and business administration, or relevant field - 5 points;

II. Years of Experience:

· At least 5 years’ of relevant professional experience, including international experience in strategic planning - 30 points;

· Previous experience of engaging with the civil society organizations - 15 points;

· At least 3 years’ experience in designing and delivering audience-focused training - 10 points;

· Experience working in the Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries - 5 points;

III. Competencies:

Demonstrated knowledge and skills related to strategic planning, preferably for CSOs – 20 points
Excellent facilitation skills – 10 points

IV. Language requirements:

· Fluency in English or Azerbaijani - 5 points

Required Skills and Experience

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Financial offer – specifying the Consultant’s daily rate for the tasks and deliverables specified in the TOR. The rate shall include all taxes and social charges applicable to the expert as an individual service provider.

The Consultant shall also include in the financial proposal his/her proposed costs for the round trip and living/overnight stays in Baku, Azerbaijan for the onsite training. The cost of the round trip and per diem for stay in Baku shall be indicated separately from the Consultant’s daily rate. Under no circumstance the per diem for Baku should be higher than UN daily subsistent allowance rate, which is currently established at 157 USD for overnight stay.

The proposals will be evaluated on a lump-sum basis, which will include or exclude travel and per-diem depending on the final format of the trainings decided by UNDP (physical or online).

Travel

Travel to Baku, Azerbaijan is envisaged if UNDP finally decides to conduct training in physical format in Baku, Azerbaijan. The consultant would need to stay in Baku for the period of trainings only (around 3-4 nights).

SELECTION CRITERIA

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Combined Scoring Method

Combined Scoring Method principle considers a combination of the applicants’ qualification and financial proposal (70% technical and 30 % financial offer). The award of the contract will be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Out of the maximum score of 100 points, the score for technical criteria equals 70% - maximum 70 points, and for financial criteria 30% - maximum 30 points.

Evaluation will be conducted in two stages: desk review and interview.

Desk review:

Academic Qualifications:

· University degree in international affairs and/or social sciences, management and business administration, or relevant field - 5 points;

Years of Experience:

· At least 5 years’ of relevant professional experience, including international experience in strategic planning - 30 points;

· Previous experience of engaging with the civil society organizations - 15 points;

· At least 3 years’ experience in designing and delivering audience-focused training - 10 points;

· Experience working in the Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries - 5 points;

Language requirements:

· Fluency in English or Azerbaijani - 5 points

Interview:

Competencies:

Demonstrated knowledge and skills related to strategic planning, preferably for CSOs – 20 points
Excellent facilitation skills – 10 points

Only those who score at least 49 at the desk review stage are invited to the interview.

The interview will be conducted over Zoom platform.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points for technical criteria as a result of desk review and interview will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria weight: 70%

Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Total Scores = Technical Scores x Technical Criteria weight + Financial Scores x Financial Criteria weight

Financial Scores = 100 x Fm/ F, in which “Fm” is the lowest daily fee, and “F” the daily fee in the proposal under consideration.

The contract will be awarded to the candidate that will obtain the highest aggregate score based on the technical and financial evaluation.

Note: Maximum possible score is 100 points. In order to be eligible, the candidate has to score at least 70 points (70% of maximum possible score)