TERM OF REFERENCE

Strengthening Effective Advocacy in Liberia – SEAL Project

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

This Term of Reference is an integral part of your consultancy contract, the Supporting Effective Advocacy in Liberia (SEAL), is a 4-year capacity building program funded by the European Union and led by a partnership of Kvinna till Kvinna and Mercy Corps. Over a period of four (4) years (2019 – 2022) each implementing member of its CSO cohort will receive capacity development by hiring of professionals and experts’ consultants through Policy development and trainings intended help build a strong and stable foundational of skills and knowledge in areas like Gender Mainstreaming, Networking, Communication, Coordination, Management Skills, as well as be asked to engage in CSO Learning Exchanges and Government and Civil Society Policy Dialogues. These thematic areas are in response to each institutional Capacity Development Plans (CDPs) crafted during the start of this project. It also gears toward strengthening CSOs capacity and enable them become leaders in advocacy in their fields of focus and for organization sustainability and growth.

INTRODUCTION

YOCEL is a youth empowerment and social enterprise accelerator – ensuring that all youth, including young women and girls, have access to education and skills to end unemployment through innovation. YOCEL Advocates and promote economic growth through capacity building, social dialogues and collaborative partnerships on education, entrepreneurship, job creation and workforce empowerment in Liberia and across Africa.

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

After the Malala Day celebration in Liberia, Lofa County on July 12 2013, and Beyan Flomo Pewee a young Liberian decided to form an organization called “Youth Coalition for Education” now YOCEL, along with Co-founder David Wiah II in order to address the issues raised in the Liberian Youth Resolution crafted by more than 200 young people. YOCEL uses the Liberian Youth Resolution as their guideline and its tool for advocacy in Liberia and will be developing similar tool for other countries. Malala Day is a day set in support of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative, hundreds of young leaders from around the world representing nearly 100 different countries and over 100 different partner organizations hosted series of events in support of reaching the goal of all children, especially girls, in school and learning by 2015. The youth resolution is the outcome document created after the Malala Day celebration, to keep youth engage in the fight for and access to, quality education across the country. Fast-forward, YOCEL has now reform its structural operations and program intervention and direction embedded in its new strategic Plan (2021-2025).

SCOPE OF WORK

Liberia being a under developed country with most of its citizens within the low economic class thus equally affects their incomes and livelihood. They rely on aids and humanitarian assistances. It is barely impossible to run any Non-for Profit or charity liked humanitarian services institution without sourcing outside or external support this has been a generic practice and concept from the foundation of Liberia. The absences of the middle class within the economy couple with low GDP per-capital generally affects most organizations especially local-based, even governments are dependent on aids and overseas support. Huge donors, aids agencies and development partners are shifting to profit based ventral. Based on this, there exist an urgent need for the development of a newer and sustainable model for keeping these institutions running admits the lack of outside support. It’s imperative on the above that YOCEL has decided to develop an institutional Fundraising Strategy to address its current financial sustainability gaps faced by reverting to a more concert social enterprise that most likely have a strong fundraising mechanism to adequately support the work of the organization with and without donor funding, but still maintain its original existence for which it was established.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Review the current programs and projects of the institution and provide an expert opinion;

• Develop a template to be share with YOCEL and the Board for approval;

• The task requires you to come at YOCEL office two times a week;

• The consultant must have experience in the key thematic area of the consultancy;

• S/he will conduct a thorough, but focused assessment on organization strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats, with a view to identifying appropriate strategic options from 2021 – 2025 operational periods;

• The assessment will include: reviewing of relevant documents, in particular organization Vision and Mission Statements, existing strategic plan(s) and key project documents, strategic plans of key partner agencies, donor organizations, and related reports.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop workplan
• Develop an assessment question for staff
• Design and facilitate stakeholders’ engagement
• Complete a desk review assessment
• Conduct capacity building training for staff on the usage of the strategy
• Develop a frame work that will consider the internal, SWOT and Pestle analysis
• Drafting and finalizing the Fundraising Strategy
• The Fundraising Strategy should capture the opportunities that exist in the private sector and multilateral institution
• The Fundraising Strategy should have a strong marketing approach as a social enterprise
• The fundraising strategy should tide into the organization strategic focus

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Master’s Degree in Marketing, Organization Development and relevant area.

• Excellent knowledge and understanding of socio-economic and political context of the country
• Familiarity with the Theory of Change of the organization, building organizational balanced scorecards and strategic planning document preparation
• Knowledge in Tech with new innovation that will support the working of the organization
• Minimum of 4 years of relevant experience is required

LANGUAGE

• Excellent written and spoken English

COMPETENCES:

• Expert knowledge of human rights, legal framework and Education;
• Experience of conducting and developing strategic plan;
• Influencing and Negotiation skills
• Ability to research and write at a high level;
• Expert knowledge of government, private sector and CSOs processes

Communications

Required attitudes

• Good experience of training Program Staff.
• Experience of a flexible approach to managing and prioritizing a high workload and multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines.
• Experience of proactively identifying and addressing issues
• Ability to work with a high degree of professionalism.
• Very good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work with and within a large team.

All interested applicant wanting to apply should send their application including their CV’s to info@yocel.org and CC emulbah@yocel.org the deadline for application is Thursday September 25th, 2021 for more information on the work we do kindly visit our website www.yocel.org.