Job Description

TERMS OF REFERENCES – FINANCIAL, GRANTS AND RISK -COMPLIANCE SUPPORT TO SOMALI NGO CONSORTIUM MEMBERS 

1. Introduction

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 Somali communities. The operating environment in Somalia is highly challenging and complex, due to continuing conflict, weak governance, of  and restricted humanitarian access to populations in need. Some of our members continue to have challenges putting in place robust finance, grants and administrative procedures and this has in a way affected their ability to access and implement development programs from donors. NGOs continue to encounter both security and operational challenges to their engagement in Somalia and yet have maintained their role of addressing the persistent needs of the communities they work with. Some

The Consortium continues to facilitate dialogue between member organizations and various stakeholders therefore enabling a conducive working environment for member organizations and allowing them to continue assisting vulnerable communities in need. SNC has offices in Somalia (Mogadishu, Garowe,, Kismayo, Baidoa and Dhusamareeb)  and in Somaliland we have an office in Hargeisa. The Consortium currently has over 120 members working across Somalia and Somaliland.

As part of the consortium’s strategy towards concretizing the localization agenda, more accountability to the communities our members serve, commitment to the creation of an enabling environment for efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and finally addressing some of the potential risks within the aid architecture, the SNC would like to improve the grant readiness, and absorption capacity and compliance ability of our members by improving their understanding of specific donor administrative and compliance requirements as well as stretching their ability to meet internationally accepted best practices for managing donor

funded programs and projects.

2. Main Objectives

The broad objectives of the financial, grants and risk and compliance support activity will be as follows:

1. i) To help NGOs prepare themselves to absorb funding from private and public both mainstream and non-mainstream institutions and better their accountability to both communities, government, and funding partners.
2. ii) To support NGOs to demonstrate and utilize robust administrative, finance and grants management processes to mitigate potential risks from the post aid diversion and delivery report both identified and unidentified- existing and potential threats.
3. a much more specific desire of this activity will be to support NGOs on how to utilize finance, administrative and risk compliance systems, and processes to mitigate both identified and unidentified leakages/malpractices in the post aid diversion and delivery of humanitarian assistance.

SCOPE of the consulting activity

To achieve the above objectives, SNC would like to engage a consulting firm to support member NGOs to assess their finance, administration and risk-compliance management processes and procedures to ensure:

1. They meet government, and at least three of the major donor specific compliance requirements and best practices, but are also able to withstand the humanitarian nature of programs and projects to attain effective program delivery,
2. Train/Support them to design, improve and test their finance, administrative, risk and compliance systems and processes against the SNC’s Harmonized Standardized Capacity Assessment Tool.
3. Devise system-wise strategies/best practices that utilize administrative, financial, and risks compliance processes to contribute to mitigation of post aid delivery and diversion of humanitarian assistance.
4. Deliver financial, grant and risk-compliance management support/training, covering as a minimum the following areas:

1. i) Financial management-including archiving - from a system and process-based perspective.
2. ii) Internal controls and policies- Beyond documented procedures to practice even at the field level.

iii)    Nexus between financial and narrative reporting both internally and to other stakeholders including funding partners.

1. iv) Risk identification, management, and mitigation strategies- with focus on financial, administrative risks and relational impacts at the field level.

3. Scope of Work

The engaged firm will deliver the financial, grant and risk-compliance training for the members of the SNC. The support/training activity should be able to pay special attention to the uniqueness of administrative requirements and best practices for the major donors within the Somali context with specific reference to at least three major donors.

4. Time Schedule

The financial, grants and risk management support/training activity is expected to be conducted between 3rd – 30th April in Mogadishu, Puntland and Jubaland respectively. With the technical [preparation, training activities happening between 3rd March 2024 – 04th April 2024 and the member support activities running between 6th to 30th April 2024.

Expected Outputs

Reporting:

The assigned representatives from the engaged firm will report to CARE/SNC

Deliverables:

Based on these terms of references, the engaged consulting firm will create content for the support/training activity, have the content and methodology approved by the CARE/SNC, and with a help of not more than two trainers will deliver the support/training activity.

The support/training will be for an average of 30 participants mainly comprising of finance, grant and risk departments. 15 participants per day in each location using the same content. For the support activities after the physical training, a sampling methodology will be agreed with the consulting firm on which members will partake in the post training support. The support/training could include:

1. i) A two (days) training Mogadishu, two days in Jubaland, two (days) in Garowe, Puntland for 15 participants per day using the same content/materials for both locations. The training will be conducted on different dates for both locations. The venues will be prepared and organized by the SNC. After the training, the consultant firm should plan for additional 1-2 days support activities both physical and online including post training evaluation, process testing with a piloted number of NGOs as will be agreed with the SNC/CARE.
2. ii) Training programs prepared by the engaged firm.
3. Support/Training tools and methodology
4. Detailed pre and post Support/training evaluation methodology that goes beyond assessing the knowledge shift of individual staff of the members to actual organizational system change that uses:

iii)    Support/Training course materials in simple English prepared by the engaged consulting firm.

1. iv) Certificate prepared by the consulting firm for the participants.
2. v) Using the SNC’s Harmonized Standardized Capacity Assessment tool (SPAT)- Facilitate post training sample assessments from a sample of participants (to be agreed) across three regions (Jubaland, Mogadishu, Puntland -to exemplify the interplay of compliance aspects in a system-wise model- details to be discussed)
3. vi) A comparative study of administrative requirements from at least 3 of the SNC donors’ administrative funding criteria and guidelines to be shared with participants.

vii)   A brief compendium of best practices that NGOs can incorporate in their finance administration, risk and compliance systems and processes to contribute to mitigating the risks of post aid delivery and diversion.

viii) Training and evaluation report submitted to SNC/CARE

Experiences and Qualifications

1. Qualification of the Consultant

The engaged firm must meet the following qualifications to be considered:

Interested firms are invited to submit proposals that contain the following information:

1. Registration

o    Business Registration Certificate

o    Copy of valid Registration as Certified Public Accountant or ACCA from the team members- to be verified.

o    Proof of Compliance vide a Copy of Certificate of Good Standing from a Professional Body of Accountants 

1. Experience Statement of the consultant

o    A tabulated history of the firm’s experience providing similar services to not for profit organizations/International NGOs and NGOs in East Africa. Evidence of undertaking of similar assignment with least 3 references.

o    Demonstrate ability to innovatively integrate individual skilling and a system thinking perspective, tools, approaches, and methodology to capacity building.

o    Demonstrate solid understanding of Somalia/Somaliland donor land scape and profile specifically regarding finance, administrative and grants management requirements.

o    Demonstrate a very good understanding of post aid delivery and diversion conversations, and measures in Somalia/Somaliland.

1. Overall proposal costs

o    A proposed fee structure for the service including standard billing of all personnel expected to be assigned to the engagement. Although the proposed fees will be considered, the SNC/CARE reserves the right to negotiate a lower or different fee structure during the offer process. 

1. On the cover page of your proposal please include the following:

o    The firms responsible contact person

o    Telephone and email address for the firm’s principals and individuals working on the organization’s proposal.

o    The mailing address of the firms and location of the firm.

1. Engagement staffing and methodology

o    Identify the partner, manager/person in charge who will be assigned to work with us should your bid be successful and provide CVs of each member of staff.

o    Describe your approach for the financial, grant and risk – compliance support/training, including the topics that will be covered under each training area i.e. financial Grant and Risk management, etc.

SNC/CARE Reserves the Right to reject any, if not, all proposals submitted.  Only shortlisted consulting firms will be contacted.

Skills Required

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