TERMS OF REFERENCE

ABOUT FAHAMU

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences and realise their full potentials. Fahamu strengthens and nurtures the movement for social justice in Africa by generating knowledge to serve activism, bridging the gap between theory and practice - Tuliwaza (translates to we think or reflect); creating learning for, by and across movements – Adilisha (translates to teach or promote justice); amplifying Africa-centred voices, perspectives and solutions on policy and in decision making at all levels – Utetezi (translates to advocacy); and creating platforms for analysis and debate – Pambazuka (translates to awaken).

ABOUT THE ASSIGNMENT

The Fahamu transition plan was meant to set out the main purpose, steps and activities in the dual process of handing over functions formerly performed by the Fahamu office in Oxford, United Kingdom to the Fahamu offices in Africa. In addition, the transition period sought to conduct a general re-organisation of Fahamu’s work in Africa, including the strengthening of the governance and institutional capacity of the Fahamu offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal, as the Anglophone and Francophone African hubs.

Fahamu employs full and part time staff across three offices—Nairobi, Dakar and Oxford—and a number of consultants across Africa and the Diaspora. However, more than 80% of Fahamu’s programmes and resources are currently in Africa. The rationale for the transition to a fully African institutional structure derives from this reality, together with the Pan-African spirit and mandate of the organisation, which have motivated a discussion among members of the Fahamu Senior Management Team, members of staff and Board of Trustees on a “Fahamu Africa Strategy” since 2011 with the aim to move progressively towards an African-based organisation with a fully African governance structure.

An Interim Senior Management Team was appointed together with a Changer Manager in order to support the completion of Fahamu’s Africa transition. The role of the Change Manager was to lead the diagnosis of the organisation’s management and financial systems, governance structures and human resources; conduct a collective visioning and conceptualisation exercise for Fahamu’s Africa governance and institutional structure, with the participation of members of the Board and staff; provide recommendations for the strengthening of Fahamu’s institutional and human resource capacities and develop a detailed transition plan and provide support for its implementation.

This proposed external evaluation seeks to find out to what extent members of the Board of Trustees, Senior Management Team and other members of staff of Fahamu have implemented recommendations provided by the Change Manager as part of the transition process of the organisation. It is expected that the transition period has resulted into a number of policy and practice changes at various levels of the organisation as has been envisaged at the beginning of the process. In addition, the evaluation seeks to find out if various resources namely personnel, financial such as the support from Oxfam Novib have been adequately utilised towards the achievement of an Africa-centred Fahamu.

Purpose

The main purpose of the proposed evaluation is to find out if the intended outcomes of the transition period have been achieved. Specific objectives include the following:

- To know what outcomes (intended and unintended) have been achieved by Fahamu during the transition period;
- To find out if the intended outcomes have been achieved in a cost-effective and cost-efficient way;
- To examine whether outcomes have contributed to some policy and practice changes within Fahamu during and after the transition period;
- To know to what extent Fahamu contributed to women’s empowerment and furthering of gender equality;
- To establish lessons that can be learnt from Fahamu’s experiences and shared with other stakeholders and allies.

Specific tasks

- A review of Fahamu documents including various strategic plans, annual reports, documentation on the Fahamu transition plan, Change Manager reports and financial records among others;
- Collecting feedback from beneficiaries of Fahamu’s work across the continent and Diaspora through emails, telephone calls, face to face interviews, Skype calls and focused group discussions (where possible) among other methods;
- Conduct interviews with members of the Board of Trustees, Senior Management Team and members of staff of Fahamu to assess their appraisal of the implementation of the Fahamu transition plan;
- Obtain views, comments and feedback from various partners, stakeholders, friends and allies of Fahamu in particular those who closely followed the transition period of the organisation
- To write a report on major findings of the transition period (01/09/2012-31/12/2013) and propose recommendations to Fahamu and its stakeholders.

Deliverables

- A detailed review of the Fahamu transition plan;
- An assessment of the various governance and leadership levels of Fahamu: Board, Senior Management Team and members of staff;
- A written report of not more than 35 pages on major findings and recommendations on what Fahamu ought to improve.

Evaluator specifications

• At least five years of experience in working with non governmental organisations;
• At least a Master’s degree in organisational development or related fields in social sciences;
• Proven experience in research, monitoring and evaluation;
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines;
• An excellent communicator with good negotiation skills;
• French, Kiswahili and any other African language skills will be desirable.

Consultancy duration

The consultancy is for 15 working days starting from 7 April 2014. A first draft of the evaluation report should be submitted on Monday 28 April 2014.

How to apply

Applications should be provided by Monday 31 March 2014. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Interested candidates are invited to submit to the following:

• Curriculum vitae of the consultant or team of consultants that highlights experience with similar assignments;
• A detailed description of:

➢ Their understanding of the assignment
➢ How they intend to work on this project
➢ A detailed methodology and workplan
➢ Their expected daily fees in United States Dollars