Terms of Reference: Consultancy for developing an interactive Resilience Pack for CIVICUS members

  Overview

Global civil society alliance, CIVICUS, is seeking vibrant consultants to develop a contemporary and interactive Resilience Pack for CIVICUS’ members. The purpose of the resilience pack is to build capacity and provide easy reference learning tools for individuals as their teams and organizations respond, recover, and continue to work with organisational complexities brought on by COVID 19.

Introduction to CIVICUS

CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organisations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. We were established in 1993 and since 2002 have been proudly headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with additional hubs across the globe, with a membership alliance with more than 10000 members in more than 175 countries. Our definition of civil society is broad and covers non-governmental organisations, activists, civil society coalitions and networks, protest and social movements, voluntary bodies, campaigning organisations, charities, faith-based groups, trade unions and philanthropic foundations. Our membership is diverse, spanning a wide range of issues, sizes and organization types. Our staff is based across the globe in over 20 countries.

Consultancy Background

Current events teach us that crisis and even disaster occur far more frequently than previously anticipated. The outbreak of COVID 19 has brought extraordinary challenges that we need to face, as individuals and organisations, for the coming years. In addition, climate change, natural disasters, migration flows, geopolitical strategies and technological advances will reshape our world in ways we can’t fully anticipate.

How the civil society sector reacts and adapts to these challenges depends on our ability to be prepared and explore new ways of doing and leading our lives and our organisations. With a minefield of new technologies and products that are available to lead and manage effectively during this time, the Capacity Development team at CIVICUS would like to provide to a cohort of its Alliance members with a digital learning opportunity to guide potential and existing leaders on the key elements for a culture of resilience in the sector during this time of unprecedented change.

Purpose:

CIVICUS is looking for passionate and enthusiastic consultants to help us curate and produce an interactive Resilience Pack for our members focusing on two main aspects: 1. How individuals and organisations can respond, adapt and recover from uncertainty and disruption, and 2. How to practice and prepare for the unexpected in the future. The successful applicant/s will need to curate contemporary content that supports digital mediums. In addition to the development of the material the consultant/s will be required facilitate a series of online learning sessions for a cohort of members from the Alliance.

Scope and objectives of the Resilience Pack: 

CIVICUS would like this Resilience Pack to build on the following overarching themes/areas of focus:

• Forging a culture of resilience in civil society organisations: the benefits of a heuristic workforce
• Foreseeing, improvising, and adapting to different possible scenarios: how to identify priorities, understand the bigger picture, give up control and practice new ways of doing.

Some illustrative modules/topics for the learning journey could include:

• Personal and professional mechanisms to face crisis: individual and organisational strategies to successfully manage uncertainty during COVID-19
• Responding to needs with limited resources
• The power of partnerships during crisis
• Managing organisations through a human lens during crisis
• Designing response strategies to disruptive circumstances, including priority re-adjusting
• Techniques and tools for scenario planning

These are by no means inclusive and exhaustive. We encourage applicants to share their innovative approaches/ideas to content curation and application of these thematic areas to the context that we find ourselves in now.

The scope of the Resilience Pack within the context of this consultancy includes:

• The curation of content based in consultation with the Capacity Development team.
• The development of online relevant learning resources.
• Facilitation of a set of online learning sessions (number and duration to be proposed by consultant/s and later on agreed with the Capacity Development team).

Deliverables

Timelines

Submission of proposal and project plan

2 March 2021

Initiation of Resilience Pack to pilot cohort

6 April 2021

Experience and Skills

• Demonstrable experience in developing and curating digital learning experiences in the identified content areas.
• Preferably with capacity to deliver the Resilience Pack to Spanish speaking members of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, although the inability to do so won’t be a disqualifying factor.
• Excellent and evidenced project team capability to meet these deadlines without compromising the integrity of the work.
• Excellent capacity development experience in international development and civil society organizations.
• Excellent track record of facilitating digital learning experiences.
• Excellent experience in blended and adaptive learning approaches.