Enhancing the civic space for inclusive development: Empowering Civil Society Organizations in Yemen 

Depth organizational and technical assessment of the selected Yemeni CSOs  Aden 

Background:

The ongoing conflict in Yemen has created devastating impacts, including the breakdown of infrastructure and basic services such as health, education, and protection. The absence and lack of governance have meant that civil society spaces have largely expanded, with organizations playing a critical role in filling the gaps left by the conflict and responding to its impact. By effectively responding and mobilizing communities to work together towards recovery and peacebuilding.

The civil society space in Yemen consists of a diverse range of stakeholders, including registered civic groups, local self-help organizations, and initiatives with short or long-term goals, as well as charity-oriented groups responding to a multifaceted range of issues across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

However, Yemen’s complex conflict, political fragmentation, and restrictive policies have also contributed to a number of challenges, barriers, and restrictions that have impeded the operational functionality of CSOs in Yemen. 

The various restrictions imposed by governments and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have limited their ability to contribute to sustainable development and peace-building efforts. As a result, CSOs are constantly forced to shift their organizational strategies away from addressing structural issues such as human rights, civic education, and non-discrimination towards providing humanitarian aid.

The conflict in Yemen, alongside the closing of restrictive civic space and increasing threats to women’s rights and gender equality, has also contributed to a significant decline in the number of CSOs working on critical issues around gender equality, recovery, resilience, and the empowerment of women and girls affected by the conflict.

Despite the role and contribution of Yemen’s CSOs and local organizations at the frontline, many are inherently excluded and prevented from engaging and influencing disaster planning and response. Additionally, the government has not initiated any steps towards developing an emergency preparedness plan.

Civil Society in Yemen continues to face structural barriers, constraints, and intimidation, with many at risk of closure due to a lack of funding, weak organizational structures, and limited capacity. The highly competitive and fast-paced nature of Yemen’s aid sector has left organizations with little to no opportunity to strengthen internal capacity. Consequently, many CSOs also face challenges such as a lack of organizational strategic direction, limited long-term plans, and internal monitoring and control systems, in addition to poor internal governance and inconsistent administrative, operational, and financial processes.

Despite the range of significant constraints, many CSOs in Yemen remain committed to strengthening and rebuilding the civil society space and identifying localized long-term solutions to the impact of Yemen’s conflict. However, more needs to be done to better understand the increasingly changing dynamics of Yemen’s war and the impact of this on CSOs and their ability to effectively respond, participate and shape in Yemen’s humanitarian, peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction. 

As part of the SOS Foundation for Development, the EU project 'Enhancing the Civic Space for Inclusive Development: Empowering Civil Society Organizations in Yemen' which aims to strengthen and promote CSO leadership and participation. It intends to conduct a policy research analysis to explore in-depth the operational dynamics, challenges, and barriers faced by CSOs, as well as their areas of unique achievement and lessons learned. Additionally, it will identify areas of potential opportunities that can be further strengthened and fostered.

This assignment will positively contribute towards CSOs policy advocacy campaigns focusing on calling for structural, operations and financial resources that will effectively support CSOs in Yemen at the frontline, as well as calling for an enabling environment that supports the enhancement of CSOs in Yemen. 

Purpose and Objectives of the Project

Tasks:

assignment is to conduct an depth organizational and technical assessment for 3 selected CSOs  which include the following :

• understanding of the organizational capacity of the selected CSOs. This includes assessing their structure, governance, leadership, human resources, financial management, strategic planning, and overall operational effectiveness.

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the CSOs in terms of their organizational and technical capabilities. This information can be used to develop strategies for enhancing their strengths and addressing areas that need improvement.
• Evaluate the CSOs' ability to design, implement, and monitor their programs effectively. It examines their project management processes, monitoring and evaluation systems, and the extent to which they achieve their intended outcomes and impact.
•  Identifies the technical capacity needs of the CSOs based on gaps in finding.
• Enhancing Collaboration and Partnership with other stakeholders, including government agencies, donors, and other CSOs.
• Development of Operational and Capacity Building, policies, procedures Plan per CSO.
• Implementation of Operational and Capacity Building Plan per CSO.
• Development of the institutional policies and procedures in line with the vision and objectives of the CSOs. Setting up of monitoring mechanism for CSO capacities.

TASKS:

The consultant/consultancy firm will undertake the following tasks:

1. Provide a plan or proposal and Inception report that includes, the timeline for executing activities, the expected outcomes.

2. Conduct meetings with key project staff of SOS to have a full understanding of project logic and aim. 

3. Define the objectives of the assessment, including the aspects of organizational and technical capacity that will be evaluated. This could include areas such as governance, leadership, human resources, financial management, program design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and partnerships.

4. Design the assessment data collection tools (including translation into Arabic), sampling technique and size, and obtain feedback on data collection tools from key SOS.

5. Collect data by using different methods such as: desk review for CSO documents Site Visits and Observations, FGD, Interviews …etc.

6. Data processing (data entry, verification, and analysis)

7. Report writing and submission of the first draft report in English and Arabic shared with BFD for incorporating feedback and submission.

8. Development of the institutional policies and procedures in line with the vision and objectives of the CSOs. Setting up of monitoring mechanism for CSO capacities.

TIME FRAME FOR THE FIRST STAGE :

Scope of Work

Location 

The geographical scope of this assignment is Aden Governorate. It will target the 3 selected CSOs provided by the SOSFD team, the consultant will conduct in-depth organizational and technical assessments for each CSO based in Aden, and then provide a clear action plan including all gaps that need to be improved Review and develop policies.

Work Methodology

This assignment will consist of a thorough analysis of 3 different CSOs. The first phase of this assignment will involve desk research e.g reviewing and analyzing data and secondary documents of CSOs organization documents.  The second phase will consist of the following; a CSOs assessment methodology and work plan, followed by an on-site visit to conduct the comprehensive organizational and technical assessment. In the final last phase, the data, analysis and information will be compiled into a well written detailed report based on our findings.  Due to the complex nature of Yemen’s civil society space, the assignment alongside the methodology, work plan will be open to revision to ensure that a holistic analysis of the organization's internal capacity is conducted. 

Our ultimate goal is to complete this assignment by following these three phase steps.

Training process

The consultant will conduct training for the evaluation team in three aspects:

1. Principles and ethics of fieldwork: The consultant will be expected to  train and support  the evaluation team on ethics and principles of fieldwork in standards and policies to meet international evaluation and research standards. 

2. Data collection tools:  The consultant will be required to conduct a data collection tool training at two levels, centralized and decentralized. At the central level, quality control. Officials and reporters will be provided with extensive training to ensure they are all compliant with assessment requirements and that all data collectors provide required information that serves analysis and reporting. The consultant will conduct extensive training for data collectors on fieldwork guidelines, fieldwork ethics and principles, data collection procedures, assessment tools and questions, and reporting and documentation procedures. The training will be followed by pilot testing of the tools to ensure that they work to achieve the overall objective of the assessment and the quality of the type of information received.

3. Quality Control: Once the field staff completes the training, advanced training will be provided to the quality controllers on how to deal with non-conceptual data to fix it and produce clean, readable and analyzable data.

Throughout the process   the consultant will be expected to conduct coordination with civil society organizations, build the communication lines and trust and ensure that prior to any training and engagement, documents and relevant information's are shared prior. 

Data collection

• The data collection process for civil society organizations will consist of three main stages. An electronic form will be sent to the listed civil society organizations to collect basic information about their organizations. The consultant will be expected to follow up with the select h civil society organizations to ensure that the form is completed accurately and in depth information of organization capacity and that the wider CSOs operational dynamics is well documented.
• In the second stage, the consultant will conduct field visits to each organization to conduct internal interviews with organization staff e.g senior and programming staff. Prior to the visit, an online questionnaire will be shared individually to staff, and based on the feedback the consultant will be then able to develop tailored interview questions and focus group discussions. As part of the field visit the consultant will then be expected to conduct a field visit to a live programming activity implementation.
• In the final stage of the assignment, the consultant will organize, compile, review, and analyze the data from the CSO assessment form and individual interviews. This process will also involve conducting any necessary follow-up with CSOs to verify information and ensure the quality of the evaluation.
• Subsequently, the consultant will provide a report with in-depth analysis of CSOs' capacity building. Additionally, they will develop a capacity building development plan for each CSO.

Workshop

Each CSO organization provided with the capacity building development plan will then be encouraged and supported to take ownership in conducting and initiating their own internal capacity building phase, with the key recommendations and guidance provided in the plan.

While the primary responsibility and ownership of capacity building lies solely within the CSOs, SOS, alongside the consultant, will support and kick start the facilitation of the process by organizing and providing a workshop. The consultant will have the opportunity to present in-depth the capacity building development plan, as well as giving space for organizations to discuss and ask critical questions about the plan and next steps.

The workshop aims to promote the ownership and leadership of CSOs towards their own roadmap journey and organizational strengthening. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of CSOs continuing to work on the plan beyond the project and without the support of CARE and SOS.

Deliverables

• Inception report along with data collection tools and detailed work plan.
• Report on in-depth organizational and technical assessments.
• Final report, which includes the customized Capacity Development Plans per each CSO Based on the assessment findings and recommendations.

The draft and final report will have the following structure:

• Executive Summary (max. two pages)
• Introduction
• Methodology, including sampling
• Analysis and findings of the survey regarding the project outcomes
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Annexes
  • Relevant maps and photographs of the study areas
  • Bibliography of consulted secondary sources
  • Finalized data collection tools (in English and Arabic)
  • List of critical informants
  • Raw data in an agreed format
• The report will be written in English and Arabic