Terms of Reference for Consultancy Service

Consultancy Service: Develop a five-year (2025-2030) strategic plan for YWBOD

Introduction:

Youth without Borders Organization for Development (YWBOD) was established in 2013 as a Yemeni NGO working on youth's empowerment, peacebuilding, coexistence and community peace and security through capacity building, awareness raising, research and technical and financial support for youth initiatives at local and national levels. With a headquarter in Taiz, YWBOD has presence and networks which span Aden, Hadramout, Marib, Lahj, Shabwa, Socatra, and Al-Mahra, working on three key fields of work namely: peacebuilding, development and humanitarian aids, adopting bottom-up, inclusive, integrated approaches.
So far, it built the capacities of 9799 young men and women, engaged 21,457 young men and women in peacebuilding, community resilience and community security, established 3 networks, established and rehabilitated 5 safe spaces, healed the trauma of 13,479, improved the health of 3959 young men and women and improved 5,558 people' access to livelihood. Among its contribution is also raised awareness and advocated issues produced knowledge of 15 reports, policy papers, toolkits, guidelines, etc. It also enhanced the civic space as it empowered 192 civil society actors through capacity boiling and technical and financial support. It contributed to improving the local and security peace as it built the capacities of 87 state institutions and addressed many local security issues. Finally, it contributed to improving the access of 37,456 people to humanitarian aids. All such results have been achieved in partnerships with 288 local and international partners including state institutions, civil society actors and private sector all over its target groups.
YWBOD is a member of local networks such as the Civil Alliance of Peace (CAP)  and the Civil Voices Alliance (CVA)   and a member of international networks such as The United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY)  and The Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS) . 
YWBOD has worked with international partners and donors such as UNFPA, Netherlands Embassy in Yemen, Saferworld, Cordaid, Save the Children, Interpeace, USIP, UNITAR, UNDP, GIZ, PIPLG, NRC.
YWBOD recognizes the value of developing a strategic plan to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our approach and to consider the internal and external factors that influence the trajectory of our work. YWBOD plans to develop a five-year strategic plan for 2025-2030, to revie and restate or reconfirm the Organization’s vision and to establish a design process and approach for the effective implementation and sustainability of its mandate over the next five years. YWBOD firmly believes that its staff members, interns, partners, coalitions and key stakeholders are at the center of this strategic planning effort, helping to assess ways in which to strengthen the impact of the organization, providing direct input into consultations.

The purpose of this consultancy service: this consultancy service is to facilitate a directional analysis of YWBOD and a communication, monitoring, and evaluation plan. This includes assessing/developing the Theories of Change employed by YWBOD and examining how they serve to deliver YWBOD's mission. The purpose of this consultancy is to implement a strategic methodology and support and lead YWBOD staff, partners, and board in a participatory planning process, ensuring a sense of ownership, engaging meaningfully with partners, board of governance and key stakeholders. The plan must address, amongst other things, development of strong partnerships and how to more effectively engage government agencies, communities and donors more meaningfully in the realization of YWBOD's mission and vision. Best practices of organizations of more or less similar mandates can be considered as inputs to the strategic plan.  The substantive outcome is a five-year strategic plan for the period 2025-2030.

Specific tasks of the Consultant:

1. Review and assess the previous strategic plan 2020-2025 of the organization.
2. Carry out a desk review of documents relevant to an understanding of the mandate, legal frame, work and context of organization. The desk review also includes existing national strategies/actions, laws and policies related to the mandates of the organization, find out whatever relevant to align the organization's vision, mission and strategic objectives and actions. 
3. Assess any existing Theories of Change and, in a participatory way, develop/establish an Organizational Theory of Change for 2025-2030. 
4. Conduct needs assessment of YWBOD and consider YWBOD's organizational, technical and financial capacities and how to ensure sustainability, engagement and future expansion in developing the strategic plan of 2025-2030. 
5. Develop a comprehensive methodology and work plan for a participatory process with a view of achieving support from members and partners, which includes holding consultations and facilitating interviews with relevant stakeholders including, but not limited to, donor and development partners, private sector and civil society NGOs and shall establish way to receive feedback on the draft strategic plan from all stakeholders.
6. Develop the strategic plan with clear set of purposes, objectives and the proposed general activities/projects of the overall plan (2025-2030). The plan shall also include a log frame and detailed implementation plan for 2025-2026. The plan should include priority programs and strategies, baselines and targets, timelines, estimated required resources and a monitoring plan. The plan shall be clear on where, how and what to align with the actions of the existing relevant sectors’ strategies. 
7- Establishing performance metrics and monitoring mechanisms to define relevant key performance indicators and put in place systems to track progress and continuously evaluate the strategy plan's effectiveness.

Deliverables, roles and timeline:

• -    An inception report outlining the steps and methodology to be used in developing the five-year strategy plan. The inception report provides a detailed roadmap for the strategic planning process, outlining the specific steps, methodologies, and tools that will be used to develop the five-year strategy plan. The inception report serves as a guiding framework for the consultant and YWBOD, ensuring a structured and collaborative approach to the strategic planning exercise.
• -    Based on the above, the Consultant shall prepare and complete the five-year strategy with clear deliverables, key milestones, and direct guidance on implementation to strengthen YWBOD's mission and vision. The plan shall highlight the following element:
• - Executive summary includes concise overview of the strategic plan, highlighting the YWBOD's mission, vision, Theories of Change and the high-level strategic priorities
• - A needs assessment of the Organization including consideration of situation analysis and identification of constraints and opportunities for growth and development. External environment assessment and internal environment assessment of the organization and stakeholders (SWOT analysis).
• - Clear description of the strategic purposes, strategic objectives and proposed programs and project with clear deliverables, indicators and tools that address the constraints and create the needed support systems and incentives. 
• - Estimated cost of the strategic plan 2025-2030, including outcome mapping for monitoring and evaluation, detailed implementation for 2025-2026, and general activities for 2027-2030. 
• - Methodology and tools for evaluating outcomes

The following table illustrates the phases, deliverables, roles and timeline:

 All the deliverables mentioned above can be in Arabic or English except the final version of the strategic plan shall be in English and Arabic. 

All the deliverables are subjected to YWBOD's approval and comments shall be incorporated to the deliverables three days after receiving the comments from the YWBOD.

Method of implementation:

The assignment will kick off with an initial meeting between the consultant and the core staff of YWBOD.  

The organization will assign one of its staff to support the consultant reach to the target groups including the staff, the partners, the related governmental agencies, the donors, etc, while it is the role of the consults to deliver and implement the data collection activities. 

The organization will assign a team of 4-5 staff and experts to review and to approve the strategic plan draft.
Methodology including the time plan and budget, the data collection tools and target participants, the findings and the drafts of the strategic plan documents are subjected to YWBOD's review and approval. 

The consultant can form a team for the delivery of the objectives of the consultancy and this shall be described in the technical offer application, where the names and roles of the team members shall be included, and CVs shall be attached as annexes. 

The consultant is expected to work remotely except in some cases where in-person activities are essentially required. All such activities shall be described in the technical offers and shall be reflected in the financial offer. 

Professional Commitments: 

• The consultant shall use an evidence-based approach and ensure the highest standards of work and timely deliverables at every stage of this assignment. 
• The consultant shall ensure clarity of objectives and process during the consultations, counter check all facts and figures cited, ensure that the content and format of the draft strategic plan meets the high standard for such documents and ensure proper editing and clarity. 
• The consultant shall, at the onset of the planning process, identify all stakeholders having a direct and indirect interest in the strategic plan. Listing people, groups and institutions that influence the work of YWBOD and shall ensure that all stakeholders are able to make inputs into the strategic plan to promote ownership of the plan. 
• All the data and materials collected in this service and all the deliverables are only YWBOD's property; the consultant shall be committed not use, share, disseminate any of such data and documents to others intentionally or unintentionally. YWBOD has the right to take any legal actions in case of preaching this. 
• Participants' privacy, consent and information shall be safe, and no harm principle shall be adhered by the consultant.
• Safeguarding and policies of anti-sexual harassment shall be well understood and fully followed by the consultant during and after the consultancy with whoever related to this consultancy. This includes, but not limited to staff, participants, interns, experts, beneficiaries, partners, donors, etc. 

Qualifications/Competencies/ Experience:

YWBOD is seeking for the services of a professional or a consultancy firm to that shall have the following which is applicable for both individual consultants or those staff proposed by consultancy firms to perform the required tasks: 
 
1-    Based in the government-controlled areas of the South and for firms they shall be registered in the south and have staff and offices in the south.
2-    A bachelor's degree in strategic planning, management, CSOs management, development or related fields. 
3-    Relevant work experience in strategic planning and development and understanding of the context where YWBOD operates. 
4-    Excellent and proven analytical skills,
5-    Excellent organizational and communication skills, ability to prioritize and work with minimum supervision,
6-    Possess knowledge in the general social, economic and political environment that influences the relevant environment in Yemen. 
7-    Understanding of participatory approaches to management and operations,
8-    Good accessibility to the target governorates, 
9-    The ability to use various means and tools of data collection both online and offline.
10-    The ability to prepare technical reports in both Arabic and English.

Remuneration and Method of Payment: 

• The consultant shall quote the costs according to the working hours of the team in addition to any costs may be required for any field/in-person data collection activities. No other costs will be covered by YWBOD except the cost mentioned it the signed contract. So, the applicant's financial offer shall describe the costs of all the activities including developing the data collection tools, implementing the data collection activities, analyzing the data collected, developing and amending the drafts
• The Consultant shall receive 30% of the total cost after delivery and acceptance of the inception report and the detailed methodology, 50% of the total cost after the delivery of the strategic plan draft and 20% after the delivery of the final strategic plan and any other deliverables.
• The payment shall be by cheque or bank transfer 
• Penalty: The consultant is subject to a 20% reduction of the consultant's remaining fees for every month of his/her delay in delivering the agreed deliverables without just and reasonable mutually agreed explanation.

Application timeline and how to apply: 

Interested consultants/firms should submit a concise proposal for how the work will be carried out, describing the methodology and technical approach, time plan, scheduled deliverables, team members, case studies of previous experience of strategic development planning, budget, any concerns or expected risks or recommendations. The proposal shall be attached with a technical and financial offer together with all the supporting documents (CVs), Registration Certificate (for firms), samples of related previous works and any supporting document). 

Applications shall be submitted to: tenders@ywbod.org  with the subject line ‘YWBOD Strategic Planning Consultancy’ by 30th September 2024, while questions and inquiries can be sent to the same email up  to  30th September 2024, with “inquiry about YWBOD Strategic Planning Consultancy” in the subject line.