ToR: SACCO Capacity Gap and Needs Assessment

Description of programme locations

SOS Children’s Villages Addis Ababa and Harar programme locations are two of the seven programme locations under SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia and have been operating various interventions primarily focusing on children, young people, families, and communities in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administration as well as Harari and Oromia regions. SOS Children’s Villages Addis Ababa and Harar programme locations currently implement alternative childcare programmes, Family and community development programs, humanitarian actions and advocacy. The assessment will be carried out among selected SACCOs located in Addis Abeba, Adama and Diredawa cities under the green growth project.

Rationale and overall objectives of SACCO capacity gap and needs assessment:

SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia, with funding from the Government of Canada, is implementing the Green Grow Project aimed at increasing decent and sustainable green employment opportunities, particularly for youth and women. The project is designed to align with Ethiopia’s climate-resilient green economy strategy and contribute to gender equality and economic empowerment.

Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) play a key role in promoting financial inclusion and supporting economic development; however, many SACCOs face institutional, managerial, technical, and operational challenges that limit their effectiveness and sustainability. Conducting a capacity gap and needs assessment is necessary to systematically identify existing strengths and critical gaps in governance, financial management, human resources, operational systems, and service delivery. The assessment will generate evidence-based insights to inform targeted capacity-building interventions, strengthen SACCO performance, improve accountability and transparency, and ensure that SACCOs are adequately equipped to contribute effectively to the objectives of the Green Growth Project.

Objectives of the SACCO capacity gap assessment

General Objective:

The main objective of this assignment is to conduct a comprehensive capacity gap assessment of SACCOs to identify institutional, technical, managerial, and operational gaps and recommend appropriate capacity development interventions

Specific Objectives:

• To examine the organizational structures and governance of selected SACCOs
• To assess the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in the physical, human, and operational capacity of SACCOs.
• To examine human resource capacity, skills, and training needs relevant to disadvantaged youth-centered operations.
• To review operational procedures, service delivery processes, and product offerings to ensure they meet the needs of disadvantaged youths.
• To identify capacity gaps and recommend targeted interventions that strengthen SACCOs’ ability to sustainably support and empower disadvantaged youth.

Project outcomes and outputs:

The Green Growth project has the following ultimate outcome, intermediate outcomes, immediate outcomes and outputs.

Ultimate Outcomes: Increased economic participation and resilience of disadvantaged youth within the green economy, especially for young women, in Ethiopia.

Intermediate Outcomes

• 1100 – Improved provision of quality gender-sensitive technical and vocational education, including trainings in green skills, for disadvantaged youth in Ethiopia, Somalia and Rwanda.
• 1200 – Enhanced marketable skills among disadvantaged youth, especially green skills among young women, in Ethiopia.
• 1300 – Increased formal employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for disadvantaged youth, especially for young women in the green economy, in Ethiopia.

Immediate Outcomes:

• 1110 – Enhanced capacity of TVET institutions to provide gender-s
• 1120 – Enhanced capacity of TVET instructors to provide gender-sensitive and market-relevant education, especially in green and emerging skills.
• 1210 – Improved access to market-sensitive skills training among disadvantaged youth, especially young women.
• 1220 – Improved proficiency in employability skills among disadvantaged youth, especially young women.
• 1310 – Improved access to self-employment opportunities, especially for disadvantaged young women, in the green economy.
• 1320 – Improved access to waged employment, especially in the green economy, for disadvantaged youth.
• 1330 – Enhanced capacity of labour market actors and financial institutions/associations to support the economic participation of disadvantaged youth.

Outputs under immediate outcomes:

• 1111 – Revised TVET curricula that include the teaching of green skills to youth are developed.
• 1112 – Partnerships with the private sector created to ensure the provision of practical internships to TVET students.
• 1113 – Technical and material support provided to TVET institutions to facilitate teaching of new green and emerging skills in an inclusive environment
• 1121 – Training provided to TVET instructors on the revised TVET curricula focused on green skills
• 1122 – Training on inclusive teaching strategies provided to TVET instructors and management
• 1123 – Training provided to TVET instructors on work-readiness skills
• 1211 – Financial support provided to support the enrolment of disadvantaged youth in technical and vocational education, especially in green fields
• 1212 – Entrepreneurship training provided to disadvantaged youth
• 1221 – Trainings on employability skills provided to disadvantaged youth. (Includes digital literacy skills, soft skills, financial literacy, etc.)
• 1222 – Career guidance provided to disadvantaged youth (includes exposure to the workplace, job fairs, field trips to businesses, mentorship, etc.)
• 1311 – Business Development Services (Entrepreneurship coaching) provided to disadvantaged youth
• 1312 – Financial and material support provided to young entrepreneurs
• 1321 – Job and internship placement support provided to disadvantaged youth
• 1331 – Material and technical support provided to SACCOs/VSLAs and finance institutions to improve their capacity to provide financial support to disadvantaged youth.
• 1332 – Dialogues facilitated between stakeholders on the topic of youth employability and the green economy

Major assessment questions:

The commissioned consultant is expected to develop relevant and tailored SACCO capacity and needs assessment questions. In doing so, the consultant should closely refer to the project document, log frame, and performance measurement framework indicators, which will guide the development of assessment questions and data collection tools. The SACCO capacity and needs assessment questions shall be presented during the inception report presentation. SOS CVE will provide the project document, log frame, and performance measurement framework to the selected consultancy firm.

Scope of Work:

Geographically, the assessment is limited to selected SACCOs in Harar (Dire Dawa) and the Addis Ababa program locations (Addis Ababa and Adama). Specifically, the assessment will cover one SACCO in each of these cities: Addis Ababa, Adama, and Dire Dawa.

The assessment will focus on the following key areas:

• Examine organizational structures and governance
• Assess strengths, weaknesses, and capacity gaps
• Financial management and operational systems assessment
• Evaluate service delivery, member engagement and operational effectiveness
• Identify capacity gaps affecting performance and youth self-sufficiency
• Propose targeted strategies and solutions

The Project has the following direct participants/beneficiaries.

5. Methodology:

The consultancy firm to be recruited is expected to develop appropriate and standard quantitative and qualitative methodologies that can generate the highest quality and most credible evidence. The commissioned consultant should use a mixed method approaches (quantitative and qualitative methods) to answer the SACCOs capacity gap and needs assessment. The consultant should also clearly explain which questions will be answered using which methods.

5.1 Sampling

The consultant is required to propose statistically sound sampling strategies to ensure representativeness. He/she is required to clearly state the sample size and the acceptable margin of error. The consultant will develop a detailed data analysis plan, outlining the statistical methods to be used for the quantitative data and the thematic analysis approach for the qualitative data. All data collection activities should be conducted following the highest ethical standards, ensuring informed consent, confidentiality, and the safety of all participants.

Work Plan and Expected Deliverables:

Work plan/timetable

The SACCO capacity gap and needs assessment is expected to be completed within 30 days of signing the contractual agreement. The consultant is required to develop a detailed work plan based on the following table

Deliverables

The commissioned external consultant is required to deliver the assessment findings within 30 days of contract signing. Based on the approved work plan, the MEAL departments of SOS Children’s Villages Addis Ababa and Harar program locations, together with the National Office MEAL and Green Growth Project teams, expect the following deliverables:

• An inception report of 10 pages outlining the assessment design, methodology, assessment tools, and detailed work plan.
• Draft assessment report.
• The consultant is expected to present the assessment findings (both draft and final) organized by intervention areas and selected SACCOs.
• The consultant is expected to present the findings during the validation workshop.
• The final assessment findings, including an executive summary and the data collection tools, should be submitted in both electronic (soft copy) and hardcopy formats.
• Raw data, which has been cleaned (both qualitative and quantitative, including original field notes for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, and recorded audio material), should be submitted with the report. SOS CVE will have sole ownership of all final data, and any findings shall only be shared or reproduced with the permission of SOS Children’s Village in Ethiopia.

Report criteria

The reporting criteria for the assessment shall align with the SOS Children’s Villages Results Based Management (RBM) tool kit and should be shared with the selected consultancy firm, along with guidance on the data review process and requirements for preparing the inception report.

The reporting criteria for the assessment shall align with the SOS Children’s Villages Results-Based Management (RBM) toolkit and will be shared with the selected consultancy firm, along with guidance on the data review process and requirements for preparing the inception report.

Child Safeguarding and ethical issues

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring that all research, evaluation and data collection processes (i.e. evidence-generating activities) undertaken by SOS Children’s Villages and its partners are ethical and respect child safeguarding policy and procedure.

The consultant must respect the rights, dignity and protection of children and other vulnerable population groups and should ensure special protection for children and other vulnerable groups during any data-generating activities to minimize any potential risks. Any research, evaluation and data collection SOS Children’s Villages is directly carried out or is involved in as a partner.

Ethical practices need to be ensured in the following circumstances:

• Any assessment, research, baseline, midterm or final evaluations and data collection SOS Children’s Villages has commissioned for ethical oversight of these processes.
• Any research, evaluation and data collection carried out by researchers/consultants on SOS Children’s Villages programmes and participants.

Hence, the Green Growth Project Coordinator, MEAL Coordinator, and the respective Location Project Coordinators and MEAL Coordinators in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, and Adama will ensure that all researchers, evaluators, and data collectors receive awareness training on, sign, and adhere to SOS Children’s Villages’ core policies.

Obtaining consent from research participants is central to the research relationship and signals respect for the research participant’s dignity, their capability to express their views and their right to have these heard in matters that affect them. Informed consent is an explicit agreement which requires participants to be informed about and understand the research/assessment. This must be given voluntarily and be renegotiable, so that participants may withdraw at any stage of the research process.

Logistical arrangements

The awarded consultant shall show feasible logistical arrangements for the assignment as part of the technical proposal. National or location-level staff (SOSCV) will be available to help organize the interviews including contacting SOSCV, announcing and local preparation of evaluation, and linking to community duty bearers and national authorities if required.

Duration of the contract and terms of payment

Payment will be made only upon SOS Children’s Villages’ acceptance of the work performed in accordance with the above-described deliverables. Financial proposals should include proposed stage payments. Payment will be affected by bank transfer in the currency of birr.

Funding and Payment: The consultant will be paid by SOS Children’s Villages as follows:

• 30% on the submission and approval of the inception report.
• 30% on completion of the draft report.
• 40% on completion of the final report.

Duration of contract: the contract is effective from the moment it was signed until the acceptance of work by the SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia management team.

Notice of delay

Shall the successful bidder encounter a delay in the performance of the contract which may be excusable under unavoidable circumstances; the contractor shall notify SOS Children’s Villages in writing about the causes of any such delays within one (1) week from the beginning of the delay.

After receipt of the Contractor’s notice of delay, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia shall analyze the facts and extent of the delay and extend the time for performance when in its judgment the facts justify such an extension.

Copyright and other proprietary rights

SOS Children’s Villages shall be entitled to all intellectual property and other proprietary rights including, but not limited to, copyrights, and trademarks, with regard to products, processes, inventions, ideas, know-how, or documents and other materials which the Contractor has developed for SOS Children’s Villages under the Contract and which bear a direct relation to or are produced or prepared or collected in consequence of or during the course of, the performance of the Contract. The Contractor acknowledges and agrees that such products, documents, and other materials constitute works made for hire for SOS Children’s Villages.

All materials: interviews, reports, recommendations, and all other data compiled by or received by the Contractor under the Contract shall be the property of SOS Children’s Villages and shall be treated as confidential and shall be delivered only to SOS Children’s Villages authorized officials on completion of work under the Contract. The external consultant is obliged to hand over all raw data collected during the terminal evaluation to SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia.

Termination

The termination of the service agreement for the assignment will be in accordance with the contractual agreement to be included at the formal agreement’s actual signing.

Rights of SOS Children’s Villages

SOS-CVE has the right to cancel the service contract if the consultant cannot comply with any standards articulated in the service agreement. SOS-CVE has the right to hold the terminal evaluation result as its own sole property.

Qualification of the researcher / research team

• The applicant consultant shall have at least a master’s degree in relevant fields of study such Cooperatives, Business Management, Education, Sociology, Social Work, development studies, Economics, Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation and other related fields per the required assignment
• In-depth knowledge of green economy sectors, cooperative systems, and MFI operations in Ethiopia.
• At least 5 years’ work experience & proven competency in institutional monitoring and evaluation, including SACCO/MFIs assessments or organizational/program evaluation (baseline, midterm, and final evaluations). The incumbent shall attach at least one sample relevant assessment report on SACCO/MFI related projects produced by the candidate on a similar topic.
• Proven experience in conducting institutional capacity assessments for SACCOs and/or MFIs, or related sector reviews.
• A good understanding of child/youth rights/safeguarding & other issues affecting vulnerable children in the Ethiopian context.
• Demonstrated knowledge and practical experience in green skills development, the green economy, or sustainable SACCO approaches for disadvantaged youth.
• Prior experience conducting capacity gap assessments, organizational analyses, or institutional strengthening assignments for SACCO or MFIs
• Strong experience on national and regional SACCO/Cooperatives policies, strategies, and frameworks.
• Strong skills in coordination, good facilitation, organizational, and interpersonal skills
• Strong skills in coordinating teamwork
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills in assessing SACCOs and MFIs.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English.
• Ability to transfer complex concepts and ideas into practical and simple language.
• Experience in organizing research processes with SOS Children’s Villages or similar child focused organizations.
• Legally registered firms with renewed license, VAT registration and TIN number