TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR): Consultancy Service – Facilitator for the Innovate for Democracy Idea Marathon.

Location:  Ethiopia

Organization: Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations for Elections (CECOE)

Deadline: Jul 3, 2026

Job Description

About CECOE

CECOE is a non-profit, non-governmental civil society organisation comprising over 190 member organisations. CECOE was licensed by the F.D.R.E. Authority for Civil Society Organisations (ACSO) in 2019 with registration number 4748 under the Civil Society Organisations Proclamation 1113/2019, to enhance and coordinate the role of Ethiopian CSOs in election observation, voter education, preventing electoral conflicts, and providing capacity building and support for its member organisations.    CECOE is a member of the East and Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN), African Election Observers Network (AfEONet), and a member of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM), which connects regional networks and individual monitoring organisations across more than 88 countries worldwide.

Since its establishment, CECOE has conducted observation missions for various electoral events. These missions include the Sidama referendum, the 6th General Election, the South West Peoples Region referendum, the South Ethiopia Region referendum, the Wolaita Sodo referendum rerun, the outstanding and re-elections in Benishangul Gumuz, Afar, Somali, and Meskan and Mareko and the 7th General Election. For these missions, CECOE has deployed over 6,000 observers.

1. Background 

Ethiopia’s transition toward an inclusive and resilient democracy faces a complex mix of socio-political challenges. Citizen participation in political processes remains low, partly because of insufficient civic education, limited access to reliable information, and low trust in institutions. Persistent gender inequality, under-representation of women in local governance, and localised resource-based or identity-based conflicts further complicate sustainable democratic engagement.

To address these challenges, CECOE, in consortium with Ethiopian Women Rights Advocates (EWRA) and Bright Future, is implementing a 3 year project titled Promoting Democracy, Civic Engagement, and Human Rights in Ethiopia through Strengthening Civic Actors, funded by Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD).

A central pillar of the project is the establishment of six Biqu Zega Hubs, or Competent Citizen Hubs, in strategic locations across Ethiopia. These hubs are physical and programmatic community spaces where CSOs, youth, students, media professionals, universities, and community representatives can access information, convene dialogue, test civic education ideas, and develop locally relevant initiatives. Because civic participation barriers vary by region, age group, media environment, and local context, the project uses the hubs to generate locally owned and practical civic education solutions.

CECOE will organise a three-day Innovate for Democracy Idea Marathon to strengthen the capacity of selected hub CSOs in civic education, human rights, organisational development, proposal design, and innovative project development. The marathon will use design-thinking methods to help participants identify local participation challenges, generate ideas, prepare concept notes, prototype solutions, and pitch practical civic education initiatives for possible small-grant support.

2. Objectives
3. General Objective

To guide selected Biqu Zega Hub CSOs representatives to co-create, design, and pitch practical civic education project concepts that respond to localised democratic participation challenges.

2.  Specific objectives

The specific objectives are:

• To adapt CECOE’s existing civic education manual into contextualised training materials and facilitation tools based on adult-learning and design-thinking principles.
• To equip participants with practical project proposal and concept note writing skills so they can submit competitive small-grant applications.
• To guide participants through problem definition, ideation, designing, action planning, pitch preparation, and completion of viable concept notes for the grant competition.

3. Participant profile and expected outputs 

The training will bring together 28 selected representatives from the Biqu Zega Hubs, including regional youth, local CSO leaders, high school and university students, media professionals, and other civic actors. CECOE will confirm the final participant list and should ensure appropriate representation by hub, region, gender, youth status, organisation type, and role in follow-up implementation.

By the end of the marathon and mentoring period, each participating hub team or selected group should produce a problem statement, idea canvas, draft concept note, simple work plan, indicative budget, risk and inclusion checklist, and pitch presentation. CECOE should confirm before publication whether the final expected number of ideas is five, six, or another number.

4. Scope of Work

The consultant will execute the assignment over a total of 15 working days, divided into three distinct phases:

1. Phase 1: Preparation

• Hold an inception meeting with the CECOE program team to confirm objectives, participant profile, agenda structure, deliverables, review process, safeguarding considerations, and timeline.
• Review CECOE’s existing civic education manuals and identify the core concepts, exercises, and tools to be adapted for the idea marathon.
• Adapt and design context-specific training materials, facilitation notes, group exercises, participant handouts, and templates tailored to regional hub participants.
• Prepare a slide deck summarising core civic education concepts adapted from CECOE’s civic education manual.
• Develop a detailed three-day marathon agenda, clearly marking sessions facilitated by the consultant and sessions integrated by CECOE.
• Create workshop templates, including problem tree, stakeholder map, idea canvas, simplified concept note, workplan, basic budget estimate, risk and inclusion checklist, and pitch deck template.
• Design pre- and post-training assessment tools and participant feedback forms.

2. Phase 2: Active Facilitation of the “Innovate for Democracy” Marathon 

• Facilitate three-day Innovate for Democracy Idea Marathon training in Addis Ababa for 28 selected participants.
• Use participatory design-thinking methods to guide participants through empathise, define, ideate, prototype, pitch, feedback, and refinement stages.
• Assist participants in identifying regional civic and human rights challenges and translate them into clear problem statements for project proposals.
• Guide participants to develop project concepts, implementation steps, stakeholder engagement approaches, simple budgets, monitoring indicators, and pitch messages.
• Document daily reflections, group outputs, pitch results, and key lessons for CECOE.

3. Phase 3: Refining, Technical Mentoring & Reporting 

• Provide follow-up mentoring and technical grant-writing guidance to hub teams to refine their draft concept notes, workplans, budgets, and pitch materials.
• Support hub teams to incorporate constructive feedback from the pitch session and prepare final submissions for the small-grant competition.
• Prepare a comprehensive final consultancy report capturing the methodology, participant profile, developed project ideas, assessment results, participant feedback, lessons learned, and recommendations for incubation and follow-up support.

5. Methodology

The consultant is expected to apply a participatory, inclusive, and adult-learning-centred approach tailored to the context of Ethiopia. The methodology should emphasise practical application, experience sharing, and skills development.

Key methodological approaches should include:

• Interactive presentations and guided discussions
• Group work and peer learning exercises
• Case studies based on real-life civic engagement scenarios
• Role plays and simulations to practice response skills
• Experience sharing and reflection sessions
• Pre- and post-training assessments to measure knowledge gain
• The training should integrate reality on the ground and rights-based approaches, ensuring sensitivity to gender, culture, and conflict-affected contexts.

6. Key Deliverables

7. Required Qualifications and Experience

• Advanced degree in civic education, law, human rights, political science, development studies, design thinking, social sciences, or another closely related field.
• Proven experience designing and implementing civic education programs, modules, training materials, or facilitation tools.
• At least five years of professional experience in workshop facilitation, human-centred design, design thinking, or participatory learning processes.
• Demonstrated experience supporting CSOs, youth groups, or community actors to move from idea to concept note, work plan, budget, pitch, and small-grant application.
• Demonstrated experience in grant writing, project proposal development, or capacity-building training in proposal formulation for civil society organisations.
• Strong familiarity with Ethiopia’s civil society, civic engagement, human rights, youth participation, media, and local governance landscape.
• Excellent communication, visual facilitation, time management, and collaborative leadership skills.
• Strong ability to manage high-energy group work, time-bound ideation, pitch preparation, and constructive feedback.
• Excellent written and verbal proposal development, editing, concept note, and basic budget review skills.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Amharic; knowledge of other Ethiopian local languages is an asset where it supports hub participants and regional examples.
• Proven ability to foster creative, inclusive, and conflict-sensitive collaborative environments.

8. Payment Schedule

9. Application Process

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

• technical proposal explaining understanding of the assignment, methodology, approach, and workplan;
• financial proposal, showing professional fees and any reimbursable costs separately;
• A business license that has been renewed, along with a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and a VAT registration certificate.
• CV of the consultant or CVs of all proposed team members;
• at least two references from similar assignments;

10. Contractual Conditions

• Ownership: All final materials, tools, templates, reports, participant outputs, and deliverables produced under the assignment shall belong to CECOE unless otherwise agreed in writing.
• Confidentiality and data protection: The consultant shall keep project information, participant data, proposal drafts, and sensitive information confidential and use such information only for this assignment.
• Safeguarding and do-no-harm: The consultant shall comply with CECOE safeguarding requirements and immediately report any safeguarding concern through the agreed CECOE channel.
• Conflict of interest: Applicants must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before contract award and throughout implementation.
• Neutrality and professional conduct: The consultant shall maintain political neutrality, respect participants, and avoid facilitation methods or language that may inflame tensions or exclude participants.
• Proposal review safeguards: If the consultant provides technical support and also participates in proposal review, CECOE shall define safeguards to preserve impartiality.

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