ToR: Consultancy Service for Training & Strategy Development Advocacy & Policy Engagement for System Change – Hibret Alliance

Background & Context

The Hibret Alliance is a strategic partnership of six organizations working across four regions of Ethiopia: Sidama, Oromia, Central Ethiopia, and South Ethiopia. Member organizations include Bushulo Mother, Newborn and Child Health Specialty Center (BMNCHSC); the Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission Branch Offices of Meki and Hawassa (ECC‑SDCBOM & ECC‑SDCOHA); HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation; SOS Children’s Villages; and Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia (SCORE). To enhance the effectiveness of its interventions and influence policy reforms, the alliance seeks to engage a qualified consultant to facilitate training, develop strategic frameworks, and support advocacy and policy engagement initiatives.

Rationale for Training on Advocacy and Policy Engagement for System Change

Currently, the Alliance operates without a unified advocacy framework. Advocacy efforts remain project‑based, organization‑specific, and focused on service delivery or awareness creation. Deep‑rooted systemic challenges[1] – inequality, vulnerability, and policy gaps – remain unaddressed. To close this gap, the Alliance seeks an external consultant/facilitator to deliver a 4‑day training and to produce a Hibret Alliance Advocacy Policy Framework and a 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy based on input gathered from participants during the training.

Objectives

General Objective

To strengthen the capacity of up to 20 participants comprising Program Managers and Advocacy Focal Persons from six member organizations, by equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and a completed Advocacy Policy Framework and develop a 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy to engage in policy processes and achieve system‑level change collectively.

Specific Objectives

By the end of the engagement, participants will be able to:

• Understand system change advocacy – Differentiate project‑based on systemic advocacy, including power analysis, policy windows, and root‑cause thinking.
• Apply a shared advocacy framework – Identify systemic problems, map stakeholders, and select influence tactics using a step‑by‑step framework.
• Provide substantive input into a joint strategy – Contributing policy issues, stakeholder maps, draft messages, and action ideas that the consultant will synthesize into a 24‑month advocacy strategy with a theory of change, decision‑maker targets, key messages, and an action plan.

Scope of Work

The external consultant to be recruited will consider the following scope of preparing the intended training.

Pre‑training (remote)

• Review existing advocacy materials from member organizations.
• Conduct brief virtual pre‑consultations (≤30 min per organization) to understand their systemic policy issues.
• Develop a political sensitivity note for facilitators, addressing safe advocacy entry points in constrained civic spaces.
• Prepare a pre‑training reading package (max 15 pages) for participants.

Training Delivery (4 days, in‑person)

Deliver an interactive, practice‑based training course:

Day 1 – Conceptual Foundation

• Advocacy vs. lobbying vs. awareness
• System changes principles (root causes, power, feedback loops)
• Policy engagement landscape (executive, legislative, budget, administrative)
• Case studies of successful system change advocacy in Ethiopia.

Day 2 – Hibret Alliance Advocacy Framework

• Step 1: Shared systemic problem identification
• Step 2: Policy root cause analysis (problem tree → policy gap)
• Step 3: Power & stakeholder mapping (allies, opponents, decision‑makers, influencers)
• Step 4: SMART advocacy goal & sub‑objectives
• Step 5: Influence tactics (lobbying, media, coalition, legal, budget tracking)

Days 3–4 – Strategy Development Workshop
Participants work in mixed-member groups to generate raw input for the consultant, including:

1. Situational analysis (political, social, economic context from each region)
2. Proposed theory of change elements
3. Suggested decision‑maker targets & policy moments (budget cycle, parliamentary sessions)
4. Draft key messages (tailored to different audiences)
5. Proposed action plan components (timeline, roles, resources)
6. Draft MEL indicators for advocacy

Post‑training (remote follow‑up)

 

• Within 5 working days after training: Consultant produces a Draft Advocacy Policy Framework and Draft 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy (Word + PDF).
• Facilitate two virtual task force sessions (3 hours total) within 3 weeks after training to review and provide feedback on the draft documents.
• Consultant revises the Advocacy Policy Framework and 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy based on task force feedback, including a dedicated MEL section (baseline, milestones, learning loops).
• Provide a simple MEL template for advocacy (outcome mapping, influence indicators, learning loops).
• Submit a final training report including the completed, finalized Advocacy Policy Framework and 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy as annexed documents.

Methodology

The training will be highly participatory and learner-centered, employing a mix of:

• Expert Input Sessions: Short, focused presentations to introduce key concepts.
• Facilitated Plenary Discussions: To explore nuances and share experiences.
• Case Study-Based Group Work
• Advocacy framework and strategy development

Work Plan & Deliverables

Work Plan

The total level of effort for this assignment is two weeks including pre-training week, during training and post-training activities. Number of durations allocated for this training is four (4) days, expected to happen from July 20 to 23, 2026. The consultant is expected to submit clear timetable for this task using the following table.

Activities	Dates	Time frame	Location

Expected Deliverables

 

#	Deliverable	Format	Deadline
1	Pre‑training adaptation report + political sensitivity note	PDF	1 week before training
2	Training delivery (4 days, in‑person)	In‑person facilitation	As scheduled
3	Hibret Alliance Advocacy Policy Framework (visual diagram + step‑by‑step guide) – produced by consultant based on participant input	PDF + editable format	5 working days post‑training
4	Draft 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy – produced by consultant based on participant input	Word + PDF	Last day of training
5	Advocacy toolkit handout (templates: power mapping, message box, action planning)	PDF	Last day of training
6	Finalized 24‑Month Joint Advocacy Strategy – revised by consultant based on virtual task force feedback	Word + PDF	3 weeks post‑training
7	Final training report + final Advocacy Policy Framework & final 24‑Month Strategy (as separate annexed documents) – ready for board approval and implementation)	PDF	4 weeks post‑training

 

Ownership of deliverables:

All final deliverables shall be owned by the Hibret Alliance and its member organizations. The consultant may retain the right to use anonymized case studies.

1. Target Participants

• Up to 20 participants comprising Program Managers, Advocacy Focal Persons, and M&E Experts from six member organizations.
  1. Training Location
• The training will be conducted in Arbaminch, Ethiopia.

Child Safeguarding and ethical issues

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring that all research, training, 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, staffs and partners; and should ensure special protection for children and other vulnerable groups during any data-generating activities to minimize any potential risks. Any research, training, 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 research, baseline, midterm, final evaluations, training and data collection SOS Children’s Villages has commissioned for ethical oversight of these processes.
• Any research, evaluation, training and data collection carried out by researchers/trainers/consultants on SOS Children’s Villages programmes and participants.

Hence, relevant Alliance coordinator and MEAL coordinator (and team leader of Think Tank team) in Hawassa will ensure that any researchers, evaluators, trainers and data collectors should receive awareness training on, sign and adhere to SOS Children’s Villages core policies:

Obtaining consent from research/ training participant 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/training. This must be given voluntarily and be renegotiable, so that participants may withdraw at any stage of the research process.

Logistical Arrangements

The Hibret Alliance is responsible for providing:

• Providing technical comments and feedback on the outputs/deliverables of the assignment in a timely manner.
• Providing logistical support for convening the training, including securing a venue, inviting participants, and arranging for necessary equipment.
• Providing general oversight and a single point of contact to facilitate the smooth roll-out of the consultancy.
• Handling all logistical requirements for the consultant(s) if applicable, such as transportation and accommodation arrangements, as agreed upon in the contract.
• Making payment in installments as agreed upon in the contract, based on successful completion and acceptance of deliverables.

Duration of the contract and terms of payment

Payment will be made only upon SOS Children’s Villages’/Hibret Alliance’ 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/lead trainer will be paid by SOS Children’s Villages as follows:

• 40% on the submission and approval of the inception report and training materials.
• 60% on completion of the final Training Package and 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 Ethiopia 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/Hibret Alliance 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/Hibret Alliance 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/Hibret Alliance 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 in Ethiopia, Hawassa Programme/Hibret Alliance.

All materials: interviews, reports, training materials, and all other data compiled by or received by the Contractor under the Contract shall be the property of SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia/Hibret Alliance and shall be treated as confidential and shall be delivered only to SOS Children’s Villages/Hibret Alliance 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.

Signing of the contract

The signing of the contract will follow the awarding of the assignment. It is tentatively scheduled for beginning of July 2026.

Rights of SOS Children’s Villages

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

Consultant Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of experience in advocacy capacity building, with at least 3 years focused on system change or policy influence.
• Demonstrated experience producing written advocacy strategies and policy frameworks for multi‑stakeholder alliances.
• Experience designing MEL for advocacy (outcome mapping, most significant change, influence indicators).
• Published or internal case studies of successful advocacy strategy from Ethiopia/East Africa.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate multi‑organization strategy development and synthesize input into coherent written documents.
• Strong understanding of political economy and power analysis in constrained civic spaces.
• Excellent facilitation and professional writing skills in English.