Country Analysis
Terms of Reference
Background: Making All Voices Count (MAVC) is a
global fund that supports innovation, scaling-up, and research to deepen
existing innovations and help harness new technologies to enable citizen
engagement and government responsiveness.
MAVC is implemented by a consortium consisting of Hivos (lead
organization); the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Ushahidi. MAVC is
funded by USAID, DFID, Omidyar Network, and SIDA.
MAVC was developed to help address the immense gap between citizens
and the state. The gap is widened by growing social inequality within societies
and limited possibilities for citizen feedback A prerequisite for bridging the
gap between citizens and government and improving governments’ responsiveness
is to engage citizens, and new technology offers a way to achieve this. MAVC
will support such innovative solutions and scale up successful ventures.
Evidence-based research will be a key element, given the rapidly evolving
nature of interventions in this relatively new field. As a ‘grand challenge for
development’ MAVC also aims to catalyze global action; engage the general
public and find solutions to the underlying problems surrounding the
citizen-government relationship.
This
partnership will seek inclusive ways to empower all citizens to voice their
concerns and demands, and to improve governments’ responsiveness and
accountability to those citizens. In order to build trusting relationships
between citizens and government, MAVC will preferably aim to fund collaborative
efforts.
.
MAVC focuses on four areas:
- Backing innovative ideas and technology solutions
- Building an evidence base on what works and why
- Scaling up successful initiatives and responses
- Catalyzing global attention and action around these issues
Aim:
The purpose of
this consultancy is to conduct a high quality country analysis to come up with
a coherent set of strategic options for programming including clear
recommendations of intervention, sectors, regions, and champions[1]
to work with.
This shall be
done by undertaking the following activities:
- Identify and map stakeholders, champions, programmes and resources in the country in the field of citizen engagement, government responsiveness, research and technology.
- Carry out an analysis of primary challenges & opportunities in advancing citizen engagement and government responsiveness
Specific Tasks
1. Programming
Recommendations:
The objective of the country analysis is to provide programming
recommendations for the MAVC consortium. The recommendations shall be derived from
stakeholder mapping and analysis carried out by the consultant (see below).
The programming recommendations shall inform the development of strategy
and programmatic options for programming
in the country. These will be based on the following sections, as well as additional
considerations e.g. donor priorities as laid out in the key documents
provided. The recommendations should be
designed to focus citizen engagement and Government response in light of the
enablers/ barriers and champions identified.
Recommendations shall be prioritized in order of importance and
should include the following components:
- Ranking of identified Government individuals and ministries that consortium should prioritize working with based on analysis of quality and capacity of government ‘champions’
- Shortlist of organizations to work with in order to advance citizen engagement and Government response
- Program recommendations on which sector and regions the program should focus on.
2. Identify and
map stakeholders, champions and resources in the country
The country mapping will identify and map institutions and
individuals working to promote citizen engagement & Government response,
research and technology in the country.
The analysis
will include:
a) Analysis
of Legal and policy framework and Government champions
The consultant
shall analyze the current legal and policy framework in the country as a means
of deriving the barriers preventing and opportunities supporting the successful
adoption and scaling up of citizen engagement initiatives in the country[2].
This shall
include:
- Listing of public officials or Government departments and institutions that are at the forefront of advancing work in promoting citizen engagement initiatives in the country.
- Summary of primary legal and policy problems and opportunities in the context of supporting citizen voice and government responsiveness
- Identification of opportunities for interventions, including specific laws and champions for which opportunities for citizen engagement and government responsiveness exist.
b) Mapping of
nongovernmental stakeholders:
The consultant
shall identify and map nongovernmental organizations working in this area, and
the donor organizations that support them. The analysis shall:-
- Provide an overview of key organizations engaged in promoting citizen engagement and government responsiveness in the country
- Provide an overview of the key programs including summary of main objective, scale, regional focus and topic
- Identify the key funding agencies in this field
- Identify and map the main technology and media platforms used to help citizens and leaders improve transparency, and the agencies supporting these initiatives.
c) Mapping of Innovative Communication and Information
Technology Initiatives landscape:
- Listing of organizations including technology hubs, labs, academic institutions etc. that are key to technological innovation within the scope of the program
- Listing of women working in technology organizations and initiatives
- Mapping of individuals or organizations that are working to advance technology innovation in the country
- Mapping of individuals or organizations that are working with technology innovation for social change, citizen engagement and/or government responsiveness.
d) Mapping of the
Research landscape:
- Identification and mapping of key research institutes, think tanks, researchers or NGOs with in-house research capacity in the fields of citizen engagement & voice, accountability, responsiveness and technology
- Identification of topics the above work on; who they work with; information on their last five projects; and details on whether they work on policy processes in the country (at national or sub-national levels).
Methodology:
The report
developed through this consultancy will include the following (at a minimum/
not an exhaustive list)
Background review [4 days]
Desk review of key documents and background materials
Field work stage [10 days]
Carrying out of field research including travel,
gathering and review of documents; conducting interviews with key informants
including Government, civil society, think-tanks and research institutions
donor agencies and other relevant stakeholders.
- Development of a draft report: Based on the literature review and the field work, the consultant will develop a draft report which will receive comments from consortium members.
- Final Report: The revised publication, taking into account all comments and feedback is to be submitted to Hivos. This shall be presented to Hivos in electronic format in MS Word and Adobe PDF within 2 days of presentation of feedback to consultant.
Deliverables
- Draft report that is expected to be fully proof-read. Consortium members will provide comments and feedback on the draft publication.
- Summary final report (5 pages maximum)
- Final report: The detailed report must include all of the components outlined above, in the order and format that consultant finds most useful for presenting findings in a logical and succinct manner. Appendices should include the scope for work for the evaluation, a list of people interviewed, complete description of methodology used for the evaluations, and questionnaires etc. The report shall be no more than 30 pages in length (excluding appendices and project summary).
Application Process
Interested
applicants are requested to submit their applications via email to s.tatat@hivos.or.id before 23rd
November 2013,
Applicants should submit the following:
- Professional Resume (should include all resumes of all consultants engaged in the program)
- Cover/Motivation Letter (maximum 2 pages) explaining why you think you are most suitable for the work
- Short work-plan providing a brief methodology on how you would approach and conduct the work.
About the Consortium:
Hivos has over
40 years of experience of worldwide civil society building, citizen agency programming
and fund management. Hivos works with a large variety of civil society organizations
operating at local and national levels and has vast expertise in promoting gender
equity and strategic use of ICT and media. For more information, visit www.hivos.org
Ushahidi is internationally acclaimed for its role in driving the
rapid spread of transparency and accountability technology and innovation hubs.
As a founder and coordinator of the Kenyan i-Hub, the Kenyan m:lab and the 16
African tech hubs coming together under its offshoot Afrilabs, Ushahidi finds
itself at the centre of Africa’s fast
developing technology ecosystem. For more information, visit www.ushahidi.com
IDS is renowned for its prominent role as a knowledge institute and
leading role as research contributor to the global body of knowledge and
evidence base on citizen agency, citizen-government interaction and pro-poor
governance. For more information, visit www.ids.ac.uk.
List of Key
Documents
- Ushahidi Innovation Report
- DfID, USAID, SIDA , Hivos country analysis & websites
- Hivos planning documents
[1] We define “champions” as public officials or
Government departments and institutions at the forefront of advancing work in
promoting citizen engagement initiatives in the country.
[2]
These could include local-level legislative and administrative frameworks and
national level legal frameworks like
Constitutional Provisions; Local
Government laws ; Administrative procedure-related legislation; Freedom of Information laws; and other relevant legislation that
promotes/ hinders citizen engagement
e.g. Electoral laws
