Job

Job Description

1)     Background

SSWC is a Somali women’s rights organization, founded in Mogadishu in 1992 by a group of Somali women intellectuals and activists. SSWC delivers mixed mandate interventions to advance women and children’s empowerment and wellbeing, including peace, development and humanitarian interventions to create a safe and supportive environment. A trusted NGO embedded in the local context, SSWC plays a lead role in supporting women and children to overcome marginalization, poverty and violence, through strategic, sustained and integrated interventions. SSWC believes collaboration with local and international allies, and engagement with local authorities, is critical for transformative work. SSWC is proudly a women-led and women-centred NGO with a proven track record in achieving sustained impact and is a leading voice advocating for Somali women and children.
The current 2020 to 2024 strategy has come to its end thus SSWC has undertaken an end evaluation of its strategic plan. Consequently, SSWC plans to develop a new strategic plan covering 2025 to 2030. The SSWC would therefore like to engage a reputable consultant/consultancy firm to develop the next strategic plan 2025 – 2030.
2. Scope of Work
The scope and focus of the assignment is to provide technical, strategic and operational support to enable the renewal of SSWC Strategic Plan in line with the changing political, economic, technological, global and social landscape.

3.  Objective of the assignment
The  objective of this assignment is to develop a new strategic plan (2025 – 2030) to advance the SSWC’s sustainability within a changing operating environment. The new strategic plan will build on the successes of the previous plan and the opportunities provided by the existing and future internal and external operational environments. The strategy is anticipated to improve the SSWC’s efficacy in creating a sustainable organization, that works with communities, to attain their role in supporting women and children to overcome marginalization.

Specific Objectives of the assignment.
a)     Facilitate planning workshop to enable staff and stakeholders to reflect on the outcome of the 2019 – 2024 strategic plan review and formulate 2025 to 2030 Strategic plan.
b)     Carryout a desk review of SSWC’s work, analyze the socio-economic and political environment – using Political Economic Analysis (PEA) lens – within which SSWC has been operating during the review period and the overall situation of community development, advocacy, institutional strengthening & sustainability and research & knowledge management.
c)     Facilitate strategic planning and engagement workshop(s) with the board, staff and stakeholders.
d)     Use the generated evidence to design SSWC’s theory of change and design the next round of the SSWC Strategic Plan that will spell out SSWC’s comparative advantage and competitive niche and provide beacons for future community development, advocacy, institutional strengthening & sustainability and research & knowledge management.
e)     Facilitate development of strategy on how to engage generational groups including Generation Z and Alpha
f)      Facilitate development of strategy on how to leverage on technology.
g)     Draft a five-year strategic plan covering the period 2025-2030. This will include:
·       A business model that will support SSWC’s structure and capacity to efficiently and effectively deliver on its mission – assessing the level of human, technical and financial resources SSWC will require for the next strategic period.
·       Detail means of engaging generational group including the generation Z and Alpha
·       Highlight opportunities to leverage technology in strategic focus areas.
·       Development of a robust MEL framework.
h)     Facilitate a validation workshop with SSWC stakeholders for the new strategic plan 2025-2030.

2)    Key deliverables
Expected deliverables of the assignment include:
a)    Inception report outlining the procedures, methods, strategies, and timelines involved in development of the Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030.
b)    A five-year strategic plan covering the period 2025-2030 alongside a theory of change, SWOT/PESTEL analysis, detailed implementation matrix, corresponding implementation budget and an organogram.
c)     A detailed donor map and resource mobilization plan relevant to SSWC.
d)    An operational plan detailing strategy for implementation.
e)    A robust MEL Framework, with clear monitoring, evaluation and learning activities for the strategic period.
f)     A consultancy report including the major activities of the consultancy, highlights of the strategic planning and validation workshops.

3)    Proposed Methodology
The consultant is expected to propose a methodology that effectively results in the expected deliverables as outlined in this Terms of Reference. A participatory approach and critical reflection by the Board, Management, Staff and key stakeholders will make the process meaningful. The following steps are recommended:
a)    Carryout an inception meeting with SSWC management to review the guidelines and prepare an inception report detailing the development of the strategic plan 2025 – 2030.
b)    Development of the data collection tools, workplan and other guidelines for strategic planning process.
c)     Review and analysis of existing documents, including SSWC’s 2019 to 2024 Strategic Plan, key project documents and reports, relevant sector/partner/donor publications, and critical research on SSWC as well as the SSWC 2019-2024 Strategic Plan Review and annual Reports. Thus, gathering insights that will contribute to identifying focus areas and developing strategic objectives and key result areas in addition to key prospects and gaps, national and global priorities concerning SSWC’s work.
d)    Conduct focus group discussions and key informant interviews with SSWC board, management, staff, partners and other key stakeholders to identify the critical strategic areas, issues, opportunities, and shortfalls to address in the new strategic plan.
e)    Develop the first draft of the strategic plan for review by SSWC and stakeholders.
f)     Review and validate the draft strategic plan in liaison with the SSWC Board, management, and stakeholders.
g)    Finalize the strategic plan, including the theory of change, implementation and evaluation framework and budget.

4)    Timelines for the Assignment
The assignment will be carried out between May and June 2025. The duration of the assignment is 25 working days.
7. Supervision
The SSWC Executive Director with assistance of the programme manager will be the liaison person for this work and will provide all documents needed on time and coordinate all the necessary participatory meetings.

8)     Qualifications and Expertise
a)    The lead consultant should hold at a minimum of a Master’s degree either Social Studies, Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, Political Science, Education, Governance, or a related field.
b)    The lead consultant is expected to have at least 5-10 years of professional work and consulting experience in the civil society sector in organizational development, undertaking evaluations and facilitating strategic planning processes for comparative organizations.
c)     Experience with participatory approaches and facilitating strategic planning and organizational development processes in the development field in Kenya and beyond.
d)    Portfolios of similar assignments in Kenya and demonstrated an understanding of this assignment and expected deliverables.
e)    Ability to understand and conceptualize diverse development programmes and demonstrate understanding of community development challenges at grassroots levels.
f)     Broad knowledge of the fundraising landscape (local and international) and faith-based development approaches.
g)    Fluency and exceptional drafting and reporting skills in English and excellent facilitation skills.
9)    Application process
Interested and qualified applicants can send their application documents responding to the terms of reference by 5:00 PM EAT 21st May 2025 to hr@sswc-som.org and copied to rashid@sswc-som.org. The application documents should consist of:
a)    A letter of confirmation of interest.
b)    The Consultant Curriculum Vitae.
c)     A technical proposal (max 10 – 15 pages), comprising the proposed methodology and a detailed work plan.
d)    A financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price in USD.
e)    Contact details of three independent referees /previous clients.
f)     A samples of the consultant’s previous work conducted for one of the referees/previous clients mentioned.