South Asia Grant Program (SAGP)
                                                                                        Call for Proposal
                                             Organizational Capacity Strengthening Activities for partners in Nepal

About The Asia Foundation

The Asia Foundation (the Foundation) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance, law, and civil society; women's empowerment; economic reform and development; and international relations. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research.

Background 

The South Asia Grant Program (SAGP) provides small and strategic grants to eligible Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), NGOs, and think tanks in five South Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. These five South Asian countries have unique political contexts, governance challenges, and civil society operating environments. While governance challenges in the areas of the rule of law, transparency and accountability, and civil society participation exist in all of them, the intensity of the problem varies in each. The SAGF has a longer-term goal of creating a free and open South Asia region by protecting and promoting a vibrant and constructive space for civil society to engage with the governments of the region and champion good governance.

South Asia Grant Program (SAGP) in Nepal conducted an organizational capacity assessment of all Nepal-based partners, to enable them to define a capacity improvement plan. The Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) was administered across eight domains; Governance and Legal structure, Financial Management, and internal control systems, Administration and Procurement Systems, Human Resources systems, Program Management, Project performance management, Organizational Management, and sustainability, Technical topics in Governance. Following the completion of OCA, SAGP has identified areas that required strengthening for these organizations including a few key areas where the partners required capacity building training for capacity enhancement. The organizational capacity-building plan has identified the areas of project monitoring and evaluation, related guidance and policy development/revision, profession writing, service delivery standard and quality assurance, and project financial management and internal control system strengthening as some of the key areas where the program partners required capacity enhancement support through short term training.

About the project 

In this recognition, The Asia Foundation’s (The Foundation) South Asian Grant Program (SAGP) is seeking support from an organization to design, manage, and implement capacity-building initiatives for all its partners based in Nepal. The partner organization/Consultant will design the training, develop required training materials, and deliver training for partners based on the OCA findings. Although the training materials intend to cater to fulfill the capacity needs of current organizations, they will also be used to later replicate among other partners in the future. The strategy will include training design, development of training materials, training plans, and conducting training. The participants for the M&E and finance training will be different so both trainings can take place simultaneously. The partner organization will also conduct pre and post-training evaluations to verify the knowledge/capacity development of the partner organizations including but not limited to two key areas:

Monitoring and Evaluation: Basic components of project M&E, development/revision of M&E plan/guideline, field operation monitoring, service delivery standard, and quality assurance process (1.5 days)

Finance: Internal Control system Basic SOP for CSOs, external compliance, documentation, cost sharing, budget monitoring, and standard accounting procedure. (1 full day)

Scope of the project

• Training design and development of training materials around key topics of project monitoring and evaluation including the key areas mentioned above.
• Design a training plan on the key areas for around 28 partners’ representatives based on topics and relevant staff identified by the partners and conduct capacity-building training.
• Conduct pre- and post-training evaluations to verify the knowledge/capacity development of the partner organizations.
• Submit a brief project completion report including a disaggregated participant list, evaluation report, and feedback from participants.

Timeframe 

The training should be completed by 25th September 2022, with support from the SAGP team on logistics management and coordination with participants. Any delay in the timeline due to external circumstances can be discussed and agreed upon by mutual consensus only.

Criteria for Consulting Partner:

• Demonstrable practical experience conducting capacity-building activities specifically on M&E and financial management for CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) from diverse backgrounds. 
• Experience in training design and curriculum development, preferably having a similar training curriculum developed in the past which can be referred for this training.
• Ability to connect with diverse groups of CSOs and adapt the training sessions based on emerging needs and expectations of participants.
• An existing 
• Interested parties can also submit a proposal for one of the two topics M&E or Financial Management if their area of expertise only includes one.

SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

The submission should contain the following:

• A cover letter (1 – 2 pages), highlighting relevant exercises conducted in the past. Also mention if you are applying for one training or both.
• An up-to-date organizational CV demonstrating the relevant experience of the organization in conducting relevant assignments.
• Separate proposal each for M&E training and financial management training.
• Technical proposal: short proposal of a maximum of four (4) pages each, presenting the organization’s understanding of the task by outlining training content, the approach for designing training materials, and conducting the training.
• A detailed budget breakdown and details of the team composition.

Submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by August 21, 2022. Submissions received before or on this date shall be evaluated and implementation partners who are deemed qualified will be shortlisted. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further information. Late submissions will not be considered.