Location: Dhangadhi with travel to some municipalities in Sudur Paschim and Lumbini provinces. 

About the consultancy opportunity:

The objective of this call is to hire the service of a Research Consultant to conduct an assessment which assesses existing capacity and needs of local community and civil society organizations and suggests potential structures and areas of interventions to foster inclusive citizen participation in local decision making and public oversight.  

Specific Objectives: 

• To map community based (e.g., Tole Development Organizations, or TDO) and civil society organizations operating in Sajhedari -working districts and municipalities with the focus on local governance process including local policy, planning & budgeting, implementation, civic oversights, and citizen feedback in public service delivery.  
• To assess the organizational capacity and gaps in effectively fostering CSOs role as partner in local governance process
• To identify good practices and recommend effective approaches to foster CSOs engagement in local governance process. 
• To track change in leadership positions and capacity of the CSOs mapped during year 1 or first CSOs mapping. 

In close coordination with the Senior Citizen Engagement Specialist and other team members, the Research Consultant will use qualitative data collection and analysis tools/instruments and draw conclusions from the data gathered through the mapping. In particular, the Research Consultant will primarily be responsible for applying standard data collection tools and instruments i.e., FGD /KII checklist, TDO/CSO data collection formats and ensuring data quality and mobilizing team to collect information applying agreed tools/methodologies using KOBO tool and preparing draft report and finalizing it within timeline.  

Deliverables:

• Inception report including methodology and timeline
• Preliminary draft, and final report- CSO Mapping and Needs Assessment

This is tentatively 20 (max) working days’ assignment to be kicked off from early May 2021.  We expect full-time engagement of the Research Consultant as s/he has to coordinate with project staffs and local enumerators on regular basis to ensure quality in the delivery and adherence to the timeline. 

Required Qualification and Skills:

• Master’s Degree in social science, political economics, law, conflict and peace, management, rural development, and other relevant subjects.
• Proven experience of conducting participatory field research/studies in the field of paradigm shift in federal structure and civic interest, governance, accountability, training capacity gap analysis.
• Must have good knowledge and experience of supply side governance, civic engagement modalities. 
• Conceptual understandings of constitutional spirit, municipal policy priorities and demand and supply side governance issues.  
• Sensitive towards caste, religion, gender, culture, and social norms & exclusion.