Terms of Reference: Board Evaluation
Consultancy, Research Jobs
Job Description
Trócaire is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Trócaire was established to express the concern of the Irish Catholic Church for any form of human need, but particularly for the needs and problems of communities in the Global South. With our partners we work with some of the world’s poorest people, supporting women, men, and communities for long- term change. In Ireland, we raise awareness about the causes of poverty through our outreach programmes in the education sector, through parish networks, and through our public campaigns and advocacy work. More information about Trócaire is available at www.trocaire.org.
Trocaire Zimbabwe
Working in partnership with local organisations, in Zimbabwe, the Trócaire programme portfolio consists of projects covering in the following four thematic areas:
▪ Goal 1: Defending Human Rights and Promoting Access to Justice
▪ Goal 2: Climate and Environmental Justice
▪ Goal 3: Supporting and Promoting Women and Girls Protection, Voice, and Leadership
▪ Goal 4: Saving Human Lives and Protecting Human Dignity
Context
Trócaire has worked in partnership with local organisations for 50 years and currently working with a detailed Partnership & Localisation Strategy (2021-2025), where tailor-made capacity strengthening is given to each partner to improve their capacity to manage projects and ensure sustainability. In its Partner Capacity Assessment processes (PCAS), gaps were realised in the functions of partners’ boards and governance structures. It is against this background that a consultant is required to establish an accurate baseline on the state of the partners’ boards and develop relevant capacity strengthening initiatives that enhance their effectiveness.
Consultancy Objectives
The overall objective of this consultancy is to establish a baseline on the status of the boards of Trócaire Zimbabwe’s 11 partners and develop a capacity strengthening action plan. The Consultant will work jointly with Trócaire Zimbabwe to conduct a board evaluation, develop training manuals, and conduct trainings for Board Chairs and members of finance sub committees to position them for effective execution of their roles and responsibilities.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work
The Consultancy is expected to consist of 20 chargeable days spread across 2 months of between October 2023 and November 2023. The scope of work will include planning and coordination between the Consultant and Trócaire team; conducting the boards evaluations; developing capacity strengthening action plan; developing training tools and content; partner engagement processes; facilitation of the trainings and subsequent reporting.
Methodology
Trócaire Zimbabwe strives to have equitable partnerships and values the input of partners in developing capacity strengthening initiatives that best meet their needs. The Consultant is expected to ensure a participatory approach in all processes of the engagement to ensure that any resulting products from the work are acceptable by partners and can yield the required results from the investment. All tools for the assignment require Trócaire Zimbabwe’s approval before they are administered to ensure that high level standards are maintained. A value for money, innovative and modern proposition to conduct the assignment should be reflected in the proposal, factoring in modern ways of data collection, analysis and production of relevant support for tangible results.
Reporting
The Consultant will develop a final assignment report upon completion of the assignment, guided by Trócaire templates. The reports should provide information on how the consultants’ time was spent, individual updates per partner organization, and status updates on progress against deliverables. The consultant will isolate the lessons learned, draw conclusions and make recommendations on the way forward.
Deliverables
• Detailed tools/checklists to conduct the board evaluation.
• Report on findings from the board evaluation and recommendations on strategies to ensure
sustainable board effectiveness.
• Training manual for Board, carefully segregated across the functions of the overall board,
individual roles for standard boards and sub-committees.
• A simplified M&E plan to monitor performance of boards over a defined period of time.
Qualifications and Experience
Experience/Skills
• At least 6 years of experience in NGO governance training and support.
• Proven understanding of the NGO operating context in Zimbabwe.
• Verifiable track record of past related work, including board capacity development products
like reports, publications, manuals etc.
• Excellent facilitation & capacity strengthening skills and experience of applying them when
working with individual partners or groups of partners.
• Highly developed relationship building, interpersonal and probing skills.
• Excellent written, oral and presentational communications skills.
• Computer literacy skills in Word, Excel, Teams, Zoom, and internet/email.
• Well vested with diverse skills of conducting research including high quality data analysis.
How to Apply
Safeguarding
All consultants who work for Trócaire will be required to sign and abide by Trócaire’s official position statement on exploitation and abuse, including zero-tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. Trócaire recognizes that abuse of power has led, and continues to lead, to many forms of exploitation and abuse. The nature of Trócaire’s work creates a power differential between those employed by or
working with Trócaire and programme participants and partners. Trócaire acknowledges that the potential exists for those who work with programme participants and partners to abuse their position of power. Trócaire’s commitment to safeguarding is inclusive of its staff and all those with whom it comes into contact through its work.
Applications
All proposal applications should be emailed to infozimbabwe@trocaire.org by the 20th of September 2023. The assignment is expected to commence by no later than 1 October 2023. Applications should include the following:
• Up-to-date CV, including the name, address, phone number and email address of consultant. The contacts for at least three references should be included who can speak to the consultant’s performance against similar assignments.
• Technical Proposal (max. 5 pages) highlighting the consultant’s understanding of the project, proposed methodology, budget, and possible start date.
Any queries relating to this Terms of Reference should be directed by e-mail to Tatenda Razawu (tatenda.razawu@trocaire.org).
