This advertisement serves as a guideline for undertaking staff capacity building in organizational management, MEL, communication strategies, digital transformation, fundraising and proposal writing, and procurement. The purpose is to equip Romanian NGOs with the skills required to implement externally funded projects to continue to address the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
Background:
After the escalation of the conflict on the 24th of February 2022, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine has exceeded the worst-case scenarios, causing the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and civilian casualties have forced people to flee their homes in search of safety, protection, and assistance. To date, Romania remains both a transit country, with many refugees from Ukraine transiting through Romania to continue their journey to other countries in Europe, as well as a a safe place for short- and medium-term refugees. By April 2023, more than 120,000 Ukrainians received temporary protection and chose to remain on the territory of the country.
The Romanian non-profit sector emerged after the fall of communism and while progress has been made in the development of the civil society, further development is still needed. In the past year, major institutions and international nonprofit organizations have set up base in Romania to offer support and assistance for Ukrainian war refugees, and to ensure access to a range of critical protection and legal aid services. However, several challenges have been encountered primarily surrounding the local organizations’ limited awareness of how to design, manage and implement multi-sectoral, large-scale programs across several locations, as well as how to work with external actors, and comply with international donor requirements and organizational standards.
Objective:
At an organizational level, the objective is to equip local partners with the necessary skills to develop and implement joint programs for Romanian and Ukrainian youth and citizens.
At a national level, the purpose of this call is to identify a number of relevant consultants that will be invited to submit their proposal to provide capacity-building to improve the local organizations’ ability to meet objectives, access new funding, comply with donor requirements throughout implementation, and perform according to a project plan. Particular focus of training is placed on:
• Human resource development (e.g., essential skills and knowledge needed to perform a job effectively),
• Organizational development (e.g., understanding and ability to set in place comprehensive management structures, processes, and procedures), and
• Institutional framework development (e.g., the ability to use digital tools to process documentation and set up reporting systems).
Outcomes:
Overall, the objective of this effort is two-fold: short-term, the local partners can learn how to address current internal difficulties to be able to implement their activities, while, long-term, this is an opportunity to strengthen the Romanian local civil society in line with those present in Western Europe.
Six areas of improvement have been identified and defined below.
In terms of organizational management, the objective is to equip local partners with the ability to coordinate and lead teams, define objectives, and organize and plan activities/resources efficiently. The end goal is to transform them into entities that showcase accountability and transparency, therefore, are capable of meeting said objectives and are eligible for receiving institutional funding. To achieve these, training should tackle topics surrounding mission statement development, organizational policies, leadership, team management, NGO management, financial management, strategic planning and implementation, and quality standards.
In terms of digital transformation, the objective is to increase knowledge of how technology can support an organization to accomplish its mission, how to improve internal processes, planning, and execution of activities, and how to reduce confusion during implementation. By integrating digital technology into all facets of their operations, NGOs become more efficient and effective at implementing their activities.
Pertaining to Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), the objective is to equip organizations with basic skills to monitor and evaluate their programs. By monitoring throughout implementation, an NGO can understand whether the program is reaching its beneficiaries, or if there is a need for strategic changes. By evaluating a program, the organization assesses whether its intervention has reached its goals and delivered the expected activities according to the original plan. Learning is the process through which the information resulted from M&E is utilized to improve projects to achieve their results. MEL is essential to assess an NGO’s performance, and accountability, based on which donors decided whether further collaborations can be established.
In terms of Communication & Dissemination Strategies, the objective is to give the targeted consortium the know-how (thematic-wise) and tools (digital) to implement effective communication strategies to raise the impact and visibility of their projects, to tailor messages appropriate for various audiences (or channels), to disseminate results, and to share lessons learned and good practices.
In terms of Proposal Writing, the objective is to raise fundraise capacity of organizations to become self-sustained. Without written proposals, there is no way of accessing large-scale funding or conveying to a donor what is an organization’s strategic objective, plan of action, and capacity to implement a project. A proposal helps plan the upcoming activities, manage resources, and budget accordingly, and it reflects the competitiveness of several NGOs that seek to access the same (and otherwise limited) resources.
Procurement. The purchase of various goods and services is necessary for the operation of any organization. The aim is to teach organizations how to define internal control systems and procedures for procuring various goods/services, to ensure they have clearly defined standards for evaluating orders for purchases, and steps to be undertaken to conduct due diligence for each provider. The expected result is to see efficiency (i.e., organizations avoid overspending, and overcome the delays in implementing their activities due to delayed procurement exercises) in their implementation.
Logistics:
Local organizations selected for capacity building are located across Romania with possibility of including organizations from Moldova, and both online and offline methods of delivery methods are taken into consideration. Working knowledge in Romanian language is mandatory. The envisioned timeline for implementing capacity building efforts has a starting date in late Q3 2023 or October 2023.
Interested applicants are invited to express their interest by completing the attached form by 31 May 2023.
Further readings:
Norwegian Refugee Council: Hope and Uncertainty: A needs assessment of Ukrainian youth refugees in Romania and Moldova
https://reliefweb.int/report/romania/hope-and-uncertainty-needs-assessment-ukrainian-youth-refugees-romania-and-moldova
Internews: One Year Later: Online Discourse in Moldova about Ukrainian Refugees
https://reliefweb.int/report/moldova/one-year-later-online-discourse-moldova-about-ukrainian-refugees
Internews: Barriers & Bridges - Communication and Information Exchange with Ukrainian Refugees in Romania
https://internews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/BRIDGES-AND-BARRIERS-v_FINAL.pdf
REACH Initiative: Romania Multi-sector Needs Assessment
https://reliefweb.int/report/romania/romania-multi-sector-needs-assessment-december-2022