Consultancy – Conducting Organisational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) Assessment of Mt. Elgon Stakeholders’ Forum (MESF) At International Union for Conservation of Nature

Request for Proposals (RfP)

Conducting Organisational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) Assessment of Mt. Elgon Stakeholders’ Forum (MESF)

Purpose: Conducting Organisational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) Self-Assessment of Mt. Elgon Stakeholders’ Forum (MESF) through a participatory process involving MESF membership, Secretariat, Steering Committee and other stakeholders and documenting the MESF desired future vision, organisational/institutional development trajectory and OD/ID Action Plan.

Requested by: Uganda Country Office (UCO), Land Systems Programme, under the

GEF 7 funded project; “Promoting Integrated Landscape Management Approach for

Conservation of the Mount Elgon Ecosystem in Eastern Uganda”.

Project Contract ID Nunber: P03404

RfP Reference Number: IUCN-24-06-P03404-2

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS
   1. A detailed description of the services to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.
2. CONTACT DETAILS
   1. During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your Proposal.

IUCN Contact:

Email address: tenders.ug@iucn.org

1. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
   1. This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE

ACTIVITY

12th June 2024

Publication of the Request for Proposals

14th June 2024

Deadline for confirmation of intention to bid

18th 2024

Deadline for submission of questions

20th June 2024

Planned publication of responses to questions

1st July 2024

Deadline for submission of proposals to IUCN (“Submission Deadline”)

2nd July 2024

Clarification of proposals

5th July 2024

Planned date for contract award.

8th July 2024

Expected contract start date.

7th September 2024

Expected contract end date.

1. Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.
2. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
   1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)
  1. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference No.IUCN-24-06-P03404-1– bidder name]. The bidder’s name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your Proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

Proposals must be prepared in English.

IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

Pre-Qualification Criteria

1

3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work

2

Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work

3

State your annual turnover for each of the past 3 years

4

How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?

1. Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated in the table below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (in the two middle-columns).

Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance as follows:

SN

Description

Information to provide

Relative weight

1

Technical capability

1.1 State your understanding of the assignment objectives and tasks.

10

1.2. Define the scope of work clearly and in sufficient detail.

10

1.3. Articulate how you will achieve each objective and task in sufficient detail, while directing proper level of effort towards each objective and task.

15

1.4. State your understanding of the expected outputs and provide technical solutions and expected outcomes.

15

1.5. Define the equipment, techniques, tools, approaches, and methods to be used in executing the assignment.

10

1.6. Provide assignment time schedule in conformity with assignment scheduling and duration.

8

2

Past performance alignment and coherence with current assignment objectives and tasks

2.1. Provide your past performance/ relevant experience that match with the current assignment.

10

2.2. Indicate key personnel and their qualifications, expertise and past work experience that match with the current assignment.

12

2.3. Attach detailed CVs of individuals whose qualifications, expertise, and past work experience match with the current assignment, and who will carry out the work specified.

10

TOTAL

100%

1. Financial Proposal
   1. The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.
   2. Prices include all costs

Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your Financial Proposal.

1. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes

Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax to ensure that we are comparing like for like. This applies regardless of whether the IUCN office in question is exempt from VAT.

1. Currency of proposed rates and prices

All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in Uganda Shillings.

1. Breakdown of rates and prices

Include here all the required price information breakdown, for example daily rates or unit prices for goods. The price needs to be broken down as follows:

SN

Description

Quantity

Unit Price

Total Price

1

Professional fees

2

Per diems/Safari Day Allowance (SDA)

3

Reimbursables (specify below)

a)

b)

c)

d)

4

Travel expenses

TOTAL

1. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.
2. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 90 calendar days following the submission deadline.
3. Withdrawals and Changes

You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

1. EVALUATION of PROPOSALS
   1. Completeness

IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

1. Pre-Qualification Criteria

Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

1. Technical Evaluation
   1. Scoring Method

Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.

1. Minimum Quality Thresholds

Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.

1. Technical Score

Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your Proposal’s overall technical score.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

1. Explanation of procurement procedure
   1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.
   2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.
   3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate Proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.
   4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.
2. Conditions for participation in this procurement
   1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
      1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal.
      2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed non-compliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.
      3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.
   2. To participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:

• Free of conflicts of interest
• Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
• In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
• Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection.
• Not bankrupt or being wound up.
• Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct.
• Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.
  1. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).
  2. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using sub-contractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.
  3. Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.
  4. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:
• It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
• Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
• Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall give IUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

1. Confidentiality and data protection
   1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.
   2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your Proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your Proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, IUCN will not be able to consider your Proposal.
2. Complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact procurement@iucn.org. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

1. Contract

The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

1. About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples’ organisations, and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems, and improve people’s well-being.

www.iucn.org

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1. ATTACHMENTS

ATTACHMENT 1

SPECIFICATION OF REQUIREMENTS / TERMS OF REFERENCE

Summary Organization

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), http://www.iucn.org

Project

GEF 7 funded project; “Promoting Integrated Landscape Management Approach for Conservation of the Mount Elgon Ecosystem in Eastern Uganda”. Project Contract ID Number: P03404

Type of Service

Short Term Consultancy

Thematic Area

Land Systems

Location

Mount Elgon Ecosystem

Duration

30-man billable days

Collaboration and Coordination

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and the District Local Governments of Mbale, Sironko, Bulambuli, Namisindwa, Bududa, Manafwa, Bukwo, Kapchorwa and Kween.

Technical Reporting

Senior Programme Officer, IUCN Uganda Country Office

Managerial Reporting

Country Representative, IUCN Uganda Country Office

Deadline for Submission

28th June 2024

Expected Starting Date

8th July 2024

Expected End of Contract

7th September 2024

Vacancy contacts

uco@iucn.org

1 Introduction

1.1 The Mt. Elgon Ecosystem

The Mt. Elgon ecosystem is a trans-boundary ecosystem that straddles Eastern Uganda and Western Kenya and is a key resource in both Kenya and Uganda, providing ecosystem goods and services to over 4 million human lives and their livestock. The Mt. Elgon ecosystem serves as a catchment area for the drainage systems of Lakes Victoria, Turkana and Kyoga maintaining water quality, quantity and influencing the economies and livelihoods of communities in western Kenya, eastern Uganda, and the wider Nile Basin ecosystems. The forest mountain ecosystem is the source of critical goods and services that support livelihoods and economic development including provisioning (e.g. food, fiber, fuel, timber, water, and medicine), regulating (e.g. erosion regulation, flood regulation, landslide regulation), supporting (pollination, soil fertility) and cultural (e.g. recreation, cultural heritage). The higher slopes of Mt. Elgon landscape are protected as National Parks both in Kenya and Uganda. Mt. Elgon ecosystem was declared a UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) Reserve in Kenya and Uganda in 2003 and 2005 respectively and is destined to be made trans-boundary MAB conservation area. It also has the status of an Important Bird Area (IBA).

Despite its global, national, and local ecological and socio-economic significance, many areas of the Mt. Elgon landscape are affected by land degradation, deforestation, and forest degradation. Some wetlands and forests have been converted into farms and some riverbanks cultivated. The forest ecosystem is particularly threatened by overharvesting of forest products and encroachment by settlements and for agriculture. Livestock grazing and poaching have equally and substantially reduced the biodiversity and, population sizes of animals are hunted down for meat and other products for traditional use. The main root cause of all this is high population pressure and poverty levels in the wider Mt. Elgon landscape.

1.2 The Mt. Elgon Stakeholders Forum (MESF)

The Mt Elgon Stakeholder’s Forum (MESF) was initiated in 2012, and formerly launched in 2013, with support from a joint programme of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and directly coordinated by the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) in Uganda.

The main goal of the Forum is to chart ways and means of restoring and, improving the quality and productivity of the landscape in Mt Elgon, to increase its ecological, socio-economic and cultural values and improve the flow of ecosystem goods and services from the ecosystem for local community livelihood improvement, national development and global benefits such as mitigation of climate change impacts, through shared goals and objectives.

The forum brings together both state and non-state actors, as well as the community and individuals that have a stake in the Mt. Elgon Ecosystem/Landscape, proving a platform to discuss and get a common understanding of the issues in the ecosystem/landscape, the various interventions being undertaken by various actors, and developing strategies for harnessing the opportunities available. The good lessons and practices are also discussed and used to design new interventions.

The overall objective of the forum is to promote a landscape approach of addressing critical issues in Mt Elgon where various stakeholders get a common understanding and agree on the various inter-linkages within the landscape to guide strategic interventions that enhance positive change in livelihoods and the ecosystem integrity.

More specifically, the MESF was formed to address the above challenges in recognition of the fact that, several partners have been working in the Mt. Elgon ecosystem/landscape on conservation issues for over twenty years but, the interventions are scattered and uncoordinated, hence affecting the impact of the interventions. The ecosystem also has several thematic working groups which spearhead discussions and learning lessons on key themes within the landscape. However, the thematic working groups are limited to specific stakeholders and issues. The platform was therefore established to close this gap by providing a platform for coordinating all the efforts within the landscape, bringing together all the relevant actors to jointly discuss and generate ideas, solutions, and innovations. The MESF strategic intent, therefore, is to engage more stakeholders and cover wider issues that reflect the interlinkages within the ecosystem.

The forum has a Steering Committee which provides the strategic direction of the platform as well strategic thinking and guidance to the general membership. The steering committee is designed to meet at least twice a year, while the General Assembly is meant to meet at least once a year. However, these meetings have been very irregular and largely depend on availability of funds from well-wishers.

1.3 The Strategic Intent

The long term strategic intents of MESF are to:

1. Enhance multi-stakeholder engagements for change across sectors, themes and administrative boundaries through the creation of ‘coalitions of change’ actors. The coalition of change actors will be addressing systemic issues at national and sub-national levels and demanding improvement of quality and quantity of service delivery at sub-national level.
2. Bridge the micro–macro gap between national-level policy making and sub-national or local-level actions and practices, by working with national and sub-national level entities to make national development policies relevant to local realities.
3. Have a forum/network that is formally registered, recognised, and respected by both Sub-national and National actors as well as Regional (EAC) actors and is well grounded with knowledge and data on the developments, challenges and opportunities in the Mt. Elgon Landscape.
4. Pull funding to the sub-national level to facilitate improvement of benefits, service delivery and development at sub-national and local levels from the ongoing national government decentralisation processes and funding systems and on the official development aid chain.

1.4 History to the MESF review process

Since its inception, the forum has been organising annual meetings for the various members to reflect and re-strategize. During its fourth forum event which was held in November 2017, the advisory committee of the forum floated a proposal for endorsement by the general assembly, to formerly register the MESF platform from being a loose network to a formerly registered NGO for easier mobilisation of financial resources to support its operations. However, during the discussions, majority of the MESF members felt that registration as an NGO would make the MESF lose its identity as a loose network and core mandate of coordination. In addition, a concern was raised that registering the platform as an NGO would exclude other key stakeholders such as Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies; and the international NGOs from its membership, as well as compete for funding with members. The meeting requested the steering committee to re-think this decision and explore other avenues for institutionalising the forum without losing its core coordination and representation mandate.

Follow up discussions were held with key stakeholders including IUCN to support this process. As part of the IUCN project, “Stabilising Land use” jointly implemented with Uganda Wildlife Authority in Mt Elgon, IUCN was requested to support the re-thinking process with the MESF Steering Committee. It was expected that, this process could revamp and build the capacity of the MESF to take up its role in the Mt. Elgon Landscape. However, this process did not materialise due to limited resources.

Durning the development of the GEF 7 funded project; “Promoting Integrated Landscape Management Approach for Conservation of the Mount Elgon Ecosystem in Eastern Uganda”, this idea was re-visited and the process inbuilt into the project in line with the project’s objective of strengthening Governance Working Groups within the Mt. Elgon landscape, including Catchment Management Organisations (CMOs) to support enhanced landscape level natural resources governance and reconcile conservation and development priorities based on regional, national experiences and lessons learnt.

2 Purpose, objective, and tasks

The purpose of this review is, therefore, to facilitate a process of identifying and developing acceptable recommendations for institutionalising the forum within the scope of its core mandate to perform its functions better, as well as mobilise resources.

The specific objective of this assignment is to support the MESF advisory committee to identify acceptable options for attaining the necessary legal identity for the MESF, which would enable it source for funding, without compromising its core mandate of coordination.

The specific objectives of the assignment include but are not limited to:

1. Carrying out an analysis of the enabling environment within which MESF can develop in the national and international context. This analysis will be concerned with policy analysis at the highest levels in government and looking at the socio-economic conditions that can enable or constrain MESF development as well as the legal framework that provides stakeholders with security of legal status and tenure of power brokerage. It will also include an analysis of the institutions and organizations involved in the MESF such as Government Ministries, Agencies and Departments, CSOs, PSOs, DLGs, and others that share common objectives and how these institutions’/organisations’ coming together resonates with national and international aspirations and context.
2. Assessing the MESF vision, mission and strategy, culture, structure and competencies, processes (both internal and external), human resources, financial resources, information resources and infrastructure. It is also important to assess MESF interactions with other networks and stakeholders within the wider enabling environment with a view of strengthening partnerships and networks with other like-minded networks for synergy and complementarity.
3. Carrying out an assessment of the MESF Secretariat and Steering Committee composition (to define their present capacity within the national and international context) and establish governance baseline.
4. Developing in a participatory manner the future desired state and vision of MESF, and identifying the capacity gaps and designing strategies and actions to fill these gaps and achieve the desired goals. In this regard, the areas of focus are: Strategic vision and strategic planning, Leadership, Organizational management and growth, Resource mobilization, Constituency building/outreach, Programmatic Capacity and Communications Strategy.

The specific tasks of the assignment are to:

1. Develop methodology and carry out participatory self-assessment of MESF covering the following issues but not limited to:
   1. Enabling environment.
   2. Vision and Mission.
   3. Strategy.
   4. Governance.
   5. Organizational culture and climate.
   6. Project and Service Management.
   7. Resource Development.
   8. Human Resources Management.
   9. External Relations and Partnerships.
   10. Finance and Administration.
   11. Constraints and Implications for Sustainable Institutional and Organisational Development.
2. Organize and facilitate the conduct of participatory self-assessment of MESF with active engagement and participation of the Secretariat, Steering Committee and Members.
3. Analyse and document the findings, results and lessons learnt from the assessment and consolidate with MESF Steering Committee and key stakeholders.
4. Based on the findings and results from the assessment facilitate participatory formulation of Action Plan for institutional development based on the core strength of MESF.
5. Organize and facilitate necessary support and technical assistance to MESF Steering Committee and Secretariat to start implementing Action Plans.
6. Develop baseline database and indictors on institutional and governance capacity of MESF with key indicators for progress monitoring.

3 Role of the Process Facilitator and process

The role of an External Process Facilitator is to conduct an Organizational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) Self-Assessment of MESF through a wide and participatory process of discussions with its membership, Secretariat and Steering Committee and other stakeholders on its current development stage and charting and documenting its future development direction and trajectory.

The Process Facilitator acts as a resource person throughout the process, providing contextual information on specific good governance indicators and using best corporate OD/ID principles, practi: (and tools in facilitating the exercise, documenting the assessment process, and assisting MESF to identify the best approaches and actions for meeting its improvement targets in form of: (1) Capacity/Development Needs (2) Capacity Building Plan; (3) Fund Raising Strategy; and (4) Communications Strategy.

The process facilitation process should include but not limited to the following:

1. Facilitation of a meeting with the MESF advisory committee to gain insight into the MESF long-term goal, objectives and activities.
2. Conducting key informant interviews with key government Ministries, Department and Agencies such as: Ministry of Water and Environment, Kyoga Water Management Zone, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and National Forestry Authority (NFA); key Local Government technical staff and political leaders within the landscape; NGOs operating in the Mt. Elgon Landscape; and Academia, Private Sector etc., (especially those who have been regularly participating in the MESF) so as to get their perspectives and insights into the MESF long term goal, objectives and activities.
3. Reviewing the relevance and effectiveness of the MESF in lieu of the key stakeholders’ perspectives and insights and the MESF long term goal, objectives, activities, achievements, challenges, and lessons learnt.
4. Mapping and assessing the relevant existing loose coalitions/networks or related active platforms (such as ENR-CSO network, Forest Governance Learning Group, Uganda Forest working group, etc) and identify good practices to inform the rationalization and institutionalization of the MESF.
5. Assessing the legal provisions for networks and coalitions to inform the MESF transition.
6. Synthesize and review the MESF operational framework whilst highlighting respective merits and demerits and generate key strategies for regularization of MESF and propose concrete recommendations for the MESF next phase.
7. Exploring various ways of registering the MESF and preparing a constitution and other relevant institutional documentation for the MESF.

4 Deliverables

1. Inception Report detailing the approach and schedule of work.
2. Capacity Needs Assessment Report and Capacity Building Plan.
3. Reviewed MESF Structure and Constitution.
4. Resource Mobilization Strategy.
5. Communications Strategy.

5 Duration: 30-man billable days spread over a period of 2 months.

6 Qualifications and experience

Basic requirements**:** Minimum qualification of Degree in Laws, Community or Social Development. Post graduate course in public relations, or related study courses with a field experience of not less than ten years is an added advantage.

Experience and skills:

1. Proven working experience in of CSOs, PSOs and/or Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies is highly desirable.
2. Knowledge and skills on governance-related issues affecting private, voluntary, and public sector organizations is essential.
3. In-depth conceptual and practical knowledge of governance and development issues.
4. Strong experience in institutional development and management as well as in the design and development of organizational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) strengthening packages.
5. Practical experience in legal matters relating to organizational/Institutional Development (OD/ID) processes and OD/ID strengthening, reform processes and and governance is mandatory.

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