Local Government Capacity Assessment and Capacity Development Planning Tools and Processes – Jobs in Kenya

1. About the Aga Khan Foundation

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is an Agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of private, non-denominational development agencies that share a mission to improve the living conditions and opportunities for marginalized communities across some target countries in Africa and Asia. AKF was established by His Highness the Aga Khan in Switzerland in 1967 and began working in East Africa in 1974. Globally, AKF seeks sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and ill-health, with special emphasis on the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal, and other resource-poor areas. In East Africa, AKF responds to local and regional priorities by developing and implementing effective programming, measuring, and documenting results and sharing lessons with governments, donors, and development actors to influence policy and practice. AKF operates a multi-sectoral portfolio that includes programming in Education, Economic Inclusion, Civil Society, Health and Early Childhood Development.

2. Background

AKF has recently developed a new framework for education programming globally, the Education Improvement Programme (EIP). The EIP promotes an approach where AKF will partner with a global network of local government schools, national and local government, and civil society actors within education ecosystems to co-develop and test affordable and scalable evidence-based models about how best to create quality learning environments and improve holistic learning outcomes for the most marginalized children.

To achieve this, EIP proposes a three-pronged approach; prioritize, innovate, scale:

• Prioritize – In partnership with government, schools, teachers, and Civil Society, identify and prioritize the needs of the education ecosystem to improve quality learning outcomes and inclusive, secure learning environments for all.
• Innovate – EIP is a network of local incubation collaboratives between AKF, government schools, and civil society actors – co-generating new evidence-based education models that work to improve quality learning outcomes for all learners, especially in marginalized areas.
• Scale – Generate new evidence-based models about ‘what works’ in quality education to enable governments to scale approaches for millions of children and youth.

Assuming a programmatic approach, AKF is seeking to ensure all projects are aligned and contributing to the EIP goal and approach. As part of an AKDN wide education project, Foundations for Learning (F4L)[1], delivered in partnership with Aga Khan Academy (AKA), Aga Khan Education Services (AKES), Aga Khan University (AKU), the Madrasa Early Childhood Programme (MECP), and local Civil Society Organisations (CSO), will provide AKF with the opportunity to ensure project Theory of Changes (TOC) are fully aligned to EIP and design a comprehensive M&E system to collect the data needed to both generate robust evidence of ‘what works’ and develop rapid, if not real-time, feedback loops for partners and stakeholders across the education ecosystem.

F4L, co-funded by Global Affairs Canada and AKF, will equip a new generation of learners, teachers, school leaders, families, communities, civil society organizations, and government leaders with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values needed to promote more gender-responsive and pluralist quality education systems for all in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Through F4L, AKDN will ensure equal opportunities to quality education for girls and boys through stronger education systems, more capable female and male education professionals, reduced gender and social barriers to education, and increased evidence generation for better policy and practice.

3. Consultant scope of work

Critical to the above approach is to develop deeper institutional partnerships with Local Government Authorities (LGA) in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. This partnership would include institutional capacity development informed by an inclusive capacity assessment and capacity development planning process. While AKF has extensive experience in conducting these with Civil Society Organisations (CSO), AKF recognizes the need to adapt the process and tools to meet the needs of LGA across the three countries.

This consultancy will build on previous work done by AKF with respect to CSO. For this work, the consultant or organization will be required to work in-person or remotely to implement a human-centric approach (process clearly articulated in the application) to deliver high quality, relevant, and actionable results, processes, and tools. The consultant/organization will:

• Review the Government Performance Index (GPI) and AKF’s CSO Organisational Capacity Assessment (OCA) tools and processes and OCA developed by other organizations working with CSO and LGA capacity development.
• Produce a mapping report on the GPI and existing OCA highlighting areas of strength and weakness with respect to applicability to LGA and the resources available within LGA.
• Collaborate with AKF and LGA in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to conduct a collaborative process to take the learning from the report and develop GPI processes and tools relevant to the three-country contexts.
• Prototype the tool in collaboration with AKF and with seven LGA across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
• Iterate the GPI process and tools based on the learning and feedback from the prototype to finalize a high-quality and designed product for each country.
• Develop an accompanying report and communication product to enable AKF to effectively understand and communicate to LGA colleagues how the process and tools are evidence-based, informed by LGA inputs and feedback, and how these will be implemented moving forward.

4. Key deliverables

• Mapping report of existing GPI, OCA, and OCDP processes and tools.
• HCD process to engage AKF and LGA colleagues from across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to develop the draft gender-responsive GPI process and tools.
• Prototype the GPI process and tools
• Final high design GPI process and tools for each country with feedback incorporated.
• Report and communication product to accompany final process and tool documents.

5. Work Plan(Activity and Deadline)

• Mapping report of existing GPI, OCA, and OCDP processes and tools.-**3rd September 2021**
• HCD process to engage AKF and LGA colleagues from across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to develop the draft OCA and OCDP process and tools.
• Prototype draft tools and process
• Final GPI process and tools (designed for the purpose)
• Report and communication product to accompany final process and tool documents.**19th November 2021**

6. Criteria for selection

All submissions will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Technical proposal 40%
• Technical experience 30%
• Value for Money 30%