Consultant with Expertise in World Bank Systems and Community Driven Development
Spark works with local partners to catalyze sustainable collective action and improve livelihoods in communities through a community activation process accompanied by a microgrant.

About Spark Microgrants
Spark Microgrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Decades of prescriptive aid have sidelined the poor from the very programs meant to uplift them. We believe in local solutions and catalyzing rural villages facing poverty into action.
At the heart of Spark’s model, the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), are ‘town-hall’ style weekly meetings, in which women, men, young, old, plan together for their community’s future. Each village elects a leadership committee, establishes a village savings account, and launches a project of their choice. Members receive training on financial management, transparency, leadership, village planning, and advocacy. Each village then receives US$8,000 in seed funds and additional management support to turn their project ideas into reality.

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Spark trains partner organizations and works with governments to scale the FCAP as the model of choice to advance social and economic development, improve lives, and secure lasting change. Spark is now active in 500+ villages in 6 countries, improving the lives of over 500,000 people.

As a team, we share a set of common values that shape how we work. These are:
• Facilitators. We don’t impose; we enable others to generate impact.
• Community-driven. We are motivated by what is best for the community.
• Process-centered. The how of what we do is just as important as the what.
• Authentic. Our vision and values live in everything we do.
• Dynamic. We seek opportunities and are willing to take risks to serve our community partners better

Scope of Work
Spark is seeking a consultant with global community-driven development expertise, including the development of large-scale government integrated CDD programs through World Bank funding and compliance systems.
Spark is implementing a World Bank and Comic Relief funded project in Rwanda. The Advancing Citizen Engagement

(ACE) project, signed between Spark Microgrants, The World Bank and Comic Relief in June 2021 with a total value of $5,840,000 over 36 months will play an important role in strengthening civic engagement in local development planning and implementation, and improve rural livelihoods, in 249 villages in four districts in Rwanda. The ACE project’s development objective (PDO) is to improve livelihoods for 17,750 households/76,000 people and capacity of communities and national and local government for citizen engagement in 249 villages in Rwanda.
This objective will be achieved through a set of activities combining sustainable livelihood grants for poor, rural villages and capacity-building for district, sector, cell and village officials and villages on inclusive, participatory planning. Experience from the village-level activities will then be translated into a national policy framework for participatory village planning, in partnership with central and local government.

The Project is designed to combine Spark’s experience implementing their Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP) in Rwanda, with existing Government institutions and capacities. The FCAP within the Spark project is a series of facilitated weekly village meetings, during which village residents analyze and agree on village development priorities, and make a simplified village development plan (VDP). The VDP includes three ‘pathways’; i) a project-funded microgrant project, ii) independent actions to be taken by villages, and iii) government-supported actions, linked to existing Government development programs. Typically, governments or donors set priorities and families facing rural poverty are assigned tokenistic roles in delivering programs. The FCAP empowers citizens to exercise decision making power over village plans and facilitate a process to mitigate elite capture and garner widespread engagement ensuring that development priorities are defined by and benefit normally disadvantaged groups such as women, and the poorest households. The FCAP within this project generates two annual village cycles, with a 6-month inception period and a 6-month post-implementation phase. Leading the entire project to have a 36month timeframe.

The FCAP is a partnership between the local Government in the target areas and Spark. The weekly village meetings are mandated by the Government of Rwanda at set dates and times - and the FCAP is designed to leverage and enhance this existing platform for citizen engagement and locally-led development. Under the ACE Project, Spark will train local Government officials - Social and Economic Development Officers, known as SEDO’s, who in turn train community-based facilitators to lead weekly village meetings during which development planning decisions are discussed and made. SEDOs are responsible for implementing / coordinating a range of other local development programs, which may also be discussed during the weekly meetings. As such, the ACE Project aims to both enhance an existing CE platform - the weekly meetings - through introduction of participatory development planning and implementation activities, and training of SEDOs and community-based facilitators to lead these meetings. In addition, the Project contributes additional development resources at the village level, through the provision of small, discretionary grants to each target village, as a complement to broader Government-led development programs.

The Government of Rwanda is interested in scaling this approach nationally, and this programme acts as a pilot with which to evidence the effectiveness of participatory, community-driven development planning in the context of the Government of Rwanda’s decentralization agenda, to inform scaling plans in future. The national framework is therefore key to be stressed not just as a vehicle for local development but as one that strengthens citizen-state relations by enhancing the space for civic engagement in bottom-up development processes. This evaluation will focus on both economic impacts and local government capacity for citizen engagement.

The project will be implemented through four components:
• Component 1: Village and Local Government Capacity Building. This component will build the capacity of local government at the district, sector, and cell levels to facilitate village-driven village development processes to enhance citizen engagement and improve rural livelihoods. It will also build village capacity to engage in development planning and to manage village level subprojects.
• Component Two: MicroGrants. Component two will finance priority subprojects identified in the VDPs to improve livelihoods. Each target village will be provided a grant of US$8,000, disbursed over two years. The government in each of the target districts will contribute five percent of the total grant amount, while village members will make contributions in-kind. MicroGrant eligibility is guaranteed for every target village provided eligibility conditions are met, including the election of a Village Leadership Committee, completion of the VDP and submission, and approval of a subproject proposal.
• Component Three: National Framework for Participatory Village Planning. Component Three will consolidate lessons from the pilot activities under components one and two and support the government of Rwanda to prepare a National Framework for Participatory Village Planning.
• Component 4: Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination. This component includes overall project management, monitoring and evaluation. And communications and knowledge dissemination.
As Spark implements the ACE project, it seeks support implementing, compliance and quality assuring functions relatively new to Spark within the project, while critical full-time project management staff implement the project in accordance with the ACE Project Implementation Manual. Critical areas requiring qualified support include safeguarding and Environmental and Social Risk Management, grant management and donor relations, grant reporting, grant compliance. Another piece is exciting work is the central government-based policy advisory tasks which the consultant will be able to shape and input into.

Specific to the ACE project Spark seeks the support of a consultant to:
1. a) support quality implementation of ACE Project, b) support on capacity gaps on the project management team as required, and c) provide strategic advice on development of a National Framework for Participatory Planning. The consultant is expected to fulfil this role in support of delivery of components three (3) and four (4) of the ACE Project, and in compliance with World Bank, Comic Relief, and Government of Rwanda requirements.
In addition to the above, the consultant will support on two more areas of strategic focus:
1. development, communication and propagation of CDD standards to establish Spark as the leading organisation advocating for programmatic standards across the sector and
2. development of funding proposal focussed on World Bank and other institutional funders.

Key responsibility areas:
1. Mentoring and capacity building for ACE Project Management Team
1. In support of the below, support key project leads - specifically the Country Director, Finance Director, Policy Manager/Director, and Grants and Stakeholder Engagement Manager -to implement the program in a compliant manner- reporting, work plan monitoring, compliance, project coordination, and safeguards management.

2. ACE Reporting & Compliance
1. Advise on continued safeguarding trainings for staff and partners
2. Support donor communications (World Bank and Comic Relief)
3. In line with responsibility area 1, these activities will be undertaken with a view to sustainable ownership of tasks by permanent Spark staff. Support will be provided to task leaders, who bear responsibility for completion and quality.

3. Strategic advice on development of a National Framework for Participatory Planning
1. Provision of expert policy advice in the form of policy papers/briefings which identify, analyse and advise on key aspects of the NFPVP, as outlined in the ACE Project Implementation Manual
2. Supporting development of detailed plans and guidance for NFPVP development
3. Preparing and documenting internal (Spark) brainstorming and planning sessions as required.

Specific Deliverables
• Policy briefs on key aspects of NFPVP prepared, discussed and shared with Spark management, resulting in quality written inputs to the NVPVP, and the plans to secure further experts inputs as required under component 3 of the ACE Project.
• Ad hoc support to the ACE project team related to responsibility areas 1 and 2 will be documented in monthly invoices which will double as reports on contributions made.

Skills And Qualifications Required
• 10+ years of experience in international development, with a focus on community-driven development and development project implementation and management.
• Experience working in CDD/international development in a range of contexts, with experience in Africa preferred.
• Detailed knowledge of public policy and World Bank financed development policy.
• Effective communication and coordination skills across a wide range of stakeholders
• The ability to work independently, flexibly, and remotely.
• Strong ability to produce a variety of written outputs in English, including communications materials, policy briefings, PPT presentations, donor reports.
• Proven skills in mentoring and training staff, including designing and delivering training materials
• Experience with World Bank grant management, including the Environmental and Social Standards (ESS) and
Environmental and Social Framework (ESF)

Other Information
Apply through the link by Submitting a letter expressing interest in the role and a resume
Job Location: Anywhere
Start Date: As soon as possible
Application closing Date: June 20th, 2022