CARE INTERNATIONAL IN RWANDA

P.O Box 550 Kigali, KG 541 ST  

Career Center Building, 8th floor                                                                                                                                                                                  

Tel: +250 788 306 241, 0788 304 454

E mail:  care.rw@care.org

www.care.org   

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY FOR CARE INTERNATIONAL IN RWANDA 

1. Background

CARE International is a global humanitarian organization with a physical presence in 104 countries worldwide in 2020. CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice where poverty has been overcome and all people live in dignity and security. We put women and girls at the center because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until everyone has equal rights and opportunities.

CARE aspires to become the most dynamic, diverse, and largest network of organizations and individuals fighting poverty and standing with those in crises, believing the best ideas and programs come from local leadership. As CARE evolves, we hope to unleash the creativity and collective action of a locally-led, globally connected network of social enterprises, country offices, local organizations, civic participants, and private sector partners operating in more than 100 countries. As organizations are testing means by which they can be more intentional in being driven by national and local forces.

2. Context of this assignment  

As CARE International was established in Rwanda in 1984, it played various roles in supporting and advancing development and humanitarian work in Rwanda and has evolved in its presence model. Moving from direct implementation to a more partnership-based model (through national and local implementing organizations) has taken shape in ways to ensure local organizations' capacities are reinforced and leveraged to become institutionally strong and empowered to  co-create, co-lead on programs that would impact positively the lives of Rwandans.

In 2017, CARE International in Rwanda started implementing a single coherent country program that was focused on achieving gender justice for vulnerable women and girls aged 10–59 years.

But, considering the changes nationally and globally, in 2020, CARE International in Rwanda conducted a program strategy review process guided by the CARE 2030 vision and the National Strategy for Transformation 1 (NST-1). The process resulted in a new 3-year program strategy for 2022-2025. CARE’s Vision 2030 outlines six program areas in which CARE seeks to achieve impact. These areas are gender equality, women's economic justice, right to health; right to food, water & nutrition; climate justice, and humanitarian action. Additionally, the East and Central Africa (ECA) Regional Roadmap which was informed by CARE’s vision 2030, has 3 program focus pillars, Locally Led, Globally Scaled, and Gender Equal. All country offices in the region have agreed to adopt a locally-led approach to programming. In alignment with the above vision and ECA roadmap, CARE International in Rwanda’s new program strategy that was approved in October  2021, focuses on two main interconnected impact areas: “Women’s economic and climate justice” and "Gender justice and right to health.

The program priority impact group is comprised of women, girls, and youth aged 10 to 59 who are unable to meet their basic needs and who have limited capacity and skills to draw on existing opportunities to exercise their rights^[1].

CARE International in Rwanda deliberately collaborates and partners with different stakeholders (government, private sector and local implementing partners mainly Women rights organizations/WROs and Women Led organizations/WLOs) in order to achieve its mandate to defeat poverty and achieve social justice. The interventions are guided by CARE’s Gender Equality Framework which focuses on agency, relations, and structures.

Partnership is one of CARE's programming principles to achieving its desired long term impact. CARE defines partnerships as “purposeful relationships based on mutual trust, equality, and learning, with an agreed vision, and clear accountability for all parties, and which engage the complementary strengths of the actors involved to collaborate on specific objectives, challenges, or opportunities in ways that achieve greater impact than they could achieve alone” (CARE Partnership Policy 2021).  

Thus, partnership is CARE’s modus operandi in the implementation of programs through and with local partners per CARE’s internal commitments (such as CARE's Vision 2030 and CARE International in Rwanda's strategic plan 2022 - 2025) and external commitments like the Grand Bargain and the charter for change for the localization and organizational evolution of CARE and local partners.

CARE International in Rwanda is committed to a process that will help it forge mutually beneficial partnerships with a variety of actors including Women-Led and Women Rights Organizations (WL&WROs), social movements, etc. This requires CARE International in Rwanda to have a clear and coherent partnership strategy that aligns with CARE's 2030 vision and fair partnership standards as well as CARE International in Rwanda's 2022 - 2025 program strategy and business plan that clearly define and articulate CARE International in Rwanda's partnership vision, ambition, focus and direction to streamline our partnership relationships. 

It is in this context that CARE International in Rwanda is seeking the services from experienced consultants/firms to lead and support the development of the CO partnership strategy which is guided by two critical principles : being locally led and driven, intentionally engaging with women’s and young people’s (rights and led) local organizations. Our aim is to ensure that our partnership strategy can nourish and guide our advocacy strategy, and not the other way around. 

More specifically, CARE International in Rwanda’s ambition is to have a strategy that can help to:

• Define clear ways to collaborate and engage with different categories of stakeholders (Government, private sector, and civil society organizations/CSOs, media and others, with a focus on women's right and women-led organizations)
• Provide a framework to deliver on our development, humanitarian, and advocacy mandates by working with others to reach more and multiply impact.
• Leverage its international footprint to amplify its partners and related constituencies’ voices into policy-making and influencing agendas at different levels of influence.
• Consider CARE International in Rwanda as a partner of choice and aligned to CARE International’s partnership vision and “locally led” agenda to support and achieve CARE’s mandate for gender and social justice and achieving impact at scale.
• Define how CARE can behave as a convenor, a connector, and a supporter of civil society in all its diversity to lead on their respective/joint advocacy agendas.
• Adopt a service culture and improve our partnership practice by being a partner and not a competitor or a donor.
• Build authentic relationships and move away from transactional arrangements by defining how to play the role of incubator, facilitator, enabler, capacity strengthener, and communicator.
• Address the deeply entrenched structural inequalities and power imbalances built into our ways of working as international development and humanitarian actors matching words with action and meaningful change
• Add better and more differentiated expertise to meet our different partners’ needs and add value to their work.

3. Objectives of the consultancy and expected deliverables.

3.1 Objectives of the consultancy

The main objectives of this consultancy are to :

1. Clearly define where CARE International in Rwanda wants to go in terms of partnership and localization in line with CARE's global partnership standards and fair partnership standards
2. Define who we are going to work with (private sector, government, research institutions, civil society - WLO, WRO, organizations representing particularly marginalized and vulnerable groups (people with disabilities), community organizations, etc.
3. Define types of relationships that can be built with different partners and roles in implementation and financing.
4. Define how to achieve a coherent approach to partner assessment, safeguarding, Due Diligence Assessment, capacity building plans, mutual learning, KPI/shared costs, drawing on the experiences of various Care member partners (CMPs) internally and from other external actors, Propose a clear roadmap to implement and operationalize the partnership strategy with a clear sequencing of the key activities. 
5. Define how to respond to the needs and priorities of the partners we work with 

3.2. Expected deliverables

• An inception report and presentation demonstrating understanding of the assignment by the consultant/firm. The report will include a detailed methodology that satisfactorily demonstrates how the strategy will be developed with a clear timeline and different tools and approaches,
• A draft partnership strategy report and its raw data
• Presentation of the strategy to the technical team and to the SMT
• Presentation of the strategy in the partners' validation meeting
• Refine and re-submit the partnership strategy report considering feedback/comments and inputs from CARE and partners.
• Conduct a two-day (02) workshop to equip core staff with the skills and clarity on their leadership/technical development priorities in order to spearhead the new strategy and produce the report.

Deliverables: A strategy document (20 pages max); an implementation plan/with risks and resources (3 pages); a workshop plan and report (2 pages) for the workshop

4. Methodology

The process will involve the following tasks : 

• Make sense of the documentation made available by CARE in Rwanda for the purpose of this consultancy, including but not limited to country, regional, and global strategies (CARE USA and CARE International), partnership policy, country-level partner selection committee documentation, etc., and partnership standards.
• Consult with WLOs/WROs and other CSOs, government entities and Ministries, donors, private sector actors, media, and peer INGOs, to get their views and identify best practices around partnerships and how it could look like that fits the context and purpose.
• Consult with the CARE International in Rwanda team and CARE Global including CARE Member Partners and other key technical teams from Communities of Practice on partnerships and locally led.
• Facilitate a one-and-a-half (1,5) day workshop with the country team (and other participants upon suggestion) to agree on the main components of the partnership strategy.
• Develop a comprehensive partnership strategy and a roadmap until the end of the current strategy cycle (2025) containing (but not limited to) a list of key stakeholders identified; Tools (new or adapted) that align with the new partnership strategy; Risk matrix and suggested mitigation measures.
• Socialize the strategy to CARE International in Rwanda staff through delivering a two-day (02) workshop to equip core staff with the skills and clarity on their leadership/technical development priorities in order to spearhead the new strategy. 

The firm/consultant is expected to make use of a number of tools and approaches to reach the expected objectives: Desk review and research; and interviews with key informants within CARE and outside of CARE. 

5. Timeframe: 

The assignment will be undertaken within 30 working days between 15th January to 15th March 2024.

14. Application Procedure:  

The application file should contain the following documents: 

• A technical proposal (3 pages), with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved, and the team credentials for similar assignments.
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions.
• A financial offer (1 page) detailing the various costs including transportation associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF format and must be a separate document from the technical offer.
• Evidence of the consultant’s experience in doing similar assignments: Copies of similar assignments (with evidence for good completion of the previous similar assignments);
• Submit at least 3 references with their contacts and addresses.
• Bank account information including the scanned copy of blank check or document from the bank confirming bank account information (name, account number, swift code, …)
• Consultant firm profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable). For applicants without registration in Rwanda, submit the above requirements from the country of registration as applicable. 

Interested consultants or consultancy firms are requested to submit their offers not later than January 5^th, 2024 at 5:30 pm (CAT) local time to the following e-mail address: rwa.procurement@care.org, with mention of “ Development of the Partnership Strategy for CARE International in Rwanda ” in the subject line 

Kigali, December 12^th,2023 

Procurement Unit

[1] Rwanda's Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy approach is grounded in a traditional Rwandan practice of collective work. A single economic rationale of ubudehe is economies of scale and timing. For example, a piece of land that would have taken several weeks to cultivate would be worked on a single day. As a form of social capital, ubudehe involves trust and reciprocity.