Background

The Olof Palme International Center with its 27 member organisations, constitute an active hub of the Swedish labour movement’s international work articulated through trade unions, political party and civil society organisations. These organisations represent more than one hundred years’ experience of promoting political and civic engagement, democratisation and poverty reduction. Through our development partnerships, we seek to empower people to change their own lives. The Palme Center has its main office in Stockholm and several local offices.

This year, Palme Center will develop an application to Sida Civsam for the programme period 2020 – 2024. The application will include around 15 programmes, whereof the majority will be country programmes while some will be of thematic or regional nature. The programmes will be developed during May to August 2019. This assignment must therefore be completed no later than 8 May 2019.

Participants

The workshop concept shall be designed and planned in consultation with the Coordinator of the civsam agreement, the responsible Methods Adviser and at times one or some of the Programme Managers.

The training shall target the Programme Managers, but Methods Advisors and possibly Country Coordinators will also attend the training.

The assignment, methodology and limitations

The expected result of this intervention is that the Palme Center has a concept for a participatory programming process which enables adaptive programmes and effective monitoring, and that Programme Managers are trained to facilitate such processes.

The assignment includes following work efforts

Desk study

The Consultant shall familiarise her/himself with how the current programmes are designed and identify possible areas of improvement for the upcoming programme period with regards to participatory programme design, in order to increase the adaptability and the sense of a common direction of the projects within one and the same programme. This is done by studying the Palme Center’s previous application to Sida for the period 2016-19, the Palme Center’s Strategy and current methods material, the Project Management Handbook.

Deliverables:

1) Methodology development
The Consultant shall recommend a selection of approaches to programming and together with relevant staff at the Palme Center decide which approach to use. Based on this, the Consultant shall develop a draft concept for a programming workshop and present to the Coordinator and the Methods Adviser before moving on to develop the full workshop concept.
2) Training of the Palme Center staff
The Consultant shall, in dialogue with the Coordinator and Methods Adviser, prepare and implement a training preparing the Programme Managers to facilitate the programming workshops.
3) Material production
The Consultant shall document the workshop concept and compile a guide/handbook, including a generic Power Point Presentation, in English which the Programme Managers can use when planning and implementing the programming workshops and which could be adapted to the different contexts.

Timeframe and duration

The assignment starts with the signing of the contract and ends with the delivery of the guide and the implementation of the staff training.
Estimated working hours: 124 (15,5 working days/ 3 weeks)
The training for Programme Managers is scheduled for early May (1-2 days).
The assignment shall be completed no later than 8 May.
Dates for milestones, such as recommending approaches, the draft concept, the set up for the training and the guide/handbook, will be jointly decided in connection with the contract writing.

Reporting

The guide/handbook, including the Power Point Presentation, will be considered as the report of this assignment and it shall be orally presented in connection to the training. Palme Center will be the sole owner of the results of the assignment.
Requirements on the Contractor
This assignment requires;
• Knowledge in development cooperation within the civil society
• Previous experience in programme design and monitoring of development programmes
• Extensive experience in facilitation and leading processes
• Very good knowledge in planning and monitoring methodology and tools beneficial for adaptive programme management, such as Theory of Change and Outcome Harvesting
• Good knowledge in English and ability to write method materials in English
Meriting qualifications;
• Knowledge about the local context in which Palme Center works
• Knowledge about popular education/informal adult education (folkbildning)
• Knowledge about trade union work
• Knowledge about the Swedish labour movement

Compensation

Budget: 150 000 SEK, including VAT
First payment: 50% of the budget after the start of the assignment and upon receiving an invoice from the Consultant.
Second payment: 50% of the budget after Palme Center’s approval of the evaluation report and upon receiving an invoice from the Consultant.

Tenders

Tenders shall be submitted via email to linnea.halvarsson@palmecenter.se no later than 25 February 2019.
The bid must include curriculum vitae, details of previous experience in the field, a brief description of your ideas on how to implement this assignment (including reflections on possible methodologies and tools for the workshop concept), suggested timeframe, budget including VAT.
We reserve the right not to accept any of the bids received.
For questions, contact Linnea Halvarsson, Methods Adviser, via email linnea.halvarsson@palmecenter.se.