Contract management to strengthen institutional and financial resilience of afro-feminist civil society organisations

Many African countries are making tangible progress on gender equality and social participation. Nevertheless, deeply rooted inequalities persist, embedded in historical power relations and current social structures. People who are marginalised due to their gender, identity or other characteristics are particularly affected. Achieving sustainable change therefore requires strong civil society organisations that advocate for vulnerable groups, expose injustices and help make political and social processes more inclusive. To fulfil this role effectively, these actors need targeted, needs-based support - organisational, technical and through stronger networks. The Society. Equality. Africa - The Transformation (SEA-T) programme addresses this need. Its objective is to enable local and regional civil society actors in Africa to measurably improve social justice and participation. It focuses on organisations that are embedded in their contexts, understand community needs and drive practical solutions. The approach combines support, knowledge generation and networking to achieve impact at organisational, network and public discourse levels. A core element is needs-based support. Civil society organisations receive tailored assistance to pursue their goals independently and effectively. This includes strengthening management and advocacy capacities, improving internal processes and tools for monitoring results, and maintaining flexibility to respond to dynamic contexts. Support follows the principle of ownership: local perspectives and priorities set the direction; partnerships are designed on an equal footing and build on the engagement and expertise of civil society. A second focus is on evidence and knowledge. Together with partner organisations, the programme develops studies, analyses and datasets that provide a solid scientific basis for advocacy. This enables actors to argue their case more convincingly in policy dialogues - for example on closing the gender data gap, advancing inclusion or improving mechanisms for participation. Systematically prepared evidence also strengthens the legitimacy of civil society demands vis-à-vis state and non-state decision-makers. Third, the programme fosters networking. Organisations are supported to collaborate more closely, exchange tried-and-tested approaches and scale them across regions. Peer-to-peer learning, thematic communities of practice and regional exchange formats facilitate the spread of proven methods - such as inclusive programming, participatory formats and evidence-based advocacy. Stronger cooperation creates alliances that channel local experience into regional debates and amplify common positions. In a newly added output, the programme prioritises strengthening the long-term structural resilience of civil society in Africa in an increasingly restrictive and regressive civic space. Fourth, the programme strengthens civil society actors by building institutional and financial resilience through a Participatory Grant Council (PGC), where regional feminist representatives and GIZ jointly set priorities and funding criteria. Via the PGC, funds and accompanying measures are allocated to feminist organizations and collectives for reserves, core funding, income diversification, organizational development, and sustainable financial and governance structures, enabling partners to continue their work under challenging political and financial conditions. Additionally, the programme will support three participatory, regionally developed models for sustainable Afro-feminist mobilization to enhance long-term coordination, shared political visions, and practical instruments for collective responses to backlash, shrinking civic space, and regressive change. The focus is on strategies for organisational, financial and political sustainability of movements and organisations. This includes measures to reinforce internal governance and accountability, inclusive and values-based leadership, security and protection mechanisms (including digital, legal and physical safety), as well as collective care and wellbeing practices that prevent burnout and sustain engagement. This integrated approach of needs-based strengthening, evidence-driven advocacy, strategic networking and resilience-building aims to sustainably increase African civil society"s capacity to act. The overall objective of this assignment is to improve the long-term structural resilience of selected civil society actors with a particular focus on institutional and financial resilience. Institutional resilience is defined as an organisation"s ability to remain operational amid political, financial or security-related changes. Illustrative improvements include clearer roles and responsibilities, improved internal processes, effective and sustainable leadership and succession planning, and updated policies for security, safeguarding and data protection grounded in context-specific risk assessments and realistic resource envelopes. Organisations strengthen administrative, financial and monitoring and evaluation systems, adopt appropriate digital tools, secure their communications and invest in staff training and capacity development that reflect fluctuating resources and long-term sustainability. Protection and security are enhanced through systematic risk analyses, security plans and digital, legal and physical protection mechanisms. Financial resilience refers to the stability and diversification of income sources. Organisations identify and develop new fundraising channels and strategies such as local donations, membership contributions, social enterprise models, regenerative and gender-lens investment, access to feminist philanthropic resources and partnerships with private actors. They build financial stability by establishing or increasing reserve funds and by improving access to multi-year and flexible funding. Financial management is strengthened through robust policies, budgeting and accounting systems as well as compliance and accountability mechanisms. The assignment is one mechanism of the programme to create conditions that enable organisations not only to respond to crises but to address them proactively, thereby countering regressive forces that undermine diversity, equality and human rights. To this end a Participatory Grant Council (PGC) composed of representatives of regional feminist organisations and GIZ will select 30 proposals centered on strengthening the institutional and financial sustainability of organisations and collectives. The selected organisations will then receive local subsidies and additional capacity development support to progressively build the commercial, administrative and legal capacities needed to manage future financing arrangements independently. Therefore, the first package of the requested services is to provide hands-on advice to the selected grantees on the implementation of the Local Subsidies in line with GIZ requirements, the second one is tailored external capacity development delivered by local service providers in areas identified through the selected proposals and organisational and capacity assessments. The contractor operationalises this approach through two work packages. In Work Package 1, the contractor conducts commercial and legal eligibility checks (KEP) for organisations selected to receive Local Subsidies, then contracts and manages 30 Local Subsidies in line with GIZ regulations and templates. The contractor disburses funds, advises recipients, manages and controls the proper use of funds, maintaining separate accounting and full documentation, preparing advances, settlements and disbursement requests. Continuous administrative and financial advice and monitoring are provided throughout, and all Local Subsidies are closed and settled in December. The learnings will be provided shared final learning event thereafter. In Work Package 2, the contractor conducts organisational and capacity assessments and then develops and manages contracts with local service providers (in the countries of the selected organisations) to deliver tailored capacity development to improve institutional and financial capacities in addition to the local subsidies. As a final step, the contractor must perform a final assessment to demonstrate measurable improvement in at least one of the two resilience dimensions - institutional or financial. General implementation measures include providing an implementation roadmap, holding an inception meeting, ensuring continuous coordination and communication with GIZ and partner organisations, and delivering an implementation report with a debriefing. All processes, contracting, disbursement, accounting and reporting comply with GIZ regulations for Local Subsidies and the principles of proper accounting, safeguarding, data protection and duty of care.