Consultant for 2015 Management Assessment -- ICSO

Consultancy Opportunity

Indigenous Community Support Organization (ICSO) is a Cambodian NGO; implementing projects to support, strengthen, empowerment, and improve the capacity of indigenous community organizations, groups to participate in the promotion and protection of the indigenous rights and in the management of natural, cultural and traditional resources. ICSO is looking for three separately of different and qualified consultants to conduct the following requirement by ICSO; 

Consultant for 2015 Management Assessment

Terms of Reference

I. Introduction:

Some tensions and stresses have started to appear in the higher levels of the structure and management of ICSO, which we want to understand. Where are their gaps and what needs to change? We want to address any underlying reasons for tension, so that the issues and problems can be addressed early, in a constructive manner, for the new phase of the 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Some of the issues are sensitive, or difficult for ICSO managers to hear, or to express, and therefore many of these problems are not reported. Therefore to fully understand the mood of the organization, an independent third party is more appropriate to gather this information. This will ensure that all levels of management, including the Governance Board, pay more attention to the findings and will also ensure decisions and changes that need to be made, will be made.

II. ICSO Background:
Indigenous Community Support Organization (I.C.S.O) was established on 1st July 2006. The organization was initiated and established by a group of Governance Board members, Community Forestry International (CFI) and IPs elders.

ICSO is a local Cambodian not-for-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan association, established to serve the public benefit. ICSO was registered with the Ministry of Interior of Cambodia on July 13, 2006; #840-MoI.

ICSO was formulated by integrating 3 different projects based in Ratanakiri supported by CFI 2004-2006,   (1)   Ratanakiri   Natural   Resources   Management   Network   (RNRMN),   (2)   Forest Mountain Voice (FMV) and (3) Community Organizing (CO).

III. Current ICSO’s Vision, Mission, Values, Goal and Objectives statements:
1.  ICSO Vision:
To see IPs communities well equipped with knowledge, capacity, solidarity, and able to take strong ownership in organizing community and collective actions to protect and manage their natural, social, economic and culture resources.
2.  ICSO Mission:
To support and develop the capacity of IPs community network and movements, so that they have the capacity to access basic services, to improve their livelihood and work collectively to protect and manage their land and natural resources.
3.  Core Values:
Team work, mutual respect, empowerment approach, and respect for Indigenous People’s rights, honesty and integrity.
4.  Goal:
IPs communities take up their own initiatives and hold strong ownership in organizing community
advocacy to exercise and enhance their basic rights.
5.  Strategic Objectives:
IPs communities supported by their network to;
a)   Ensure IPs capacity and ownership to secure their land tenure and protect their land, natural and cultural resources.
b)   Ensure IPs capacity and techniques to manage their own socio-economic and environmental development process.

c)   Ensure IPs capacity to understand the root causes of both local environmental change and global climate change, and develop their capacity to adapt and mitigate the impacts.
d)   Ensure IPs network, associations/federations have capacity, ability and ownership in the
process of mobilizing community network and IPOs’ self-determination.
e)   Ensure ICSO staff and IPs network have capacity and ability to build effective partnership with stakeholders.

IV. ICSO’s Current Programs 2013-2015:
ICSO has 3 separate programs operating offices in Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Phnom Penh, under the Indigenous Community Right Empowerment Program (ICREP).

1. Ratanakiri Provincial Program:
The program implements its different projects/components in 84 villages, 22 communes, 05 districts (O’Yadav, BorKoe, O’Chum, Lumphat and Andoung Meas district). Working with 5
IP’s groups (Kreung, Tumpoun, Charay, Prov and Kachok IPs).

• Supports 40 IPs villages Communal Land Title (CLT) Registration, which are in the process of strengthening IPs identity, legal entity and collective land to register with MoRD, MoI and MoLMUPC.
•  Supports 32  IPs Saving Groups at village level for food security and income generation.Among these 32 IPs saving groups; there are 15 saving groups in LPH districts under the management of 3 IPs-Communal Economic Association (CEAs).
• Support 53 IPOs development, included 40 CLT and 3 CEAs, for self-determination and self- management, and capacity development to mobilizing, organizing and networking with IPs network to advocate and claim their rights to land and natural resources.

2. Mondulkiri Provincial Program:
The program implements in 18 villages of 4 communes in Pich Chenda district. Working with
one IPs group (Pounorng).

• Supports  IPs  Economic  Empowerment  of  15  IPs-Saving  Groups  at  village  level  for  food security and income generation, under the management support of the 4 IPs-Communal Economic Associations (CEAs); registered with MoI as of legal entity.
•  Supports IPs capacity building, mobilizing, organizing and networking with IPs network to voice and claim their rights to land and natural resources.

3. Phnom Penh Program:
Supports 71 IRAMs and 497 IPs-Community Leaders who are from 129 villages of 45 communes, within 26 districts of 15 provinces, where IPs have been networking and mobilizing in their struggles for land and natural resources in Cambodia. IRAMs work directly to support 7 IPOs.

• Builds  institutional  and  constituency  and  support  IPOs  connections,  from  grass-roots  to national level, to assist in the formulation of the Indigenous Peoples Association of Cambodia (IPAC).
•  Builds capacity through coaching and mentoring in empowerment approaches.
• Supports IPs advocacy, on their right to land and natural resources protection through any supportive advocacy platforms.

V. Assessment Approaches:
1.   Objective:

• To  find  out  how  staff  of  all  levels  feel  about  working  within  ICSO,  with  a  focus  on organization.
• To identify cultural and personal barriers emerging within the organization
• To obtain staff feedback about the progress and challenges of ICSO management systems and leadership styles.
• To provide recommendations for improving ICSO management in the future.

2.   Processes:
1.   Meeting with ICSO senior staff in PNP to agreed on the process
2.   Prepare field work (questionnaires, scheduling, review questions, …etc)
3.  Review ICSO reports (evaluation, assessment, policies, guidelines and structure, staff job description)
4.   Conduct interviews
5.   Consolidate the analysis of the information
6.   Draft report
7.   Finalize report and send to Executive Director and Governance Board
3.   Methodologies:
Conduct consultation (individual interview, focus group discussion, e-mail all staff in each location) with:

• Each Project Officer, Project Coordinators, Program Officers, Provincial Program Assistant, Provincial Program Coordinator Provincial, Deputy Director and Executive Director
• Provincial and National Operation Unit staff,
• Advisory Group members; IP staff committee (1 group);
• Staff who have recently left the organization
• Governance Board

4.   Conditions and requirements:

• Staff must be assured that whatever they say will not be attributed to them.
• People are asked and welcomed to speak honestly.
• All comments are to be confidential unless other wise indicated by the person or people providing those comments.
• It should be stated that there may not be ways of satisfying all people. In asking for individual feelings and opinions, it does not mean that the organisation can cater for all of them. This is especially  due  to  ICSO’s  mandate  to  foremost  benefit  communities.  This  will  inevitably involve personal discomfort for staff. This is also because we are trying to bridge needs between donors and indigenous communities. Sometimes it is not possible to fulfill all needs and desires. (We need to avoid the expectation that the organization WILL be able to cater for all staff ideas – the assessment is just to collecting information to assist with morale)
• The  assessor  is  asked  to  collect  any  comments  and  observations  made  outside  of  the questions relating to staff. For example, if the assessor feels that the comments from a member of staff reflect a person who is more interested in their own benefit. We want to place high importance/emphasis on comments from staff who are obviously strongly committed and dedicated.

5.   Reporting:
The assessor will keep all information confidential during the process of the assessment. Any final report or reporting should not mention, or otherwise indicate, who has made any particular comments.
A draft English report between 10-20 pages (capturing key points of findings) will need to be provided to the ICSO Board and Executive Director. A short feedback meeting between the National Management Team and the assessor will be required after the draft report.
6.   Timeframe:

The assessment will take 07 days in total, and it will be conducted during the period of August. The draft report will be submitted after the working days.

7.   Assessment questions and key guidance question:

The questions are developed to follow up the findings and recommendations from the first workshop, with staff covering cross-culture practices, communication blocks, leadership issues, project management, program management, level of roles and responsibilities, structure,  reimbursement,  stipend,  salary,  and  community  pressure  on  staff  etc.  The questions from the ICSO management team were also incorporated. The consultant will develop questionnaires, shared with the Executive Director and Board for feedback, and then the questionnaires will be translated into Khmer for interview and consultations.

ICSO has been awarded the voluntary certificate by NGO-Code of Compliance Committee, due to compliance with all standards in the Code of Ethic and Principles and Minimum Standard for NGOs in Cambodia. ICSO has been awarded the volunteer certification for 2011-2013.  It  was  awarded  this  again  with  a  second  certification  on  NGO-Good  Professional Practices for 2014 -2016.

Therefore, how is ICSO management aligned with Cambodian NGOs? Has ICSO demonstrated management quality and ensured it’s responsive to the by-law, policies, guidelines and principles? How well ICSO’s management services aligned with the future is needs of this organization in the future trend in Cambodia? What are the major trends of management capacity that need to develop in the next 5 years? Where is ICSO ‘on the mark’? What ‘new’ opportunities are there? What changes should be made to the management structure/hierarchy? Where does ICSO need to strengthen or develop additional expertise and services in order to meet the organizational need? Does the current structure need to be reviewed or restructured?

8.   Consultant qualification and experiences:

• The  consultant  should  be  diverse  but  must  include  people  with  a  high  and  critical understanding of social development, and the roles of rights holders (IPs), CSOs, duty bearers and moral bearers in supporting indigenous people’s representation and empowerment.
• The  consultant  should  have  experiences  and  qualifications,  including  overseas/foreign working experience.
• The consultant should have experiences and qualifications of communication
• The consultant should have experiences and qualifications on democratization and human rights
• The  consultant  should  have  experiences  and  qualifications  on  global  context,  Cambodia context, IPs context and culture, the ongoing process of indigenous community rights empowerment and oversee the production of the reports, including supervising field work.
• The consultant should have experiences and qualifications on conceptual of mainstreaming of gender equity and climate change adaptation. The consultant should include at least 30% of women in the consultation process, especially in the roles of direct community
• The consultant should understand the Cambodia development trends, in particular on land and natural resources development, protection and conservation.

If you are interested in this consultancy opportunity, please send a proposal to #90, Street 304, Sangkat Boeng Keng Kang II, Khan Chamkar Morn, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Or proposal could be sent via e-mail to recruitment@icso.org.kh, thavro@icso.org.kh  and vansey@icso.org.kh by 21 June 2015 at 5:00pm. Please visit ICSO’s website: www.icso.org.kh  for more details of the Terms of Reference.

Note: Only interested consultants will be contacted for consultation, and the document that has sent to ICSO will NOT be returned.  

Please mention "Cambodiajobs.Biz" where you saw the ad when you apply!   

.

Title – Employer                        Cambodia Jobs	Closing date
Consultant for 2013-2015 Strategic Evaluation -- ICSO New	21 Jun 2015
Consultant for 2015 Management Assessment  -- ICSO New	21 Jun 2015
Consultant for 2016-2020 Strategic Plan Development -- ICSO New	21 Jun 2015

 .