Request for Letters of Interest: Development of a Regional Approach to Support Civil Society and Civic Space in Africa

Request for Letters of Interest: Development of a Regional Approach to Support Civil Society and Civic Space in Africa

Overview

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation seeks a partner to help the Foundation develop a regional approach to support civil society1 and civic space in Africa.

Through this consultancy, the Foundation’s Civil Society and Leadership (CSL) and Global Reproductive Health (GRH) Initiatives look to determine where to focus our collaborative work to support strong and effective organizations and protect thriving civic space. We envision doing this first by deepening our understanding of the enabling environment for civil society in East Africa (based on the AU definition2) and francophone West Africa (as defined by the Ouagadougou Partnership3) including the organizations, initiatives, and donors working to protect and bolster civic space. Simultaneously, we are interested in how investment in civic space may relate to and impact CSOs working to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as, populations who may be more vulnerable in the context of shrinking civic space (i.e. youth, women’s rights actors, LGBTQI+ communities and/or other groups according to the context). Then, equipped with this information, we envision a series of facilitated conversations to support internal decision-making around a regional focus for our shared work- most likely focusing either on East or francophone West Africa.

Background

For 60 years, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has worked with partners worldwide to improve the lives of children, families, and communities—and to restore and protect our planet. The Packard Foundation’s new strategic framework asserts that civil society is central to achieving its goals, and ultimately, to realizing a just society. Following the recent shift in strategy, the Foundation has identified priority geographies for investment across its initiatives. Africa emerged as one key geography for both the Global Reproductive Health Initiative and the Civil Society and Leadership Initiative, which invests in the strength of Foundation partners, the resilience of civil society ecosystems, and a safe and thriving civic space. CSL is now at a crucial moment as it begins to adapt its new strategy in Africa and seeks a deeper understanding of the state of civil society to inform and reflect on future programming and strategic priorities. 

CSL defines the Core Civil Society Enabling Conditions as the following: 

      • Public understanding and support for the role of CSOs 
      • A regulatory framework that respects the rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression 
      • CSO access to funding and a regulatory environment supporting flow of funding and resources 
      • Channels for dialogue between CSOs with governments, business, and other stakeholders. 
      • CSO access to the media or other effective means of communicating with target audiences 
      • Leadership and organizational supports CSOs need to achieve their missions, including support for advocacy capacity 
      • Infrastructure to support civil society coordination and collaboration 

CSL also strives to build its understanding of the infrastructure available to support civil society, including the trainers, leadership providers, consultants, and other available supports for civil society organizations, and whether this infrastructure is well equipped and culturally pertinent to support communities and leaders in Africa.  

Scope of Work 

CSL is seeking the support of an external consultant to build its understanding and carry out work in the following three areas: 

1. East Africa and francophone West Africa: State of Civil Society Rapid Analysis 

We seek to establish an initial, base-level understanding of the current state of civil society in East and francophone West Africa, respectively, to support decision making around where to focus our work. We anticipate doing a deeper dive into the state of civil society once initial decisions have been made; this work will be done under a future, separate contract. We expect the following research questions to guide this assessment for both civil society broadly and for sexual and reproductive health and rights advocates and LGBTQI+ communities specifically.  

      • What is the state of civic space in East Africa and francophone West Africa?  
      • What are the strengths and weaknesses of civil society in each region; what threats to civil society exist, who do they impact, and how? 
      • What, if any, unique challenges do women’s rights, reproductive health and/or LGBTQI+ advocates and CSOs face in each region? 
      • What are the opportunities and threats for the Foundation to intervene in each region? 

2. Ecosystem Mapping 

Map the ecosystem that works to protect thriving civic space in East Africa, francophone West Africa and at a continent level. 

      • Who are the civil society organizations working to strengthen and protect civic space in East Africa, francophone West Africa and continent-wide, including regional groups as well as global groups whose work impacts East Africa, francophone West Africa and/or the continent? What are the cross-issue networks and movements working to strengthen and protect civic space in East Africa, francophone West Africa or continent-wide? 
      • Who are the public and private donors supporting open and thriving civic space in East Africa, francophone West Africa or across the continent; are there donor collaboratives or joint funding opportunities for the Foundation? 
      • What convening spaces exist that CSL can both learn from and influence? 

3. Support exploratory conversations and a decision-making process for the Foundation to determine a geographic focus to invest in civil society and civic space in Africa 

Support the Foundation’s CSL and GRH Initiative teams in refining and landing on a geographic approach to their collaborative work in Africa. 

      • Through review of background documents, including strategy documents of both GRH and CSL, develop a basic understanding of the potential areas of alignment and collaboration between the two initiatives. 
      • Utilizing the information gathered above, support exploratory conversations between the two teams, designed to help the Foundation decide where to focus joint GRH and CSL investments in Africa, focusing on the following questions: 
            • What are East Africa, francophone West Africa and continent-wide civil society and civic space opportunities and challenges, especially considering anti-rights and anti-gender movements? 
            • How does the CSL focus on civil society and civic space align with or reinforce GRH’s strategy? Where or what could jeopardize the Foundation’s work in Africa? 
            • What is the potential of supporting civic space at the continent level versus at the regional level? What adaptations would need to be made to the CSL strategy to work at different levels? 

Deliverables

We seek the following deliverables from this engagement: 

      1. A written deliverable (either deck or narrative report) that provides an analysis of the findings, including the state of civil society, state of civic space and freedoms for women’s rights, reproductive health and/or LGBTQI+ advocates and a landscape analysis of organizations working on civic space in East Africa and francophone West Africa. 
      2. A discussion with the Packard Foundation and partner staff on the findings and recommendations. 
      3. A series of facilitated virtual sessions to support decision-making regarding definition of the specific region to invest in, together with documentation of the outcomes that emerge from those sessions (2-3 conversations of up to 90 minutes per conversation).

Estimated Project Duration

Three months total, with approximately 6 weeks for the assessment and mapping and six weeks for the sensemaking and decision-making facilitation process. 

Budget 

We encourage respondents to propose a budget for what they think is needed to complete a project of this nature. We anticipate the budget to be under $25,000. 

Consultant Qualifications 

      • Based in East or francophone West Africa and/or have significant lived or professional experience in either of these regions. 
      • Written and verbal fluency in English is required. 
      • Background/expertise in civic space, civil society infrastructure and civil society context in East and francophone West Africa. 
      • Demonstrate understanding of sexual and reproductive health rights and LGBTQI+ communities in East and francophone West Africa. 
      • Experience conducting landscape and capacity assessments. 
      • Experience facilitating decision making processes as well as collaboration between different teams. 
      • Commitment to equitable approaches to information gathering, including awareness and attentiveness to cultural and contextual differences. 

Guidelines for Letter of Interest (LOI) 

Please submit a one‐ to two‐page Letter of Interest (LOI) in English by February 16 that includes: 

      • Approach: Describe the proposed process for undertaking the work described in this scope of work and plan for deliverables. 
      • Challenges and concerns: Describe any challenges or concerns you may have about this project, and suggestions for how they might be mitigated. 
      • Your qualifications: Provide a list and description or 2‐3 relevant previous projects and bios of key personnel. 

Please note that we will invite the selected finalist to submit a Scope of Work that will include a more detailed research methodology and approach, a timeline for project implementation, and a budget. It is not necessary to include any of these items in your expression of interest. LOIs that exceed the number of pages requested may not be considered.  

Process Timeline

Open circulation of LOI 17 Jan – 16 Feb 2025 
Deadline to submit letter of interest 16 Feb 2025 
Interviews 26 Feb – 7 Mar 2025
Invitation for finalist to submit full Scope of Work 14 Mar 2025
SOW materials due 28 Mar 2025
Project execution (pending contract approval) Expected to run 2 months upon contract approval. The estimated start date is within one month after SOW materials are received.  


Please email the LOI and qualifications to CSL Research Analyst, Aida Zozaya, [email protected] with a CC to [email protected].

Frequent Questions and Answers

CSL will update this Q&A document regularly, until the end of the LOI open circulation period. 

Relevant Background Documents

CSL will share with the selected consultant a set of background documents including: 

      • An overview of the Civil Society and Leadership Initiative strategy. 
      • An overview of the Global Reproductive Health Initiative strategy. 
      • Regional Definitions clarifying the regional focus of our work. 

1 We use the following definition of civil society, developed by the Funders Initiative on Civil Society (FICS, 2022): “the array of non-governmental organizations, entities, and movements that have a presence in public life and who express interests and values based on human rights, ethical, cultural, political, scientific, religious, or philanthropic considerations.”

2 https://au.int/en/member_states/countryprofiles2

3 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.