Consultant

Overview

Sightsavers as part of its Inclusive Citizenship strategic area, and with funding from Irish Aid, is implementing inclusive local governance projects in Cameroon and Senegal. Through our government and organisation of people with disabilities (OPD) partners we are rolling out our Inclusive Local Decision-making (ILD) approach which promotes the meaningful participation of people with disabilities in local governance, predominately at local council level.

Inclusive Local Decision‑Making is a rights‑based approach that enables people with disabilities to participate meaningfully in local governance and decision‑making processes, ensuring their needs and priorities shape policies, plans and budgets. It strengthens local government systems to mainstream disability inclusion across all sectors and services by building the capacities of both duty‑bearers and people with disabilities, and by embedding inclusive practices throughout the full cycle of local public policy and project development.

ILD positions people with disabilities as rights‑holders, representatives and decision‑makers, advancing democratic participation and accountable, inclusive local governance. Through the capacity strengthening, guidance, advocacy and engagement of the ILD approach we have strengthened disability inclusion in 27 local councils in Cameroon and Senegal and are working with national ministries of local government to scale the approach nationwide.

See the following website for further details of the Inclusive Citizenship work: www.sightsavers.org/citizenship.

Please see full Terms of Reference for details 

Responsibilities

1. PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The consultancy aims to strengthen the consistency, quality, and scalability of the Inclusive Local Decision-Making (ILD) approach by developing a suite of practical, evidence-based technical resources for use across different country contexts.

The consultant will lead the design and production of these resources, building on existing guidance, programme learning, and emerging evidence. This work will be undertaken in collaboration with the Global Technical Lead and Sightsavers country teams in Cameroon and Senegal to ensure the resulting tools are context-informed, user-friendly, and suitable for wider application and replication.

Sightsavers seeks to appoint a consultant with experience in strengthening representative local governance systems to complete four deliverables/four pieces of work:

1. Develop a concept note and theory of changefor the ILD approach outlining the key aims, objectives, activities and indicators, and summarising the existing evidence and learning. The concept note and theory of change should consider the Sightsavers Inclusive Citizenship strategy and programme design documents from similar Sightsavers programmes.
2. Develop a three-day training toolkitto orientate local councils, people with disabilities and organisations of people with disabilities on the ILD approach and how to implement it; based on the existing ILD guide and consolidating existing training materials, learning and evidence. The training toolkit should ensure accessibility standards and use interactive tools and approaches such as role play, discussions, group activities, case studies, etc, to support participants to put ILD into practice.
3. Draft a terms of reference for the role of disability inclusion focal pointsin local councils, especially in terms of their role in cascading disability inclusion capacity building, awareness and guiding the implementation of inclusion within local councils.
4. Based on the discussions and analysis to develop the above tools, write a concise final consultancy reporton the outcomes of the consultancy, focusing on recommendations for future ILD programming to strengthen the implementation, scalability, and sustainability of the ILD approach. The final report should include an annexed repository of resources.

Skills and Experience

The consultant should have the following qualifications, skills and experience:

• Fluency in English and French (written and oral) is required.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher (Master’s preferred) in a relevant field (e.g. politics, law, human rights, disability rights studies, or social sciences).
• Demonstrated expertise on participation of underrepresented groups in public and political life (people with disabilities, women, youth, or other marginalised groups).
• Experience of providing technical guidance to programmes on political participation, with a preference for programmes working to strengthen the local level of decision-making (e.g. at council, municipal or community level).
• Proven experience of developing project technical tools such as training tools, technical guidelines, reports, etc.
• Strong understanding of current developments in disability inclusive development programming in African and Global South contexts.
• Demonstrated experience supporting governance, participation, accountability, disability inclusion or decentralisation programmes in West and/or Central Africa, preferably in Francophone settings.
• Proven ability to develop adapted practice project guidance which is relevant to the targeted aims, context and project stakeholders. Evidence of the effective implementation in practice of develop project guidance is also desirable.
• Ability to engage with project stakeholders, especially local implementing partners, to develop guidance and technical tools that meet their specific needs.
• Strong analytical, organizational and communication skills, and the ability to work independently as well as to effectively consult with diverse project teams.
• Strong writing skills with the ability to write compellingly in different styles according to the aims and audience of the project.
• A clear commitment to disability inclusion and the core values of the protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and strengthening democratic governance systems.

Next Steps

1. EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Applications will be assessed on technical quality, relevant experience, language capabilities, understanding of disability-inclusive governance, methodology, and previous work samples

The consultant should complete an Expression of Interest using Sightsavers recruitment portal and this should be submitted alongside the consultant CV and examples of previous work. Sightsavers will assess Expressions of Interest submitted according to standardised quality assessment criteria, as well as based on their competitiveness and value for money in line with the budget available for this contract.

Candidates are required to submit the following:

•  examples of their previous work:
  • Relevant technical tools and guidance documents developed though previous positions/consultancies.
  • Examples of written reports, studies, publications, etc. whereby the consultant was the lead author.
• Expression of Interest form via iCIMS
• CV