Introduction

The Somali Dialogue Platform (‘The Platform’) is a policy dialogue and facilitation initiative, managed by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI), that responds to the need to support more collaborative, productive, and inclusive political processes that can transform Somalia’s political settlement. The Platform seeks to create dialogue spaces genuinely trusted and led by Somalis, where they can confidently address past conflicts and grievances and collaborate to resolve fundamental differences in their governance ideas.

The Platform works on several priority areas related to the political settlement challenges such as democratization, fiscal federalism, and national security architecture. In addition, the Platform also works on cross-cutting issues such as encouraging women’s political participation and public engagement in political processes.

The Platform is therefore looking to establish a partnership with an organization to improve public political participation across Somalia.

This TOR outlines the requirements for a partner to enhance public political participation within the Platform initiative.

Purpose

The purpose of this partnership is to enhance public political participation through various objectives:

Objective 1: Facilitate Meaningful Public Consultations

The selected partner will conceptualize and execute activities to promote inclusive and broad-based public consultations during the constitutional review process. These activities will enable diverse voices and perspectives to contribute to the review process through channels such as online platforms, media, and in-person forums with a focus on youth, women and marginalized groups.

Objective 2: Support OC/ICRIC/MOJAC in Political Engagement Strategies

The partner will collaborate with the Platform to assess and enhance political engagement strategies. Leveraging expertise in political outreach and public engagement, the partner will support the Platform's approaches to engage stakeholders in the constitutional review process.

Objective 3: Enhance Political Engagement of Women Leaders and Influencers

The partner will facilitate networking, learning, and exchange opportunities for women leaders, MPs, government officials, and other political influencers. This objective aims to empower these stakeholders to actively contribute their perspectives to the constitutional review process.

Objective 4: Promote Consensus-based and Incremental Approach

The partner will encourage diverse citizen groups to engage actively in political processes, fostering consensus-based and incremental progress in the constitutional review process.

Scope of work

The public participation partner will undertake two main components:

Component 1: Support for Political Outreach

Activities will include collaborative activity development, creating networking opportunities, and facilitating direct engagement between women leaders and political influencers.

Component 2: Support for Public Engagement

The partner will design a comprehensive public consultation process, promote inclusivity, and use multi-channel engagement to involve citizens in the constitutional review process.

Outputs and deliverables

The following deliverables are expected:

• Conduct 6 public consultation workshops and forums at national and Federal Member State (FMS) levels.
• Support public engagement between and among OC/ICRIC/MOJAC by holding events for different sectors of the society, as well as online forums via social media channels.
• Contribute to bottom-up policy development on national issues through the National Consultative Council (NCC) discourse pipeline.
• Develop and implement activities enabling women's influence and participation in national discussions, including the NCC and other decision-making platforms.
• Share outcomes of public consultations and forums with OC/ICRIC/MOJAC.

Timeline for delivery

The work should be completed between September 2023 and June 30, 2024.

Budget

The anticipated budget for this work is US$ 183,000

Application process and eligibility

Eligibility: Only organizations with Somali leadership and registered in Somalia are eligible to apply. Applicant organizations must have at least 3 years of verifiable experience in conducting public forums on public policy issues. The winning organization will be subject to a due diligence assessment carried out by RVI.

Application Process: Interested organizations should submit the following here by 31st August 2023 (23:59 EAT) with:

• A concise (4-6 pages) technical proposal detailing the approach, methodology, work plan, team allocation, relevant work experience and any other comments on the TOR.
• A comprehensive budget in the format provided on the full TOR attached at the end of this page..
• CVs of project-assigned staff.
• Organizational profile, including key leadership positions overview.

Please submit any queries or feedback regarding the application to platform@riftvalley.net

Evaluation process and methods

The evaluation criteria will be a split between technical and commercial (price proposal) scores at the 70:30 ratio. Total obtainable Technical and Price points = 100.

Proposals submitted in response to this RFPS should include and will be evaluated against the evaluation criteria found in the full TOR attached at the end of this page.

Conclusion

The public participation partner will play a pivotal role in enhancing public engagement in the constitutional review process within the Somali Dialogue Platform. Through the effective execution of activities and deliverables, the partner will contribute to fostering collaborative and inclusive dialogue spaces that empower Somali citizens to participate actively in shaping the political settlement through a consensus-based and incremental constitutional review process.