[Local Leadership Labs] Terms of Reference (ToR): Systems Thinking and Co-Design Learning Partners Consultancy
CIVICUS is in search of expert support to assist with:
- Facilitate co-design and ideation sessions with convening partners, ensuring inclusive and participatory approaches.
- Provide coach and mentorship to enhance local partners’ capacity for co-creation and cross-sector collaboration, supporting them in effectively engaging with their identified target stakeholders (e.g. governments, private sector, donors, media, academia).
- Guide partners through context-specific brainstorming processes and the development of solution prototypes, with a focus on fostering meaningful systems change.
- Support partners in testing and iterating prototypes based on real-time feedback.
- Document progress, challenges, and learnings throughout the process.
- Conduct in-person coaching sessions to partners in Uganda or Indonesia (or within the two regions) and offer continued virtual support.
Interested consultants should click here to submit their proposal by 10 March 2025.
About us
CIVICUS is a growing global alliance of more than 15,000 members in 175 countries. We work together to expand civic and democratic space. We strive to promote excluded voices, particularly from the global south.
Our Strategic Plan is built on the assumption that we are stronger when we work together. Expanding civic and democratic space requires a collective effort where our members and allies design and test sustainable solutions and deliver impact at scale.
To make this happen, CIVICUS works on five core objectives:
- Generate timely knowledge and analyses on civil society actions in relation to civic and democratic space.
- Coordinate targeted advocacy to defend and expand civic and democratic space.
- Contribute to stronger emergency and sustained support ecosystems for activists and organisations at risk.
- Strengthen public discourse on civic space and reinforce civil society narratives.
- Build counter power with the most affected groups and their movement.
Consultancy Background
The Local Leadership Labs (LLL) is a pilot initiative aimed at tackling some of the barriers (political, technical, behavioural) preventing governments, donors and other stakeholders from adopting and delivering on commitments that recognize, enable and resource diverse local civil society groups as key development actors in their own right. The initiative will support radically inclusive spaces where local civil society groups can drive, alongside other key actors and decision-makers, the development of context-appropriate policies and solutions. Moreover, the initiative will seed trans-local spaces for cross- pollination, reflection and strategizing among disparate likeminded efforts and multi-stakeholder initiatives that could help accelerate systemic changes towards Locally-Led Development.
The key drivers of the initial LLL pilot phase are six convening partners from local civil society based and operating in Southeast Asia and Southeast Africa. Each of the Local Leadership Labs conveners will facilitate sustained safe dialogue processes as well as inclusive co-creation spaces so that policies, practices, and enablement approaches of different stakeholders will be more joined up and responsive to the lived experiences, priorities and asks of diverse local civil society actors. Besides enhancing reciprocal accountability, in the end this process would positively impact the relevance and accessibility of resources, support infrastructure and solidarity available to local civil society actors. For moreinformation, you can review the initiative’s Theory of Change.
Scope and Goals
During the Ideation and Action Phases (April–November), local convening partners will engage in co- creation sessions with their identified target stakeholders (such as governments, private sector, donors, media, academia) to brainstorm and develop solutions that operationalize locally-led development commitments or address identified priorities. Through collaboration across sectors, participants will develop prototypes of proposed solutions, test them in controlled environments, gather feedback, and refine their approaches.
To support this process, we seek experienced Systems Thinking and Co-Design Learning Partners—either individual consultants or a team of consultants—to accompany six convening partners throughout the Ideation and Action Phases. General support should be provided for all six partners, as well as context- specific guidance tailored to each. Work may be more heavily focused on four of the six partners (with two operating in Uganda and two in Indonesia). These Learning Partners Consultant(s) will provide in- person and virtual support, facilitating systems and design thinking methodologies, guiding context- specific solution development, and ensuring the effective implementation of the co-creation process.
Consultancy Deliverables
- Facilitate co-design and ideation sessions with convening partners, ensuring inclusive and participatory approaches.
- Provide coach and mentorship to enhance local partners’ capacity for co-creation and cross-sector collaboration, supporting them in effectively engaging with their identified target stakeholders (e.g. governments, private sector, donors, media, academia).
- Guide partners through context-specific brainstorming processes and the development of solution prototypes, with a focus on fostering meaningful systems change.
- Support partners in testing and iterating prototypes based on real-time feedback.
- Document progress, challenges, and learnings throughout the process and develop a co-design toolkit.
- Conduct in-person coaching sessions to partners in Uganda or Indonesia (or within the two regions) and offer continued virtual support.
Experience
- Required
- In-depth knowledge of co-design methodologies, tools, and best practices.
- Systems thinking, co-design and experimentation: demonstrated ability to apply systems thinking and co-design methodologies to assess ecosystems and support innovation and experimentation efforts aimed at co-creating solutions to emerging political, technical and behavioural priorities.
- Development and facilitation of inclusive and safe spaces for meaningful engagement.
- Working with diverse cultures.
- Facilitation skills – online, in-person and hybrid.
- Working with civil society organisations and activists, particularly those belonging to traditionally excluded or marginalised communities.
- Preferred knowledge, prior experience and time-zone availabilit
- Knowledge of influencing, movement-building and/or transformative dialogue processes.
- Fluency in Indonesian and/or Swahili advantageous.
- Prior experience in the context of Southeast Asia or Southeast Africa, particularly in Indonesia and/or Uganda.
- Based and operating in Asia or/and Africa.
- Availability for team’s meetings between 1 PM– 6 PM Johannesburg time zone.
Expected workdays and timeframe
Estimated 30 – 40 workdays between 1 April 2025 to 30 November 2025.
Budget
Please provide a financial proposal which includes human resources, travel1 and any material cost likely to be incurred, with an accompanying budget narrative.
Application process
Please include the following elements in your proposal and click here to submit by 10 March 2025.
- Introduction: Introducing the consultant(s) and motivation/interest in applying for this opportunity.
- Approach: This should include your methodology – responding in more detail to the information set out in the ToR. Please be specific in how your methodology will meet the rationale/purpose of this consultancy, including a high-level workplan. Include how you will measure the success of the expected deliverables.
- Experience and examples/references: Include your CV, relevant experience and capabilities to deliver this consultancy and at least 2 examples and testimonials of similar projects is required. If applying as a team, please identify the specific roles and responsibilities of each member.
- Budget: This should include all costs associated with implementation of the project including major line items such as daily fees and travel. All financial information must be expressed in United States Dollars, unless the applicant is based in South Africa, in which case rates should be included in both South African Rand (ZAR) and USD.
Please ensure all of the above elements are included in one PDF document proposal, whilst keeping it to a maximum of 10 pages (CVs may be included in an annex to the proposal and will not count against the page limit).
You may also contact [email protected] for any questions or queries.
Applicants based or operating in Global South or belonging to traditionally excluded communities are strongly encouraged to apply.
We appreciate and consider each application submitted. However, given the large volume of applications received, we find it impossible to respond to each applicant immediately. If you are shortlisted, you will hear from us within three weeks, and we will let you know the next steps. We will also update all applicants once the consultancy has been filled.