SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES INTERNATIONAL TENDER AUGUST 2025
| REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS |
LEADERSHIP CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR BOARD GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE FOR NON-FINANCE EXECUTIVES
Closing date: 18 Aug 2025
This TOR document frames a training and capacity building service aiming to strengthen capacities among the National Directors and the Regional management team of SOS Children´s Villages in the Region Eastern and Southern Africa (ESAF) as well as to enhance their competence in two critical areas: Board Governance and Finance for Non-Finance Executives programme with a touch of partnership management related to the two topics.
Relevant consultancy firms are called to design and offer a leadership capacity-building programme on these two main areas based on this TOR document.
The Context
Introduction to SOS Children´s Villages
SOS Children’s Villages is a non-profit, non-denominational, social development organisation with the vision that every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect, and security. The organisation’s mission is to build families for children in need, help them shape their own future and share in the development of their communities. SOS Children’s Villages is organised as a federation of autonomous and inter-independent Member Associations (MAs), which support each other in a spirit of solidarity.
The General Secretariat (GSC) is currently the federation´s operating arm and it is represented by the International Office (IO) based in Austria, and 5 Regional Offices (IORs) located in Vienna (Austria-IOR EUCM), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia-IOR ESAF), Dakar (Senegal-IOR WCNA), New Delhi (India-IOR ASIA) and La Paz (Bolivia-IOR LAAM).
The organisation is present in 136 countries and territories worldwide through its MAs, who offer the various care programmes and services to the children and young people in our target group (children and young people without adequate parental care or those who are at risk of losing parental care).
Capacity building initiatives in SOS CVI
National Directors and Regional management team are the most senior executives in each Member Association and region level respectively and are responsible for leading organizational strategy, managing resources and engaging with national Boards and donors and partners. SOS CVI is currently undergoing a transformation process changing its overall operating model and structure that transforms its financial as well as governance and partnership models as well. Leaders in the organizational are therefore expected to adopt to these changing contexts and develop and strengthen new skill and acumen related to strategic financial management, governance management as well as managing complex stakeholder and partnership processes. As part of continuous leadership development and to better facilitate these transformation processes, the ESAF Regional Office plans to organise a two-day learning programme that build National Directors and Regional Management team capacity in the following areas:
- Managing Governance systems and working with Boards – one full day programme
- Financial management for non-finance executives and – One full day programme
SOS CVI recognizes that these topics are somehow independent requiring different expertise areas from Consulting/training institutions. As a result, we encourage applying consulting companies to submit their proposals either for one of the trainings topics only with a technical and financial proposal for one of the topics or come under one umbrella and provide proposal for both topics. However, the technical and financial proposals should be designed and submitted separately for each topic to enable the organization select providers for each of the programme separately.
Objectives and expected contents of the NDs Training on Board Governance – while the trainer/ consultants can add other pertinent topics to the below, the programme should at least aim to cover areas training content on the following areas:
- Equip the participants with knowledge and skills on governance and Board engagement.
- Facilitate understanding of governance principles in federated INGOs.
- Clarify roles of National Directors/executives Vs. Boards as well as Board and committee roles.
- Enhancing board and executive relationships and Navigating Board dynamics
- Aligning governance boards with strategic goals and promoting Board accountability and leadership effectiveness.
- Supporting effective board decision making
- Effective governance reporting practices and processes
- Supporting effective board meetings
- Managing diverse Partners and partnership processes in the governance management process
- Objectives and expected contents of the NDs Training on Finance for Non-Finance Executives and Partnership management
- Demystifying strategic financial concepts and improving participants’ ability to analyze financial performance and contribute to strategic discussions and applying financial insight to make informed strategic and finance decisions.
- Strengthening oversight of financial controls and risk, reporting, audits, and resource stewardship.
- Read and interpret budgets, financial statements, and reports.
- Lead budget planning aligned with strategy and support accountability and transparency in resource management.
- Confidently forecast and monitor the financial outcomes of strategic decisions.
- Explore the interplay of financial resources and systems for financial management and control, grasp and use financial management techniques including assessing capital budgeting, cash flow, valuation, and risk analysis.
- Effectively manage the balance between financial sustainability and growth
- Building and managing effective and strategic partnerships with donors and other stakeholders
- Other strategic topics the consultant deems relevant.
- Participants
A total of about thirty-five participants is expected to participate in this programme, including 25 National Directors and 10 regional management teams from ESAF region. The target group are responsible for strategic financial decisions of their respective Member Associations and offices and have either direct responsibility for governance topics or closely work with the governance structure of their respective offices.
- Scope of work
The Consultant will be responsible for:
- Preparation
- Conduct a brief needs assessment with selected National Directors and Regional management team
- Review relevant SOS frameworks (e.g., statutes, governance manuals, strategies, budget templates, grant and partnership agreements, etc).
- Conduct Pre-training virtual meeting: Participants share their current experience with organizational transformation and change leadership and their personal goals for the training.
- Design
- Create a modular 2-day training program, including practical case studies, exercises, and tools – allocating one day for each of the learning topics. If the consultant choses to focus on one of the topics only – this is also possible and encouraged.
- Customize content and exercises and case studies to SOS’s overall context
- Delivery
- Facilitate training in-person, using adult learning methods
- Incorporate peer learning, group exercises, and real-case simulations
- post-training
- Submit a report summarizing participant feedback, lessons learned, and recommendations for future capacity building and other interventions
- Provide all training materials (slides, handouts, exercises) in editable format for future internal use
- Training Venue, duration and schedule
- The selected consultant/s should be willing and be available to provide the required two days face to face trainings in Karen, Nairobi Kenya during the week of Sept 22- 26, 2025.
All Application and any requests for information regarding this Terms of Reference shall be sent jointly to lea.umutoni@sos-kd.org and stephen.muthui@sos-kd.org .
Selection and communication to bid winners will be communicated by 22 August 2025.
Application process
