Strategic Planning Consultant

Asmae’s Background

Asmae-Association Soeur Emmanuelle ("Asmae") is a French international NGO and registered charity, specialising in child development. Independent, secular and apolitical, it is open to all. Founded in 1980 by Sister Emmanuelle, based on her experience with rag pickers in the slums of Cairo, Asmae continues its actions in line with the values and methods inherited from its founder: listening and proximity, pragmatism, taking account of differences, professionalism and reciprocity. Asmae's actions aims to support vulnerable children and their families through personalised and continuing support for local actors working in the fields of education and child protection.

Asmae Lebanon

Asmae has been operating in Lebanon through local partners since 1986. Asmae is currently working with five Lebanese NGOs, operating in and around Beirut with some activities carried out in other parts of Lebanon as well.

For the project “Support and capacity building of the associations established by the Syrian communities in Lebanon with activities related to childhood and adolescence”, particularly Asmae has two main partners directly implementing the project’s activities:

Basmeh and Zeitooneh (BZ)

B&Z emerged from an initiative of a Syrian volunteer group working in Lebanon in 2012 in response to the Syrian crisis and the influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon. Though at first focused on assistance for these populations, B&Z rapidly developed a strategy encompassing all vulnerable communities in Lebanon (Palestinian and Syrian refugees, Lebanese communities), offering various services through nine community centres, spread across Lebanon and Turkey. B&Z programs include diverse activities in the sectors of education, child protection, women's empowerment, health, psycho-social support, job training, and emergency assistance. The Shatila Centre, founded in 2013, offers informal educational activities and psycho-social support for 600 children from refugee communities and hosts living in the Shatila Camp and the surrounding area.

Jafra Foundation for Relief and Youth Development (Jafra)

Primarily focusing on adolescents and development of their skills and leadership abilities, the Jafra Foundation began work in 2003 inside the Palestinian Camp of Yarmouk in Syria, where it opened a youth development centre. With the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011, the founders shifted the emphasis of their objectives in order to prioritize the needs of internally displaced Palestinians in Syria and Palestinian refugees in the region and in Europe (Greece, Belgium, Sweden). Jafra's programs include food security, emergency assistance, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as child protection. Jafra manages their activities in Syria from its office in Beirut. Thus, it is quite natural for Jafra to develop activities inside Lebanon. The partnership with Asmae will allow Jafra to start activities in Lebanon and establish a program designed for child protection and education. Jafra wishes to start its operations in Lebanon in Burj ElBarajneh camp, welcoming at least 37,000 persons, including 60% of children, a majority of Palestinian as well as Syrian and Palestinian from Syria refugees and most vulnerable Lebanese families. As an important number of Palestinians from Syria lived in Yarmouk camp and its surrounding in Syria, Jafra has already developed relationships and cultivated a positive environment within this community there.

The project aims to strengthen the capacity of the two Lebanese associations initiated by refugees’ communities in Lebanon to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and adolescents in terms of education and child protection, including psychosocial support services.

Expected Results

It is expected that the participants to this training will acquire knowledge of strategic planning frameworks, processes and analysis tools. By the end of the training participants should be able to develop objectives for individuals and teams/ departments feeding into corporate goals as well as be able to use strategic planning tools to develop strategic options. Further participants should be able to make use of key organizational procedures to enhance individual and organizational performance and deliver strategic objectives.

Scope of Service:

The service provider (consultant or firm) shall deliver all the services necessary to achieve the stated objective of these exercises. The focus could be on the following areas, however the consultant could adapt his/ her own methodology:

• Determining the best approach to effectively implement strategic planning

• Assessment the work environments through SWOT analysis

• Learning more about how strategic planning can help to prepare organization to rise to a new level of performance.

• Formulation and execution of strategic plans to meet objectives

• Application of strategy planning processes at an organizational and department level

• Identification of strategic planning issues in order to develop a unique advantage

• Alignment of the organizations with strategic planning goals by integrating strategy, objectives, metrics, and performance at departmental level

• Use of case study to examine the strategic planning process.

Deliverable and schedule

Deliverables in this work are mainly training and the training evaluation report. It should be rigorously timed and coordinated with the Projects and Partnership Manager (PPM) of Asmae, where the trainer is responsible to keep the process on track and assure the validation of the PPM for any step to be taken. The consultant will follow the following steps:

• Develop training programs and modules
• Conduct and submit pre training assessment report.
• Provide training materials and related documents.
• Conduct and submit post training assessment report.
• Inception meeting

During a first exploratory meeting with Asmae staff and partners’ staff, the consultant will request all needed documents and contact needed for the training arrangement and coordination.

Coordination of dates and times of training

Trainer will coordinate with Asmae and partners’ staff to agree on a training date and time, logistics and others upon the availabilities of all parties.

Evaluation and report

The Trainer will share a final report including the evaluation result with the PPM, for revision and approval.

Qualification

Asmae is looking for a consultancy firm or individual consultant with experience in designing and conducting trainings on Strategic Planning. The ideal candidate will have at least 7-10 years of relevant experience, and should have the following skills and competencies:

• Excellent writing and communication skills in Arabic and English
• Flexible and adaptable in approach to work;
• Confident in taking a creative, innovative approach to Strategic Planning
• Proven experience in capacity building, coaching and conducting trainings
• Familiarity with protection and education sector in Lebanon
• Familiarity with the socio-cultural context of the refugees in Lebanon
• Significant professional experience working with Arabic speaking participants

Budget and payment

Interested candidates should submit a budget of 2000 USD as a lumpsum including the 7.5% income tax which will be reserved by Asmae, unless the consultant/ trainer can provide his/her national financial registration number at the Ministry of Finance.

Please note that trainer would be required to use his/her own computer.

Payment is contingent on approval by Asmae and will be made in two installments:

50% upon the contract signature

50% upon the approval of Asmae for the final  training report