Terms of Reference for Consultancy to Review and Synthesize Existing Legislations, Policies and Regulations that affect Civil Society Actors Operations and Philanthropy Support Incentives in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania &Uganda)

Call For Consultancy: Terms of Reference for Consultancy to Review and Synthesize Existing Legislations, Policies and Regulations that affect Civil Society Actors Operations and Philanthropy Support Incentives in East Africa

1. Organizational profile
Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) is a Kenyan development grant-making organization founded in 1997 as a public foundation supporting communities to initiate and drive their development agenda by harnessing and growing their resources and securing their basic rights and services from duty bearers. KCDF works with poor, marginalized, and disadvantaged communities as its primary target group and looks to provide them support in uplifting themselves from their situation through their efforts. A secondary target group involves organized communities that are focused on sustainably uplifting themselves through asset building. KCDF thus invests significant resources to build, strengthen and sustain the core capacities of these communities by developing thoughtful, long-term collaborations with other actors such as governments, non–profit organizations, the business sector, and individuals to achieve social justice.

KCDF's approach to sustainable development is anchored on ensuring communities can identify and act on their most pressing needs by paying attention to the immediate and long-term challenges and crafting innovative and homegrown solutions focused on livelihoods, education, environmental conservation, and policy influencing. KCDF employs a rights-based approach through its mission to promote social justice and the sustainable development of communities. KCDF's core values are equity, respect, integrity, collaboration, and innovation.

2. Project background
Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF), in partnership with other East African Civil Society Organizations, is in the process of co-creating a financial resilience learning and sharing hub delivered through face-to-face and online interactions. This includes providing coaching and mentorship opportunities to Civil Society Actors (CSAs) who enroll in the Hub, thus making the entire interaction experiential. The Hub will work with civil society in all its diversity, including organizations, organized groups, movements, activists, and minority groups.

3. Project objectives
3.1 Overall project objective
The overall objective of this project is to have a financially viable civil society, able to generate, build and manage their own resources, to advance their goals.

4. Purpose of the assignment
Overview

KCDF is co-implementing a Financial Resilience Regional Hub project. This project supports civil society actors (CSA’s) to reduce dependency on foreign funding and explore options for flexible funding, and locally rooted business models that are building towards strengthening and dignifying sustainable finance models for CSAs.

The project recognizes policy/law formulation, review, and implementation as a crucial component of CSA’s sustainability.

KCDF, therefore, seeks a consultant/consultancy firm to undertake a synthesis of existing legislations and policies that affect CSAs’ operations in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to identify gaps and make recommendations on creation of an enabling environment for CSAs to thrive by opening up the space within which CSAs can diversify their sources of income to avoid over reliance on donor funds.  The laws and regulations/policies to be reviewed include but are not limited to the following:

  1. Tax laws such as: Value Added Tax, tax benefits conferred to CSAs for instance, tax credits to exclusion and exemptions and benefits derived from registration under Public Benefit Organizations (PBOs) category, tax benefits on corporate as well as individual donors, deductibility of charitable contributions, as well as import duties;
  2. Compliance laws on registration which may include easy to search FAQs around laws and regulation on registration of various CSAs;
  3. Economic activities CSAs can engage in consistent with their registration regime.

5. Scope of work

The assignment shall cover the following scope:

  1. Review of existing East African (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) legislations, policies and regulations that affect CSAs’ operations as well as any CSAs related incentives in order to identify the gaps, conflicts, and inconsistencies affecting CSAs’ operations as enumerated in section 4 (i-iii) above and guide CSAs on how they can diversify their sources of income. The following issues will be covered: General CSAs operating environment, Endowment fund Building, Social Enterprises, Asset building and ownership, Local fundraising, tax, and tax rebates and any other key issue;
  2. Review of international best standards and practices in the CSAs’ operating ecosystem  to identify how legislation in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda can be improved in order to comply with international best practices/standards pertaining to the above-mentioned issues (endowment fund building, social enterprises, asset building, and ownership, local fundraising, tax, and tax rebates as well as any other issue that can enhance CSAs operations with regards to financial sustainability and incentivizing both corporate and individual givers);
  3. Based on the results of the above-mentioned synthesis, guide CSAs on how they can diversify their sources of income;
  4. The consultant/consultancy firm shall be expected to deliver a detailed report guided by the scope of the assignment.

Duration: The assignment is expected to take 28 calendar days

6. Deliverables
Deliverables, as used in this ToR operationally, means the assignment outputs and further outline how the deliverables shall be organized:

The three primary deliverables for this consultancy are:

  1. Inception report including but not limited to methodology, interview questions, proposed legal as well as policy review documents and timelines. Once approved, it will become the key management guide for the synthesis/review exercise;
  2. Draft: The drafts should follow the agreed-upon formats outlined in the inception report and any modifications already agreed upon;
  3. Workshop Presentation: For presenting and discussing the draft deliverables interactively, the consultant/consultancy firm will facilitate a discussion with KCDF staff and other stakeholders;
  4. Produce three detailed reports, each country-specific reviewing laws and regulations across the three East African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) that affect CSAs’ operations with a focus on issues mentioned above under section 4 (i-iii). Additionally, the following issues shall be covered in the above three country-specific reports as separate topics:
      • General CSAs operating environment
      • Endowment fund Building
      • Social Enterprises
      • Asset building and ownership
      • Local fundraising
      • Tax and tax rebates and any other key issue
  5. The final outputs shall be concise and well-written documents that are organized logically, flow smoothly, and are well edited. There shall be three separate reports, each per country, with at least six topics/issues mentioned in (iv) above.

7. Approach and methodology
A variety of methodologies will be applied, which may include:

    • Desk review of relevant documents received/produced by East African CSAs and specifically from the three East African countries being reviewed herein referred to as respondents, as well as any other relevant resources from elsewhere for benchmarking or comparison i.e., from other global south regions as well as the global north;
    • Interviews targeting various stakeholders, including tax experts, CSAs income diversification/financial resilience practitioners, development sector CSAs staff, board members, and any other relevant respondents including CSAs that are currently running income generating activities;
    • Workshops for consultations and validation of documentation herein referred to as deliverables. Includes triangulation methods to validate the findings/deliverables;
    • Analysis and synthesis of deliverables should be presented logically in a way that aids effective virtual (online) learning and sharing;

8. Responsibilities
The National Financial Resilience Hub Coordinator will manage the synthesis/review exercise.  A review management team drawn from the East African Financial Resilience Hub will be established to review and approve the main deliverables, including the inception report, drafts, and final deliverables.

9. Qualifications and attributes required
Candidates/individuals should possess the following minimum qualifications:

An independent external consultant/consultancy firm will conduct the synthesis. The consultant/consultancy firm must demonstrate extensive experience in carrying out legal/policy reviews, including using comparative analysis to advance structured learning and concerted advocacy. 

The lead consultant is expected to have:

    • More than 10 years of experience in governance, international development, legal, or related areas;
    • An advanced academic degree in social sciences, international development, governance, law, or similar relevant fields is an added advantage;
    • The ability to demonstrate past legal/policy reviews for Civil Society Organizations;
    • Specific knowledge, understanding, and experience in content development for online learning and sharing as well as great mastery of CSAs income diversification/financial resilience is desirable;
    • Demonstrable experience conducting similar tasks (will be an added advantage).

10. Timelines
The conduct of the synthesis/review exercise will take place between 3rd  November – 30th November 2022.  

11. Financial proposal
A financial proposal should be submitted alongside the technical proposal. The financial proposal must express the professional fees for the assignment and any other fees to be charged. Where applicable, travel costs of the consultant/consultancy firm (airplane ticket economy class), transfers, and daily allowance as per the KCDF rate are payable in addition to the daily consultancy fee. Payment shall therefore be made according to the following deliverables:

  1. Thirty percent (30%) after submission and acceptance of the inception report.
  2. Forty percent (40%) after submission and acceptance of the draft deliverables.
  3. Thirty percent (30%) after submission and acceptance of the final deliverables.

12. Application process  
The deadline for submission of expressions of interest is 24th October 2022.

Interested individuals or firms are requested to submit their applications (CV highlighting work relevant to this call), including technical and financial proposals. The technical proposal should demonstrate the consultant/consultancy firm’s skills and experience in the synthesis/review process, methodology and approach, and a detailed work plan.

Applications should be sent electronically (email) to grants@kcdf.or.ke  and copy procurement@kcdf.or.ke no later than 5.00 p.m. EAT, 24th October 2022. The application subject line should indicate “FRRH: Synthesis of legislations, policies and regulations that affect CSAs in East Africa”.

NB: This bid is open to both individuals and organizations. The successful candidate/organization will be expected to provide two reference letters of previous work undertaken.

13. Interested parties’ conference/questions
Any need for clarifications on the Terms of Reference should be directed to the same email address as outlined above by the 13th of October 2022.

Further, applicants interested in participating in a question/answer session facilitated by KCDF should express their interest via the above email addresses no later than 5:00 PM on 13th   October 2022. Thereafter a zoom link shall be emailed to you before 9:00 AM on 14th October 2022. The question/answer session will take place on the 14th of October from 09:00 am – 10:00 am. Participation is optional.

14. CANVASSING
Any form of solicitation/ canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.

 Download the TOR here images 2