Call to tender
Amatae: Core Funding Research
This is a call for proposals to undertake a detailed analysis of core funding as a mechanism for the development of local civil society organisations in Myanmar. The purpose of the consultancy is to support Myanmar CSOs advocacy and lobbying strategies. This research will draw primarily from the Amatae programme experience and will be completed by February 2016.
Introduction
Amatae was launched in October 2012 as Component 1A of the Burma Civil Society Strengthening Programme, funded by DFID and SIDA. From an original project end date of 31st Dec 2014, the project has received two extensions and is now scheduled to finish on Dec 31st 2016.
The project made its first grant contracts in March 2013 and now supports a total of 12 organisations and one network. Organisations were selected in two separate funding rounds. Grants are relatively large and funding spread over 2-3 years, meaning that recipients have tended to be larger organisations with significant absorptive capacity.
Amatae grant funding supports full or partial coverage of overhead costs, and resource for organisational development. The project aims to offer flexibility and understanding towards the particular needs and ambitions of individual organisations and, within project parameters, allows organisations to steer resources towards organisational priorities. Additionally, volunteers with experience in developing the organisational capacity of CSOs have been embedded within organisations to provide immediate and long term support to the development process.
Whilst this funding model has been well-received by organisations, leading to calls by civil society groups in consultation meetings for an expansion of this kind of support, Amatae remains the only dedicated core funding mechanism for civil society in Myanmar: project funding remains by far the dominant type of support for organisational activity. If, as the progress of Amatae partner organisations would suggest, core funding remains a viable and useful mechanism for the development of an effective civil society, a thorough examination of the context, possible modalities and potential impact of core funding is required.
The proposals will be evaluated on the four areas of the proposal, namely: relevant experience, approach to the design, work plan and cost.
We look forward to receiving your proposal. Please submit it to Maureen Kolay on nawmaureen.kolay@mm.britishcouncil.org . You may also contact Maureen Kolay for any clarifications, if necessary.
Deadline for proposals: 17:00 (local Myanmar time) on 6 January 2016.
Applicants will be informed of the result on or before 8 January 2016.
