Background
The Africa Mental Health Leadership Programme (MHLP) is funded by the Wellcome Trust through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and is implemented by Africa CDC in collaboration with CBM Global, the Mental Health Innovation Network (MHIN), the Pan-African Network of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities (PANPPD), and other key stakeholders. The programme aims to build a new generation of mental health leaders across Africa who are equipped to advance mental health policy, advocacy, and service delivery.
As the lead partner for Pillar Four: Civil Society Engagement and Networks, CBM Global works in collaboration with MHIN and PANPPD to strengthen civil society engagement, networking, and collective action within the mental health sector. Through this pillar, the programme seeks to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs), including organisations of persons with lived experience of psychosocial disabilities (OPDs), to advocate for quality, rights-based mental health services and to hold service providers and policymakers accountable. A key focus of CBM Global's role is to ensure the meaningful participation of people with lived experience at all stages of programme implementation, while supporting the institutional strengthening of representative organisations.
To inform these efforts, a Mental Health Organizations Needs Survey was conducted under Pillar Four across Africa to identify the needs, aims and priorities of the organizations among other key areas. The survey findings revealed significant capacity gaps in project management, fundraising and resource mobilization, financial management, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). In response to these identified needs, this Terms of Reference (ToR) proposes the development and delivery of an accessible online training initiative focused on these key capacity areas. The initiative aims to strengthen the organizational capacity, sustainability, and effectiveness of mental health CSOs and OPDs across the continent by equipping them with practical knowledge, skills, and tools in project management, fundraising and resource mobilization, financial management, and Monitoring &Evaluation (M&E). Furthermore, the initiative emphasizes a shift from one-off training workshops towards practical application, ongoing mentorship, and follow-up support to enable participating organisations to strengthen internal systems, improve funding readiness, and enhance accountability and organizational performance.
Purpose of the Assignment
The purpose of this consultancy is to engage a qualified facilitator to design, facilitate, and provide a post training technical support for an accessible online capacity strengthening programme for mental health CSOs and OPDs across Africa.
The facilitator will develop and deliver practical, interactive and accessible training in project management, fundraising and resource mobilization, financial management, and in M&E, equipping participants with practical tools and templates. The Facilitator will also provide follow-up mentorship and technical support to strengthen organizational capacity, sustainability and accountability
Overall Objective
To strengthen the institutional capacity of mental health CSOs and OPDs across Africa to sustainably mobilize resources, effectively manage programmes and finances, and generate evidence to improve accountability advocacy, and mental health outcomes in their communities.
4. Specific Objectives of the Assignment
- Design and deliver an accessible online capacity strengthening programme that starts with the project management cycle and progressively covers fundraising and resource mobilization, financial management, and M&E.
- Develop practical tools, templates, and learning assignments that participants can adapt and apply within their organizations.
- Provide structured mentorship and technical assistance to support participants in applying learning to real organizational priorities and strengthening institutional practices.
- Support the programme team in participant onboarding, baseline and endline assessments, and reporting on the training process and outcomes.
- Facilitate the development of organizational action plans and provide follow-up support to enable participating organizations to implement improvements in project management, fundraising, financial management, and M&E systems.
Scope of Work
The Facilitator will be responsible for the full design, delivery, mentorship, and reporting of an online capacity strengthening programme for CSOs and OPDs across Africa. The assignment will include the development and adaptation of training content for a fully online, accessible, and low bandwidth. Deliver interactive training sessions; provide practical assignments and post-training mentorship; and documentation of programme outcomes and recommendations. to reinforce institution learning uptake.
Key Tasks and Responsibilities
- Review the approved concept notes and other relevant background documents. Develop an inception report outlining the understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, delivery plan, work plan, and timeline.
- Support the refinement of participant application, selection and onboarding criteria, taking into account the concept note’s indication that small, emerging, and mid-sized organizations with clear institutional strengthening needs should be prioritized and that, where feasible, at least two representatives per organization should participate.
- Develop and administer baseline assessment to identify capacities, needs and priorities expectations, and institutional priorities in project design.
- Design a structured online curriculum covering project management, fundraising and resource mobilization, financial management, and M&E.
- Develop training materials, facilitator guides, presentations, practical exercises, assignments and participants' resources.
- Develop practical tools and include concepts, donor mapping, concept note development, budgeting, financial tracking, M&E frameworks, and organizational action planning tools.
- Deliver the online training sessions in an interactive format.
- Facilitate practical assignments and provide feedback to participants throughout the programme.
- Provide post-training mentorship and technical assistance to support the application of learning and strengthening of organizational systems. Facilitate peer learning and knowledge exchange among participating organizations.
- Administer or support endline evaluation and document lessons learned, participant feedback, and recommendations for future support.
Required Training Modules
- Module 1: Project Management Cycle (foundation module) – including situation and stakeholder analysis, problem tree and objective setting, results frameworks and activity planning, risk analysis, implementation planning, and progress monitoring and reporting basics.
- Module 2: Fundraising and Resource Mobilization – including the funding landscape for mental health CSOs and OPDs, cross-sectoral positioning of mental health within broader development priorities, donor mapping and opportunity tracking, concept note development, and grant proposal writing basics. The Facilitator should provide useful donor websites and practical guidance on how to search and screen opportunities.
- Module 3: Financial Management and Minimum Financial Standards – including budget development and monitoring, internal controls and financial accountability, financial documentation and record keeping, procurement basics, expenditure tracking, financial reporting, and donor compliance requirements.
- Module 4: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) – including results frameworks and log frames, indicator development and selection, data collection and management, data quality assurance, routine monitoring and reporting, adaptive management and organizational learning, and use of evidence for advocacy and fundraising.
- Module 5: Integration and Organizational Action Planning – including how to link project design, fundraising, financial management, and M&E into an integrated organizational system, organizational capacity strengthening priorities, development of a practical organizational action plans 6–12 months.
Deliverables
- Deliverable 1: Inception report outlining the Facilitator’s understanding of the assignment, methodology, workplan, training schedule, and recommendations on participant selection and onboarding.
- Deliverable 2: Baseline assessment tool and summary report highlighting participants' needs, priorities and capacity gaps.
- Deliverable 3: Complete training package, including curriculum, session plans, presentations, facilitator notes, assignments, participant handouts and supporting resources.
- Deliverable 4: Delivery of the online training programme, including facilitation of all agreed sessions and participant engagement activities.
- Deliverable 5: Participant tool package, including project concept template, donor mapping template and funding tracker, basic grant-writing checklist, minimum financial standards self-assessment tool, simple budget and budget monitoring templates, M&E framework template with sample indicators, and organizational action planning template.
- Deliverable 6: Delivery of post training mentorship and technical assistance, including documentation of support provided and participant progress.
- Deliverable7: Final consultancy report summarizing activities completed, participant engagement, pre/post learning reflections or assessment findings, key outputs produced by participants, lessons learned, and recommendations.
Intellectual Property Rights
- All reports, materials, data, tools, publications, and other deliverables developed under this assignment shall become the property of the contracting organization (CBM Global) upon payment in full, and the Faci...