The Lesotho Council of NGO’s was established in May 1990 as an umbrella body for Lesotho non-governmental organizations. LCN was established with the objective to provide supportive services to the NGO community in Lesotho through networking, leadership, information dissemination, capacity building, coordination, advocacy and lobbying, and representation when dealing with the international community and government. The Council’s mission is to stimulate, promote and build capacity within Lesotho NGO’s so that they become capable, democratic, transparent, skilled, empowered, and sustainable organizations, better able to respond to the needs of their stakeholders and the voiceless and marginalized groups. LCN has at least 120 civil society organizations in its membership, clustered into six (6) sectoral commissions to facilitate coordination and management of the NGO activities.

LCN is the Principal Recipients (PR) for Civil Society and Private Sector for Round 8 grant. The Global Fund Round 8 funding proposal was the product of extensive consultation during the proposal development process. Civil society organizations and private sector organizations shared their strengths and challenges and collectively proposed different strategies for improving local capacity and for positioning themselves in a more prominent leadership role within the multi-sectoral response to HIV & AIDS in Lesotho.

In order to assess the civil society contribution in the fight against HIV and AIDS at community level, it is important to review the effectiveness of support groups in this regard. Support groups form the most effective civil society structure at community level for prevention, care and support for the infected and affected. The assessment is aimed at documenting best practices and guidelines for support groups for replication and strengthening service delivery provided by support groups and related civil society formations. This review will further review manuals for establishment, operations and modalities for sustaining support groups.

2. Goal and Objectives
The goal for this assignment is to strengthen the civil society response to HIV and AIDS at community level. The specific objectives for this consultancy are:

• review the effectiveness of support groups at community level to identify best-practices
• Revise the manual on starting and sustaining support groups for PLWHIVs based on results of above

3. Task and responsibilities

 
The primary task of the consultancy is to have a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of support groups at the community level. This task should be undertaken in consultation and collaboration with LENEPWHA as a major beneficiary and other stakeholders involved in the management and coordination of support groups and other community based organizations (CBOs) including LENASO, NAC, LCN and the Office of the First Lady. In view of the number of support groups within each of the community Councils, the consultant will be expected to draw a sample representative all the geographical and ecological regions of Lesotho. .

As outlined above, the consultant is expected to undertake the following

• Undertake a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of support groups within the communities and identify capacity gaps in such.
• Document best practices for support groups operations, management, support and coordination within communities and with stakeholders.
• In consultation with stakeholders, review and revise the existing manuals for starting a support groups for adoption and use by stakeholders
• Facilitate validation of the manual for adoption

4. Expected Outputs

• An inception report within a week of commencement of the assignment
• A comprehensive report on the effectiveness of the support groups at the community level outlining best practices and challenges faced by the support groups.
• A strategy on what interventions are needed to make support groups more effective.
• Revised support groups manual

5. Documentation and timeframe

• The consultant will have access to information and documents, at the LCN disposal, that may enable development of a comprehensive report.
• The foregoing assignment is expected to be completed in a mission of 30-days, including briefings, preparations, visits, data collection and submission of the first draft.
• The Consultant shall report to the Executive Director of LCN, and shall work in close collaboration with the Grants Management Unit for execution of this assignment.

6. Qualifications and experience

He/she must have:

• A MSC/Degree in a relevant area. For instance social sciences, with demonstrated focus on community development and HIV and AIDS
• A minimum of 5 years experience in similar assignments
• Proven working and training experience in working with civil society organizations, and community development.

He/she must also:

• Be familiar with processes that allow active participation and stimulate ownership of the developed tools.

4. Requirements

Interested consultants are requested to submit the technical and financial proposals that clearly outline the methodology and work plan for the activity. The deadline for submission of proposals is the 26th February 2011.