About the Assignment: 

The proposed research aims to complement the research that is undertaken as part of the assessments against the Civil Society Guidelines. Guidelines and existing research can be found here https://tacso.eu/eu-civil-society-guidelines/

The regular annual assessment against the guidelines has a clearly defined methodology and is repeated annually in order to provide reliable time-series data that will show the trends taking place in the three objective areas covered by the Guidelines. The nature of the research for the Guidelines provides primarily data on the current experience and events taking place across a wide range of criteria. The scope of the assessment research does not include the option to look in depth behind the main data, to provide deeper explanations and understanding.

The research aims to complement the Assessment research to provide in-depth understanding in three selected areas. These areas are selected in order to assist DG NEAR and other EU officials in their programming of support for civil society in the Western Balkans and Türkiye.

The three topics proposed are as follows:

1. Financial sustainability: to what extent CSOs are financially sustainable? It would be interesting to see the weight/impact of each funding source on average on the annual turnover of the organisations, especially with regard to the sources other than donor funding. Furthermore, are the non-donor sources (which ones in particular) sustainable in the long term? Which ones are the most used and which ones prove to be the most effective? What kinds of interventions might assist in the improvement of financial sustainability of CSOs at both organisational and sector-wide levels?
2. Constituencies: most of the CSOs participating in the survey declare that they maintain regular contacts with their constituencies and/or consult local communities regularly. Is that really the case? To what extent do they keep these relationships and to what extent they can legitimately claim to represent the interest of local communities/constituencies? What kinds of interventions might assist in the strengthening of constituency-building by CSOs at both organisational and sector-wide levels?
3. Human Resource Management: what are the main challenges faced by CSOs in the recruitment, development and retention of capable and motivated staff? What kinds of interventions might assist in the improvement of human resource performance for CSOs at both organisational and sector-wide levels? Are workplace cultures supportive of learning and good performance?

The non-key expert is responsible for producing a high quality and robust research report, based upon sound evidence for each of the three research topics.

She/he is responsible for:

• Detailed design of methodology, including production of data collection instruments.
• Facilitating discussions with the reference group, to ensure the methodology and process are well informed, robust and realistic
• Undertaking the data collection process, including conducting interviews, focus groups and surveys as necessary
• Data quality assurance, ensuring that the data collected meets required quality standards
• Analysing the data collected, interpreting the data to provide well-grounded responses to the research questions, including identifying any limitations in what the data show;
• Facilitating the validation and sense-making session(s)
• Drafting the draft final report
• Responding to comments and producing a final report
• Preparing and delivering a presentation of the main findings, conclusions and recommendations to all interested stakeholders.
• Preparing supporting documents for publication and social media.

Expert Profile:

The Expert should have the following educational background and professional experience:

Requirements:

Qualification and skills:

• University degree or equivalent (i.e. 8 years of professional experience following secondary education)

General Professional Experience

• At least 8 years of working experience, out of which at least 3 years of professional experience in an international setting

Specific Professional Experience

• At least five years experience in research or monitoring and evaluation roles, ideally including design of research methodologies.
• At least five years experience working with applied research techniques, both primary and secondary.
• Excellent knowledge of data analysis techniques and principles, including advanced skills in Excel or equivalent.
• Experience in writing high profile research reports for publication in English.
• In-depth knowledge of civil society.
• In-depth knowledge of the Western Balkans and Türkiye region.

Language requirements:

The primary language of the assignment is English, including communication and reporting to EU TACSO 3. Knowledge of at least one other language spoken in the TACSO region is essential.