TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR MID-TERM REVIEW OF SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES SOMALIA COUNTRY STRATEGY- (2023–2026)
SOS Children Somalia is implementing its Country Strategy for 2023–2026, which serves a comprehensive to guide the organization’s programming, operations, partnerships, institutional growth, and strategic impact and programmatic focus in Somalia. This national strategy plan rooted in the organization’s global mandate to ensure no child grows up alone and aligns with key international and national frameworks vision and the national development priorities and needs of communities. It serves as both a roadmap for SOS CV Somalia’s programming design and expansion over the next four years and an ambitious blueprint for further development that remains relevant to achieving the long-term goals of the Federation 2030 Strategy. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to report initial progress in implementing the Federation’s Strategy in Somalia and to secure future support from the Federal Government of Somalia, SOS CV International, and other relevant stakeholders.
The strategy was developed through extensive consultations with internal staff, youth representatives, government counterparts, and community-based partners. It was informed by national policy documents, global good practices in alternative care and child protection, and a situational analysis of children’s well-being in Somalia.
The strategy allows SOS Somalia to align its interventions with national development frameworks, including the National Development Plan (NDP-9), the National Transformative Plan, child protection policies, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also supports harmonization with global SOS Children’s Villages strategies, ensuring coherence in values, vision, and measurable outcomes.
The strategy is structured around five strategic priorities, with thematic emphasis on alternative care and child protection, family strengthening and resilience, youth empowerment and employability, health and nutrition including WASH and emergency response, and inclusive quality education. These core areas are supported by critical enablers such as gender, age, and diversity mainstreaming; digital transformation; climate-smart agriculture and renewable energy; child safeguarding and PSHEA; and strengthened partnerships and resource mobilization mechanisms.
By 2026, the strategy aims to directly impact on the lives of one million children and adults through targeted interventions that promote safety, well-being, and long-term resilience. It envisions a Somalia where children without parental care grow up in secure and nurturing environments, and where families and youth achieve economic and social independence. The strategy also seeks to expand access to essential services, including health, education, and protection—while strengthening partnerships and advancing localization to ensure sustainability and systemic transformation.
As the strategy reaches its halfway point, SOS CV Somalia is planning to conduct a Mid-Term Review to assess progress, identify challenges, and provide strategic recommendations to enhance the effectiveness and relevance of the strategy for the remaining period. This MTR functions as a strategic learning mechanism designed to enhance the effectiveness of the Country Strategy. It aims to test the underlying causal relationships embedded within the strategy, validate the alignment between programs and their intended outcomes, and recalibrate resource allocation and implementation approaches as needed. Additionally, the MTR seeks to institutionalize a continuous performance feedback loop that will guide strategic decision-making and adaptive learning during the final two years of implementation.
Considering this, SOS CV Somalia is seeking an external consultant with proven experience in conducting strategic reviews or evaluations of non-profit or development programs.
2. Objectives of the Mid-Term Review
Aligned with both result based management and strategy execution principles, The main objectives of the MTR will:
Overall objectives
Specific objectives
3. Scope of the Review
The MTR will assess the full implementation of the SOS Children’s Villages Somalia Country Strategy 2023–2026, with a particular focus on the period from January 2023 to December 2024. The review will adopt a holistic, evidence-based approach to examine the strategy’s design, execution, and adaptive capacity. The scope will span programmatic, institutional, and strategic dimensions, ensuring alignment with both internal priorities and the external operating environment.
The MTR will be guided by the balanced scorecard framework, which emphasizes a strategic review across four core perspectives: program development, fund development and partnerships, human resource and organizational development, and strategic risk mitigation. This approach ensures a balanced and comprehensive examination of the Country Strategy’s intent, implementation, and impact.
Under the Program Development perspective, the review will cover all thematic and programmatic areas outlined in the country’s strategy. These include Alternative care, Family strengthening, youth empowerment and employability, Education, Emergency response and humanitarian action, climate-smart agriculture and renewable energy, child protection in emergencies (CPIE). The review will assess the effectiveness of these thematic interventions in contributing to the achievement of strategic objectives and outcomes. This includes supporting 400 children and young people without adequate parental care through quality alternative care and protection services in a family environment; enabling 4,500 children and families to become economically self-reliant and capable of providing adequate care and protection to children and young people; and reaching 3,01,8016 crisis-affected individuals including children, women, men, elderly people, and vulnerable groups through integrated life-saving emergency programs that focus on health, nutrition, protection, WASH, education, MHPSS, and livelihoods. Additionally, the review will examine how the strategy has empowered 2,000 young people with structured skills development and economic empowerment initiatives aimed at improving employability and resilience, and expanded access to basic quality education for at least 5,000 children and young people in SOS CV Somalia’s operational areas. The review will further assess how well these programmatic interventions are coordinated, contextually relevant, and aligned with SOS CV Somalia’s mission and the 2023–2026 strategic framework.
The Fund development and partnerships perspective will explore the performance of the organization’s resource mobilization strategies and the quality, diversity, and sustainability of institutional partnerships. The review will assess progress toward increasing institutional funding to €16 million per year through a combination of institutional donor engagement, local fundraising, and income development. It will also examine efforts to establish long-term strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations in Somalia, with the aim of achieving transformative impact at scale. The assessment will further consider how innovation, advocacy, and value-based positioning have contributed to enhancing the organization’s visibility, funding base, and influence.
The HROD perspective will focus on evaluating the capacity, systems, and organizational culture required to support the successful execution of Strategy 2030. This includes reviewing progress toward building a digital and robust HROD system that empowers staff, enhances competencies, and fosters a safe and attractive working environment. The review will also assess the extent to which safeguarding systems and structures are in place, functional, and fully institutionalized across all program locations. Additionally, attention will be paid to the organization’s ability to attract, retain, and develop talent, promote inclusive leadership, and ensure internal coordination supports learning and operational excellence.
The Digital Transformation and Innovation perspective will assess the extent to which SOS CV Somalia has embraced digital solutions and innovation to enhance organizational effectiveness, program quality, and staff capacity. The review will examine progress made toward equipping children and young people with digital skills and access to modern technologies to help them thrive in the digital age. It will also assess efforts to digitalize internal processes, systems, and learning platforms aimed at increasing efficiency and enabling staff through continuous digital learning. Attention will be given to how digital tools such as DHIS2 and the SOS Care Promise Compass have been utilized to support decision-making, accountability, and adaptive management, as well as how innovation has been institutionalized to foster responsiveness, scalability, and long-term impact.
Finally, the strategic risk mitigation perspective will review the robustness of risk management mechanisms across programmatic and operational areas. This will include safeguarding, emergency preparedness, financial controls, and risk-informed decision-making processes that enable resilience and adaptability in a volatile operating context.
In addition to these four perspectives, the MTR will also assess the integration and effectiveness of cross-cutting priorities that are central to the country strategy. These include gender equality, disability inclusion, climate resilience, localization, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), digital transformation, innovation, and safeguarding. The review will determine the extent to which these themes have been mainstreamed into programming and organizational practices, and how they contribute to equity, relevance, and impact.
The geographic focus will include both national and sub-national levels, with particular attention to the alignment between the national strategy and its operational execution in regions such as Banadir and Southwest State. The review the strategy map (explicit or implied), the logical framework of cause-effect relationships, and the tools and systems such as indicator performance tracking tables (IPTTs), DHIS2, SOS care promise compass dashboards, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks used for tracking implementation progress and assess how these feedback loops are used to adapt and refine the strategy in real time.
4. Key review questions
5. Methodology
The methodology for the MTR will be proposed by the external consultant as part of the inception phase and subject to validation by SOS Children’s Villages Somalia. The consultant is expected to adopt a participatory, consultative, and mixed-methods approach—ensuring robust triangulation of data, inclusion of diverse stakeholder perspectives, and alignment with results-based management and strategic execution principles. The final methodology should detail the data collection strategy, tools to be used, analytical approaches, and mechanisms for validation and stakeholder engagement.
To support the development of a contextually relevant and comprehensive methodology, SOS CV Somalia proposes several key considerations. First, the consultant is encouraged to conduct an external context and trend analysis using tools such as PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) and, where applicable, Child Rights Situational Analysis (CRSA) to understand the evolving external landscape. Second, an internal institutional analysis using SWOT is recommended to assess the organization’s capacity, structure, systems, and readiness to deliver on its strategic ambitions. These frameworks will help ground the review in both the internal and external realities affecting strategy execution and relevance.
6. Deliverables
2.1 A detailed assessment of midterm progress against the National Strategy 2023–2026.
2.2 A report on external and internal analysis, including PESTLE, SWOT, and, where applicable, CRSA.
2.3 Identification of key strategic issues, gaps, and opportunities emerging from the analysis and consultations.
The final MTR report must include:
7. Duration and Timeline
The MA Somalia national strategy MTR is expected to be implemented over 12 weeks period starting from 1st August to 30th October 2025. A detailed timeline will be agreed with the consultant upon during the inception phase.
8. Required Qualifications
9. Management and Oversight
The MTR will be overseen by the National Director, who will serve as the Project Sponsor, providing strategic leadership and ensuring high-level accountability for the review process. The National Planning and Review Coordinator (NPRC)—who also serves as the Head of MEAL—will act as the Project Coordinator, responsible for the overall coordination of the MTR, technical oversight, and serving as the primary liaison between the external consultant and SOS Children’s Villages Somalia.
To support cross-functional engagement, inclusive participation and ownership, a Multi-sectoral working group will be established to support the review process, ensure cross-departmental ownership, support technical inputs, guide analysis and validation of the findings and facilitate timely decision-making throughout the review process. Members of the working group will include the Program Director (PD), Head of fund development and communication (FD), Head of Human resource and organizational development (HROD), Child safeguarding advisor, Director of operations, Head of safety and security, and the Head of ICT/Digital transformation. Each member will contribute expertise aligned to their thematic and functional responsibilities, supporting both the strategic and operational dimensions of the review.
An External Consultant will be engaged to serve as the technical lead and process facilitator for the MTR. The consultant will be responsible for designing the methodology, conducting data collection and analysis, leading consultations, and producing the draft and final reports. The consultant will work closely with the NPRC and the Working Group to ensure that the process remains participatory, evidence-based, and aligned with strategic priorities.
SOS Children’s Villages Somalia will facilitate access to relevant strategic documents, stakeholders, and field locations, and will provide the necessary logistical support to ensure the successful implementation of the review.
Interested and eligible individuals or firms are invited to submit a comprehensive application package for the Mid-Term Review of the SOS Children’s Villages Somalia Country Strategy (2023–2026). The application must include:
A Technical and Financial Proposal (maximum 15 pages) detailing:
A cover letter expressing interest and demonstrating availability for the full review period.
The proposal should clearly demonstrate the applicant’s ability to:
Applications must be submitted in PDF format and in English. The complete application package should be sent by email no later than 15th July 2025 12:00 am (East Africa time) to: [email protected]
The email subject line should be titled: “TOR for Mid-Term Review of SOS Children’s Villages Somalia Country Strategy (2023–2026)”
Proposals will be evaluated based on technical quality, relevant experience, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with the scope and expectations outlined in this Terms of Reference.
Tagged as: Somalia, SOS Children's Villages International
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