TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)
Technical Assistance Refugee-Led Organizations
DREEM 2030, Technical Assistance Mechanism (TAM)
Locations: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, WAEMU, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya
1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
DREEM is the second phase of an initiative implemented by the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The program is designed to enable refugee and displaced (RDP) youth, as well as host community youth, especially young women and those with disabilities to access dignified higher education and economic opportunities across Africa.
A core operational component of DREEM 2030 is the Technical Assistance Mechanism (TAM), deploying qualified, context-fluent Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs) as technical experts on RDP inclusion. Contracted RLOs will provide direct, demand-driven technical assistance to Mastercard Foundation country teams and Young Africa Works implementing partners to help them address barriers and successfully include refugees and displaced youth in their existing programs.
2. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The objective of this initiative is for the selected RLO to act as a Specialized Technical Assistance Provider under the TAM. The RLO will utilize its localized expertise, language capabilities, and lived experience to review, advise, and capacitate Mastercard Foundation partners, ensuring their interventions are accessible, safe, and relevant to RDP youth.
3.Engagement, Supervision and reporting lines
The selected RLOs will be part of the TAM unit of the DREEM project, working closely with country RDP Specialists, under the supervision of the Head of TAM, in the delivery of services to the Mastercard Foundation and its partners. Recognizing that RLOs often face administrative, infrastructural, and financial constraints, this engagement will be governed by a Grants Plus/Accompaniment approach. Before and during the delivery of TA on the TAM mechanism, the selected RLO will receive:
- Core Capacity Training: Targeted instruction from WUSC’s RDP Inclusion Specialists on providing TA to the Foundation and its partners.
- Institutional Strengthening: Structured funding and technical support to strengthen the RLO's internal financial controls, administrative frameworks, and safeguarding/protection policies to meet global donor compliance standards.
The capacity strengthening of the RLOs will happen in the first 2 years of engagement, while they shadow WUSC’s RDP Specialists in their delivery of TA. Following this initial immersion, the expectation is for the RLOs to transition to fully deliver TA independently (with guidance from WUSC staff, from the third year of the engagement).
4. SCOPE OF WORK
Contracted RLOs will deliver technical assistance tailored to each Mastercard Foundation partner’s specific needs. Responsibilities may include:
- Regulatory & Administrative Guidance: Provide technical advice to partners (such as commercial banks, microfinance institutions, TVET centres, iNGOs, local NGOs, and university collaboratives such as RUFORUM, etc.) on navigating country-specific legal frameworks governing refugees. This may include the practical application of country-specific/regional frameworks and policies, guidance on recognition and acceptance of refugee documentation within existing regulatory framework and addressing legal barriers i.e. to financial accessibility, business registration, or academic enrolment.
- Contextual Program & Tool Adaptation: Review, critique, and adapt partners’ institutional policies, entrepreneurship curricula, skilling curricula, university admissions criteria, and business support models. Ensure these frameworks fit the socio-economic and structural realities of camp-based settlements or urban RDP youth and the host communities.
- Community-Led Peer Outreach & Mentorship: Setup, manage, and execute targeted outreach models within refugee communities to support partners to reach RDP youth. This involves guiding RDP youth through participation in various economic opportunities and interventions being fielded by the Mastercard Foundation and its partners.
- Strategic Inclusion Advising: Provide strategic toolkits and continuous advisory support to help partners build robust economic transition pathways that navigate local legal employment restrictions.
- Program design: Serve as a thought partner to the Mastercard Foundation and its partners across different local contexts, in the design of economic inclusion interventions/projects for RDP youth.
5. TAM-SPECIFIC RISK MANAGEMENT & COMPLIANCE
Selected RLO must successfully meet WUSC’s and the Mastercard Foundation's targeted compliance parameters prior to deployment:
- Operational Alignment: A collaborative review based on the WUSC’s compliance frameworks, and the Mastercard Foundation’s Harmonized Assessment Tool to ensure the RLO has the immediate administrative capacity to execute the advisory work.
- Strict Safeguarding Compliance: Execution of a Safeguarding Self-Assessment and absolute adherence to WUSC’s "Do No Harm" protocols and protection standards when interfacing with vulnerable youth during field-level advisory or peer-mentoring work.
6. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & MATCHING CRITERIA
To be eligible, the RLO must meet the following criteria:
- Lived Experience Leadership: Must be a legally registered or community-verified entity led by refugees, displaced youth, or returnees.
- Proven Domain Expertise: Demonstrated capability in either navigating local market systems, vocational training, and financial inclusion landscapes in the countries of operation.
- Inclusion Focus: Priority will be given to RLOs that possess specialized technical capacity to reach young women, youth with disabilities, or marginalized linguistic cohorts within the regional displacement ecosystem.
- Language Professionalism: Ability to write professional technical toolkits and facilitate high-level corporate workshops in English, French, or key regional operational languages (e.g., Kiswahili, Somali, Arabic, etc.) depending on the country of operation.
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