The final design and management of The Fund is to be developed by the Consultant. The total budget for grant disbursal will be 7 400 000 DKK
The Fund will be aligned and built upon the commitments made by the Government of Afghanistan to the “Open Government Partnership” (OGP)”. In particular, The Fund will target two key commitments made in the OGP: (1) Increased access to information concerning Government activities and, (2) Support civil society participation. The locus of change will be to promote the understanding and implementation of the Access to Information Law. The Fund will be a pilot project that will aim to address the following challenges:
— An Attenuated trust in the Afghan Government’s ability to provide sufficient Access to Information to its citizens;
— Structural barriers that inhibit engagement of the population, CSOs and media to express their opinions on the issues associated with corruption;
The objective of the Fund is to support civil society and journalists to utilise provisions in the Access to Information Law and in Presidential Decree to enhance transparency in service delivery in three provinces in the Afghanistan: Nangahar, Laghman and Kunar (final province selection will be determined in the inception phase).
The objectives of the MU are two-fold:
— The MU will provide quality mentoring support to CSOs and journalists to implement innovative projects that support improved access to information.
— The MU will act as the fund manager with fiduciary oversight for a minimum of 4 grants and a maximum of up to 6 grants.
The MU will provide the following outputs:
— Provide an inception report which will describe the execution of the tasks and responsibilities of the MU as outlined in the Terms of Reference. This will include but not be limited to a final design of the Fund, its functions and administration, requirements for grant proposals and final selection criteria for these, and associated guidelines as well as procedures for the management and administration of the grants. The Inception Report should also define a simple and efficient monitoring and evaluation system, as well as a detailed work plan for the following 11 months.
— Establishing The Fund Steering Committee (SC). The SC will have the mandate of overseeing the MU’s operation and decision making on grants. It will be a five-member SC consisting of members from CSOs, the Government of Afghanistan, opinion leaders, journalists and the RDE representatives. Members of the SC will not be allowed to apply for funds due to conflict of interest issues. The MU will review all grant proposals (and provide recommendations) prior to presenting them for approval at the SC. The SC will convene one time per month. The SC will review the quarterly activity and financial reports but final approval for these reports rests with RDE. The project manager of the MU will act as secretary for the SC, i.e. prepare itinerary and minutes of meetings.
— A lesson learned exercise will be conducted and presented to the RDE in December 2018. The document must take stock of what The Fund has achieved during the 12 months of the project implementation, and to provide the RDE with an opportunity to have feedback and suggestions from the partner organizations on successes and challenges and initiatives that can be capitalized upon in the future.
In particular, the MU will have the following key functions:
— Convener of the SC;
— Efficient management of The Fund and grants;
— Solicitation of proposals from potential grantees;
— Serve as a liaison with the Government, grantees, RDE and SC
— Conducting due-diligence on potential grantees;
— Presentation of project packages to the SC for approval and realization/execution of projects and;
— M&E and quality assurance of the implemented grants.