CARE RWANDA

Terms of Reference: Consultancy to document the Partnership Learnings for CARE International in Rwanda

1.0. Overview and Background

Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls. Equipped with the proper resources, women and girls have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty.

CARE aspires to become the most dynamic, diverse, and largest network of organizations that believe the best ideas and programs come from local leadership. CARE will continue to lead, advocate, and co-create with our partners as they respond to crisis, sustain their communities, and rise from poverty. As CARE evolves, we hope to be an organization that enhances creativity and collective action of a locally led, globally scaled, and connected network of social enterprises, local organizations, Civil Society Actors, Government Institutions, and private sector partners, etc., that can be more intentional in being driven by national and local forces. 

2.0. Context of the assignment 

CARE International was established in Rwanda in 1984. It played various roles in supporting and advancing development and humanitarian work in Rwanda and has evolved in its presence model. Moving from direct implementation to a more partnership-based model (through national and local implementing organizations) has taken shape in ways to ensure local organizations' capacities are reinforced and leveraged to become institutionally strong and empowered to co-create, co-design, and co-lead on programs that would positively impact the lives of Rwandans. 

In 2010, CARE Rwanda piloted its partnership model to work with local actors to let them implement 90% of the work, address power imbalance, avoid competition, and improve trust. In 2012, a 5-year partnership strategy was developed and reviewed in 2017 for a new term of 5 years to guide the partnership modus operandi. The objective was to shift from a delivery focus to a model where CARE inspires change and supports partners to lead the implementation on the ground. 

Considering the changes in motion nationally and globally towards a locally led agenda, CARE Rwanda updated its Partnership Strategy model in July 2024, intending to reduce detrimental unequal power relations that might exist with or be perceived by its partners. The strategy is also a means to reiterate CARE’s commitment towards implementing the Pledge for Change and Grand Bargain commitments, recognizing the unique role of the diverse range of partners it operates with in identifying, designing, and implementing the right solutions to defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

Currently, CARE Rwanda is mainly working with Civil Society Implementing Partners and Civic Society Actors (CSA), umbrella organizations, Government Institutions, and Private Sector Actors, in different ways and capacities. The relationship is either transactional, strategic, or both. Each partnership comes with a number of lessons and learnings that require to be documented and evidenced to inform decisions to deepen, improve, replicate, or scale partnership approaches. 

2.0. Objectives of this assignment 

The objective of this assignment is to support CARE Rwanda in documenting the learnings from different partnership approaches: best practices and lessons to replicate, failures and questions/issues, and risks to mitigate when working with different categories of partners.

This documentation will be achieved through the following specific objectives: 

1. Capture Best Practices and Failures by identifying and documenting successful and dysfunctional approaches, strategies, or models that have affected the quality of the collaboration with all partners, i.e, civil society actors, the private sector, small WL/WROs, Government Institutions, umbrella partners, etc. This includes methods for engaging partners, successful public-private partnership (PPP) structures, or joint value creation strategies.
2. Understand Challenges and Risks faced by CARE Rwanda and partners by analysing and recording the key challenges, failures, risks, and mitigation strategies encountered during the partnership, including the misaligned incentives and expectations, data-sharing issues, or regulatory hurdles.
3. Look into process mapping - how are we doing our partnerships, from cultivation to transactional/strategic engagements, and identifying the nodes which made a difference in the type of result which came out of it : e.g. partners sourced through the partnership selection process, those identified outside of that process (how, why?), the different steps taken to conclude the partnership (meetings, joint visits, technical engagements, etc.)
4. Improve Future Engagements: Use insights gained to inform and improve the design, negotiation, and management of future partnerships: prior teaming agreements, adjusting partnership models, or refining due diligence processes based on lessons learned.
5. Enhance Accountability and Transparency: Provide a clear and honest record of what worked and what didn’t, for internal stakeholders, donors, or governance bodies. This includes the documentation of the decision-making processes, contract outcomes, innovation in future collaborations, etc. 

Keywords: Partnership formation and due diligence, governance and communication, operational alignment, risk management, value exchange (mutual benefits), impact and outcomes, scalability and sustainability, and cultural and institutional compatibility. 

3.0 The Methodology 

The documentation will focus on best practices, lessons and failures, issues, and risks to mitigate when working with different categories of partners using different partnership approaches. The methodology includes Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), a survey (short, structured feedback from internal and external stakeholders), SSI, FGD, etc. The methodology will be proposed and agreed upon at the inception phase. 

This work will last 18 days, not consecutive dates depending on the date of contract signature.

All required documentation and logistical materials will be provided by CARE Rwanda.

4.0. Responsibility of the Consultant 

• Develop and produce an inception report detailing the methodology and approaches of the documentation. This also includes pre-reading of documents on the partnership and models used in CARE Rwanda, etc. 
• In collaboration with the CARE team (internal and external), finalize the partnership learning framework 
• Lead the data collection through interviews, FGDs, etc, to inform the documentation. This also includes the development of the tools. 
• Lead the production of a draft report that will be discussed and validated in collaboration with the CARE team. The report shall include a case study on the work with the private sector and umbrella. 
• Lead the socialization of the report with staff in and out and CARE Rwanda partners
• Produce a final substantive and acceptable report with key recommendations to consider moving forward for a successful partnership 

4.1 Responsibility of the CARE Rwanda team

• Organize a kick-off meeting to explain the objectives of the assignment and provide relevant documents 
• Perform the required preparatory work and logistics 
• Provide any other technical or operational support to the consultant 
• Review, validate the report, and sign off. 

5.0 Expected Deliverables

The expected output and deliverables for documenting the partnership learnings are:

• Detailed inception report describing how the documentation will be undertaken with a clear, detailed methodology and approaches 
• Final partnership learning framework 
• Data collected to inform the documentation. All data, including raw data, will be solely the property of CARE Rwanda 
• Draft report 
• Session with staff and partners to socialize the report and integrate additional recommendations
• Final substantive and acceptable report with key recommendations 

6.0. Work plan and timelines 

This assignment is expected to be executed in 18 non-consecutive working days as per the table below:

7.0. Reporting line 

This assignment will be supervised by the Partnership Manager, CARE Rwanda. The consultant will collaborate with the Programs Director, the Program Quality and Learning Director, and other relevant team members. 

8.0. Requirements for the consultant:

• A skilled and experienced consultant in documenting learnings. 
• Have an educational background in one of the following areas: rural development, economics, business management, development studies, social sciences, and other related fields.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in the development sector, especially monitoring, evaluation, and learning, knowledge management and learning, documentation, and other connected programs 
• Proven experience in facilitating documentation, knowledge management, and learning sessions, learning product design with INGOs
• Experience in facilitating program and strategy development is strongly desired 
• Strong and fluent communication skills in English (verbal and written skills) and reporting 
• Strong command of Kinyarwanda is considered an asset 
• Have a good understanding or be familiar with the localization and Civil Society context in Rwanda. 

9.0 Proposal evaluation criteria:

The technical and financial proposal will be assessed using the below criteria: 

10.0. Application Procedures

The application file should contain the following documents: 

• A technical proposal, with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved, and the team credentials for similar assignments. 
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions. 
• A financial proposal detailing the various costs associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF format and must be a separate document from the technical proposal. 
• Evidence of the vendor’s experience in doing similar assignments: Copies of similar assignments (with evidence for good completion of the previous similar assignments); 
• Submit at least 3 references with their contacts and addresses.
• Bank account information including the scanned copy of blank check or document from the bank confirming bank account information (name, account number, swift code, …) 
• Consultant firm profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable).
• Proof of registration in Rwanda with the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA) as a data controller or data processor.

All interested firms are invited to submit their offers electronically with the following title of the assignment “Consultancy to document the Partnership Learnings for CARE International in Rwanda” to the following email
address: RWA.Procurement@care.org no later than December 12nd ,2025 at 5:00 pm

 Kigali, November 27,2025

 Procurement Unit