Sida Helpdesk – Democracy and Human Rights
This Helpdesk is managed by FCG Sweden and designed to assist Sida and Swedish Missions Abroad.
The Helpdesk provides short-term expert support (up to 10 days) to Sida’s contribution management, strategy development and operationalization process and thematic/methodological support within the area of Democracy and Human Rights. Support can be requested by staff at both Sida Head office and Swedish Missions Abroad.
How to use the Helpdesk
The Helpdesk is designed to be easy to use:
Step 1: Initiation
Fill out the standard request form (here) and e-mail it to the Helpdesk dedicated email address at FCG Sweden, DemoHR@fcgsweden.se.
The Helpdesk management team can help you further clarify your request if needed.
Step 2: Selection of consultant(s)
The Helpdesk team at FCG Sweden will reply to your request and distribute it request amongst their consultants with the required expertise. The Helpdesk team will propose a suitable consultant to carry out the assignment.
Step 3: Discussion and agreement on deliverables
FCG Sweden will set up a short call with the assignment requestor and the selected expert. The purpose of this Start-up call is to align expectations regarding the assignment and to agree upon the scope, timeline and deliverables. This step is crucial because it ensures the assignment is as useful as possible to the requestor.
Step 4: Implementation and QA of the assignment
The consultant will carry out the assignment (e.g. desk study, training, analysis etc.) according to the agreed timeline (including potential drafts for feedbacks) in close communication with the Helpdesk managers at FCG Sweden and with the requestor when necessary (in line with FCG’s Helpdesk Quality Assurance process). The final output will be quality assured by the Helpdesk manager(s) before final submission. If all of the 10 days are not used up, this is also an opportunity to expand the assignment if required.
Step 5: Satisfaction questionnaire and assignment closure
If desired, we set up a short debriefing meeting after the assignment has been completed. At this meeting the expert can give a brief overview of the delivered product, and the requestor has the opportunity to ask questions. After completion the requestor will be sent a short satisfaction questionnaire. Once this has been completed, the assignment will be closed.
Need more information?
Feel free to contact us for more information on the type of help we can provide, and the consultants that we can mobilize. We are also happy to assist you in drafting your helpdesk request. Contact our team at DemoHR@fcgsweden.se.
More information and documentation, including on the sub-thematic areas of the Framework Agreement, can also be found on Sida´s Share.
The Helpdesk provides expert support to Sida’s contribution management, strategy development and operationalization process and thematic/methodological support within the area of Democracy and Human Rights offered, on request from both Sida Head office and Swedish Missions Abroad in the area of Democracy and Human Rights. The Helpdesk assignments can be up to 10 days of consulting work and are financed by INTEM/Demo through the Strategy for Sweden’s Development Cooperation in the Areas of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, therefore not requiring a formal decision, agreement, or financing by the procuring unit.
For assignments requesting more than 10 working days input, a call-off from the Framework Agreement will be needed. You can find more information on the Sida Framework Agreement for Democracy and Human Rights here.
The Helpdesk is managed by FCG Swedish Development AB, which has managed the previous phases of the Helpdesk, and will call on a team of experienced experts from around the world. FCG Sweden can also rely on its consortium partners (International IDEA, BBC Media Action, and the Overseas Development Institute-ODI) to bring a breadth of expertise in all the thematic fields covered by the Helpdesk.
The Helpdesk will be running during the period June 2023 – June 2025, with a possibility for extension for up to two years.
The Helpdesk is designed to assist Sida and Swedish Missions Abroad and covers a broad range of subjects within the following thematic areas:
- Political Institutions, Political Processes and Pluralist Civil Society
- State building, Public Institutions and Public Administration
- Local Democracy and Decentralization
- Public Financial Management
- Human Rights Systems and Human Rights Defenders
- Equal Access to Justice and Rule of Law
- Equality and Non-Discrimination
- Freedom of Expression and Access to Information Online and Offline
- Human Rights Based Approach
We can provide the following services under the helpdesk:
- Assistance with formulation, implementation, monitoring/following up, reviewing, and reporting on country, regional, global, and thematic strategies, strategy portfolios, or specific programs and projects.
- Providing expert support through stakeholder mappings, portfolio reviews, political economy (and other) analysis, summaries of results
- Participating as experts in seminars, workshops, discussions, short-term missions
- Provide written or oral comments on appraisals, program documents, reports, assessments, reviews, analyses
- Provide advice, training, or guidance to Sida and the Swedish Missions Abroad in the sub-areas covered by this assignment
- Provide expert input to support the development of methodological guidance, tools, training material, and briefs
- Develop and provide communications support including presentations, talking points, and briefing notes
The Helpdesk offers easily accessible short-term advisory services and consists of a core team of highly qualified experts with experience working with development cooperation. The experts and partners are knowledgeable in national and local contexts and have proven expertise in how to implement and address issues concerning democratic governance and human rights, including providing support for method development.
FCG Sweden carefully selected consortium partners for the Helpdesk based on their specific area of expertise. Complementing FCG Sweden’s own expertise. Find below a description of FCG Sweden and its partners.
FCG Sweden is one of Scandinavia’s leading consultants in the area of capacity building and institutional development in transitional and developing countries. FCG Sweden works globally on projects aimed at strengthening civil society, fostering public sector reform and aiding democratisation. FCG Sweden maintains strong local partnerships in all Sida countries and has a refined system for rapid mobilization of experts for delivering technical assistance projects in the areas of democracy and human rights.
International IDEA, an inter-governmental think- and- do-tank with the sole mandate to advance democracy worldwide. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, International IDEA produces comparative, policy-friendly knowledge and provides capacity development support on issues relating to elections, parliaments, constitutions, money in politics and political representation, all under the umbrella of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Institute uses its knowledge and experience to provide technical assistance and expert advice to governments and civil society around the world and to convene high-level agenda setting dialogues and partner with likeminded organizations, including the EU, AU and the UN, to achieve greater impact.
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is an independent, global think tank which has been a pioneer in the field of ‘politically informed programming’ and has led the debate on political economy approaches- working with donors, NGOs and developing country governments to discover how power and institutions influence behaviour and how this affects the adoption and achievement of development goals. In recent years, ODI’s work on politics on governance has increasingly linked PEA approaches with approaches to designing and implementing flexible or adaptive programmes. ODI advises donors such as FCDO, USAID Irish Aid, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, among others, on politically informed and adaptive approaches to programme design and implementation. ODI co-founded -and continues to be part of key networks which are still active in this space, including the Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) Community of Practice. ODI moreover advises on the application of this approach across a range of governance and sector issues, and has also led on integrating a gender lens to politically smart and adaptive approaches, and to advising gender programming on integrating these approaches.
BBC Media Action has over 20 years’ experience su
pporting public interest media, including in some of the world’s most fragile and conflicted states, to foster greater accountability, transparency, and democracy. Its first-rate capacity to support the development of healthier media ecosystems and tackle the threat of disinformation is underpinned by expertise in strengthening local media houses – including the most influential channels and broadcasters, community media, digital media and independent journalists – to produce accurate, unbiased and engaging public interest content. BBC Media Action’s specialist capacity strengthening training and resources support CSO partners on fact and source-checking approaches. In partnership with the University of Cambridge, BBC Media Action is applying ‘inoculation theory’ as a pre-bunking approach to build people’s resilience to mis- and disinformation. Furthermore, BBC Media Action has a long-standing expertise in supporting the development of an enabling legal, regulatory and economic environment for public interest media, focusing on areas such as media policy, media law, licensing, codes of conduct and media funding models.