The process of selecting partner OGD is carried out in 2 phases.
All stages in this process are jointly managed by the members of the consortium of implementation partners – Helvetas and Civic Initiatives.
In the first phase, the internal committee of the ACT team, made up of representatives of Helvetas and Civic Initiatives, evaluates letters of interest for the ACT-2 support program. The estimated duration of this phase is 20 days from the end of the application deadline.
The second stage of selection begins with the selection of a narrow circle of OGDs that will be subject to evaluation by evaluators in the field who will carry out a detailed analysis of the OGD’s needs, potential and plans, through a visit to the OGD and a conversation with its representatives. The assessment of the evaluator in the field will be based on the assessment of relations with citizens and the impact on the community, relations with other organizations, management’s readiness to participate in the program, internal planning and decision-making processes, human resources, organizational culture, financial sustainability and communication capacities. The second phase is planned to last approximately 45 days.
After the completion of the two phases and the obtained results, the AKT team will summarize the obtained evaluations, create a ranking list and propose to the donor (SDC) a list of OGDs intended for support. After that, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation makes the final decision on the selection of partner OGDs. The expected duration of the approval is approximately 10 days.
After the selection of partner OGDs, the ACT team, together with the selected OGDs, will conduct a detailed needs analysis that will serve to create individual OGD development plans.
Partner OGDs are granted two and a half years of comprehensive support. On the other hand, the ACT team will carry out a periodic evaluation of the achieved results foreseen in the growth and development plans. Progress in the implementation of the development plan will be one of the elements of the evaluation of success during the duration of the support. The ACT team reserves the right not to extend funding to an OGD if the agreed results are not achieved.
The marks to be awarded for the expressed interests of organizations to become partners for ACT-2 support will take into account the current situation (corroborated by the information provided in the application form in section I “Organization Profile” and in section II “Prior OGD Experience” concerning e.g. number of employees, followers on social networks, previously implemented advocacy initiatives, etc.) and desired
situation, described in section III “Description of the current situation and vision of the development of your OGD in the next 3 years” from the domain of advocacy abilities, support base and financial sustainability of organizations. It is important that the vision of the development of OGD in the next three years is presented so that it is specific for a specific OGD, achievable and relevant for the local/national community, and based on previous experience in public
advocacy in the last three years.
The assigned percentage values of the criteria that will be evaluated are as follows: The vision of OGD (in the areas of advocacy ability, support base and financial sustainability) represents 60% of the evaluation (total number of points). The remaining 40% of the grade (total number of points) refers to the current state of the OGD (current organizational capacities and previous experience of the organization). The range of marks for each category within the sections ranges from 1-5, and the marks are evaluated as follows: 1 – does not meet the criteria at all 2 – meets insufficiently 3 – meets 4 – meets sufficiently and 5 – meets completely.
