PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Local Capacity Strengthening for Response Project (LCS4R), implemented by International Medical Corps in partnership with Concern Worldwide, will provide comprehensive, institutional capacity-strengthening activities to National and Local Non-Governmental Organizations through three components:

COMPONENT 1

Intensive capacity strengthening support to 10 LNGOs and NNGOs in East Africa and South Asia

NNGO Selection Process

• 130+ organizations from across four countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) applied in 2022
• A comprehensive review of the applications, including interviews, and references checks, was conducted based upon seven criteria, resulting in a shortlist for presentation to a Selection Committee
• The Selection Committee chose 3 NNGOs from Ethiopia, 2 NNGOs from Malawi, 3 NNGOs from Pakistan, and 2 NNGOs from Bangladesh

 Training Workshops

• The LCS4R project team hosted two in-person five-day training workshops: one in Kenya (May 2022) for NNGOs from Ethiopia and Malawi; and one in the United Arab Emirates (June 2022) for NNGOs from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• Each workshop included 50 participants made up of five senior managers from each of the ten NNGOs

 Organizational Capacity Assessments (OCA)

• A comprehensive Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) tool, composed of 13 organizational systems, was developed by LCS4R project staff and the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and assessed over 320 components of these systems
• NNGOs are in the process of completing their assessments, receiving their results, and meeting with the LCS4R project staff to choose 3 organizational systems for SME support

 SME Mentorship

• The project developed and delivered 13 webinars for over 300 managers, board members, and technical experts from the 10 participating NNGOs detailing the main components and functions of the organizational systems
• SMEs will continue providing tailored capacity strengthening support in line with each NNGOs’ organizational needs, including in-person deployments to the individual organizations.

COMPONENT 2

Hands-on learning, skill-building, and networking for 240 humanitarian practitioners to enhance their capacity to respond to emergencies

Symposia

• Two symposium events – one in East Africa and one in South Asia – will provide an opportunity to extend learning to a larger number of participants to develop skills in designing and managing organizational systems for emergency response and provide a space for networking and peer learning.

COMPONENT 3

An online platform to consolidate the resources generated during the project made available to NGOs and humanitarian practitioners around the world

• Knowledge Management Platform

An online platform that stores knowledge resources developed throughout the duration of the project will be launched in early 2023.