Consultancy: Capacity Building Program for the Council/Board & Trustees

Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM)

Terms of Reference

Capacity Building Program for the Council/Board & Trustees (Malawi)

These Terms of Reference (1) provide background information, (2) outline the framework for the assignment, (3) describe the specific inputs and outputs required from the consultant and (4) list the terms and condition of the assignment.

Background and Rationale

The Employers’ Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM) was established in 1963 under the Trustees Incorporation Act of Malawi. Since then its mission has been to strategically position itself as the voice of employers in Malawi, by primarily promoting; guiding; and protecting the employers’ interests in labour, employment and social-economic related issues. However, externally the challenge has been in the volatile economic realm that ECAM is operating in which is influenced by climate change, population growth, lack of infrastructure development, government corruption, low manufacturing bases just to name a few. On the other hand, internally ECAM has been battling with numerous strategic issues that include; weak governance and leadership structure, financial sustainability, expansion of membership, service delivery, skills capacity, marketing and branding, and relationships with partners and collaborators.

In 2005, ECAM started formulating five-year strategic plans to help the association in finding direction towards realising its mission. Highlighted in the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan is the issue of poor governance and leadership. The problem ECAM is facing in this regard is the participation of council members in council activities and those of the association and this is dwindling by the day. ECAM is largely viewed as an HR body because Human Resource (HR) Professionals dominate its executive council membership. Over time, this has made it a bit difficult for ECAM to attract CEOs commitment and participation in its activities thus limiting the financial and technical support it can receive from its membership.

Section 24 of ECAM’s constitution makes provision for the nomination of Trustees. However, over the years the organisation has operated without them. To this end, ECAM in collaboration with the Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme (DECP) developed the concept of putting in place a Board of Trustees and came up with a forum of CEOs. Approximately five (5) CEO’s were approached and four (4) accepted the offer to serve on the board of Trustees. During the ECAM Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on 18 June 2020, the incorporation of the four CEOs as Trustees was approved with the mandate that there should be an addition of one CEO tallying it to five (5) Trustees. At the same EGM, two (2) Councilors were also elected to fill the two vacancies in the ECAM Executive Council.

One of the strategic objectives of the 2019-2023 strategic plan is to institute an effective governance and leadership system, which can be achieved by raising the status of the Executive Council; strengthening the leadership of the secretariat; and strengthening staffing in the Secretariat. ECAM therefore seeks to embark on a governance enhancement initiative that will amongst others, include induction and training of Board of Trustees and its Executive Council.

Assignment Objective

Considering ECAM’s 2019-2023 Strategic Plan that includes the association instituting an effective governance and leadership structure, the proposed induction and training is meant to achieve the following:

Training by an external service provider:

Provide clarity on the roles and responsibilities of the Council vs Trustees vs Management to avoid conflict and encourage healthy relationships.
Improved ability of the Council and Trustees to function with open discussion and better decision making
Guide the ECAM leadership on its responsibility to drive the strategic direction of the organisation.
Boost organisational performance.
Build confidence of the Council, Trustees and Management so they deliver their respective mandates effectively.
Strengthening partnership with other stakeholders to achieve high organisational performance,

Induction by ECAM Management, ILO and DECP;

Increased visibility and relevance of ECAM
Improved understanding of ECAM and the role of employer organizations
Awareness of the roles of Trustees and the Executive Council
Develop a short-term roadmap for the Trustees and Councillors
Popularise the 2019 to 2023 ECAM strategic plan
Improved Social Dialogue with Tripartite partners and other Business Member Organizations (BMOs)

An external expert would deliver the training while the ECAM management with the technical support of the ILO and DECP would deliver the induction.

Scope of Work

Specifically, the external expert is to carry out the following:

Carry out a brief assessment of the current effectiveness of the ECAM Council and make recommendations for improvements (16 days). To be carried out during 7-31 December 2020
Design and deliver a workshop program for the ECAM Council, Trustees and CEO ( 5 days) To be carried out during 1-7 December 2020
Undertake couching of the Board Chair, Trustees and CEO over a period of three or six months.(3 days) Oto be carried out from January – June 2021

Deliverables and Time Frame

The assignment will be delivered over a period of eight months from December 2020 to July 2021 through the following milestones and over the specified periods

Assessment report and recommendations to the ECAM Council and Board of Trustees to be submitted not later than 31 December 2020
Workshop program and report to be submitted not later than 11 December 2020
Evidence of coaching and an schedule of couching sessions to be submitted not later than 15 July 2021

Remuneration

The contract is expected to take twenty four (24) non-consecutives working days during the period 1 December 2020 to 31 July 2021. All outputs should be completed no later than 31 July 2021.
The ILO will not reimburse any expenses outside of the flat fee agreed and expenses above, unless prior agreement of the ILO is obtained in writing.
Payment will be made upon submission of external collaborator invoice and deliverables to the satisfaction of the Senior Specialist, Employers' Activities, DWT/CO-Pretoria and ECAM upon certification that the work has been successfully completed and expenditure incurred complies with ILO Financial rules.

6. Required Qualifications and Experience

The Consultant must have the following qualifications and experience: -

A University degree or other equivalent qualification in related field;
Knowledge and understanding of Employers & Business Membership Organisations (EBMOs)
Documented experience of undertaking training & couching
Knowledge and experience in Governance issues
Excellent report writing skills

7. Contract Administration

The Consultant will report to the ILO ACTEMP Senior Specialist for Employers Activities based in the ILO Office, Pretoria and the ECAM CEO based in Blantyre -Malawi

8. Bidding Process

Interested Consultants are invited to submit proposals of how they intend to undertake the assignment. The submission should include a financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of consultancy fees and related expenses. The proposal should be sent to the email address below referencing Proposal – ECAM –Board and Trustees Capacity Building

Email: Maria Machailo-Ellis : machailoellis@ilo.org