The Resource Hub initiative is a partnership between the Office of Southern Africa (OSA) and the international programme on Civic Engagement and Government (CEG-I), to provide institutional strengthening support to NPOs and community-based civil society organisations (CSOs). The Resource Hub (RH) initiative is funded through the Foundation’s Social Bond allocation which seeks to build resilience and sustainability in the social justice field.

SGS Consulting is a consulting company based in Johannesburg, South Africa and works in the fields of education, social justice and community philanthropy in the region. SGS Consulting has been contracted by Ford Foundation Southern Africa to facilitate the provision of organisation development support and services to organisations in countries in the Southern African region.

The RH aims to offer organisation development support and services to strengthen mainly community-based organisations that work in the social justice field at the grassroots level. Organizational development is a critical process that helps organizations build their capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing, improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes. Enabling organisations to be sustainable in servicing their communities and constituencies.

The RH is a five-year programme and will extend to the year 2026.

No, this is not a grant facility and SGS Consulting is not allowed to regrant. This is a facility that will fund or contribute to the contracting of consultants, resource people and organisations that offer organisation development services. The SGS Resource Hub is the sponsor and will work to source consultants or resource persons to address expressed organisational needs.

Grassroots organisations, civil society organisations and social movements who work within the social justice sector. Some of the key thematic areas within the social justice sector include but not limited to gender, gender-based violence, human rights, environmental protection, climate change, sexual orientations and gender minorities, land rights / reform, extractives (mining on land and sea), disability and food sovereignty.

The organisation development and support services provided to grassroots organisations are demand driven. Organisations and movements identify their most pressing organisation development needs. SGS Consulting works together with the organisations to identify potential, quality consulting resources who can help to effectively address the expressed needs. In this regard, SGS Consulting will cohere a panel of consultants with expertise in the area of need that is then matched or linked to the specific request for support. Once a suitable consultant or resource person is identified, SGS will contract with the identified consultant on behalf of the client organisation.

The RH is not a grant facility and regranting funds to organisations is not possible. The Resource Hub has limited funding that needs to be invested across five countries. The organisation development and support services are calculated on an average consulting fee that will be negotiated with the respective consultants. The number of days a consultant will be contracted to a client organisation is dependent on need, and could be a five-day, 15-day or 20- day process. The number of persons days required will determine cost. There is also budget to contribute to travel and accommodation, as well as co-learning spaces (webinar-based online learning)

Anyone involved in the work of the RH, particularly community-based organisations, can nominate a consultant for consideration. You may nominate any consultant whose work you and/or your organization have experienced directly in the last 3-5 years The consultants undergo a thorough selection process on the basis of the last 3 key projects or clients they serviced. There is a deliberate effort to assess the consultant’s proximity and affinity to the NPO sector and social justice issues. Our modus operandi  will be to convene a panel of approved consultants that we can then match and link to the specific request for support, or to source resource persons when it comes to webinar-based learning or on-line conversations. The promise we are making is that no matter how small the organisation, no matter how remotely located, the organisations must have access to the best quality of support.

The RH team strives to include consultants who bring diversity related to age, ability, country of origin, gender identity and expression, geography, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and lived experiences.  The consultant is requested to provide three references from previous clients over the past two years. A solid positive reference from at least one recent client will be requested and needs to demonstrate that the consultant / resource organisation: 

• Completed their scope of work to the satisfaction of the client
• Helped the client achieve the outcomes and results they hoped for
• Addressed issues of intersectionality in the social justice space.

The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination, “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects.

Yes as indicated above, client organisations may recommend a consultant or a resource person they trust and has the required experience and capability to offer high quality organisation development and support services. However, the Hub reserves the right to vet and approve the consultant and resource person.

An email requesting to be on the panel can be addressed to Kgaogelo Mashiloane at [email protected]. Once the email request is received, a google form will be sent to you to  get more detailed information of the organisation development and support services you offer in the social justice space. Once the vetting process is completed, the consultant will form part of the consultant’s panel.

A number of processes will be employed to help ensure the quality of interventions that include:

• Carefully listening to the needs and requirements of the client organisation, and through engagement and conversation, co-create the terms of reference
• Finding the best consultant or resource person / organisation that is fully vetted
• Using a collaboration tool called Basecamp that allow the client organisation representatives, the consultant and the RH team to remain in real-time communication throughout the intervention process
• Requesting client organisation sign-off before final payments are made to the consultant
• Both the consultant and the client organisation to complete narrative reports of the lessons, outcomes and results of the intervention

Co-learning spaces are online, webinar based learning and conversations between groups of people and organisations. This is an offering of the RH where we are able to make available resource persons as experts in webinar- based learning processes via platforms such as Zoom, Teams and others.