Consultancy Services for Legal Expert | “STEAM CSO’s Netwo...

Request for Proposal (RfP)  

& 

Terms of Reference (ToR)  

Consultancy Services  

(Service)  

for 

Legal Expert 

For “STEAM CSO’s Network” 

(Project)  

July 2025  

1. Background and Overview: 

STEAM CSO Network  

Ten leading Palestinian civil society organizations have long been active in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics) education, each delivering projects in a range of non-formal settings. Since 2023, these organisations have gradually built rapport, shared experiences and coordinated activities.  Meeting regularly over the period, they eventually signed an umbrella Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize their cooperation.  

The partner organisations listed below have long been grant recipients of Enabel, Belgian agency for international cooperation. To further formalise their collaboration—and in line with both Enabel’s priorities and the partners’ shared objectives—Enabel has awarded them an 18-month grant, starting in April 2025, to establish the Palestinian STEAM CSO Network. 

Network Partners:  

1. A.M. Qattan Foundation 

2. Al Nayzak Organization  

3. Al Quds university  

4. Al Raja Institution  

5. AlElieh for Science Environment and Art 

6. Burj Al Luqluq Social Centre Society  

7. East Jerusalem Young Men’s Christian Association (EJ-YMCA)  

8. Engineering for Kids  

9. Mena Catalyst Foundation  

10. Partners for Sustainable Development (PSD)  

Building on this momentum—and in line with both Enabel’s priorities and the partners shared objectives, Enabel has awarded the partners an 18-month grant (starting early 2025) to support the establishment of the Palestinian STEAM CSO Network.  

Delegated by the Network partners, the A.M. Qattan Foundation will be the contracting beneficiary of this project towards Enabel. 

A.M. Qattan Foundation 

The A.M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF) is an independent, not-for-profit developmental organisation working in the fields of culture and education, with a focus on children, teachers, and emerging artists (UK Charity No. 1029450; Palestinian registration No. QR-0035-F). AMQF operates mainly in Palestine and the United Kingdom. 

2. Project’s Goals: 

The project’s overall goal is to establish a (robust) STEAM CSO NETWORK as the collaborative body that will strengthen non-formal STEAM education across Palestine.  

   To achieve that goal, the project will:  

1. Create a collaborative governance and management structure for the Network. 

2. Develop shared policies, branding, and communication tools. 

3. Mapp member resources (human, physical, financial) to enable joint programming and advocacy. 

4. Build member capacity through Training-of-Trainers workshops on STEAM pedagogy and qualifications. 

5. Facilitate stakeholder engagement, public webinars, and learning exchanges that showcase local STEAM innovations. 

6. Requested Services, Scope of Work and deliverables:  

The AMQF is in the process of designing and endorsing the Network’s governance and management structure and drafting the core internal policies and resource-sharing protocols. The legal consultant will work in conjunction with the AMQF, Governance Consultant, and STEAM network partners to ensure that the internal framework and MoU are legally sound, enforceable (as needed), and consistent with local and international best practices. This is expected to be conducted over four phases, with cross-cutting responsibilities.  

Key Responsibilities:  

1. Legal Review of Draft Governance and Policy framework 

• Review the governance and operations manual, including policies related to decision-making, conflict of interest, ethics, data/resource sharing, and accountability.  

• Assess legal compliance with:  

• Palestinian laws and regulations governing NGOs and collaborative frameworks.  

• Relevant international standards and best practices.  

• Identify legal risks or compliance gaps and provide concrete recommendations to address them.  

2. Developments of Memorandum of Understanding: (MoU) 

• Based on outputs of the participatory workshop and drafts from the governance consultant, draft a legally coherent and context sensitive MoU that:  

• Formalizes members agreed roles, responsibilities and commitments.  

• Defines decision–making, collaboration, communication, and resource-sharing protocols.  

• Establishes mechanisms for conflict resolution, accountability, and joint evaluations.  

• Ensure the MoU aligns with both the Palestinian legal frameworks and the collaborative principles of the Network.  

• Revise the draft MoU following feedback from the Network partners and AMQF.  

3. Legal Consultation:  

Engage in 1 -2 consultation sessions (virtual or in person) with STEAM Network partners and/or representatives to explain legal considerations, clarify proposed language, and advise on implementation implications.  

4. Validation Support:  

• Ensure final legal documents (governance framework and MoU) are in plain language and suitable for endorsement by all members.  

• Provide a written legal review summarizing key legal considerations, risks and assurances of compliance.  

• Be available for minor post-submission clarification for up to 6 weeks.  

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities 

• Participatory Approach: Engage partners at each stage; adapt tools to accommodate diverse organizational sizes and capacities. 

• Safeguarding & Inclusion: Integrate gender, youth protection, and disability-sensitive considerations into all policies. 

• Quality Assurance: Provide documents that are professionally copy-edited and proofread; maintain version control. 

• Bilingual Delivery: Produce all final texts in either Arabic or English with an executive summary in the second language. 

• Sequential Review & Approval – AMQF and an assigned committee from the network partners will review each deliverable within two weeks (three weeks for the final report). The consultant may not proceed with the next delivery until written approval is received. 

• Knowledge Management: Ensure AMQF and partners have unrestricted intellectual property rights to adapt and reuse all materials. 

4. Timeframe and payments:   

• The assignment shall begin on the date the contract is signed and be completed within eight consecutive weeks (two months) including review, drafting and revisions.  

• Expected Start Date: August 2025, (exact date will be dependent on the readiness of the draft framework).  

• Payments: three payments: first payment upon signing the contract, second payments upon providing the first drafts and final payment upon full delivery of all approved deliverables and written acceptance from AMQF on behalf of all partners. 

• AMQF decides to extend the time allocated for reviewing project outputs, the entire schedule will be automatically updated to reflect those changes.   

5. Required qualifications and experience:  

• Law degree: bachelor’s or master’s degree in law from an accredited university or educational entity.  

• Strong knowledge of Palestinian civil society legal frameworks and relevant international standards.  

• Experience drafting or reviewing MOUs, Governance policies or multi-party agreements.  

• Strong written communication skills with the ability to deliver plain legal language guidance.  

• Proficiency in Arabic and English are required: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce high-quality reports and policy documents. 

• Demonstrated experience facilitating consultative and participatory processes with diverse stakeholders across multiple organizations. 

• Minimum 7 years’ experience working and advising non-profit organizations, civil-society networks, or inter-agent bodies is highly desirable. 

• In-depth understanding of governance models, institutional accountability, and organizational policies within collaborative or networked settings. 

• Familiarity with legal and compliance frameworks—especially in non-profit or cross-border contexts—is an asset. 

Additional assets:  

• Demonstrated experience in the education sector, particularly in informal, non-formal, or alternative education settings (e.g. community-based learning, refugee education, adult literacy, or out-of-school youth programs). 

• Experience designing policies or governance structures that respect local knowledge systems, cultural diversity, and participatory approaches in education. 

Offer submission details:  

The Consultant(s) is/are requested to submit the following documentation, noting that the offer shall be subject to AMQF’s and Enabel’s procurement policies, procedures and applicable regulations. 

1. Technical Offer (70 % of total score):  

• A concise response to the above comprising approach, core philosophy of work, and reflection on the ToR (maximum 1,000 words). 

• A listing of 2 previous assignments of relevance: the type of assignment, role played in it, key deliverable, and the contact person of the organization/firm that was your counterpart in that assignment.  

• The timeframe within which the candidate will complete the assignment. Taking into consideration that the validity period of this offer should be between two to Six months.  

• Detailed CV of the consultant (or, for teams, CVs of all members involved in this assignment, with clear task division and roles). 

2. Financial Offer (30%):  

• Provide Lump Sum   cost of the assignment with a detailed breakdown of the cost for each of the deliverables.  

• For Individuals, price offer should be submitted in Euros and includes taxes. A 10 % withholding tax will be deducted at source in line with Palestinian regulations for freelance services. 

• For registered companies, price offer should be in Euro and doesn’t include VAT- since it’s Zero VAT project.  

• Payments will be linked to deliverables and their approval; details will be finalised during contracting. 

3.  Inquiries, deadlines and submission address:  

• Enquiries deadline: up to 14:00 on 28.07.2025, sent ONLY to: [email protected]  

• Responses: all questions and answers will be compiled and circulated in aggregate form by 31.07.2025. 

• Offers are to be submitted by email ONLY, by 14:00 Palestine time on 05.08.2025.  

• Submissions are accepted ONLY if sent to: [email protected]. Submissions to other email accounts will be discarded.  

• Technical and financial offers are to be submitted in TWO SEPARATE EMAILS as follows: 

• Technical offer and related documents in one email entitled: “Technical Offer – STEAM CSO Network – [Name of service provider]”. 

• Financial offer in a separate email message entitled: “Financial Offer – STEAM CSO Network – [Name of service provider]”. 

4. General notes 

• AMQF reserves the right not to accept any of the submitted offers. 

• AMQF is not obliged to accept the lowest financial offer.