Strategic Consultancy for Mobilizing Local Financing for ECD in Emergencies

About Moving Minds Alliance: he Moving Minds Alliance (MMA) is a multistakeholder alliance advocating for better outcomes and equity for young children affected by crises everywhere. The Alliance leverages the strengths of diverse local and global actors to advocate for early childhood development to be prioritised in every crisis response.

Background and Context

Since 2019, MMA has led efforts to surface the severe underfunding of early childhood development in emergencies (ECDiE)—only 2–3% of total humanitarian and development aid reaches young children in crisis settings. In today’s context of declining official development assistance from donor governments, MMA seeks to understand how to mobilize resources closer to the point of impact.

This consultancy will support MMA’s commitment to mobilising resources through national public institutions, collaborating with municipal and national-level donor representatives, and identifying non-traditional funders—including regional institutions, local philanthropies, and innovative finance actors—who can help fund and scale locally-led ECDiE programmes and strengthen ECDiE ecosystems.

The consultancy is seeking to bring in new partners and collaborators, including those well-positioned to both map financing opportunities and contribute to executing and sustaining local financing shifts. A key emphasis will be placed on elevating local and refugee leaders and locally-led and refugee-led organizations as central actors in local financing strategies.

Purpose of Consultancy

To develop a practical, evidence-based strategy which will equip MMA and its members to: :

• Advocate for increased domestic and regional funding for ECDiE;
• Analyse opportunities and develop strategies to tap into and mobilise local level demand for ECDiE, including supporting local community champions
• Engage public sector decision-makers and collaborate with donor representatives at local and regional levels;
• Build the investment case for locally led ECDiE systems in a way that aligns with available financing;
• Develop engagement strategies and roadmaps to support mutually beneficial partnerships, advocacy coalitions, and sustained engagement.

Timeline The prospective timeline to complete this work is 3 to 6 months, with a suggested 30-40 days of work.

Scope of Work The strategy should be developed through the following key activities (these are not exhaustive and will be agreed upon with the consultant):

1. Landscape and Stakeholder Analysis Map financing flows and potential entry points for ECDiE across a select set of 3-4 priority countries across at least 2 distinct regions, to capture a diverse range of contexts and strategic approaches to increasing ECDiE demand and financing.

Countries will be selected in collaboration with the MMA team during the inception phase using a country typology and risk matrix to be developed as part of this consultancy. Examples include:

i. Middle East/North Africa: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen

ii. South Asia: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh

iii. Sub-Saharan Africa: South Sudan, Somalia, DRC, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Mozambique

iv. Latin America and the Caribbean: Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala

Identification and analysis of financing opportunities across, for example, public systems; regional development banks; field-level donor missions; innovative finance actors; private sector actors; and / or other less-conventional stakeholders such as climate or tech donors

2. Consultations and Intelligence Gathering

Conduct semi-structured interviews with national stakeholders including government officials, donor representatives, regional funders, philanthropic actors, and locally-led and refugee-led organizations, to identify:

i. Political opportunities and messaging hooks

ii. National/local champions for financing

iii. Stakeholders for coalition-building

iv. Key upcoming moments for advocacy and engagement

3. Country Profiles, Strategic Guidance, and Investment Case

1. Develop concise country profiles reflecting funding priorities and budgeting processes
2. Identify advocacy entry points and needs for local sensitization to ECDiE
3. Profile emerging financing actors and recommend strategic engagement opportunities
4. Co-create investment cases, models, and pathways to fund and strengthen locally led ECDiE ecosystems

4. Tailored Engagement Plans

a. Draft donor- or geography-specific engagement strategies including:

1. Key entry points, aligned objectives, and relationship-building opportunities
2. Profiles of relevant stakeholders open to partnerships and / or coalition building
3. Opportunities for co-leadership and co-investment with local actors, including refugee leaders
4. Messaging and action plans tailored to support shared goals

5. Co-create with stakeholders a participatory methodology to measure changes in community-level demand and advocacy for ECDiE financing, especially among vulnerable and displaced populations

It is expected that 4, 5, 6 will be co-created and / or validated with local and refugee-led organisations and actors.

Deliverables

• Inception Report: methodology, timeline, and proposed focus country (or typology to inform selection of multiple countries).
• Mid-line Report summarising key findings and recommendations arising from consultations with diverse financing partners: including insights, opportunity mapping, stakeholder quotes
• Stakeholder Profiles – concise summaries of traditional and non-traditional financing actors (e.g., public, philanthropic, private sector)
• Engagement Tip-Sheets – user-friendly, context-specific guides for MMA and partners to engage financing actors. These should include actionable recommendations, messaging hooks, and suggested roles for local and refugee-led organizations.
• Tailored Engagement Plans and Investment Cases – strategic documents to support advocacy and financing efforts by MMA and local actors, aligned with country-specific entry points and opportunities.
• Participatory Change Methodology that can be used by local and refugee-led actors to stimulate and track community-level demand for services to support young children and caregivers
• Final Presentation of Findings: delivered to MMA leadership and working groups

Deadlines for key deliverables to be negotiated and developed alongside the MMA Director through the inception planning phase.

Desired Outcomes

MMA anticipates that, in the longer term, this assignment will contribute to the achievement of the following outcomes

• MMA, its members, and new collaborators are equipped with high-impact finance intelligence and engagement plans
• ECDiE can be positioned within local budgets, cross-sector investments, and crisis response mechanisms
• Financing flows shifts through strengthened, co-owned strategies led by local and refugee actors

Qualifications & Consultant Requirements

We welcome applications from individual consultants as well as teams. We are open to receiving proposals with a clearly defined focus country and proposals which focus on multiple countries. Where the intention is to work across 3-4 country contexts, a country typology and risk matrix must be developed during the inception phase to enable the identification and selection of countries – which will be undertaken in collaboration with the MMA team. The typology may take into account factors such as: existing ECDiE infrastructure; donor presence, feasibility.

To be successful for this consultancy, applicants must ideally have:

• Experience in unlocking domestic financing, including: donor engagement, mobilizing public or private sector finance; working with innovative finance / impact investing is an advantage.
• Knowledge of advocacy, public budgeting, and local or regional ecosystems.
• Excellent communication skills, with the demonstrated ability to effectively engage high level stakeholders
• Proven ability to conduct stakeholder interviews and synthesize findings into actionable tools that support progress for coalition work
• Expertise in the development of effective, diverse national multi stakeholder advocacy coalitions.
• Experience collaborating with refugee-led or community-based organizations.
• Excellent ability to write reports, presentations, briefs, and knowledge products for dissemination.
• Knowledge of Early Childhood Development in Emergencies is desirable.

We welcome and actively encourage consultants and / or teams with lived experience to submit proposals.

Application Requirements; Please submit:

• A proposal (max 8 pages) detailing your approach, timeline, and budget
• CV and two references from similar assignments
• Two writing samples (e.g., donor analysis, policy brief, strategic roadmap)

Deadline: Allow 3 weeks from publishing

Contact: Tricia Young – tricia.young@movingmindsalliance.org

Applications reviewed on a rolling basis

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