Consultant - CSR Policies and Practices at ActionAid Nigeria

ActionAid is an anti-poverty agency that prioritises works with the poor and excluded; promoting values and commitment in civil society, institutions and governments with the aim of achieving structural changes in order to eradicate injustices and poverty in the world. ActionAid Nigeria is an affiliate of ActionAid International, an International Non-Governmental organisation registered in The Netherlands with its headquarters in Johannesburg South Africa. ActionAid International works in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

We invite applications from qualified candidates to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant to Appraise Private Sector Companies' CSR Policies and Practices

Location: Nigeria

Background

• Financing for Development project implemented by ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) works with both private and public sectors especially those whose work and enterprises relate either directly or indirectly to tax administration in order to increase and widen tax base payers and bring more people into the tax payment net.
• The goal is to have more finance to government for funding development.
• The project adopts the three prong approach of research, dialogue and advocacy to achieve target results.
• The project in year one focused on organized private sector (OPS) taxation and contributed to the ongoing tax reforms potentially leading to increased finance availability for national development.
• The project is currently in year 2 of its three year span and will be focusing on corporate social responsibility practices by the companies in the OPS and its linkages with tax.
• It is in that regards that ActionAid Nigeria is seeking the services of a consultant to appraise OPS companies CSR Policies and Practices; produce reports and facilitate discussions with stakeholders during associated workshops.

Specific Roles for the Consultant

• Collect and collate the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies of at least 20 major private organisations (with at least 50 staff) in Lagos and Abuja and any other city in Nigeria
• Analyse them to establish their policy positions on CSR, Wages and tax
• Produce a report of the appraisal highlighting the key linkages between CSR/Wages/tax payment in the OPS. The report should address the questions related to and contain the following information:
• As introduction describe the overall tax system.
• Give a snapshot of the selected companies CSR policy
• What type of CSR do the companies engage on and at what level, community, local and national level?
• Do the CSR policies focus more on community/human development etc or facilitating company infrastructures, eg building roads that lead to company sites?
• What is the CSR engagement procedure? Any consultation with stakeholders at both local and national levels before embarking on project?
• What benefits are covered by the CSR? Are CSR activities/project costs handled separately from tax payments?
• Is CSR project costs deducted before tax payment or after tax? Any implication on wages?
• Provide a trend analysis of funding or projects provided by the companies on CSR over the last ten years, 2007 to 2017
• What important reforms in the tax system and tax policies have been made in the last ten years with direct bearing to CSR? Focus on the most essential reforms and those that have had (will have) an important impact on the CSR?
• What is the policy regarding publishing information about CSR activities and costs? What is the practice of informing the public about CSR costs?
• Is the information about tax exemptions publicly available in relation to engaging on CSR?
• Are companies’ financial statements available at national business registries?
• Is the information about companies’ direct shareholders public? Is the information about companies’ ultimate owner public?
• Produce an annex showing a directory of key private sector organisations containing contact persons, phone numbers & addresses of the organizations

Use the findings to facilitate discussions during workshops as below:

• One day awareness creation;
• Dialogue between public and private sector companies linkage building meetings with private sector companies, communities and others
• Stakeholder’s meetings

Consultancy's Profile

• She/he should be a graduate of Law, Economics, Statistics or any related field (Masters preferred) have at least 5 years-experience in and capacity for similar research (a report of such work done in the last 2 years is a required evidence)
• Computer literate and able to apply Microsoft Office and other analytical tools efficiently
• Ordinarily resident in Lagos or Abuja
• An excellent team worker

Consultancy Timelines:

• The overall time frame for this consultancy is one month and specifically for about 20 days.
• The days will be 16 for actions I, ii, iii, and iv while 4 will be for actions under v. The Appraisal is expected to take place in October-November 2017 with the Report submitted latest by 25th November 2017.
• The actions under (v) shall be on days as scheduled by the project team but the consultant will be informed at least 2-3 days ahead of them.

Reporting and Payment:

• For this work, the consultant will be expected to apply & report to the Director of Programmes, AAN but will work closely with the Project Management Officer to guide the performance of the actions required.
• For a satisfactory completion of the roles, ActionAid Nigeria will pay a rate of N50,000 daily.
• Please note that ActionAid Nigeria will deduct and remit to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) a 5% Withholding Tax from the total consultancy fees in accordance with the Nigerian Tax Law.

Application Closing Date
26th October, 2017.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Expression of Interest and CV's to: [email protected]