Enhancing Women’s Resilience in Refugee Camps and Host Communities at International Rescue Committee

Purpose of the Consultancy/Objectives.

IRC seeks a consultant to support the marketing and branding of refugee women’s products outside of the camp settings through private sector engagements and e-commerce development. The consultant will conduct a market assessment for opportunities on refugee women products and private sector linkage, conduct training on business development, e-commerce/ digital marketing for refugee women products and mapping of potential private sector members that support the access to markets, product development and linkage to relevant buyers. The consultant will further devise innovative strategies that diversify women and girls’ sources of livelihoods which include climate smart enterprises and sustainable agriculture such as crop diversification and organic farming for sustainable livelihood. The analysis should provide detailed understanding of the skills and capacities of target clients, as well as their desired market-relevant skills set. The assessment should also cover the key training opportunities available in institutions such as technical training and vocational institutions.

The assessment will include a desk review of essential documents including existing reports, assessments, and government policies/strategies. Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions will also be conducted to gather additional insight and intel from actors including city officials, government authorities, NGO, service providers, and community members.

Scope of Work

The assessment seeks to answer the following key questions:

• What market-relevant skills do women refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma currently have? How do these skills differ among social groups (women, men, youth, refugees, and geographic differences)
• What skills do refugee women aspire to learn? How does this differ in age and gender? Why are these groups/ communities interested in these skills?
• What kind of training is available and accessible to communities for market-relevant skills?
• Who are the key collaborators (institutions, CBOs, government service providers) providing relevant skills training opportunities & certification in location?
• What are the opportunities for refugee women's products and linkages to the private sector?
• What are the relevant e-commerce platforms that can be used by the refugee women to market their products?
• How can IRC apply the findings to identify new market avenues, improve the existing products through value additions and equip the women and girls with skills and knowledge to bridge the established capacity gaps?
• What are some of the climate-smart micro-enterprises that women and girls can establish and sustainable earn income for their livelihood?
• How can IRC support Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) to provide market-driven skills for economic independence for women? What are the viable skills that can be trained at the WGSS?
• What barriers (legal, education, experience, and informal social norms) do women and youth face in entering the selected priority value chains (especially male-dominated value chains)? What support is required?
• What are the competence-based skills that women can acquire that are primarily male-dominated to increase their ability to participate in the predominantly male-dominated markets?
• Conduct an in-depth private sector labour market analysis, identifying key gender disparities and inequalities.
• Identify best practices and successful initiatives private sector companies implement to promote gender equality in their workforce.
• Develop evidence-based recommendations for IRC and private sector stakeholders to advance gender equality and women's empowerment within the private sector labour market.

Methodology

In developing the assessment, the consultant should consider the following:

• Desk review of essential documents.
• Primary data collection including:- key informant interviews (KIIs), and focus-group discussions (FGDs) with government officials (county and national), non-government partners, private sector, and the community.
• The consultant must ensure informed consent is provided for all interviews, focus group discussions and photographs.
• The consultant will specifically have briefing and debriefing meetings with the IRC’s Economic Recovery and Development Coordinator and Women Protection and Empowerment Coordinator at the commencement, mid-point, and conclusion of methodological implementation.

Reports

• Inception meeting report that will include training/briefing on methodology Team, study report outline and assessment data collection tools for the study, work plan and budget.
• 1st draft report and a professionally edited final report covering skills/labour assessment and legal framework summary findings
• Copies of original and cleaned data sets including field notes.
• Final report will include: Best practices review: Identify and assess best practices and initiatives implemented by private sector companies to promote gender equality.
• Recommendations: Develop evidence-based recommendations to IRC and private sector stakeholders to advance gender equality within the private sector labour market.

Duration of The Consultancy

The assignment is expected to be undertaken in October 2023 for a maximum of 30 consultancy days which includes tools review, desk reviews, development of the inception report and approval by the IRC, data collection, report-writing and validation meeting (detailed work plan, with clear timeline to be developed).

IRCs Responsibility

• Pay consultancy fees at a mutually agreed rate after the successful completion of the consultancy and submission of the specified documents.
• Support with tool development and guidelines for the consultancy

Budget

There is a fixed budget for this piece of work. Based on the submitted work plan, payment will be done where daily fees shall be negotiated.

• 50% of the fees will be paid upon signing of the contract.
• 50% will be paid after receiving all reports and validation by IRC

Key details

• The position will be handled by Economic Recovery and Development Coordinator.

Qualifications

Profile of the consultant

• A post-graduate degree in social sciences, Business Administration, economics, international development, or other related field.
• Over 10 years’ experience conducting gender-sensitive labour market assessments.
• Expert familiarity with methodologies including focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and market data analysis.
• Familiarity with the livelihoods, humanitarian, international development actors/sectors, digital market, e-commerce.
• Knowledge of MS Office and qualitative data analysis tools.
• Strong oral and written communications skills.