Women’s Economic Empowerment in Livestock Market Systems in the Horn of Africa at Mercy Corps

Purpose / Project Description:

Mercy Corps was recently awarded funding to develop an in-depth regional strategy to support the development of livestock market systems within the Horn of Africa, particularly the pastoralist regions of Somalia, Northern Kenya and Eastern and Southern Ethiopia. Building on Mercy Corps’ deep footprint working on livestock markets and supporting functions across the three countries, this regional, multi-sectoral livestock strategy will identify challenges and opportunities to strengthen cross-border linkages, trade and connections to end markets within the livestock sector, and opportunities to strengthen the role that livestock plays in household resilience to economic and environmental shocks. The overall objective of the strategy will be to identify concrete opportunities to build on and link Mercy Corps’ existing body of work within the livestock sector across the three countries to increase impact, strengthen regional integration and enhance linkages across livestock markets in the Horn of Africa. To do this, we will use a risk-informed systems approach that looks to understand social, demographic, ecological, political and market systems and the role that each plays in building resilient and productive market systems that deliver economic opportunities for pastoralists, with a particular focus on women and youth.

Consultant Objectives:

Mercy Corps has conducted a contextual analysis of livestock market systems with a focus on four cross-border trade corridors between the three countries. Beyond this initial analysis, the team would like to dig deeper into opportunities to support women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in the livestock sector especially in livestock, milk and fodder trade. The consultant should use a market systems development approach (MSD) to understand these sub-sectors and opportunities to support women entrepreneurs to increase their income through these enterprises. This study will be used to inform participatory regional intervention design workshops and develop recommendations for Mercy Corps programs.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Building on the WEAMS Framework and best practice on WEE in MSD, the consultant should propose a methodology and approach for this assignment
• Conduct market systems analyses (MSAs) of the key sub-sectors that have been identified for WEE, embedding a risk and resilience lens into the MSA
• Identify key constraints faced by women entrepreneurs to inform intervention design, including social, cultural, economic and any other constraints
• Identify and profile the primary shocks and stresses constraining women entrepreneurs in the sub-sectors, including existing capacities and constraints for effectively reducing and managing risk
• Present the preliminary findings at a Mercy Corps virtual regional workshop for feedback
• Develop final report on WEE as a MSA with recommendations for intervention areas

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will:

• Produce a work plan for the process, including the regional workshop for feedback
• Produce methodology and tools for review by Mercy Corps advisors
• Review secondary resources from Mercy Corps programs, development and academic literature
• Develop a presentation of preliminary findings to share at a Mercy Corps regional workshop
• Develop a final 8-10 page MSA report that presents the sub-sectors, key constraints and recommendations for intervention areas

Timeframe / Schedule:

This consultancy is estimated at 25-30 days over the course of 2 months, beginning in August 2020 and ending in October 2020. The final schedule will be based on the final assessment work plan.**

The Consultant will report to:

Allison Huggins, Deputy Regional Director, Africa

The Consultant will work closely with:

Regional Strategy Consultant, Regional Market Systems Advisor, Global Livestock Advisor, Global Gender Advisor, Regional Resilience Director

Required Experience & Skills:

• At least 10 years of experience working on women’s economic empowerment, market systems development, pastoralism and livestock trade, and/or other related fields.
• Must have experience leading complex WEE and/or gender studies and producing actionable market systems assessments.
• Experience in the Horn of Africa and/or with the target pastoralists enterprises (livestock, milk fodder) is a plus.
• The consultant should also have excellent written and presentation skills in English to produce strong communication materials for consumption by diverse stakeholders.
• Experience working with Mercy Corps and/or on programs funded by SDC is a plus