Consultant to document challenges related to informality and formalization in Turkana County, Kenya at International Labour Organization

Background

The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) promotes refugee self-reliance by emphasising the importance of economic development and job growth in refugee-hosting areas. It envisages that assistance to refugees and asylum seekers will shift from the provision of basic assistance by aid agencies through parallel systems to national authorities including refugees and asylum seekers in their systems of service provision.^[1] It also envisions the private sector playing a constructive role in finding durable solutions for people forced to flee their homes. The ILO, UNICEF, UNHCR, World Bank, and IFC, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Netherlands, have joined hands through a partnership with the aim of complementing humanitarian assistance with a development approach, focusing on the nexuses between education, protection, and employment. The PROSPECTS Partnership in Kenya targets refugee and host community learners, out-of-school children and adolescents, teachers/trainers, as well as entrepreneurs and job-seekers. It has a strong geographical focus on the major hosting locations of Turkana West, Fafi, Lagdera, and Dadaab sub-counties, while also working to strengthen protection and inclusion at the national level. Thus, the programme’s impact will go beyond the major hosting locations.

One of the objectives of the PROSPECTS programme is to stimulate and grow local labour markets in the refugee hosting areas. Informality continues to characterise enterprises and employment in refugee hosting areas. The IFC, -*Kakuma as a marketplace* study as well as the ILO-UNHCR “*doing business in Daadab”* study of 2019 sighted the lack of information on business registration as well as lack of access to the service providers as a driver of informality amongst others. The ILO is working to strengthen the capacity of Business Support Institutions (BSI) to support business’ transition from informality in the programme target areas. **

Informality is an issue that affects workers, enterprises and society at large. Refugees in the informal economy usually face additional challenges. National organisations have a mandate to put in place a legal, policy, institutional and support framework that facilitates transitions to formality. At the local level, enterprises and workers in the informal economy are impacted by the way in which the law is interpreted and enforced. These actors may face additional barriers to access information, services and support. Furthermore, local governments have some autonomy with respect to the development of by-laws which can have a further impact (positive or negative) on the way in which decent work deficits can be addressed and transitions to formality fostered. Existing dialogue initiatives may not or not sufficiently focus on the challenges and needs of refugees and host communities in the informal economy. Suitable ways to foster their formalization may also not be explored. This assignment seeks to identify challenges related to informality of enterprises and jobs in the informal economy in the PROSPECTS counties in Kenya. Through bilateral discussions with key stakeholders, the perspective of a variety of stakeholders will be captured to inform the planning of county level dialogue forums.

2) Objective and scope of the assignment

The objectives of this assignment are:

§ to gather information from key stakeholders on challenges of informality, current, planned or potential initiatives to reduce vulnerabilities, improve services and support and address challenges along with an assessment of opportunities and threats to the formalization of actors in the informal economy; and

§ to lead the logistical support of the organisation of information sharing sessions on informality (number to be determined) for the identified stakeholders.

The context of this assignment concerns one of the intervention areas of the PROSPECTS programme in Kenya- Turkana, and national duty bearers.

3) Activities

The main activities leading to the achievements of the abovementioned objectives of this assignment are to:

§ Identify key stakeholders in close collaboration with the ILO, and conduct bilateral meetings with each of them;

§ Analyze challenges of informality, bottlenecks and opportunities to formalize (e.g., institutional and practical, government-led and non-government) as well as expectations of the various organizations with respect to providing support to overcome the identified challenges and facilitate transitions to formality.

§ Facilitate information sharing sessions on the informal economy, which can take the form of blended events with online and face to face participation

§ Contribute to the preparation of a local dialogue forum on informal economy issues during which key stakeholders will discuss challenges, joint priorities and action plans. The consultant is also expected to present findings from the bilateral meetings at the forum.

4) Responsibilities and sequence of activities

The consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks:

Based on guidance provided by the ILO:

a) Familiarize him/herself with information on the informal economy (to be provided to the consultant).

b) Review existing studies on transitions to formality in forced displacement contexts in Kenya and Turkana;

c) Identify key stakeholders that will be interviewed (in consultation with the ILO);

d) Submit for review and confirmation to the ILO:

a. an approach/methodology for carrying out this assignment,

b. a work plan which includes a draft schedule of planned meetings

c. an interview guide/tools that will be used to during the bilateral meetings.

The ILO will provide a generic interview framework. Some of the questions may include:

I. What are the main challenges of informality, and which opportunities and bottlenecks exist to overcome these challenges and support formalization in forced displacement contexts?

II. Which services does your organization already provide to actors in the informal economy? How could the service offering be expanded or improved?

III. What are the main challenges that your organization faces in its endeavor to support actors in the informal economy? What are your suggested solutions?

IV. To what extent is your organization familiar with the issues faced by actors in the informal economy in general, and refugees in particular, and their contribution to the development of the country?

e) Conduct bilateral meetings (i.e., interviews) with representatives from the Local Government, informal economy organizations, financial sector providers, employers’ organizations, trade unions, BDS providers etc.

f) Facilitate information sharing sessions for identified key stakeholders on the informal economy;

g) Identify formalized and semi-formal enterprises in PROSPECTS regions from which entrepreneurs and workers can be interviewed for the development of formalization pathways;

h) Draft a report that documents and analyses the collected feedback from the bilateral discussions, including the following main areas:

a. Challenges of informality

b. Formalization challenges, bottlenecks, and opportunities

c. Enables/ dis-enablers to formalization (legal, environmental, social etc) and how organizations can capitalize on the enablers to speed up formalization.

d. Ways to improve service offerings and support for actors in the informal economy

e. Institutional capacity development needs on informal economy issues

f. Pathways for future formalization support

i) Present findings from the study during a local dialogue forum which will be organized by the ILO.

5) Deliverables

The consultant is expected to submit the following deliverables:**

§ Deliverable 1: Submission of an overall approach/methodology, a work plan including a draft schedule of meetings planned and interview guides/tools to be used;

§ Deliverable 2: Draft report on identified challenges of informality, ways to improve services and support to reduce challenges and facilitate formalization, and pathways for future support;

§ Deliverable 3: Final report, including feedback from the ILO and forum participants.

6) Duration and timeline of the assignment

The expected duration of the assignment is 15 days between 1^st March 2022 and 30^th April 2022. The review of existing documents and the list of key stakeholders to be interviewed should be completed two weeks from the start of the assignment. The draft report shall be delivered 6 weeks from the start of the assignment.

7) Budget and terms of payment

The payment schedule will be based on achieving the key deliverables and in line with actual costs:

a) 50% of the budget upon signing the contract to cover travel costs and expenses related to field work.

b) 50% of the budget (upon submission of the final deliverables to the satisfaction of the ILO;

8) Required competencies

• Very good knowledge of the informal economy, working conditions and the forced displacement context in Kenya and Turkana in particular.
• Demonstrated capacity to liaise and communicate efficiently with representatives from administrative institutions (such as County Government, the units in charge of business registration, labour administration and social security), financial and non-financial business development service providers, social partners as well as informal economy organizations;
• Experience with the identification of challenges and opportunities related to formalization of own-account workers, micro and small enterprises and the workers they employ.
• Familiarity with the ILO and its mandate, and the ILO’s formalization approaches.

Supervision and coordination

The consultant will report to the ILO PROSPECTS team in Nairobi, Kenya. The consultant is further expected to work in close coordination with the ILO experts in Geneva. This includes regular participation in coordination meetings via Zoom.

[1] Crawford and O’Callaghan, (2019), The comprehensive refugee response framework: Responsibility-sharing and self-reliance in East Africa, ODI, London.