DEVELOPING BUSINESS CASE At Terre des hommes Foundation Child Relief

  1. Introduction

Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh) is seeking to contract a consultant to support the development of the business and financial plan for the non-profit start-up Gravit`eau Association within an ELRHA Humanitarian Innovation Fund project.

  1. Presentation of Terre des Hommes and the context of the project

Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh) is the leading Swiss child relief agency. The Foundation has been helping children in need for over 50 years, defending their rights regardless of their race, creed or political affiliation. In over 35 countries, Tdh protects children against exploitation and violence, improves children’s and their mother’s health and responds to an emergency in humanitarian crises.

Tdh has collaborated with Graviteau association since 2018 on joint projects focusing on the evaluation, implementation and scale-up of the Handwashing water recycling systems (see www.graviteau.ch for further details about Graviteau Association). The systems are feasible for areas with water shortages and non-functional water supply and sanitation systems. Currently, our target areas are protracted humanitarian emergencies. The handwashing systems are evaluated and deployed in refugee settings in schools in Nigeria and in health care facilities in Mali and Burkina Faso. In 2021, Tdh, Gravit`eau and University partner FHNW have received a grant from ELRHA Humanitarian Innovation Fund supporting the scale-up of the innovation. The team has been working on the development of the designs, setting up the local production, evaluating the handwashing systems in countries, developing training and communication materials and developing the business model and business strategy.

For the production/ of the Graviteau handwashing systems, we focus on the local production and establishment of the local capacity at workshops in countries. The non-profit Grvaiteau association provides know-how on the technology, supporting the development of the manufacturing capacity, quality control and design optimization. FHNW supports the monitoring and evaluation. Graviteau Associations funding has been primarily Grant and In-kind contribution-based. Currently, the Association develops and evaluates the opportunities to develop the (social) business around the originally open-source project, and ensures sufficient attention is paid to safety, quality control of the manufactured product, liability, long-term service provision and sustainability.

  1. Purpose of the consultancy

The purpose of the consultancy is to support the development of the business case for the Graviteau association. The goal of the business development is to generate sufficient income to cover the costs, ensure the long-term viability of the organisation, enable growth and diversification of services and partners and ensure there is a long-term social and environmental positive impact of the interventions. It is also essential that the quality of local production of the Graviteau systems can be maintained in the process. By end of 2020, the Gravit’eau association has elaborated the draft scaling up strategy that includes also a draft business plan, analysis of the current business model, analysis of the value network, and basic financial model. This strategy has been further developed and modified. There is an existing homepage and basic communication strategy. However, the business case needs to be re-evaluated to consider the insights of the project activities in the past two years and to evaluate and explore other options for income beyond the grant-based.

The role of the consultant includes:

– Supporting the business model evaluation and development

– Establishing a cost structure for the Gravit`eau Association including evaluation and elaboration of prices of services and products to cover the costs

– Developing the business plan

– Support and advice towards required contracts, insurances, liability, guarantee, or other relevant questions for African and European countries.

– Supporting the development of the General Term and Conditions and partnership agreements (MOU) for partners and manufacturers

– Analysis of the opportunities and risks including (but not limited to):

  • Legal risks & opportunities related to IPR & Quality
  • Analysis of strength and weaknesses of the business model
  1. Methodology

The project team is available for the Consultant for interviews and meetings to provide the required information (for details see the roles and responsibilities section). The consultant needs to ensure that she/he involves different project members and considers the different views and interests of the involved parties (Graviteau, Tdh, FHNW, etc.). The consultant is free to propose the methodology to develop the deliverables. The list of the deliverables can be reviewed and further elaborated by the consultant to reach the overall goal for organisational development. In case of difficulties, reorientation or changes in deliverables shall be considered during the consultancy, but only after approval of Tdh and Graviteau.

  1. Deliverables

The consultant will provide deliverables on time and in electronic format.

The essential deliverables are the drafts of the following documents:

  1. Business plan for the Gravit`eau Association in detail for 12 month and roughly for the next 3-5 years
  2. Draft financial 24 month plan of the Grvait`eau Association including
  • Financial strategy
  • Cost structure includes the costs of services, cost of hardware, logistics, operating expenses, etc.
  • Break-even analysis for different income scenarios
  1. Documents required to operate the Association including
  • General terms and conditions
  • Licencing/franchise agreement for local partners/manufacturers
  • IP-related agreement for partners

All documents must be provided in Word format not protected by any passwords and in English.

All documentation related to the Assignment (whether or not in the course of the consultancy) shall remain the sole and exclusive property of the Gravit`eau Association.

  1. Schedule

The assignment should be carried out in a period defined by the consultant between November 1st – December 15th 2022.

  1. Roles and responsibilities

Tdh, Gravit`eau and FHNW will provide support and the following information:

  • Responding to the meeting requests, answering questions and inquiries
  • Reviewing any writing information and deliverables
  • Share draft scale-up strategy and draft business plan
  • Share technical information required for understanding the products and services
  • Share current production/procurement costs for hardware, local manufacturing, logistics

Focal points for contact:

Tdh main focal point – Bruno Pascual, WASH expert, humanitarian thematic expertise, coordination, grant management

Graviteau association: Fabian Peter – Graviteau association development, design, communication, financial planning

FHNW main focal point: Maryna Peter – overall strategy development, monitoring and evaluation, organizational development

The consultant is responsible for

  • Requesting and organizing meetings to collect the required information
  • Responding to the meeting requests, answering questions and inquiries related to business development
  • Prepare quality reports/deliverables and deliver them as planned in the work plan and schedule.

The consultant will be required to sign a Non-disclosure agreement with Tdh, Gravit`eau and FHNW.

The consultant will be required to adhere to and follow Tdh administrative and logistical regulations and procedures.

  1. Profile of the consultant (team): qualifications and experience

The consultant (team) must have a strong background in the business development of non-profit organisations to achieve social impact and economic value.

Other requirements are:

– Experience in innovative business models, such as open-source innovations, creating social and economic value with open-source technology and service-based models

– Experience in developing business plans for non-profit organisations

– Experience in financial planning, with a focus on non-profit organisations

– Strong conceptual and analytical thinking

– Flexibility and ability to consider different interests of different partners

– Excellent knowledge of English, communication and writing skills

  1. Budget

The budget for specific activities should be provided by the consultant in the context of the financial proposal.

Tdh will pay the consultant in two instalments:

  • First instalment (30 % of total fee) upon acceptance of the inception report,
  • Second instalment (remaining % of the total fee) upon acceptance of the final report.
  1. Application procedures

To be considered, the applicant must submit the following documentation:

  • A Curriculum Vitae (max. 3 to 4 pages highlighting work experience and qualifications relevant to this consultancy)
  • Short (1-2 pages) proposal highlighting understanding of the ToR, and the proposed approach to the business development of the Gravit`eau association
  • A detailed quotation (in Excel format)
  • Two sample reports/documents highlighting previous experience relevant to this ToR
  • Full contact details of at least two references from among recent clients

How to apply

Please submit your application exclusively via email to bruno.pascual@thd.ch .The deadline for submissions is 21st of October 2022.

A project team (Tdh, Gravit`eau and FHNW) will be set up to review applications and successively the reports delivered by the selected consultant.

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