Market and Labor Assessment Consultant At Near East Foundation

Near East Foundation – Jordan

Request for Applications for Conducting a Market Assessment

CONTRACT DATA

Period of Performance: November 2021 – January 2021 (6 weeks)

Location of Assignment: Amman, Jordan (with travel to project locations in Zarqa, Russifieh, Aidoun, and relevant communities/geographical areas)

Background: For 100 years, the Near East Foundation (NEF) has worked to build more sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive communities in the Middle East, Caucasus, and Africa through education, governance, and economic development initiatives. Working through a network of country offices and local partners, NEF currently has approximately 250 staff members – almost all nationals – and programs in ten countries: Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Senegal, Sudan, and Syria. Its programs are organized around three themes: Peacebuilding through Economic Cooperation, Climate-resilient Agriculture, and Microenterprise Development.

Assignment Overview:

Building on our experience in Jordan, NEF has launched a four-year Development Impact Bond (DIB) to sustainably improve the livelihoods and build resilience of vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian refugees in Jordan. It is the first DIB in Jordan and the first globally in refugee programming. Under this innovative mechanism, NEF will be funded on our achievement of outcomes relating to improved livelihoods.

The focus of NEF’s intervention is enterprise creation and economic development. This to promote economic empowerment among vulnerable individuals in Jordan, including refugees and poor and marginalized women and youth. We achieve this through capacity building and support of market-linked skills development, development of new micro enterprises (i.e., home-based businesses), and access to services to support growth of existing, high-potential micro enterprises. These efforts are intended to support self-sufficiency and protection among target beneficiaries by expanding their access to economic and social resources. Our methods maintain sensitivity to competition and protection risks, reduce the potential for tension/misunderstanding, and foster social stability between displaced and host populations.

Many factors are important to the success of these economic activities, including access to markets, quality of products (quality inputs, standard production and processing skills), market demand, competitiveness and compatibility, easy availability of raw material/inputs and market trends/polarity, etc. In addition, activities and considerations related to vulnerable groups – e.g., obstacles, risks, and opportunities that are unique to men or women, youth or adults, people with disabilities, and/or other marginalizing characteristics. Thus, a robust market assessment and mapping must be conducted.

This Market and Labor Assessment will provide detailed micro-markets and sectorial analysis and concrete and practical recommendations to facilitate sectorial growth, micro-market access facilitation, and micro-enterprise growth in each of the five target regions. It will also help inform the tailoring of project’s technical assistance activities by analyzing micro-business development capacities among aspiring entrepreneurs and related competencies in areas where NEF is operating in Jordan for the DIB.

The assessment methodology should include desk analysis and collection of primary data through focus group discussions, business surveys, key informant interviews, and market observations, as detailed in the present Terms of Reference (ToR). It will also involve review and analysis of relevant policies and dynamics that affect access to economic opportunities for micro-enterprises, including government policies, access to financial services, access to markets, and transport.

Audience and Use: The key audiences of the study are the Near East Foundation and the local Community Based Organizations in the project areas. The study will strengthen NEF’s understanding of local market dynamics and micro-business opportunities as well as risks. Information from the assessment report (or results) may also be shared with potential funding sources or other stakeholders such as local decision makers and public policy makers within and outside of Jordan.

Research Objectives: Across each objective listed below, NEF is seeking an evaluation of market demand for goods and services and opportunities for work outside those traditionally offered by micro-enterprise programming.

• Analyze and describe local markets, including current goods, services and entrepreneurship in the local market.
• Identify, describe and assess micro-enterprise opportunities for start-ups related to these local markets, including promising micro-business niches, self-employment opportunities, and sectors with growth potentials for refugees and vulnerable community members, noting how these opportunities differ for each demographic.
• Identify opportunities and provide recommendations for micro-enterprises to enter new market niches and for avoiding market saturation by project-supported micro-entrepreneurs.
• Identify, describe and assess micro-business development capacities among target aspiring entrepreneurs and associated competencies, including specific skills, resources and specific constraints around income earning opportunities for women and youth.
• Analyze how micro-enterprise opportunities differ between the refugee and local community, including how they related to micro-business creation and micro-business expansion
• Identify market dynamics with a focus on innovative partnerships (including partnership with the private sector and state actors) in addition to innovative, impactful delivery methods (e.g., in time of disruption, but also to reach scale, improve inclusivity of programs).
• Identify economic actors that may present an opportunity to facilitate sectorial growth, market access facilitation, and enterprise growth.

Each target area is defined as micro-markets or local value chains where micro-enterprises operate, defined as the customer base reach for each enterprise. This can be a group of villages, a city, or a specific value chain within the geographic area.

Research Methodology: The methodology and research tools to be employed during the assessment include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Desk Analysis

The consultant will review recent (last 5 years) documents related to: (1) existing market assessments in each of the target areas; (2) market regulatory and price control policies, laws and mechanisms (including those that impact refugee livelihoods), (3) relevant documents on market trends, and (4) other relevant documents, resources, and data sources.

• Market Mapping and Value Chain

The consultant will provide a general map of potential local and regional markets in terms of type, size and volume of market, supply chain, women- and youth-led businesses/trades, main access barriers, key trade organizations, and security arrangements, especially for women and youth.

• Interviews with Key Informants and Focus Groups

The consultant will interview key informants in the areas where NEF is implementing the DIB across Jordan. These will include mainly women and youth, beneficiaries of NEF’s current programs, aspiring entrepreneurs, membership bodies (e.g. chamber of commerce, syndicates), suppliers, wholesalers, producers, farmers, vendors, consumers, financial institutions, and other relevant market and policy actors. The consultant also will conduct at least one focus group discussion in each project village involving individuals who are members of the targeted demographic for project beneficiaries: vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian refugee women and youth.

Expected Outputs/Deliverables of the Consultancy: Under the supervision of the Country Representative and Programme Coordinator, and with support from the M&E Officer, the Consultant will be required to deliver the following outputs:

• The consultant shall prepare a brief workplan. The workplan should set out the consultant’s approach for conducting research activities for conducting the assessment. The period of consultancy should not exceed 20 working days, starting with the day the agreement is signed.
• A brief inception report (maximum 4 pages), which details the consultant’s understanding of the work and context, methodology and concrete action plan for delivering the outputs and proposed structure for the final report.
• A solid and well-organized draft report in English detailing the methodology, analysis, key findings, lessons learned and in-depth recommendations that will inform the current project, submitted for review and comments to NEF by the 13^th of January 2022 with the possibility of having up to 3 rounds of reviews.
  • Collected quantitative and qualitative data and analysis should be annexed.
  • At this time, the consultant will also submit a concise (1 page) but detailed summary of the market analysis and livelihoods capacity assessment, including key findings, opportunities, constraints, recommendations, and service gaps.
• A 4-hour presentation/debriefing on the report, highlighting key results, lessons learned and recommendations to key NEF staff after the 20^th of January 2022.
• A final version of the market assessment report by the 27^th of January 2022. The report will be written in English and submitted electronically in a MS – Word document. The consultant is responsible for proofreading the final report. The report should consist of:
  • Executive Summary (no more than 1,500 words)
  • Details of the assignment methodology and analysis
  • Findings
  • Conclusions and recommendations
  • Annexes

Proposed Timeline:

• Contractual Starting Date: December 5, 2021
• Deadline for Inception Report: December 12, 2021
• Deadline for data collection phase: January 6, 2022
• Deadline for the draft report: January 13, 2022
• Deadline for the presentation/debriefing of the draft report: Jan 20, 2022
• Deadline for the final deliverables: January 27, 2022

NEF will be responsible for:

• Provision of previous and actual project documents for contextual background.
• Provision of previous Market Assessments and External Evaluations conducted.
• Logistics and transportation for the days of field work, when applicable.
• The consultant is expected to use his/her own laptop and phone

Payment Method:

The payment will be made as 35% in advance, 50% on submission of the draft report and 15% on approval of the final report. NEF will not be responsible for any further expenses incurred by the consultant during the consultancy visits and for any loss and/or damage to him/her.

Skills, experience and selection criteria:

• University degree in relevant field;
• Proven capability and experience in conducting similar assessments;
• Should have a clear vision for how to approach the project subjects and be able to build a trust and rapport with the subjects and communities being profiled;
• Experience in the livelihoods and protection sectors in Jordan;
• Experience in research methodology;
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques including conducting focus group discussion and key informant interviews;
• Ability to access to data and information sources, including contacts within relevant private sector and government entities;
• Native Arabic speaker;
• Excellent writing and communication skills in Arabic and English;
• Availability and willingness to travel to various areas in Jordan during weekdays; and,
• Ability to work under strict and demanding timelines.