Value Chain Consultant At Relief International

Consultant –Market Assessments for Improved Employment – Syria

Position: Value Chain Consultant

Location: Deir-ez-Zor

Job Category: Technical Advisor

Position Type: Consultancy

Position’s duration: 2 months, starting on November 1, 2022

About RI: Relief International (RI) specializes in relief and development programs that benefit people in acute distress. A registered non-profit in the US, UK, France and Belgium, our work targets those fragile countries or communities that suffer from man-made or natural crises that impede human development. The people that we serve live in 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia where the debilitating effects of political instability, forced displacement, and natural disasters are pervasive.

Background: RI is one of the main humanitarian actors in Deir-ez-Zor (DeZ) in Northeast Syria, where it implements Health and Protection programmes in some of the most hard-to-reach areas. This governorate has been for a long time, including prior to the conflict, one of the most vulnerable areas in the country, with limited investment in infrastructure, availability of services, and state authority. During the conflict it was one of ISIS strongholds due to its tribal social structure, lack of state authority, etc. which facilitated the infiltration of those elements. The conflict, together with the economic crisis, environmental issues such as the water crisis, and the impact of COVID 19, has exacerbated the needs of the population and the lack of state institutions, employment, scarcity water & food security.

One of the components of the protection programme is the provision of skills development training to women and girls in the RI’s protection spaces. These training opportunities are mainly conceived as a way to support participants to increase their social network and empower them through learning new skills. In other words, skills development training is a complementary activity meant to reinforce the positive outcomes of other protection services as case management or focused PSS. However, while this was the initial scope of the skills development training component, it soon became a pull factor for women and girls to come to the protection centers to attend those trainings, which therefore moved from being a complementary activity to becoming an entry point to access other protection services. This happened because how women and girls in the target locations requested access to those opportunities to increase their chances to learn skills that could help them increase their income, which is very often way below the level to cover their basic needs and the ones of their families. This situation is very common in DeZ, and the economic situation keeps getting worse due to multiple, mutually reinforcing factors, such as the conflict, lack of security, the Syrian pound depreciation, COVID 19, etc. Based on these elements, RI has identified the need to expand its services to the livelihood sectors, to support target population to acquire relevant skills and knowledge that can help them find a job or to start a small business.

Concerning the latter, the availability of small grants will be key to support community members in their projects that aims to increase their income in a sustainable manner.

Purpose/Objective: RI therefore is seeking a consultant to provide a comprehensive market systems assessment covering Kisreh and Basira sub-districts, in the Deir-ez-Zor governorate, focusing on local economic development priority sectors.

The market-based assessments are designed to identify functions within the value chains to inform the areas of potential job creation and additional employment for local populations, and in particular for women and girls. Because of the project target group, the assessments need to have a robust gender dimension, to ensure that findings are relevant for the future vocational training participants. Based on the findings of the assessment, RI will identify the vocational training topics to maximise the participants’ livelihood opportunities at the end of the training. In order to be as responsive, the value chain assessments will be modified to not only examine potential value chains to explore, but also how to rebuild those that have been damaged that were providing employment in the targeted areas.

The consultant with support from RI will select the sectors that have growth opportunity, and the assessments are expected to include possible risks and barriers, keeping in mind that specific characteristics of the target groups in a conservative context like the one in DeZ, and therefore might face movement restrictions and other challenges related to initiating or accessing income generating opportunities.

Since agriculture and livestock is the largest sector of employment in Deir ez-Zor, the results of the assessment are likely to point to needs for agriculture-linked activities. However, it is important to note that RI is interested in focusing not on primary production in agriculture, but rather on later stages of agricultural value chains, such as supporting market linkages for small producers, or food production and processing.

The consultant will also conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of providing small cash grants to some vocational training participants to support them in starting new business initiatives. The study will need to identify both risks and opportunities, and provide recommendations on if and how to launch this component to ensure do no harm and its effectiveness.

Key Components of the Assessment

• Inception meeting with RI to define in detail the objectives of the assessment and its main components, and discussion over the proposed methodology
• Desk review of similar assessments conducted in Deir-ez-Zor, to avoid duplication of efforts and to inform the tools based on the
• Development and revision of data collection tools
• Data Collection and Market Assessment Mapping (data collection can be conducted by RI’s staff or RI will hire locally enumerators to support the data collection efforts)
• Feasibility study on small grants for business initiatives component

Activities

• Inception meeting between consultant and orientation on RI strategy
• Market systems development training for RI
• Development of the assessment work-plan with RI
• Desk review, including a review of other value chain programs, if existent, to analyse potential synergies and/or distortions to the market.
• Development of methodology and tools
• Training of enumerators on data collection tools
• Data Collection and Market Assessment Mapping:
  • Conduct a mapping of MSMEs engaged in secondary-sector economic activity (including food production and processing, as well as industry and manufacturing-oriented) and services (but excluding service sectors that RI would be unlikely to provide support for –like financial services, wholesale trade, etc)
  • Conduct interviews with a representative sample of secondary-sector MSMEs to understand challenges and opportunities (such as supply of raw materials, availability of skilled labor, etc) and service sectors
  • Based on interviews, identify sectors and activities that are in high demand where skilled employees are needed.
  • These in-demand skills will inform directions for vocational training.
  • Interviews may also point to bottlenecks and supply challenges that programming can address.
• Feasibility Study on small grants for business initiatives component
• Preliminary findings presentation
• Market Assessment Reports
• Presentation to RI team of the assessment’s main findings and recommendations

Expected activities to be conducted by the consultant:

• Establish selection criteria of the market system to be used for selection
• Develop the list of possible market systems using target group and selection criteria identified
• Select market system against criteria
• Map the structure of the selected market system and key actors involved in the various functions of the selected market system, and map the linkages between them.
• Identify the capacities, constraints and incentives related to each of the core functions, supporting functions and rules in their target market system.
• Conduct a complementary Feasibility Study on small grants for business initiatives component

Deliverables:

• A brief inception report outlining the approach, methodology, work plan and including assessment tools submitted for review and approval before beginning field data collection
• Half day training for RI and its IP staff on MSD approach
• Market Assessment Report (example template will be provided/ to include):
  • Description of the economic development and business environment within the sub-district
  • Justification for selecting the target market system(s)
  • Strategic framework
  • Map of market system structure – the ‘donut’
  • Map and analysis of market actors and their linkages
  • Capacities, constraints and incentives (for each of the market system functions)
  • Recommendations for suggested interventions
• Feasibility Study on small grants for business initiatives component
• Present findings to RI staff and municipalities to validate findings and refine interventions

Timeframe / Schedule

Due dates will be finalized in the workplan approved by RI. The anticipated level of effort for this assignment is 2 months. Start date is November 1, 2022.

Qualifications

• BSs in Economics, Business Administration, International Development, or any research related field, MSc/MBA is preferred
• More than 7 years of progressive experience in economic development-related programs, ideally within Syria or the region
• Demonstrated experience with market systems assessments, municipal engagement and designing private sector development activities
• Fluency in spoken and written English (required) and Arabic (preferred)