ILRI Consultancy: Development of a women-entrepreneurship program for small scale food retailers at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a consultant to identify training needs of women in informal food businesses in Kenya and adapt an existing program to address the identified needs.

ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. It is the only one of 15 CGIAR research centres dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world. Co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, it has regional or country offices and projects in East, South and Southeast Asia as well as Central, East, Southern and West Africa. www.ilri.org

Background:

By 2050, more than two thirds of the world will live in urban areas. Food systems need to urgently transform to ensure they deliver healthy and nutritious diets to the growing urbanizing centers. The CGIAR has launched a new research initiative that will look at how to support cities to transform their urban food systems to meet the nutrition, health and wealth needs of urban citizens in the Global South. A strong focus of this initiative will be supporting informal markets in low- and middle-income countries to gradually upgrade to become efficient, well-organized and safe sources of food for people. 

Informal markets are critical for food and nutritional security. They are also an important source of income. Food business operators face a number of challenges which they have to overcome to remain in business. A study, focusing on women entrepreneurs, has been designed to provide data on the current practises and highlight needs of food businesses. The findings are expected to inform an intervention to empower small-scale women entrepreneurs in Nairobi, Kenya. A consultant is being sought to implement the study (an activity under WP2 of the Resilient cities initiative).  

Scope of Work:

The consultant will undertake the following activities:

1. Develop plan of activities for consultancy, including timeline, field work and deliverables, as well as documentation for ethical approval application. (1 day)
2. Learning needs. Identifykey constraints and learning needs in relation to broadly defined business and enterprise issues, including cash flow and financing, among small scale vendors in the informal dairy value chain in Kenya, with particular emphasis on women. This activity will involve review of literature, secondary data, semi-structured interviewing and/or FGDs with relevant stakeholders. (7 days)
3. Develop an inventory of existing trainings or capacity development programs directed to business operators in formal or informal food markets in East Africa or elsewhere, and that address some of the identified learning needs. This activity will be a desk review. (3 days)
4. Analysis, report write-up and presentation of outputs of (2) and (3). (3 days)
5. Adaptation of existing training program for dairy vendors and re-design as Vendor Business School (VBS) tool. Based on the diagnosis and learning needs assessment, revise modules that will be retained from existing programs, and draft new modules. Structure the VBS considering group vs individual participants, gender, sessions (frequency of meetings -weekly/ bi-weekly, time availability of the vendors, etc.). Develop a proposed outline of the training content and program. (7 days)
6. VBS review workshop. The VBS review workshop will involve women and men vendors of different kinds working in the dairy sector, training and marketing specialists, market management representatives and others. This workshop will be organized (4 days, including preparation, implementation and report write up)
7. Finalization of Vendor Business School (VBS) tool. Full development of the content and outline of the training program (15 days)

Final products:

The consultant will deliver.

1. Consultancy time plan, including timeline of activities and deliverables.
2. Report of learning needs and inventory of capacity development programs
3. Presentation of findings from report (see deliverable 2 above)
4. Draft report of program outline and content
5. Report of VBS review workshop
6. Final program content and outline. 

Consultancy Fee:  Lumpsum or by mutual agreement based on agreed milestones and deliverables

Post location: Nairobi, Kenya

Duration: September 2022– December 2022 (working days:  40 days)

Essential skills and qualifications

• MSc in agriculture related field, including economics. PhD or MBA would be an asset
• Experience in capacity development programs with agriculture and agrifood businesses.
• Experience in development and delivery of training programs
• Proficiency in English and Kiswahili in speaking and writing
• Excellent team communication skills

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV expressing their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development by clicking on the “Apply Now” tab above before 7 September 2022. The position title and reference umber REF: SLS/635/2022 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

We thank all applicants for their interest in working for ILRI. Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). ILRI also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

To find out more about ILRI visit our websites at http://www.ilri.org

ILRI is an equal opportunity employer.

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