1. BACKGROUND
DAI Europe, together with consortium partners First Consult; Enclude; and ITAD, is managing the UKaid-funded Enterprise Partners (EP) and Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP) which aim to support and transform the private sector and Ethiopia’s continued economic growth over the next 6 years.
EP is utilising the Making Markets Work for the Poor approach (M4P) and has two main pillars to achieve the goal of integrating the poor, and especially women, in sustainable economic enterprises that create jobs and improve incomes. The planned impact is to create 45,000 jobs (75% of which will be held by women) and increase the incomes of 65,000 households by at least 20%.
The EP pillars are:
DFID is also funding the technical assistance component of a separate World Bank programme as the third main pillar, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP). The objective of the WEDP is to increase the earnings and employment of micro and small enterprises (MSEs), owned or partly owned by female entrepreneurs in targeted cities.
Background specific to this assignment
A major retail brand has attracted 10 of its principal venders to the Hawassa Industrial Park (HIP) with the intention to start manufacturing later in 2016. It is envisaged that employment in the HIP could be up to 30,000 workers within three years.
It is anticipated that there will be high demand for labour in the HIP but currently the capacity and infrastructure hasn’t been created in the city of Hawassa and its surrounding areas to supply or support such demand. Prospective Investors Association (IA) members have expressed concern with regard to how to source labour that will be easily assimilated into the work environment and have requested assistance from the Ethiopian government to do this.
Extensive consultations have been held with the Ethiopian government, Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI), the Investors Association (IA), donors, regional governments and others to develop the HIPSTER project.
A framework has now been established for collaboration among IA, ETIDI, SNNPR and EP that sets forth the parties’ intent to work together to create HIPSTER, a programme to source, select, grade and train in soft skills a total of 30,000 potential workers over a period of two and a half years.
Project Objectives
The general objective of the HIPSTER project is to develop a market-based and inclusive labour registration and preliminary training system to facilitate employment opportunities for 30,000 unemployed youth. This employment figure is a reflection of projected employment requirements of manufacturers in the HIP.
The project has the following specific objectives:
The partners in the project have committed to cooperate, share information and resources, as mutually agreed upon for the purpose of realising the objectives of the HIPSTER project and to carry out their respective roles as outlined in an MOU signed by all parties in Addis Ababa on July 20th, 2016.
2. PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY
The principal purpose of this consultancy is to ensure the timely field level implementation of the project and to facilitate the successful delivery of all the project elements including those that are the primary responsibilities of the other project partners.
The Project Manager will play a lead field level coordinating role ensuring that all partners are kept fully informed of the demands of the project, ensure that all partners are gearing up to meet project deliverables in a timely manner and that the requisite staff are hired and trained by the partners and equipment and other project requirements are sourced.
The Project Manager will keep all partners fully informed of the project progress against the work plan and will alert all partners to potential bottlenecks and areas where the effective execution of the project’s deliverables are in jeopardy.
The Project Manager will offer advice and assistance wherever required across the entire scope of the project and will work proactively with all partners to develop solutions that will ensure project success.
3. SPECIFIC TASKS
1) Identify an appropriate office space within one of the project partners’ premises.
2) Engage in field level activities of the project
3) Consolidate/update workforce demand schedule from IA/factories
4) Ensure timely communication of workforce demand from IA/factories to SNNPR
5) Closely work with SNNPR/BoTI to facilitate sourcing & screening happens in a timely manner
6) Facilitate timely set up of fully equipped grading centre at Hawassa
7) Develop grading plan with ETIDI
8) Ensure delivery of grading service per the requirement
9) Facilitate allocation of screened and graded workforce candidates
10) Facilitate entrance of screened and grading candidates in database
11) Assist with recruitment of soft skills provider
12) Assess and compile factories feedback on soft skills training provision
13) Assist with organizing stakeholders meeting/forums
14) Ensure implementation challenges and risks are flagged and mitigated ahead of time
15) Facilitate coordination and smooth flow of communication among stakeholders
16) Proactively engage in project implementation, documentation and reporting
17) Coordinate monitoring of the intervention including data gathering from factories, partners and relevant stakeholders
18) Coordinate other Monitoring Result Management (MRM) duties in the SNNNPR Region in relation to other EP interventions, in collaboration with EP
19) Take any other assignment as required
4. DELIVERABLES
# | Description of each deliverable | Timeframe |
1 | A detailed action plan for the first three months which is approved by EP. | A week after starting work |
2 | Regular reports on sourcing/screening service, grading service and soft skills training as per the project work plan | As agreed in the action plan |
3 | Monthly project performance reports | On the 25th of the reporting month |
5 | Quarterly and final project reports as per a template agreed with EP | At the end of every quarter |
6 | MRM trackers in agreed basis | Quarterly but might change as required |
CONSULTANTS REQUIRED
EP is looking for a person with the following minimum requirements:
· BA/MA/MAB Degree in Economics, Social Science, Marketing Managements, International Relations or related field.
· Experience working in a multi-stakeholder environment with at least seven years of relevant work experience.
· Having the required level of confidence and assurance to engage with international partners at both senior level and operational level.
· Strong analytical and problem solving skills are desirable as is knowledge of gender-based issues particular as impacting on the formal employment environment.
· Good writing and reporting skills are essential, with good working knowledge of computer programmes including Word, Excel and Power Point. Knowledge of data base management is desirable