Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 23 Aug 2015
I. Introduction
Promoting Opportunities through Training, Education, Transition Investment and Livelihoods for youth (POTENTIAL) is a five-year USAID-funded demographic opportunity program that promotes opportunities for young Ethiopians to positively contribute to the betterment of society. POTENTIAL’s goal is for unemployed and underemployed Ethiopian youth ages 15-29 in rural areas and towns to attain the skills, knowledge, and social capital that lead to increased income and long-term economic self-sufficiency. It will be achieved by improving access for Ethiopians to education, technical training institutes (TTIs), and practical work experiences, and bringing together local stakeholders such as TTIs, private sector, youth, and government. POTENTIAL’s mission is to support Ethiopian society and the national government to benefit from the ‘demographic opportunity’ afforded by the high proportion of Ethiopians in the age groups of the active workforce. The program plans to directly reach 34,537 Ethiopian youth in six regions and 30 woredas and 150+ Kebeles, helping them escape the cycle of poverty.
POTENTIAL’s proposed strategies respond to unemployed and underemployed youths’ capacity needs, leverage existing youth development activities, and contribute to improving the quality and accountability of local training and business service providers by ensuring existing entities work in concert.
II. POTENTIAL Program Intermediate Results (IRs)
IR 1: Rigorous evidence base developed to inform USAID and its development partners, including youth, GOE, and NGOs, on appropriate, effective, and sustainable market driven youth workforce development interventions.
IR 2: Improved youth access to market relevant skills and experiences to support the transition to safe and viable employment.
IR 3: Coordinated delivery, among local institutions, of quality market driven services connecting underserved youth, especially women, to employment and income opportunities.
III. Concept
The regions, Woredas and Kebeles need young, skilled, educated and energetic workforce to drive the economy and help shape communities that will be magnets for economic growth and vitality. Young people are more likely to choose living in Woredas and Kebeles if its communities have an array of options, interesting recreational and cultural activities, the right mix of retail offering what they need and want, and opportunities for professional growth. While focused on how young people want to shape Woredas and Kebeles, the existing youth groups, we name them Youth Economic Strengthening (YES) groups will engage with the hubs (YES + hubs = YES Hubs) for peer support and will also refer youth to other service providers as needed so that everyone can benefit and build interesting, functional, economically thriving communities.
YES Hubs engage their users to participate in the full range of activities in their communities. Hubs will educate and coach these users on how to get involved in their communities. Hub users will work together and with others to identify improvements that can make their communities more attractive to young people and learn from local groups. A YES Hub Network will be established that connects and supports the various YES hubs by assisting them to learn from each others’ successes, by circulating information and offering a helping hand when needed. Over time the network will adapt ICT and other tools to the work of youth employment and collaboration. The network will give young people a voice in policy discussions affecting younger people.
The YES Hubs will offer a variety of strength-based support services to young people in the community incl. cost-effective training, coaching, and counseling, and other requested services to address and improve social, emotional and daily living skills for young people in the transition into the labor market. Within Hubs, local economic and social councils consisting of local leaders, employers, private sector, service providers and youth will be created to promote youth development, employment opportunities, facilitate innovation, and add greater respect for young people’s contribution among community members.
IV. Objective
The overall objective guiding the preparation of this concept note is to enhance program effectiveness through working with YES Hubs. This concept will provide the information to stimulate the interest and encourage the participation of youth in different youth service centers to be associated with each youth service networks.
These hubs will provide a cost-effective approach to enhance support service access for remote communities and disadvantaged groups such as youths, young mothers aged 15-29 in rural areas and towns to attain the skills, knowledge, and social capital that lead to increased income and long-term economic self-sufficiency.
V. Activities to be performed
The consultant will produce under the supervision of POTENTIAL a guidelines document on how a YES HUB should be set up and managed to produce the results expected by POTENTIAL & USAID, considering international best practices, the experiences so far and the context of the Ethiopian economy, in particular the challenges faced by new and growing small enterprises.
VI. Period of works
Given the urgent need to have this guidelines document available, a short period of 5 weeks is forecasted for this project with a first draft version in 4 weeks – from the date of the procurement notice.
VII. Role of POTENTIAL
POTENTIAL will perform the overall supervision of the work toward the Guidelines document.
POTENTIAL and the regional teams will actively be involved in this project by providing their expertise. They will make the relevant staff available for interviews and will facilitate fast access to interviewees in the hub and/or youth groups they work with.
The document will not exceed 30 pages, plus annexes as needed. It will include an executive summary, and its version in power point, to be utilized at a presentation and discussion at POTENTIAL office.
VIII. Qualification of the consultant
The consultant needs to have significant experience with hub and community development, in both local and international context – existing experience and knowledge will enable the consultant to hit the ground running and get to more depth in the guideline.
· The consultant must at least have a MBA or equivalent, will be preferable. Must have extensive (at least 10 years) practical experience in the field of hub development, well conversant with government strategies on rural development in Ethiopia.
. Have practical experience of developing training material and strategy for hubs. · Extensive experience and publications on the sustainability of rural hub development · The consultant should also be able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, to have good organizational skills and have the ability to work on own initiative. · The consultant has demonstrated commitment and the passion to produce sustainable outcome with the willingness to being engaged in action research over a longer period of time
How to apply:
Interested applicants who meet the minimum requirements should send CV (maximum of 3 pages) along with a cover letter (one page) as a single document through Ethiopia.Recruitment@savethechildren.org by indicating the code number of the vacancy on or before August 23, 2015.
Note that copies of transcripts, academic degrees or recommendation letters should not be included with the application. You will provide them upon request.
In candidate selection, Save the Children is committed to gender balance and diversity without distinction as to race, sex or religion, and without discrimination of persons with disabilities.
Save the Children has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Child Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants and children from exploitation. Any candidate offered a job with Save the Children will be expected to adhere to these policies.