Youth Opportunities, Capacities, Financial and Labour Market Assessment: International Youth Foundation (IYF)

Deadline: 25 February 2020

Background

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) stands by, for, and with young people. Founded in 1990 through a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, IYF is a global nonprofit with programs directly benefiting 7.7 million young people and operations spanning 100 countries so far. Together with local community-based organizations and a network of corporate, foundation, and multilateral partners, we connect young people with opportunities to transform their lives. We believe that educated, employed, engaged young people possess the power to solve the world’s toughest problems, and we focus our youth development efforts on three linked objectives: unlocking agency, driving economic opportunity, and making systems more inclusive. Our vision is to see young people inspired and equipped to realize the future they want. The International Youth Foundation: Transforming Lives, Together. To learn more about the International Youth Foundation, please join us at iyfnet.org

Purpose

The International Youth Foundation is a partner for CARE’s Takunda program in Zimbabwe in response to the USAID/Food for Peace Fiscal Year 2020 Resilient Food Security Activities in Zimbabwe. The program seeks to increase on-farm and off-farm incomes, improve nutrition, and work with women, men, building resilience to shocks and stressors. The program has cross-cutting components of gender, youth, social dynamics and governance. As part of the CARE consortium, IYF’s role will specifically focus on serving as the technical lead for youth, a key cross-cutting issue that must be fully integrated and embedded throughout the project design and implementation

Scope of Service

IYF seeks a Consultants/ firm to carry out a Youth-Opportunities, Capacities, Financial and Labour Market Assessment for the Takunda project locations; Mutare, Buhera, Chivi and Zaka. This research will identify market opportunities and systems that exist for young women and men to engage in on/off activities, emerging employment trends, gaps in high-growth sectors for youth entrepreneurial activities and employment including the expectations for the young women and men, when and how they access soft skills, technical training and vocational education training (disaggregated by age, life stage and household type). The assessment will also measure the relevance and effectiveness of skills offered by TVET in addressing different needs of young women and men and barriers to cross-overs to male dominated fields and opportunities for internship and job shadowing and to assess the current state of young women and men’s well- being, agency and engagement to take advantage of potential economic opportunities. The assessment assignment will be broken into various key components including youth well-being, agency and engagement survey, youth economic opportunities and access for new wage and off-farm/non-farm income, labor market assessment, youth financial inclusion, youth migration patterns assessment, key stakeholder identification.

Objectives of the Assignment

The study seeks to establish interventions that increase on-farm and off-farm incomes, improve nutrition, and build resilience to shocks and stressors for extremely poor, chronically vulnerable, malnutrition risk young women and men in Mutare, Chivi, Zaka and Buhera. The study will aim to identify information gaps in Youth Opportunities, Capacities, Financial and Labour Markets by sex, age and life stage disaggregation in the project locations. The results will inform Takunda Youth Strategy and appropriate interventions such as life skills, technical, employability and entrepreneurship interventions; sector targeting for vocational training, internships, mentorship and business activities for young women and men.

Specific Tasks of the Consultant

The specific tasks of the consultant will include: Develop/adapt participatory data collection tools and questions for the analysis covering youth opportunities, capacities, financial and labor market assessment; Conducting assessments, literature review and collection of primary data on - Youth economic opportunities and access for new wage and off-farm/non-farm self-employment which will include identification of sustainable employment that is dignified, safe and free of exploitations, Labor supply and demand alignment focusing on supply and demand conditions in the labor market and for viable entrepreneurial activities in target sectors and identify opportunities for matching supply and demand through institutional strengthening and improved market research, through active consultation with the private sector among other methods, Youth Financial Inclusion concentrating on the supply and demand of formal and non formal financial products/ services, Sector Analysis The assessment team will perform a review to analyze factors affecting the formal and informal labor markets in the key sectors such as agriculture and agro-processing, ICT, retail and food services, financial services and any others relevant to Takunda operating districts, Youth Well-Being, Agency & Engagement: The assessment will measure quality of life, experiences, and perceptions of youth in Takunda’s operating districts to support the design of youth-friendly interventions and identify engagement opportunities for young people to participate and partner in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the program, Youth Migration The assessment will examine the current migration patterns and push/pull factors for young men and young women; Identify and train potential local young men and women in the project areas to be enumerators during the research period; Develop research strategy incorporating research methods and tools that will be used that will respond to the research objectives and questions; Lead Data Collection & Analysis The consultant will lead and guide the assessment team during field work, data collection and data management; Presentation of Preliminary Findings The consultant will present key findings of the Youth Opportunities, Capacities, Financial and Labor Market Assessment to IYF and Takunda team.

Specific Deliverables

The specific deliverables for the assignment are: Delivery and approval of assessment team work plan prior commencement of work; At least two in-person progress reports by the consultant to IYF/ Takunda during the assessment period; Interim presentation to Takunda (submitted electronically in PowerPoint format and presented verbally); The interim report shall include preliminary key findings, conclusions and recommendations. IYF/Takunda will provide oral comments on the day of the briefing and summary comments will be provided in writing within one week after the interim presentation; Draft final report will be due within two weeks of submission of the interim presentation following the outlined in this SOW. IYF/ Takunda will provide written comments within one week of receipt of the draft final report; Final report will be due within one week of receipt of IYF/ Takunda comments and shall follow the format outlined from IYF. The final report shall consist of the same sections and page limitations as the draft final report; The final report will be written on a project template which will be shared with the Consultant and shall be branded consistent with USAID’s branding guidelines.

Reporting Responsibilities

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the IYF Country Director and Youth Specialist with additional liaison with the Takunda programs team.

Team Requirements

The assessment team leader will justify team personnel and level of effort. The following is the minimum mix of skills and experience required among team members: Advanced degree in Economics, Business, Development studies, or related fields; Detailed and in-depth knowledge of labor economics, business, human resources and best practices in workforce development, entrepreneurship and youth programing; At least 5 years’ professional experience as a team lead, responsible for assessing complex economic growth projects, particularly with experience in labor market and workforce development activities; Experience engaging young people in program design and implementation, including the use of youth assessment tools and approaches, and youth-inclusive rapid scans, scenario building and testing; Demonstrated in-depth experience with and knowledge of Zimbabwe’s economy, prospects, labor market, and employment and empowerment policies; Demonstrated written communication skills, especially in drafting and editing evaluations, assessments, and other reports; Familiarity with USAID’s evaluation policy, and International NGOs standards and requirements.

Proposed period and duration of consultancy

It is expected that the consultancy will start between April 2021 and end in June 2021. The field work is expected to be carried out over a period of 4weeks for all the 4 districts.

Commencement of activities is subject to USAID approval.

Remuneration

This is a paid assignment and details on remuneration will be disclosed to shortlisted candidates.