Call for proposal for a consultancy service in Myanmar: “Identification of sectors for the development of livelihood opportunities in Myanmar”

“Identification of sectors for the development of livelihood opportunities in Myanmar, through community dialogue sessions in rural and urban areas and labor market assessments”

Introduction and scope of work

ACTED in Myanmar is implementing a three-year program to support vulnerable groups in the States of Rakhine, Yangon and Southern Shan in phasing from emergency assistance to sustainable livelihoods

Hunger and the need for humanitarian assistance has grown even more complex and severe across Myanmar, with the triple impact of pre-existing poverty, COVID-19 and the current political crisis. In the past two years this triple impact has vinified many of the impressive development gains the country has made over the past 15 years, pushing record numbers of people into the humanitarian assistance space. The country economy is spiraling downwards, leaving millions of people struggling to find viable livelihoods, basic services and, increasingly, facing challenges to meet their basic food needs. More than 13 million people are now in moderate or severe food insecurity and the most vulnerable people are increasingly resorting to dangerous coping strategies to survive

To help in breaking the cycle of food insecurity, poverty and displacement, ACTED has launched a program to assist vulnerable communities in the areas of Rakhine, Yangon and Southern Shan to meet their emergency needs of food security, nutrition and protection, targeting about 9000 vulnerable households

Following the provision of assistance to fill emergency gaps, ACTED plans to support the phasing of vulnerable groups to sustainable livelihoods in the areas of Rakhine, Yangon and Kayah

The “identification of sectors for the development of livelihood opportunities in Myanmar, through community dialogue sessions in rural and urban areas and labor market assessments” is a strategic study to support ACTED decision making in allocate resources, in-kind, financial and/or through support services such as small businesses incubation

The Study will identify opportunities in line with ACTED intervention strategy and beneficiaries engagement practices, which includes:

• Scalability of the identified opportunities as tool for inclusion and social cohesion: household level is the entry point of ACTED response to affected vulnerable people. By prioritizing the most vulnerable individuals – such as persons with disabilities, victims of UXO and landmines, single mothers and displaced – ACTED ensures that no vulnerable person is left behind. This approach translates into identifying livelihood opportunities that can be developed and managed in-site by vulnerable individuals. Following the prioritization of livelihood opportunities at household level, ACTED promotes a scale up of the livelihoods at community level, with more articulated interconnection among productive assets and community group members. The scalability is a fundamental pre-condition to build an inclusive circular economy and promote social cohesion among community members
• Sustainability of the identified opportunities: strengthen a value chain to maximize income for the community members and optimize the use of natural assets is at the core of ACTED approach to sustainability. The Study aims at highlight which parts of the value chain can be strengthen to maximize inclusion and benefit for vulnerable groups, raising the overall sustainability level of the whole value chain

These two elements are required to the core of the study, with a clear outline of the recommended investment and risk management in the context of the fragile political and economic situation of Myanmar

In developing the Study, two additional elements are very relevant, as they have been identified by ACTED as key cross-cutting themes in sustainable livelihoods:

• Carbon offsetting, Climate-smart and linkages to Green Financing: ACTED promotes a 3Zero approach: Zero Hunger, Zero Exclusion and Zero Carbon emission, as part of its phasing from emergency to sustainable livelihoods

The Study will provide a clear outline of the GHG or ecological footprint of the value chain, including opportunities for offsetting emissions

• Demining and protection of mine risk victims: Myanmar has historically been affected by Explosive Ordnance (EO), including landmines, due to the number of protracted conflicts across the country. Many of these conflicts have endured for generations, although newly intensified violence across Myanmar has renewed EO-related protection concerns for children and civilian. As of July 2022, the full extent of contamination in Myanmar is unknown, but contamination from both improvised landmines and mines produced in state-owned factories has been recorded by Landmine Monitor in 90 townships and 10 states and regions

Objective of the Study

The main objective of this consultancy is to carry out a viability assessment for sustainable livelihood opportunities in about 6500 households in the areas of Rakhine, Yangon and Kayah and design business plans for households-based livelihoods, community- based livelihoods enterprises and business linkages between the livelihoods system and green economy services

Specifically, the Study will:

(a) Identify and conduct a viability assessment of sustainable livelihood interventions in targeted communities in in the areas of Rakhine, Yangon and Kayah and South Shan State. ACTED will provide actual locations of area selected, with P-Coded target settlements and P-Coded administrative units

(b) Develop business/finance plans for food and non-food value chains identified in the areas of Rakhine, Yangon and Kayah, differentiating between household-owned livelihood systems and community-owned livelihood systems. The identification will include mapping out potential development stakeholders (investors, private sector, and partners) and technical service providers to support implementation of the livelihood systems, possible bottlenecks in supply chain, knowledge and technical skills gap risks and mitigation measures

(c) Develop an appropriate targeting criteria and methodological tool for the identification of beneficiaries to implement the selected sustainable livelihood interventions and support the process of identifying and registering the beneficiaries (associations, interest groups, producers) ensuring the needs of identified vulnerable groups are met, building on the existing beneficiary targeting mechanism;

(d) Develop an appropriate Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the selected livelihood interventions, with the logical framework, indicators, targets and baseline data tailored towards revealing the effectiveness of the implementation and the impact on communities in the short and medium term.

The consultant(s) are expected to propose a detailed participatory methodology based on Social and Behavior Change models as well as key Development strategy paper for livelihoods in Myanmar (World Bank, Dept of Forestry, FAO) and tools for data collection and analysis in the viability assessment and business plan development. The assessment will provide a deep understanding of the environment and socioeconomic characteristics of the targeted communities, and give insights into just how viable the identified livelihoods are within the local context

The consultant(s) methodology and tools will attempt to address at least the following key questions:

– What is the general situation of the economy in the target areas?

– What is the current status of coastal and inland livelihoods of communities in the target area?

– What are the key challenges to economic development, skills, market access and investments?

– Which of the identified livelihoods options/enterprises are likely to be most attractive based on appropriateness for food security and households’ incomes, financially viability (profitability), marketing viability (access), technical feasibility (inputs access and manageability), impact landscape conservation objectives, and strategic relevance and fit for the target communities and local markets?

– Who are the key stakeholders in the markets? What are the volumes of production and trade, market environment, infrastructure and service provision, financial services available (especially for women)?

– What is the situation of local production, industries, business and services including business support services sector?

– What is the situation of women and the youth, and their power in the markets?

– What do the intended beneficiaries communities need to have to meet the preparedness criteria for not just starting the livelihoods/enterprises but also effectively managing them and making them sustainable? What training needs will the intended beneficiaries need to be provided with to achieve that?

– What are the risks and vulnerabilities including social and environmental aspects of the livelihoods/enterprises? How should they be mitigated? – Which livelihoods/enterprises and markets hold the highest potential for improving household food security and economic independence for targeted communities?

– Which potential development partners and technical service providers are readily available that would support the roll out and implementation of the selected interventions/enterprises including providing technical and financial training?

– How the identified local production, industries, business and services including business support services are linked to carbon emissions? Which is predominantly a carbon source which one is predominantly a carbon sink? How carbon emissions and ecological footprint can be offset?

– How the production, industries, business and services including business support services can be connected to Green and Climate Financing products, such as carbon credit, climate insurance schemes? What would be the payout and return to communities from these services?

Eligibility and qualification of consultants

The Consultant(s) should show evidence of professional qualifications and extensive relevant analysis on livelihood assessments, natural resources management and assisting international organizations to build sustainable livelihoods in post-conflict areas affected by landmines and natural hazards. Extensive knowledge is also required on green financing, carbon credit, climate insurance, sustainable financing, fisheries, agriculture and food security, community and stakeholder participatory engagement, amongst others. Preference is for a consultant/consulting team that has a track record of analysis delivered for INGOs, United Nations agencies (WFP, FAO, UNDP, UNEP, UNMAS) and an in-depth professional relationship with ASEAN countries, especially with leading Donors in ASEAN

The Consultant(s) should consist of individuals with the following profiles:

• One or more expert with Master degree in agriculture, agricultural economics, agro-business, sustainable rural livelihoods, or related fields and with minimum of fifteen (15) years such as information and analytics for livelihoods, natural resources mapping, environmental risk and natural hazards with direct experience in developing agriculture system analysis and value chain analysis with international organizations (World Bank, ILO, WFP, FAO) (CV to be submitted with application)
• One or more expert with minimum of twenty (20) years of experience in operations in conflict-affected and/or disaster-affected areas, with international organizations such as, but not limited to, WFP, FAO, UNMAS, UNDP on restoration of livelihoods, landmine clearance for rural areas and fragile ecosystem (CV to be submitted with application)
• One or more expert with minimum of fifteen (15) years of experience in leading livelihood restoration for agriculture, fisheries and non-food livelihoods in post-conflict areas of the ASEAN region, developing agribusiness with cooperatives/farmer organizations, inclusive value chain development and market linkages (CV to be submitted with application)

Additional required expertise:

• Demonstrated experience in developing livelihood risk models for natural hazard insurance, man-made hazard insurance, climate insurance and compensation mechanisms for victims in post-conflict countries
• Demonstrated experience in data mining, data consolidation, data standardization and creation of information products to support decisions on value-chain, ecosystem restoration and risk managememt
• Demonstrated capacity to generate high quality analysis, natural resources mapping, livelihood system mapping and value chain analysis (at least one sample work to be submitted with the application)
• Demonstrated capacity in conducting technical and non-technical mine risk mapping in post-conflict areas for livelihood restoration (at least one sample work to be submitted with the application)
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering high quality livelihood and natural resources analysis and assessments, livelihood viability assessments, landmine risk in livelihoods, natural hazards risk in livelihoods, community development and needs assessments associated with meeting food security and natural resource management/ conservation objectives (at least one sample analysis, baseline or report to be submitted with the application)
• Demonstrated knowledge and access to the state of art information on natural assets, livelihoods and green investment for development in Myanmar, including physical infrastructures, natural hazards, key development plans for coastal area, landcover changes, financial service providers
• In depth knowledge in the livelihoods sector (e.g. microfinance, vocational training and technical education, community contracting) and of green financial products utilized to promote sustainable livelihoods in post-conflict and/or post-disaster areas: climate-insurance, carbon credit, carbon farming, blue carbon
• In depth knowledge about small-scale livelihood systems operated at household level, business development and diversification for alternative income and other behavioral practices
• Experience in establishing household and community level livelihood systems in post-conflict settings
• Demonstrated experience in establishing livelihood systems for people with disabilities
• Extensively experience in assisting landmine victims in accessing livelihood opportunities, promote a culture or mine risk education and safety
• Demonstrated experience working in Protection for vulnerable groups in conflict-affected areas, with mandatory knowledge of UNHCR protection system
• Demonstrated experience in and excellent skills for stakeholder engagement at the national and community levels, including efficient facilitation during meetings between various stakeholders (government, NGOs, CBOs, international community and communal levels)
• Demonstrated experience working in protected areas systems, and the sub-sector of alternative incomes and other behavioral practices that encourage sustainable use of natural assets
• Experience implementing community-based and participatory approaches, policy for assets management, conflict resolution and listener groups in communities
• Strong technical report writing, data acquisition and analysis skills, with capacity to gather secondary data through UN and national sources
• Certified EOD Expert
• Excellent writing and speaking skills in English