Micro aggregation Induvial consultant

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have a long-term impact.

The Program/Department/Team

The Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaaع) is a five-year activity that aims to put Jordanian micro and small enterprises (MSEs)[1], operating in the formal and informal sectors, on a path to recovery after the extraordinary crisis that the businesses have faced, help them access the safety net measures in Jordan, and, most importantly, regain productivity and growth.

The approach adopted by Mercy Corps Jordan (MCJ) to IQLAAع integrates direct assistance with Market Systems Development (MSD) interventions to support MSEs along the full journey from recovery to growth and resilience. Grounded in evidence-based, adaptive, and inclusive support, Jordan’s MSEs can emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger and more resilient, transformed through new ways of doing business and improved access to finance, markets, and services. Understanding that women, youth, and people living with disabilities (PLWD) face unique constraints to starting up and leading resilient MSEs, Iqlaaع’s design will infuse a Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion (GYSI) lens throughout all interventions. Mercy Corps’ approach is committed to supporting MSEs build back, formalize, and grow, emphasizing systems-level change, equitable opportunities, and a dignified work environment for all women, men, youth, and PLWDs in Jordan.

Project Purpose

Iqlaaع wishes to create several micro aggregators to help Home-based Businesses (HBBs) and micro and small enterprises expand their markets. In line with this, Iqlaaع will develop the first micro-aggregator pilot by attracting existing HBBs and MSEs that are owned or managed by persons living with disabilities to take on this role, or by PLWDs who wish to form HBBs or micro-businesses to become aggregators. Accordingly, we are seeking to identify and build the capacity of interested eligible HBBs, MSEs, and teams of persons living with disabilities who will take on the roles, functions, and responsibilities of acting as market micro-aggregators.

The market micro-aggregators will be able to identify local, national, regional, and international businesses/marketing opportunities and link them to local HBB/MSE producers or service providers, to facilitate access to expanded markets and meet market requirements (including export certification if applicable, packaging and labeling requirements, etc.). Through the micro-aggregator, HBBs and MSEs can sell nationally, regionally, and internationally.

This Scope of Work will assist Iqlaaع in creating success stories that will promote inclusion within the MSE sector and offer PLWDs value-added economic opportunities along the supply chain. Trained micro-aggregators can become trainers for other PLWDs to scale and sustain this model in the future.

Project Description

Iqlaaع is looking for a national individual lead consultant with business knowledge and experience in Jordan and internationally as well as practical experience in exporting products and/or services to identified export market opportunities. The lead consultant must demonstrate experience in sub-contracting local enterprises to produce goods or services which meet identified export market requirements and successfully export these products/services. These skills will be used as a foundation to develop and deliver relevant training to interested teams of PLWDs or existing enterprises owned or managed by PLWDs to establish or develop micro aggregation capabilities to assist HBBs, small, and micro enterprises reach attractive export markets. The consultant is encouraged to team up with a sub-consultant with background and experience in disability inclusion and training if the lead consultant does not have that experience, bearing in mind that MCJ will only sign a contract with the lead consultant. However, MCJ will approve which sub-consultant the lead wishes to team up with. The consultant must integrate necessary reasonable accommodations[2], accessible formats[3], and universal design[4] throughout the scope of work, and should ensure that the needs assessment, the training (including materials activities, exercises, agenda, etc.), and mentorship are conducted and developed in an inclusive manner, taking into consideration the needs of persons living with disabilities.

The training should also be developed in a manner that allows those attendees with the potential to become trainers and cascade this training to others. Furthermore, the training venue must be accessible[5] for the attendees.

After the training, a list of ready attendees – whether already registered established MSEs or individuals who don’t which to formalize at this moment but have the potential to move forward to the next level of the program -, will be supported by the consultant to develop business plans to either receive funds from MCJ or be referred to an incubator where the cost is covered by MCJ. The consultant will play a critical role in enabling MSE businesses’ growth through export opportunities identified and exploited by the selected micro aggregation teams or enterprises by providing coaching for an extended period of time.

The consultant will be working closely to:

1. Develop criteria to select competent and interested teams, HBBs, and MSEs that are owned or managed by persons with disabilities to participate in the training and the following creation of micro aggregators.

• If the lead consultant teams up with a sub-consultant, the lead consultant must bear in mind to include the sub-consultant for insights related to inclusion.

1. Pre-selection of teams of PLWDs or HBBs and MSEs that are owned by persons with disabilities to participate in the training and the following creation of micro aggregators.

• If the lead consultant teams up with a sub-consultant, the lead consultant must bear in mind to include the sub-consultant for insights related to inclusion.

1. Evaluate the needs of the selected teams, HBBs, and MSEs in terms of needed skills to set up and operate as a micro aggregator, and special training modalities (such as the use of multimedia methods of training delivery, using reasonable accommodations, and accessible formats) to cater for the needs of the attendees with disabilities.

• If the lead consultant teams up with a sub-consultant, the lead consultant must bear in mind to include the sub-consultant for insights related to inclusion.

1. Conduct analysis by reviewing what can be sold using international e-commerce platforms such as amazon, or other online e-commerce platforms, along with needed skills, materials, specifications, and mandates
2. Create the training module, where it should cater to the identified needs above, and it should include theoretical, and practical composites where HBBs and MSEs learn and implement simultaneously, and it should follow a training of trainers approach, materials should be around the following topics:

• Defining the business idea
• Aggregation and its concept and principles
• E-commerce and its concept and principles
• Defining business components
• Defining product features if any
• Prototyping the product and finalizing it
• Quality standards and their importance
• Assessing production capability
• Setting up the team
• Establishing the marketing and communication function including creating market knowledge, sales, and market reach
• Financial literacy including pricing, preparing the income statement, cash flows, balance sheet, breakeven, profitability and growth estimates, and factoring solutions related to their disabilities within pricing
• Linking HBBs to international e-commerce platforms such as amazon or other online e-commerce platforms including navigating the system, being compliant with their needs, and understanding the way they work
• If the lead consultant teams up with a sub-consultant, the lead consultant must bear in mind to include the sub-consultant for insights related to inclusion

1. Submit the training to be reviewed by MCJ’s technical team.
2. Amend the materials as per MCJ comments and finalize the training materials.
3. Format the training manual for the use of the HBBs and MSEs to include guidance and templates, and ensure the manual is accessible for all attendees such as available voice recordings, videos with sign language interpretation, and captioning (price this separately).
4. Conduct the training for 35 participants for 20 days while bearing in mind to train and identify master trainers to move this training forward.

• If the lead consultant teams up with a sub-consultant, the lead consultant must bear in mind to include the sub-consultant for insights related to inclusion for no more than 3 days throughout the actual training period

1. Set up a part of the training to be self-work where HBBs and MSEs take a period of a couple of days to create their own business plans and pitch their ideas to a committee formed of the consultant and members selected by Iqlaaع and the consultant.
2. Set up the pitch day in terms of a detailed schedule, a scoring sheet, logistics, and other related needs for the members and the committee to be able to deliver and assess the pitches respectively.
3. Arrange and facilitate the selection based on the pitches and make sure to deliver the names of the successful pitches to MCJ with a recommended route or multiple routes to follow:

• Provision of startup grants with needed amounts from MCJ
• Provision of growth grants with needed amounts from MCJ
• Referral of individuals who do not wish to formalize for incubation via an incubator facilitated by MCJ
• Formalization grants for those who are ready, able, and desire to formalize
• Join the roster of master trainers
• Join MicroMentor to become mentors on the micro mentor platform

1. Provide coaching and mentoring for selected MSEs for a period of 3 months which entails daily meetings for 2 hours a day for each MSE to assist in reaching a period where sales are happening. The consultant will support MSEs to deliver by the end of the consultancy at least ten export/transactions per team and report against it to MCJ.

• Note: the working day is not 2 hours a day, but 2 hours per MSE, accordingly multiple MSEs should be supported per day