Consultancy – Gender Mainstreaming in the Coffee Retail Sector

You are eligible for this position if you have demonstrated experience in supply chain management. Applicants must have the right-to-work in Egypt to be considered for this position. 

Project Overview 

The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a 7-year and €135 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to create a prosperous future for 235,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa and Horn of Africa regions. The Fund will be supporting initiatives in 11 focus countries that will offer youth, in particular young women, opportunities for work that is demand-driven and productive, offering a stable income and safe working conditions, and that is contributing to their personal development and social protection.

Private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions will be invited to submit proposals geared to scalable solutions for creating more and better jobs and income generating opportunities for youth. Solutions will in particular focus on an integrated approach that addresses the shortcomings on the demand side (jobs) and supply side (skills) and bridging the mismatch between these two in the labour market.

Assignment Overview 

Delicious Inc is the holding company for Cilantro, a chain of coffee stores spread across Egypt. Under its project with CFYE, Delicious Inc. Cilantro will create over 600 jobs for youth by opening 30 new coffee stores across Egypt. Additional employment will be generated through its suppliers and recycling partners, as well as 200 new jobs for delivery riders boarded to a newly created app that facilitates order placement and delivery. Furthermore, Cilantro aims to improve working conditions for 400 current employees, focusing on better adherence to policies, job promotion opportunities, and enhanced benefits, such as transportation, meals, and insurance. 

While Cilantro is making strides toward gender inclusion in its workforce, significant gender disparities persist in store-level employment, where historically, men dominated roles. With increasing participation from women, challenges have emerged, such as ensuring equal opportunity and addressing workplace tensions. Cilantro recognizes the business value of greater gender equality, noting that women employees demonstrate cleaner and more structured work habits, higher average order values, and longer tenures. 

To achieve its gender mainstreaming goals, Cilantro seeks the support of CFYE’s Technical Assistance (TA) team to sensitize the male-dominated workforce, integrate gender equality into policies, and develop a tailored value proposition to attract more women to the company. 

Objectives and Activities 

This exercise will specifically focus on store-level employment, operations, and recruitment practices to identify areas requiring gender mainstreaming. 

Objective 1: Conduct a Gap Analysis of Cilantro’s Employment Practices to better understand the main challenges for female employees at Cilantro stores around recruitment, onboarding, retention, promotion and other key employment stages and processes, and how Cilantro’s employment practices can be improved to overcome these challenges and improve the situation of female employees in Cilantro stores.  

Activities: 

• Conduct key informant interviews (KII) with current female employees at Cilantro to understand their experiences and challenges. 

• Document the outcomes of the KIIs and synthesize into a report with an exhaustive overview of key findings, patterns, including initial recommendations.  

Objective 2: Develop a Comprehensive Strategy and Action Plan for Gender Mainstreaming across Cilantro stores The strategy and action plan will set clear targets and goals for gender inclusivity within the workforce, co-created with input from relevant stakeholders. 

Activities: 

• Organize brainstorming sessions with key Cilantro representatives and stakeholders to interpret the key findings of the assessment.  

• Based on this, create a detailed and actionable roadmap including key elements such as gender-sensitive recruitment practices, role-specific onboarding plans, workforce integration measures, and retention strategies. 

• Design a tailored value proposition specifically for recruitment activities, highlighting incentives, benefits, and growth opportunities for women. 

Objective 3: Workforce Capacitation and Awareness 

Activities: 

• Develop role-specific training modules to address the unique challenges faced by different roles and ensure gender-sensitive approaches. 

• Conduct workshops and training-of-trainers (ToT) sessions to build the capacity of Cilantro’s leadership, store managers, and central office teams to implement gender-sensitive practices. 

Objective 4: Advise on Implementation and Monitoring of Improvement Measures with the goal of equipping the Cilantro team with the right tools and approaches to monitor the progress and evaluation the success of the implementation of the action plan.

Activities: 

• Create a framework for conducting regular evaluations of Cilantro’s progress in implementing gender mainstreaming initiatives, focusing on elements and indicators such as Employer Net Promotor Score, ideally with predefined targets set in consultation with Cilantro 

• Provide guidance on how the framework can best be applied and how the implementation and management of the action plan can best be embedded within the broader Cilantro organization to ensure sustainability of gender mainstreaming efforts. 

Deliverables 

1. Gender Analysis Report: A detailed document summarizing key findings on gender disparities within Cilantro’s workforce. 
2. Strategy and Action Plan: A co-created detailed action plan including roadmap with clear goals, implementation steps, and monitoring mechanisms.  
3. Role-Specific Training Materials: Training content developed for trainers that tackle different roles, including store staff, managers, and central office employees. 
4. Monitoring Framework: Design a monitoring framework that can be used by Cilantro to effectively monitor, measure and evaluate the implementation of the action plan.  
5. Final Report: Summarizing lessons learned and offering recommendations for sustainable gender mainstreaming practices. 

Operational Arrangements 

The consultant will be contracted by CFYE and will submit regular progress reports (at least monthly) to both Cilantro’s management and the CFYE country lead. In terms of day-to-day coordination, the consultant will work closely with Cilantro’s HR and Operations teams to implement objectives.  

Regular communication will include email, virtual meetings, and on-site visits, with periodic progress reports shared with all stakeholders. The consultant is expected to frequently do on-site visits to Cilantro locations, and to ensure seamless collaboration, the consultant will dedicate an average of at least one day per week working from Cilantro’s central office in Cairo. 

Required Qualifications 

Individual consultants or consultancy firms that intend to share a proposal for this assignment should at least meet the following qualifications: 

• Proven expertise in gender mainstreaming and women’s economic empowerment in Egypt. 

• At least 5 years’ experience conducting gender-related research, developing strategies, and implementing initiatives. 

• Strong experience in training and capacity building tailored to gender equality. 

• Knowledge of Egypt’s employment laws, policies, and cultural dynamics related to gender inclusion. 

• Demonstrated experience working with retail or service-based industries in addressing gender inclusion. 

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies or a relevant field preferred, or equivalent work experience. 

• Strong interpersonal, communication, and facilitation skills to work with diverse stakeholders. 

NB: For individual consultant, the candidate should possess of a valid tax card. For consultancy companies, the company should be formally commercially registered as a business and have a valid registration with the tax office.  

Level of Effort and Duration   

This consultancy is ideally supposd to start in March 2025 and should take 3-4 months to successfully complete the assignment.  The assignment has a maximum level of effort (LoE) of 25-30 days. The level of effort should consider the project’s scope and the limited budget, ensuring an efficient allocation of resources. 

Submission of Proposal 

Interested consultants and/or consultancy companies are requested to submit their technical and financial proposals via egypt@cfye.nl by the 9th of February 2025 the latest. Financial proposal should specify the number of days per activity against a (net) daily rate in EGP. Technical proposal should at least include:  

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of the consultants understanding and proposed solution. 
• Qualifications: Highlight the consultants experience in risk management, credit scoring, and policy development, especially for first-time borrowers.  

• Detailed CVs of key staff 

• Methodology and Approach 

Please know we can request you to provide references to cross-check qualifications.