Consultancy – Inclusion Researcher, CFYE Uganda

Project Overview and Role:

The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a 7-year and €134 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to create a prosperous future for 230,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa, and Horn of Africa regions. The Fund supports initiatives in 11 countries that 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 submitted proposals through Challenge Calls geared to scalable solutions for creating more and better jobs and income generating opportunities for youth. Solutions 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.

The purpose of the Inclusion researcher consultancy is to develop a case study-based report with learnings around the inclusion strategies deployed by different implementing partners in the Uganda CFYE portfolio. You are eligible for this position if you have demonstrated experience in researching social impact-related topics and have experience working on youth-focused programs/activities. Only applicants who are residents in Uganda will be considered.

Assignment Overview:

CFYE’s focus is on creating jobs for young people, and in doing so, it has purposefully selected implementing partners for its Uganda portfolio that go the extra mile when it comes to the inclusion of youth with a distance to the labor market, more specifically youth with disabilities, youth with a refugee background or any other marginalized youth categories. As these IPs have been progressing in the implementation of their projects under CFYE, we’re keen to understand and learn more from their projects, and the extent to which business-driven approaches to the inclusion of marginalized youth in the labour market are actually effective, and what the underlying drivers for this are.
The researcher will look into 2-3 specific IP cases and synthesize findings into a case-study based report.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Overarching Goal

The overarching goal is to learn about what works and what does not in terms of creating, matching and improving jobs (self-employed and waged jobs) for young people in the refugee and PWD communities in Uganda, and explore best practices in inclusivity for vulnerable youth groups (refugees and PWDs) in the Uganda labour market.
Some of the key questions we’d like to see answered to reach this goal are:
– Who are the key private and public actors/players involved in the creation, matching and improving of jobs for PWD and  refugee young people 15-35 years in Uganda? (Who employs PWDS and refugees the most and why?)
– What motivates different stakeholders to focus on creating, matching and improving (including promotion) jobs for refugee  and PWD young people?
– What are the barriers different stakeholders face in creating, matching and improving jobs for refugee and PWD young  people in Uganda?
– How sustainable are the jobs created, matched and improved for refugee and PWD young people in Uganda?

For this objective to be realized, we expect the consultant to implement the following activities:
– Desk research and literature review, taking into account prior research done on these topics by CFYE’s implementing partners  such as Opportunity International and Light for the World.
– Stakeholder analysis and interviews with a selection of these stakeholders (to be selected together with CFYE), such as  Ministry of Gender, Office of the Prime Minister (refugee dept) and other non-state actors.
– 1-2 Focus group discussion(s) with youth network (CFYE to provide introductions)
– Case study/deep dives on the practices of 3 of CFYE’s implementing partners, more specifically on Opportunity  International/Opportunity Bank, Light for the World (WeCanWork initiative) and Eco Brixs.

Key Deliverables:

The proposed activities should lead to the following deliverables:
– A 8–10-page Learning Brief – What works and what does not in this space (addressing the abovementioned learning questions), with best practices for the inclusion of youth with disabilities and young refugees in the Ugandan labour market.
– Three 2-page case studies on each of the 3 identified CFYE implementing partners
– Possibly contributing to a podcast episode on the topic for CFYE’s podcast series “Future Economies Start with Youth”

Level of Effort:

This consultancy is supposed to start in June of 2024 and take approximately 3-4 months. The total number of days available for this assignment is 30-35 days depending on proposed daily fees. The total budget available for this assignment is capped at EUR 8.000 (please note that payment will occur in local currency, based on the conversion rate at the time of contracting). This amount should include any other expenses (i.e. travel) that the consultant deems appropriate and necessary (expectations are that these expenses will be limited).

Operational Arrangements:

You will report to the Uganda CFYE country lead and work alongside other relevant CFYE staff. Frequent (at least bi-weekly) updates on the progress of the work are expected. CFYE country team will ensure the right introductions are made to the identified IPs, youth representative networks and any other relevant stakeholders.

Required Qualifications:

– Minimum Bachelor degree in a relevant field of study.
– Applicants must have expertise in youth employment approaches and support strategies in the Uganda private sector.
– Applicants must have demonstrable experience researching effective inclusion strategies and ideally have also worked on implementing these in developmental programs.
– Working knowledge of issues and opportunities related to the inclusion of refugees and people with disabilities in the Ugandan labour market.
– Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships across teams and organisations.
– Applicants must have experience using both qualitative and quantitative data collection/research techniques and use their findings to inform knowledge platforms.
– Candidate should demonstrate strong writing skills and ability to present research findings in a clear, concise and engaging manner for various stakeholder audiences.
– Attention to detail and ability to perform multiple tasks, balancing competing priorities effectively and efficiently often within a required period.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates can submit a proposal no later than 24th May 2024. The proposal should not exceed 10 pages minus annexes, and should have a 1) A summary/cover letter of what makes you an ideal candidate (2 pages), 2) proposed methodology (5 pages), 3) workplan (1 page), 3) budget (1 page) and annex of your CV as a consultant and/or your proposed team, and 4) Sample report(s) /knowledge product(s) you have produced.