TERM OF REFERENCE (TOR) TO RECRUIT A CONSULTANT

Title of the assignment: Marketing and Business Development -Technical Specialist

Project Title:   Supply Chain for Nutritious Food

Duty Station: Addis Ababa with a possibility of up to 40% travel to the field

Duration of the assignment: 3 months, with the possibility of extension, upon satisfactory delivery and fund availability.

Expected Starting Date:  as soon as possible

Introduction 

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with governments, businesses, and civil society, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious foods for all people, especially the most vulnerable.

Background 

GAIN fights malnutrition in Ethiopia through innovative and sustainable models that increase access to affordable nutritious foods among communities vulnerable to malnutrition. The Supply Chain for Nutritious Food project is designed to improve access to affordable, safe, and nutritious dried fruit-based snacks by building a value chain for fruit processing and creating jobs and income generation opportunities across the fruit value chain in Ethiopia. The project works with a public and private partnership approach to test, pilot, demonstrate, and scale up of market feasible innovative fruit drying solutions and Fruit mixed snack products. To ensure suitability and create an enabling environment for the value chain actors, the project provides capacity strengthening and policy support to the public and private institutions.

The consultant will work with the project manager, technical team, and both global and country support teams to develop/amend a business case, business plan and marketing strategy for dry fruit and dry fruit mixed snack products in the Ethiopian market. The consultant will support that these products are successfully sold through a multi-channel approach, targeting the right consumers. The goal is to establish a viable and sustainable business model that benefits all actors across the fruit value chain in Ethiopia.

Objective 

GAIN Ethiopia would like to engage an individual consultant who is able to dedicate 2-3 days per week to bring in business advisory expertise under the Supply Chain for Nutritious Food project.

General objective:  To lead business, marketing, and demand generation activities components under the Supply Chain for Nutritious Food project. 

Specific objective  

• To provide leading and technical guidance in the implementation of the project business and marketing-related activities, in collaboration with the project team, partners, SMEs, and the consultant/assessment team.
• To develop training materials, business models/plans, marketing strategies, and other strategic documents for SMEs, fruit value chain actors, and project partners those are TruLuv granola PLC, Theday Agro processing PLC, Africa Juice, Addis Ababa Chamber of commerce and sectoral Association (AACCSSA), and Danish Industry (DI).
• To provide technical support to SMEs and value chain actors in establishing sustainable and viable businesses, including assistance with business linkages, packaging, promotional design, and labelling.
• To establish and/or strengthen a multi-channel approach for introducing new products to the Ethiopian market, targeting the desired consumer base.
• To contribute to project report writing, review meetings, partner and donor meetings, learning and lesson documentation, and the development of scaling-up plans and strategies from the business and marketing side.

Scope of the assignment 

• This is a part-time assignment. The individual service provider will be expected to dedicate 2-3 days per week for the duration of three months as per GAIN’s working hours.
• The assignment requires working with the GAIN program, operation, and finances team within and outside the country, working closely with the project team and partners such as private sectors and government stakeholders in the project implementation location.
• The assignment is based in Addis Ababa and requires travelling to the regions.

Tasks and Responsibilities of the Consultant

The consultants will address, but not limited to, the following major activities:

• Conduct market feasibility and product acceptability assessments.
• Develop marketing strategies and support the product launches.
• Develop or revise business models/plans for SMEs.
• Conduct business assessments and provide recommendations to upgrade/strengthen the competitiveness of the SMEs’ business and marketing plan and implementation of the developed fruit-based product.
• Support the development of product promotional strategies.
• Provide all necessary support to establish B2B connections between SMEs and fruit value chain actors.
• Generate evidence for business linkages with local and international trading organizations and companies.
• Assist in identifying potential outlets and expanding markets for snack products.
• Design and execute demand-creation strategies and activities for generic product categories, aligning them with branded approaches.
• Support packaging and labelling design.
• Assist in product sales and distribution and lead the monitor progress.

GAIN responsibility:

GAIN will be responsible to provide project information, document, and contact information during this assignment. GAIN will cover per diem and accommodation cost and arrange transport  during travel outside Addis Ababa and as per GAIN travel policy.