Terms of Reference

Establishing Young Mothers’
Entrepreneurship Organizations

1. Background and Context

Swisscontact Tanzania strives to advance the socioeconomic integration of youth and young mothers in Tanzania. To achieve its ambition, the organization is implementing two projects: Skills for Employment Tanzania (SET)and EmpowerHER through Skills (EHS). SET is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through the Embassy of Switzerland in Tanzania. It aims to enhance youth (self-)employment for the Vocational Skills Development (VSD) system. It supports the government and private sector stakeholders to expand access to quality training that matches the demand from both the economy and youth. The project improves relevance of labour market data for curriculum development, enhances the quality of vocational teachers through continuing professional development and provides access to tailor made practical non-formal vocational training for youth in particular for women including young mothers.

EHS is funded by the IMS Foundation and builds upon and adds on SET project. EHS provides VSD and entrepreneurship support with the aim of contributing to the creation of sustainable and meaningful livelihoods for young mothers. In close collaboration with the private sector and local communities, EHS offers innovative solutions and successfully tested methodologies to empower these often-marginalized women and to connect them with entrepreneurial opportunities. The project provides market-responsive technical training, counselling support, life and soft skills and coaching, as well as entrepreneurship and access to finance support. It does so while not neglecting the specific requirements of young mothers who need to combine professional activities with the care of their often very young children.

Swisscontact is seeking an individual or a small team of consultants for Young Mothers’ Entrepreneurship Organizations to assist the Project Team and Training Providers (Implementing Partners) in establishing and developing organizations for young mothers who are trainees of the EHS project. These organizations will be set up at the local level, providing platforms for young mothers to meet regularly and exchange information, experiences, and lessons related to marketing their products and services. Additionally, these organizations will enable young mothers to leverage entrepreneurial benefits from higher-level organizations that focus on empowering women entrepreneurs, thereby increasing their opportunities for meaningful (self-(employment and income generation.

The consultant will be supervised from the Swisscontact office in Morogoro Municipality and is expected to travel to field locations within the Morogoro and Pwani regions.

2. Objectives of the Assignment

The purpose of this consultancy is to work with the EHS Project Team and Training Providers (Implementing Partners) to organize and strengthen local entrepreneurship organizations for the EHS project trainees—specifically young mothers in the Morogoro and Pwani regions. This initiative aims to set up platforms that facilitate the exchange of information, experiences, and lessons, thereby improving their access to suitable markets.

3. Key Tasks

The Consultant for Young Mothers’ Entrepreneurship Organizations will perform the following tasks:

• Hold a brief meeting with the Project Team and Training Providers to map if any, the existing groups and or organizations of the young mothers to establish a starting point. Organize meetings with selected young mothers within their localities to get their views of the anticipated entrepreneurship organizational structure and functions.
• Explore with young mothers’joint activities that the young mothers will be interested to come together to accomplish. This needs to be beyond the project s training interventions to focus on activities that can be continued beyond project period, eventually sustaining a business-related collaboration and benefit.
• Facilitate the development of constitutions of the local level young mothers’ entrepreneurship organizations, business plans/ action plans and laying out the vision, mission and strategies to realizing their overall entrepreneurship agenda and joint activities.
• Facilitate the registration and formalization of the young mothers’ entrepreneurship organizations for them to be formally recognized, eventually having access to opportunities.
• Develop a brief communication guide which highlights ways and methods the young mothers’ entrepreneurship organizations will exchange information, experiences, and lessons, thereby improving their access to suitable markets and other business development services.
• Explore and identify higher-level like-minded organizations and help the young mothers supported by the project to access membership and/or other services.
• Enhance the articulation of entrepreneurship and marketing interventions for young mothers to use their organizations in accessing markets/buyers for their goods.
• Identify platforms and events that are important for the young mothers for marketing of their goods and services and facilitate access of these for young mothers.
• Explore the potential options for legal entities that young mothers’ entrepreneurship organizations can acquire, highlighting the pro and cons of each options.

1. Key Deliverables

• A 2-3 pages brief presentation of methodology and approaches to be used in the establishment of the Young Mothers’ Entrepreneurship Organizations to be submitted before undertaking the assignment. The assignment will take off after approval of methodology and approaches.
• A set of tools to be used in examining the status of the strengths of young mothers’ groups and or organizations to be shared before embarking into the assignment.
• Records of key meetings held with young mothers and the related conclusions and recommendations.
• At least 8 local level young mothers’ organizations are set-up during the consultancy period, highlighting areas                                                                                                                                                                 for                                                                                                                                                         further

development.

• Draft constitutions with vision, mission and strategy as well as organisational structure and functions for all 8 organisations
• A list of other potential young mothers groupings that can be developed further by the project
• A list of potential higher-level like-minded organizations that the young mothers can access membership to leverage their benefits is shared, highlighting membership criteria.
• A final report that presents the analysis of the status of the young mothers’ organizations, how members are working together to accomplish the joint activities with common interest and how the organizations are accessing services. The report to be submitted to Project Manager no later than 30th November 2024.

5. Timeframe and duration

The assignment will be carried out over the period of 3 months with 45 consulting days allocated for the assignment.

6. Required qualifications

• Practical experience in organizing youth, young mothers and women’s organizations and linking them with higher level likeminded enterprises and/or marketing organizations.
• Solid experience in bringing together owners of micro and small businesses and facilitating them to form their business organizations, associations and networks.
• Practical experience and understanding of critical issues challenging young mothers and youth and ability to suggest possible solutions that have worked somewhere.
• Relevant technical and practical experience with the passion to empower youth and young mothers to secure (self-)employment opportunities.
• Proven ability to identify, understand, strategically dialogue and tap into opportunities available with private and public sector actors.
• Ability to interact positively with buyers, input suppliers, government officials and partners.
• Experience in using Microsoft office package.
• Ability and readiness to work in supporting young mothers in proposed project locations.
• Good communication skills, attested by a good level of written and spoken English.

7. Administrative Clauses

• Detailed CV and applicant’s profile with previous client’s reference for similar assignments.
• Financial proposal showing the daily rate in Tanzanian Shillings and technical proposal outlining how the consultant will approach/ implement the assignment.
• The payment of the fees is subject to the deliverables outlined under section 4 above and approval by the Project Manager.

8. Deadline

The consultant is requested to forward their proposal under the attention of Swisscontact Admin, tz_info@swisscontact.org. by 31stAugust 2024.