Jobs Re-Advertisement at Save the Children for Labour Market Assessment, Aridlands Support Programme Consultantcy in Mandera Kenya 2013

Jobs Re-Advertisement at Save the Children for Labour Market Assessment, Aridlands Support Programme Consultantcy in Mandera Kenya 2013

Terms of Reference

Labour Market Assessment Mandera, Kenya

Background: Save the Children has worked in Northern Kenya for over six years and has a well-established operating platform with two field offices in Mandera County and over 150 field based staff.

We have strong experience designing and delivering programmes for pastoralists in the region.

Save the Children is rolling out a 3 year DFID funded project across four sites in Mandera County.

The project seeks to build the resilience and adaptive capacities of vulnerable households, communities and government systems in Northern Kenya in the face of shocks or stresses.

The project’s key outcome is that communities in northern Kenya will have increased incomes, assets, and skills to sustainably reduce their vulnerability to shocks and stresses by the end of the three year project.

The project aims to achieve this outcome through three outputs:

i. Households have improved livestock productivity through access to production system inputs and community assets;

ii. Women and youth from targeted households have received skill and asset building inputs enabling them to sustainably diversify their sources of income;

iii. County government systems for community development are strengthened and supporting community-led initiatives

To improve the economic inclusion of youth {The youth in Kenya are defined as people in the age bracket of 15 to 30 years. In Kenya, they are about 9.1 million, and account for 32 per cent of the population. Of these, 51.7 per cent are female. – See more at: http://softkenya.com/youth/#sthash.LXdXnPqV.dpuf. Section 56 of Kenya Labour Laws prohibits employing a child below 13 years in any form of undertaking. However it allows employment of children from the ages of 13 to16 years for light work, and defines those of 16 to 18 as employable. The Act does not clearly define the parameters for this employment. It does not define light work and does not provide protection for children in such employment, but leaves it to the discretion of the minister.} (young men and women) under second output, the project will conduct a labour market assessment to inform areas of skills development (e.g. technical and vocational training).

The assessment is expected to identify the most feasible youth skills development for Mandera County. Skills development shall be done through the existing Vocational Training Institutions in Mandera County.

Gender aspects will also be analysed to ensure social relations relative to changing livelihood patterns are understood and that a “Do No Harm” approach is adopted, particularly for young women taking up more independent roles in income earning.

Part of the skills training shall seek to enhance uptake of the GoK Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Mandera County as this has been found extremely low.

Assignment Objective: To assess existing labour market opportunities and link them to relevant and appropriate local vocational skills development for youth in Mandera County.

Scope of Work

The assessment will have three components:

Analysis of all existing formal and informal labour market opportunities in Mandera County.
Identification of formal and informal labour market opportunities relevant for youth (female and male). What are the potential growth opportunities for each of labour market?
Identification of skills needed by youth to maximise access to above labour opportunities.

Recommendations, based on above findings, on how to undertake appropriate vocational skills development for youth taking into consideration gender barriers and other social relations and but ensuring ‘Do No Harm’ principle.

Recommendations will include best strategies and approaches for skills development by exploring partnerships options with Mandera County government, and other public and private sector actors.

Tasks to be undertaken

Assess the public and private (including formal or informal) labour employment opportunities in Mandera County indicating their trends of development in the last few years and expected future trends.
Estimate the supply and demand indicating number of new workers (youth workers including female and male) coming into market compared to available labour opportunities.
What labour skills are being supplied by the youth and how relevant are they to existing labour market opportunities?
Assess the current supply of labour skills from various vocational and other technical training institutions and their relevance to current market demands.
Outline gaps in vocational training provision: both in terms of the relevance of the courses offered, which courses are targeted at girls versus boys, and places available.
Based on the existing labour opportunities, analyse the existing gaps in labour skills being supplied.
Outline and analyse the gender aspects in respect to supplied and demanded labour skills and any existing gender-related barriers to access existing labour market opportunities. Where feasible, recommend how the gender barriers could be overcome.
Match the skills requirement by the labour market with available vocational training and other training opportunities within and outside Mandera County.
Explore how the labour skills development could be linked to opportunities for self-employment created by GoK Youth Enterprise Development Fund and other GoK programmes aimed at promoting youth self-employment opportunities. The funds are sharia compliant as they don’t charge any interest.
Based on above analysis, provide recommendations for relevant labour skills development to adequately meet the local market demand. Identify the best strategy and approach to skills development such as partnership options with County government, and other public and private sector actors.
Explore any other appropriate livelihood opportunities suitable for the growing unemployed youth population.

Methodology

The consultant will provide a proposed participatory methodology and sampling strategy to Save the Children of how they will obtain the information from both qualitative and quantitative methods, as appropriate. Estimated number of respondents and/or informants to be interviewed by each tool should be specified.

This will be submitted to Save the Children within one week of contract signing and Save the Children commits to feedback within 5 days. Data collection will commence upon approval of methodology and tools by Save the Children.

The consultant will collect data in Mandera County, visiting both Mandera town to speak with Government officials at the county level, Youth Groups/individuals (focussed group discussion covering both male and female members), Labour Officers, existing Public and Private (formal or informal) Employers, the County Youth Enterprise Fund Managers, etc, and working with local communities to collect relevant qualitative and quantitative data in collections such as Mandera Town, El Wak, Rhamu, Banissa, Lafey, etc.

Outputs

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following:

Inception report detailing a proposed methodology for data collection, both quantitative and qualitative, tools for data collection and work plan to be reviewed and approved by Save the Children.
A presentation summarising the findings.
A draft report detailing the findings from above tasks with clear recommendations to Save the Children on relevant and appropriate interventions to support youth access to labour market opportunities.
Final report (both hard and soft copy).

Profile of desired consultants

Advanced University degree in Business Administration, Business Law, Business Law, Economics, Human Resources Management or related field.
Minimum 10 years of proven knowledge and professional experience in research, planning and management, in labour markets, human resources management, in the public or private sector in developing countries.
Have solid knowledge and practical experience in research and analyses of statistical data on labour markets towards supporting the poor people and promoting gender equality.
Experience working in arid and semi areas of Northern Kenya.
Excellent skills organising, facilitating, presentation and communication skills.

How to Apply

Interested experienced consultants should submit their technical and financial proposal to Save the Children, Kenya Programme by 1st November 2013.

Download the Expression of Interest Form Here

To apply for this position, please send a short cover letter and CV to Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org indicating the position title on the subject line.