TOR – Tender No. 23/06/FY26: Consultancy for the Development of the Great Lakes Youth and Women Economic Empowerment Project

1. Background

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization advancing children’s rights and equality for girls. The Middle East, East and Southern Africa (MEESA) Regional Hub provides strategic leadership, technical support, research, and influencing across more than 15 countries.

The MEESA region is marked by conflict (e.g., eastern DRC, South Sudan, Ethiopia), recurrent humanitarian crises, economic marginalization of youth especially girls and young women, and entrenched gender inequalities and harmful social norms. Plan International MEESA drives regional priorities in Girls’ economic empowerment and employability, Gender-transformative programming and influencing, Youth leadership and feminist movement through strengthening youth and women-led organizations, and Humanitarian preparedness, response and resilience building.

Plan International aims to reinforce its regional programming across the Great Lakes by addressing shared regional challenges that disproportionately impact children, adolescents, and youth, particularly girls. The region continues to face complex, interlinked issues including large-scale displacement, heightened protection risks, child marriage, teenage pregnancy, limited livelihood opportunities, climate-induced vulnerabilities, and persistent barriers to quality education and child protection services. These challenges transcend national borders and require harmonized, multi-country solutions.

Although the countries in the Great lakes region present unique contextual dynamics, they are connected through longstanding socioeconomic ties, shared ecosystems, cross-border population movements, regional markets, common conflict drivers, and intergovernmental policy mechanisms. These linkages provide a strategic opportunity for Plan International to design an integrated programme model that responds to both national priorities and regional trends.

This consultancy will support the development of a robust regional programme design and funding proposal focused on youth and women’s economic empowerment across selected Great Lakes countries. The programme will leverage Plan International’s comparative advantage in gender-transformative programming, youth-led approaches, and cross-country operational presence to deliver a differentiated regional model that integrates grassroots implementation with regional influencing and private-sector engagement.

1. Purpose of the Consultancy

The primary purpose of this consultancy is to lead the design and formulation of a comprehensive, multi‑year regional programme proposal focused on youth and women’s economic empowerment through inclusive and resilient value‑chain development across the five focus countries. The assignment will articulate a coherent regional approach that diagnoses shared structural barriers and defines clear, scalable pathways for young people and women to access dignified livelihoods, productive assets, markets, finance, skills, and decision‑making power within priority value chains.

The consultancy will ensure that the programme design is firmly grounded in country‑specific and sub‑regional contextual realities, while identifying areas where a coordinated regional approach adds clear strategic and operational value. Particular emphasis will be placed on countries where Plan International has an established presence, through close collaboration with Country Programme teams to draw on existing programming experience, analyses, evidence, partnerships, and lessons learned in youth and women economic empowerment and market‑based programming. For countries where Plan International has limited or emerging operational presence, the consultant will apply their technical expertise, regional networks, and secondary research capacity to generate robust contextual and market intelligence.

The consultancy will lead to the development of an evidence‑based regional programme framework, including a clear problem statement, theory of change, strategic objectives, and prioritized value‑chain interventions that promote decent work, entrepreneurship, climate‑resilient livelihoods, and women’s economic leadership. This will include identifying scalable and complementary interventions across production, processing, aggregation, market access, and enabling systems (e.g. finance, skills development, policy, and private‑sector engagement), while addressing cross‑cutting issues such as gender norms, safeguarding, inclusion of marginalized youth, and conflict sensitivity.

A core objective of the assignment is informed by the assessed priority needs of the targeted groups and aligned with strategic donor and private‑sector partners priorities, translating Plan International’s comparative advantages in gender equality and youth programming into a compelling, fundable regional value proposition. The final output will equip Plan International with a donor‑ready regional programme proposal that provides a strong foundation for coordinated resource mobilization, strategic partnerships, and long‑term regional engagement in youth and women’s economic empowerment.

1. Objectives of the Consultancy

The overall objective of this consultancy is to design a coherent, evidence based, and donor ready regional programme proposal focused on youth and women’s economic empowerment and decent job creation across agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood sectors, using an inclusive value chain and market systems approach.

The specific objectives are to:

• Establish a strong national and regional evidence base by analyzing youth and women’s participation in agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood sectors and identifying key barriers, opportunities, and pathways to decent job creation across priority value chains, including green and digital livelihoods.
• Analyse shared structural barriers, market opportunities, and regional value addition, examining constraints across skills, finance, markets, productive assets, decent work, and decision-making power, and identifying where regional, market systems pathways add value beyond standalone country interventions.
• Identify and consolidate scalable pathways for impact by mapping complementarities between replicable Plan International programme models, national strategies, and regional priorities, particularly in Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, ensuring the regional programme builds on proven livelihoods, employability, and entrepreneurship approaches.
• Design a coherent and inclusive regional programme framework that translates identified barriers and opportunities into clear intervention pathways, including a problem statement, Theory of Change, results framework, and prioritized value chain and market systems approaches supporting wage employment, self-employment, and enterprise development across diverse and fragile contexts.

Expected Outcomes

A fully costed scalable regional programme proposal on youth and women’s economic empowerment and decent job creation, developed through structured multi-country consultations and fully integrating gender transformative and inclusive approaches, safeguarding, climate resilience, conflict sensitivity, and youth leadership, and aligned with the priorities and compliance requirements of targeted institutional donors to enable effective regional resource mobilization.

1. Scope of Work

4.1 Desk Review and Country-Regional Contextual & Livelihood Systems Analysis

The consultant will undertake a structured desk review and contextual analysis to inform the design of a regional programme on youth and women’s economic empowerment. This will include:

• Review of relevant Plan International global, regional, and country strategies, programme documents, project designs, assessments, evaluations, and learning related to livelihoods, employability, entrepreneurship, and economic empowerment.
• A country-specific and regional analysis of youth and women’s participation in livelihood systems across:
  • Agricultural and agri-business value chains; and
  • Non-agricultural sectors, including services, MSMEs, manufacturing, informal economy, and emerging green and digital livelihood opportunities.
• Contextual analysis across all focus countries, with differentiated attention to areas with limited or emerging presence, informed by available data, literature, and Country Office inputs.
• Integration of a strong gender equality and social inclusion perspective, including assessment of structural barriers affecting young women and marginalized youth.
• Identification of key regional trends influencing livelihoods and employment, including donor and private sector priorities, labor market dynamics, climate-related risks, and fragility and displacement contexts.

4.2 Design Workshops and Stakeholder Consultations

The consultant will:

• Facilitate a series of virtual multi-country programme design workshops with relevant Plan International programme, MEAL, influencing, and technical staff, as well as selected partners.
• Conduct stakeholder mapping to identify and analyse:
  • Government institutions (employment, youth, gender, trade, and private sector development),
  • Private sector actors across agricultural and non‑agricultural sectors,
  • Financial service providers,
  • Local and international NGOs, research institutions
• Carry out bilateral consultations with selected stakeholders, including government actors, private sector partners, and—where feasible—young women and men engaged in livelihood activities.
• Integrate multi‑sector perspectives into a coherent regional programme design.

4.3 Development of the Regional Intervention Package

Based on the analysis and consultations, the consultant will develop a comprehensive regional intervention package, including:

• A country-specific and regional Theory of Change outlining pathways to decent work and economic empowerment for youth and women across agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
• A results framework with clearly defined outcomes, outputs, and indicative indicators.
• Well-articulated intervention strategies addressing skills development and employability, entrepreneurship and MSME development, value chain integration, access to finance and markets, and engagement with private sector and financial institutions.
• Proposed implementation arrangements, including regional coordination and country-level adaptation.
• Identification of key risks and corresponding mitigation measures, including conflict sensitivity, safeguarding, climate, and market-related risks.
• Clear articulation of Plan International’s comparative advantage and the added value of a regional, multi-country approach. The consultant will define a clear partnership and delivery model, outlining roles for Plan International, local partners, private-sector actors, financial institutions, and regional bodies, including mechanisms for cross-border coordination, localization, and sustainability.
• A consolidated, funding-ready regional programme proposal.

4.4 Donor Positioning and Resource Mobilization Insights

The consultant will provide strategic inputs to support resource mobilization, including:

• Overview of relevant donor funding trends and financing instruments related to youth employment and women’s economic empowerment across sectors.
• Identification of potential regional and multi-country funding opportunities.
• Practical recommendations for donor targeting and programme positioning aligned with varying donor priorities (e.g. employment, private sector engagement, resilience, gender equality).

4.5 Validation and Finalization

The consultant will:

• Present the draft country specific and regional intervention package to Country Programme and regional teams.
• Facilitate a virtual validation workshop to gather feedback and ensure alignment.
• Finalize and submit all agreed documents incorporating consolidated inputs.

1. Deliverables
   1. Inception Report

1. • Understanding of the assignment objectives, scope, and expected outputs;
   • The consultant’s proposed overall approach and analytical framework;
   • A high-level plan for engagement with Country Offices and key stakeholders;
   • A detailed workplan with timelines, milestones, and deliverables.

A concise inception report outlining:

1. National & Regional Context Analysis Report
   • Presents country level (national and sub‑national where relevant) and regional findings for Great lakes countries. (With differentiated analysis for areas with limited or emerging presence);
   • Examines youth and women’s economic empowerment across multiple livelihood pathways, including gender, age and inclusion analysis (Plan’s recommended tool) wage employment, self-employment, MSMEs, agriculture and agri‑business, services, informal economy, and emerging sectors (e.g. green and digital livelihoods);
   • Identifies shared constraints, opportunities, and entry points for regional programming, and articulates the added value of a regional approach;
   • Integrates gender equality, inclusion, safeguarding, climate resilience, and conflict‑sensitivity considerations throughout.

A comprehensive analysis report that:

1. Workshop Materials
   1. Draft Regional Intervention Model
   2. Donor Positioning Brief
   3. Final Regional programme proposal
2. Duration and Level of Effort

The consultancy is expected to be undertaken within an agreed implementation period commencing from the date of contract signature.

The proposed level of effort should guide prospective consultants in developing their technical and financial proposals. Consultants are expected to provide a detailed workplan, including the sequencing of activities and allocation of effort across the different phases of the assignment, in line with the scope of work and deliverables outlined in this TOR.

The assignment will be home-based, with remote engagement, including virtual workshops and consultations across the focus countries.

1. Management and Coordination

• The consultancy will be overall managed by the Regional Programmes & Influencing Director, who will serve as the primary focal point of contact for the consultant. The P&I Director will be responsible for strategic guidance, approval of deliverables, and ensuring alignment with Plan International’s priorities and quality standards.
• Technical oversight and quality assurance will be supported by relevant country‑based technical teams in countries where Plan International has an operational presence. These staff, covering areas such as youth and women’s economic empowerment, gender equality and inclusion, MERL, safeguarding, and climate resilience, will provide targeted technical inputs as identified, review key deliverables and country level analyses, and facilitate access to relevant programme documentation, contextual insights, and partnerships to ensure country perspectives are accurately reflected and aligned with Plan International’s global and regional frameworks.
• For areas with limited or emerging presence, where Plan International has no direct operational presence, the consultant will be responsible for ensuring that analysis is informed by appropriate and credible sources and reflects relevant contextual and livelihood dynamics.
• Regular remote coordination meetings will be held (e.g. inception, design workshops, progress check-ins, validation), using virtual platforms approved by Plan International. Clear communication channels and documentation of decisions and action points will be maintained throughout the assignment.
• The consultant will be responsible for day-to-day coordination of the consultancy work, including scheduling meetings, consolidating inputs from multiple stakeholders, and ensuring timely submission of high-quality deliverables in line with the agreed workplan.