With funding from Irish Aid, Concern Worldwide is embarking on a multi-year research project to examine the barriers to economic improvement and livelihood strengthening within food systems in Burundi, Liberia, and Niger.
The objectives of this research will be to:
- Understand what is preventing SMEs from providing smallholder farmers and micro business owners living in extreme poverty with the goods, services, and market opportunities they need to strengthen their livelihood strategies and improve the return on their assets within the food system.
- Understand the terms on which integration into food systems supply chains can empower those living in extreme poverty and strengthen livelihood strategies and security, particularly for women. Understand how adverse incorporation into food supply chains, which can perpetuate the cycle of poverty and undermine livelihood security, can be avoided.
- Identify potential solutions to the barriers that prevent SMEs from engaging with micro businesses. These potential solutions should build on the learnings from the research into the barriers to engagement and the terms in which market inclusion can empower those living in poverty by ensuring a gender equity lens and consideration of ethical terms of trade.
- Develop a set of evidence-based programme recommendations to drive economic improvements for food systems actors living in extreme poverty, particularly women, that can be piloted by the country programmes.
- Assess whether the pilot of the proposed solutions increases access to goods and services for micro businesses, empowers or disempowers women within food systems supply chains, and contributes to a reduction in multidimensional poverty, and identify any unintended consequences.
The expected project timeline is from December 2024 to December 2027.
Concern invites potential research partners to submit an expression of interest in leading this research programme over a period of three years. Integral to a successful bid will be the inclusion of national research partners in Burundi, Liberia, and Niger and the elaboration of a research approach based on co-creation and joint analysis between the research partners at all stages of the work.
Required Experience/Qualifications of the Research Team
- Demonstrated expertise/published peer reviewed research in the field of food systems, SMEs and market inclusion, and its relevance to poverty reduction and the strengthening of livelihood strategies and security
- Expertise in food system SMEs and micro businesses and their working relationships would be desirable
- Prior record of seeing research projects through to completion as Principal Investigator and in subcontracting and working effectively with national research partners
- Prior experience of working in partnership and co-creating research with research institutions, ideally in Burundi, Liberia and Niger or in similar contexts.
- Experience using in-depth qualitative methods and participatory approaches, particularly in complex and fragile contexts
- Experience analysing policy contexts, the stakeholders involved, and contributing alternative policy proposals/recommendations
- Demonstrable experience of disseminating research to different audiences and influencing policy and practice
- Experience of managing teams and research partnerships in complex contexts
- Affiliation with recognised academic/research institute
- Ability within the research team to work through French; each team member’s level, if any, of French should be detailed within the proposal
Applicants should submit a proposed budget not exceeding €550,000, inclusive of any applicable overheads, VAT, travel, and dissemination costs, and should note that this will be a competitive process.
The call for expression of interest can be found via the link
Tender Reference: CWW-HQ-FS4FS-0924
Deadline Date: October 21st, 2024, 12:00 PM, Dublin, Ireland (GMT+1)
Applications should be sent via email to [email protected] and be no more than 2,500 words (excluding CVs annexed to the proposal) covering the following points:
- Applicants should describe their proposed project sufficiently to allow reviewers to determine its feasibility and potential impact. This should include a brief description of the scope, proposed methodology, limitations, and ethical considerations.
- The expression of interest should include a timeline and a detailed estimated budget. The budget should include all overheads, VAT, and applicable taxes, along with an indication of what percentage of the budget will go to the national research teams; any submissions that seeks to add any applicable VAT or taxes after selection will be considered void. The review process will be price competitive, with proposals scored based on a 30/70 weighting for cost effectiveness/proposal quality and technical expertise. Please note that Concern will not pay more than 25% in indirect overheads. Please include how budget sub-granting will be managed in the proposal.
- Recognising that the research will be used to inform programming, intellectual property rights must not block the diffusion or use of the data generated during the research. The proposal should clearly state any institutional requirements on intellectual property arising from the study and how the research team intends to make the study datasets and findings publicly accessible to NGOs and international organisations working on poverty alleviation and the empowerment of smallholder farmers and micro business owners.
- List of potential research outputs and dissemination plan, to be finalised in discussion with Concern during the inception phase.
- Structure of proposed research team, including CVs of the research leads with a list of their relevant publications, must be provided along with a statement of ability of team to carry out the project to completion.
- Please identify in-country research partners for Burundi, Liberia, and Niger and the research leads for each country.
- Please declare any conflict of interest that may arise from involvement in the study.
