GAIN was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. GAIN is a global, Swiss-based foundation that mobilizes public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver nutritious foods to those people most at risk of malnutrition.

GAIN contributed to fighting malnutrition in Ethiopia through innovative and sustainable models that increase access to affordable nutritious foods among communities vulnerable to malnutrition and is currently implementing a project called Access to Better Dairy Project. This project emanates as part of the Nordic Partnership which brings companies, civil society, academia & the public sector together to focus on developing scalable and inclusive business models to contribute solving the sustainable Development Goals (SDG) challenge to end hunger & malnutrition.

The main objective of this project is to catalyze market development of the dairy value chain in Ethiopia. This is achieved through technical support to (private) dairy sector partners for the development and marketing of fortified dairy product targeting selected communities with the aim of improving nutrition.

For this purpose, GAIN has selected a dairy processor-local dairy processing company to supply the required dairy products and work on building the capacity of the company through technical support in engaging with the dairy farm, processing, key product development and the demand creation to reach the target consumer. Following this, GAIN and selected processing partner/s has/have partnered to develop an affordable fortified yoghurt that is going to be further enhancing to address micronutrient deficiencies. The main aim of the demand creation is to pilot the product to penetrate the market in Addis Ababa through the distribution of the yoghurt via feasible sales channels mainly kiosks that the target group can primarily access in the designated markets.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the assignment is to identify the viability of the product performance of the distributed Yoghurt in the sales channels in the target pilot areas by creating a system of reporting to monitor progress. The consultant is expected to establish an operational monitoring system for tracking the sales and distribution activities undertaken by the processor/s under the supervision of the senior project manager of the project for GAIN. The consultant will be responsible for the design, coordination and implementation of the monitoring research, and learning framework of the Project. The consultant will develop a systematic monitoring framework for the qualitative and quantitative evidence gathering during the project and will be responsible to facilitate the Institutional Review Board (IRB) clearance and/or government support letter.

Timeline: Project M&E duration is as follows

• Retail channel monitoring for a two-month period (detail timeline of implementation to be specified after consultant is selected)

Specific objectives of the assignment are to:

To formulate a set of relevant, simple and straightforward indicators to monitor and evaluate the project outputs listed below.

• Product sales tracking for the supported outlets were product availability is implemented throughout the period
• Monitor product distribution and availability in each of the targeted delivery channels as well as stock level
• Monitor product price, retail stock frequency and availability of branding materials (POSM)
• Monitor target consumer purchase frequency and demand.

Study area: The above activities will be conducted in Kirkos and Lideta sub cites of Addis Abeba covering all areas in each sub city were feasible distribution channels have been selected based on the distribution strategy under selected routes for product delivery.

Relevant Methods:

• Insight gathering from project brief, discussions, and delivery channels mapping
• Market monitoring survey tools (for the outlets, consumers and processor)
• Data collection
• Data analysis and clean up 
• Tracking reports for each round of survey

Sample size

• 592 outlets (kiosks, minimarkets, supermarkets and dairy sops) times three round, total 1,776 interviews  
• Total of 2,368 mothers/caregivers of children that are customer in the surveyed shops, dividing the number in to the three rounds.

Key responsibilities of the consultant 

• Develop data collection protocol and tools for monitoring and get approval from GAIN
• Process the necessary ethical approvals and/or support letter
• Recruit experienced data collectors and other team members of the task 
• Organize a training for data collectors and develop data based on the M&E tools 
• Conduct data collection
• Organize and clean up the collected data for analysis and analyse collected data for real time reporting.
• Preferable to use real time digital data reporting technologies.
• Provide biweekly and final report
• Present key results to GAIN and its partner and in a workshop if necessary 

Deliverable - Timeline

Desk review and briefing - May

Ethical clearance -  May

Data collection and monitoring  - June and July

Result, Analysis and recommendations provided and presented to GAIN - June and July

Final report and presentation. - August 6^th

N.B GAIN will share the detail distribution and mapping report to selected consultant as a guidance and provide support letter to process government approval.

Job Requirements

CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS 

• A registered consultancy firm with significant experience on market monitoring and with experienced market research team
• Experience in designing, implementing, and operating project M&E systems from project initiation to closeout stages.
• Experience in strategic planning and performance measurement, including indicator selection, target setting, reporting, database management, and developing M&E and performance monitoring plans.
• Knowledge of the major evaluation methodologies (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, and impact) and data collection and analysis methodologies.
• Ability to facilitate and serve as project liaison for externally managed evaluations.
• Excellent communication and reporting skills
• Excellent analytical skills.

How to Apply

• Submit updated CVs of key staff working in this task including their role in the survey.
• Submit not more than 5 pages technical including summary of your experience, detail monitoring methodology, report components, detail work plan, covid precaution, analysis, quality monitoring and others. 
• Also submit a financial proposal detailing costing structure based on the proposed M&E framework requirements and separate costing for the tools and protocol development, ethical clearance, first round survey including data analysis and reporting/presentation, second round survey including data analysis and reporting/presentation. 
• An electronic copy of the proposal both technical and financial should be sent separately to:

1. Technical proposal including sample report to: hywodajo@gainhealth.org
2. Financial proposal to: atadele@gainhealth.org and shiluf@gainhealth.org

• Use the following as a subject line of your email ‘’Market Monitoring and Evaluation for Access to Better Dairy Project’’ for both proposals
• Use the name of your organization to save the financial and technical proposals

Deadline for submissions is before Monday May 3, 2021

NB: Late submissions will not be accepted

·      Proposals that do not follow the above guidelines will be rejected automatically