Consultant Market Assessment For Women's Group in Bima and Dompu - BRIGE Program

Background

Yayasan Mercy Corps Indonesia (YYMCI) has been implementing the BRIGE program since late 2016 to integrate gender into its AgriFin Mobile (AFM) program in Bima and Dompu (Sumbawa Island, West Nusa Tenggara). AFM uses a unique value chain partnership approach to facilitate corn farmers’ access to bundled financial and agricultural services. BRIGE has also been collaborating with YMCI’s STRIVE, a program that supports micro and small entrepreneurs in Malang, East Java.

BRIGE has facilitated the formation of 3 women’s groups in Bima and Dompu to empower vulnerable women, such as the heads of female headed households and widows, who were excluded from accessing formal business services to support their farming activities. The groups mostly consist of female farmer heads of household who have no access to financial and agriculture services.. The groups are composed of a mix of vulnerable women and role models who already accessed AFM’s bundled services, in order to utilize peer-to-peer support as part of BRIGE’s capacity building approach.

BRIGE has also strategized how to respond to key barriers to financial resilience such as: lack of confidence, lack of information, lack of financial literacy, lack of access to formal financial services, and other considerations, including lack of diversified income sources. BRIGE has been supporting the women’s groups to analyze and address these barriers, including supporting them to developing small group businesses..[1] Currently 56 women from three groups have established small group businesses selling snacks, honey and horse milk locally.

Totimori group in Bima is producing and selling honey and horse milk.. However, the group is using casual marketing methods and only serving the immediate local market, having limited capacity to reach broader markets. Morisama and Samangawa groups in Dompu have recently identified corn flour as the product they plan to sell commercially.

BRIGE considers three main components in its market entry strategy: resources, skills and markets.  The three groups have potential resources to produce honey, horse milk and corn-based products commercially, and are developing the needed skills through ongoing capacity building and coaching from YMCI programs. However, an information gap remains regarding potential demand and market opportunities outside the small commercial market in Bima and Dompu. Through an exchange visit by STRIVE-supported women entrepreneurs from Malang to the women’s groups in Bima and Dompu, opportunities were discussed for marketing the groups’ products in Malang but the commercial viability would require further research.

Furthermore, there is a need for the groups to connect to other strategic value chain actors, including local government, business development organizations, potential commercial partners and cooperatives, not only to market their products but also to obtain relevant support in the future.

For this reason, BRIGE is seeking a consultant to conduct an assessment of market opportunities for the identified products and a stakeholder analysis of potential strategic government and market actors that could support business growth.. The findings will be used by the BRIGE program to facilitate a multi-stakeholder forum to create connections between the women’s groups and strategic actors and markets.

Objective

The objective of the consultancy is to assess potential demand for the featured products – honey, horse milk and corn flour – and to research strategic actors that can provide sustainable support for the women’s groups’ business endeavors in the future.

Audience

Primary: Women’s groups, local governments in Bima and Dompu, and YMCI program team (in particular BRIGE, AgriFin Mobile and STRIVE)

Secondary: Potential donors, NGOs and other organizations interested in supporting women entrepreneurship in Bima and Dompu

Key Questions

The assessment should address the following key questions:

·         Is there a demand for the products of honey, horse milk and/or corn-based products in regions outside Bima/Dompu? If so, where? 

·         What recommendations should BRIGE provide to the women’s groups regarding market viability (e.g., price, packaging, raw vs. processed products, powdered milk vs. liquid, etc.)?   

·         Are there existing value chains for the product(s) (e.g., through NGOs or cooperatives) that the women’s groups could connect with to sell their products?  

·         Who are potential strategic actors within the value chains and business enabling environment (government, companies, business development organizations, cooperatives, individual actors, etc.) for supporting sustainable business growth? 

Tasks

The consultant will carry out the following tasks under this assessment:

1.       Work closely with YMCI’s BRIGE and AFM teams to design the market assessment

2.       Review literature on value chains and markets for honey, horse milk and corn flour from Bima and Dompu (consulting external sources and internal YMCI reports) and collect initial information on market opportunities, viability factors, and strategic market actors, including buyers, cooperatives and NGOs, business development organizations, and government

3.       Develop a hypothesis and indicators to screen the preliminary information in order to develop a scope and focus for the field research component of the assessment, in consultation with YMCI team

4.       Conduct field assessment:

·         FGDs with women groups in Bima and Dompu

·         Key Informant Interviews with relevant stakeholders in Bima and Dompu

·         Key informants from leading sustainability/ social enterprises in the food industry

·         Key Informant Interviews with relevant stakeholders in selected target markets, such as Malang

5.       Prepare draft report

6.       Finalize the report incorporating YMCI feedback

Time frame:

Activities	Time
Develop design	3rd week of March (3 effective days for consultant working with BRIGE team)
Literature study	3rd  - 4th week of March ( 4 effective days for consultant)
Field assessment in Bima, Dompu and selected target market areas (likely to include Malang)	5th week of March – 1st week of April (15 effective days for consultant)
Write draft report and presentation	2nd week of April (5 effective days for consultant)
Finalize report based on feedback	2nd - 3rd week of April (3 effective days for consultant)

The consultant will deliver the task in 30 effective days from March – April 2018

Deliverables

·         An inception report (maximum five pages) outlining the approach/method, workplan and including assessment tools submitted for review and approval by YMCI before commencing field data collection

·         Market assessment draft report submitted upon completion of completion of fieldwork.

·         Internal presentation and discussion of key findings with YMCI.

·         Final report submitted within five days of receiving written and verbal feedback from YMCI integrating feedback received. from the Post-Assessment workshop.

·         Final report.

Qualifications

·         Minimum bachelor degree in social or economic sciences or related field;

·         Experience in conducting assessments or research on market and value chains;

·         Good understanding on market strategy and micro business development;

·         Experience in facilitating FGD and in-depth interviews with women, government and other stakeholders;

·         Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Applicant should send their CV and 2 - 3 pages of short proposal outlining the strategy, explaining workplan and budget proposal to procurement@id.mercycorps.org. The closing date is 19^th March 2018.