Job Description

Title: Technical Consultant - Market Systems Development

Company Name: Abt Associates, Inc.

Vacancy: Not specific

Job Location: Anywhere in Bangladesh

Employment Status: Contractual

Job Context:
∎ Total LOE: 25 days
∎ Duration: 6 months (February 01, 2024 - July 31, 2024)
∎ 1) Objective
∎ Provide technical assistance and capacity building support for applying Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches in the Bangladesh Nutrition Activity.
∎ 2) Background
∎ The Bangladesh Nutrition Activity (BNA) contributes to improvements in nutrition outcomes of household members, with an emphasis on children under the age of five years, pregnant and lactating women, and adolescent girls and boys in the country`s Feed the Future (FTF) zone of influence (ZOI) and the zone of resilience (ZOR). Three results underwrite this goal:
∎ Consumption of nutritious, diverse, safe, and balanced diets by households.
∎ Social and economic empowerment of women and social empowerment of adolescents.
∎ Adoption of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices.
∎ Conventional nutrition and food security programs that focus on food production, behavior change, and access to critical nutrition-specific services effectively reach vulnerable populations and realize gains during the project period. However, they often act as service providers, which can circumvent and weaken existing market services. These programs also tend to view target groups as aid beneficiaries rather than autonomous actors with agency over their own social and economic progress. To avoid these pitfalls, BNA works to improve business models and practices of public and private sector actors, financial institutions including microfinance institutions, and institutions engaging school-going adolescents, relevant to the food system (including agriculture system), women`s empowerment and entrepreneurship, and WASH. This approach ultimately contributes to sustainably improving nutrition of household members, including children, pregnant and lactating women, adolescents, youth, and other marginalized groups in the ZOI and ZOR. Market development approaches offer greater ability to stimulate agency and ownership among target audiences and market actors when project and market incentives are aligned. They also have a higher likelihood of sustainability and replication compared to conventional approaches.
∎ Throughout, BNA collaborates with public and private sector actors who influence others and ensure changes in practices are commercially viable, making them more likely to endure after the project ends. As a result, market development interventions improve access to nutritious, diverse, and safe foods and WASH products in local markets, open opportunities for women`s market participation and income generation, enable diversified agricultural production, and encourage consumer shifts in food and WASH product purchase decisions. When done in concert with SBC (Social and Behavior Change), these improvements incentivize changes in preferences and behaviors while restructuring the local environment to sustain healthy preferences and behaviors in the future.

Job Responsibilities:
∎ 3) Focus areas of current scope of work
∎ The main focus of the current scope of work is to strengthen BNA's approaches to applying market systems approaches to sustainably improve WASH outcomes. Towards this, the consultant will (i) analyze and identify root causes of failures in WASH market systems that are addressable within BNA's mandate, and (ii) identify interventions and partnerships that can address identified root causes of failures.
∎ A secondary focus of the current scope of work is to strengthen the capacity of BNA teams in MSD approaches in selected areas based on BNA management team's request through (iii) critical review of selected on-going or proposed interventions (including grants) and concrete recommendations to strengthen these interventions, (iv) participating in selected Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) activities to strengthen adaptive management, and (v) tailored training relevant to (iii) and (iv) above.
∎ a) BNA's WASH Objectives and priorities
∎ Within WASH, BNA specifically aims to increase utilization of safe water behaviors, improved sanitation services, and improved hygiene (i.e., hand, food, home, and menstrual hygiene) behaviors.
∎ b) Context and Priorities
∎ WASH, particularly access to basic and safe water, is a high priority technical area within BNA. In the realm of WASH, market barriers, such as limited awareness, availability, affordability, appropriate design, and assured quality, for products (like household and community water access and treatment technologies, improved latrines, hand and food hygiene solutions, and sanitary napkins) can be lowered through systemic interventions based on market insights in product design (with lead firms/suppliers), supply chain management (with local sales agents), retail and point of sale improvements, after installation/sales services, SBC, mobilization of finance, coordination, and streamlined and strengthened regulations. BNA aims to assist market actors in developing business oriented solutions and creating new or strengthened connections for a more robust market ecosystem. Collaboration with public sector actors, like through the adolescent school initiative, enhances scale and cost-effectiveness. Such collaboration may also be necessary for functions that are not being performed in the market system due to insufficient commercial incentives.
∎ 4) Specific tasks
∎ Fully execute a market systems root cause analysis for WASH. The market systems root cause analysis should include desk research and KIIs to inform our understanding of WASH markets in Bangladesh with the aim of identifying interventions that BNA can implement to catalyze the public and private sectors for sustainable WASH in Bangladesh (estimated LOE: 15 days): Towards this, the consultant will:
∎ Work closely with the Market Systems Team Lead, building his/her capacity to design and implement a market systems landscape analysis.
∎ Consult with WASH and climate technical experts at Abt Home office.
∎ Conduct additional KIIs and secondary research as needed.
∎ Review, synthesize, and interpret data and information obtained by the Market Systems and WASH Team Leads
∎ Work with the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) and Market Systems Team Lead in formulating implementation strategies to refine BNA components and/or add new interventions. o Liaise with potential and existing sub-awardees and grantees for WASH.
∎ Build capacity and provide technical advice across the three results areas for market systems development (estimated LOE: 9 days):
∎ Act as a sounding board for the technical team, offering critical reviews of selected intervention designs for Agriculture, Women's Empowerment and WASH and advise on improved market systems approaches. Identify and recommend potential collaborations with market actors to enhance impact.
∎ Support the MSD and MEL team in implementing selected Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) activities to foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation within the Activity. Towards this, collaborate with the MEL and project management team to develop quarterly pause & reflect sessions for selected interventions and actively participate in them.
∎ Deliver concise and tailored training on MSD topics directly relevant and necessary for above.
∎ Other tasks as needed (estimated LOE: 1 day):
∎ Provide presentations to USAID on BNA MSD approach when requested by the COP.
∎ Contribute to the Annual Work Planning process.
∎ 5) Deliverables
∎ Concept note/ methodology for market system analysis
∎ Internal workshop on WASH market systems
∎ Final report on market systems for WASH (including root cause analysis and recommended BNA interventions)
∎ Recommendations and insights on MSD progress based on CLA reflections and data. - Bi-monthly progress reports (end of month 2, 4 and 6)

Additional Requirements:
∎ Highly proficient in MSD approaches, including conducting root cause analysis and developing actionable partnership strategies to address systemic constraints.
∎ Deep knowledge of public and private sector actors in agriculture/food systems and/or WASH.
∎ Experience in mentoring and building capacity of staff in MSD approaches.
∎ Knowledge of global or regional best practices in MSD approaches in relevant sectors

Job Source: Bdjobs.com Online Job Posting.

Application Deadline: 30 Nov 2023

Company Information:
∎ 16 Nov 2023
∎ Abt Associates, Inc.

Category: NGO/Development

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