The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian international NGOs, provides relief, rehabilitation, and development support to vulnerable people and communities over 30 countries. We began work in Ethiopia in 2000 in response to severe drought in Ethiopia’s Somali region and are currently providing assistance to Ethiopians and refugees in six regions in Ethiopia, implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response.

Background

With about 115 million people (2020), Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria, and still the fastest growing economy in the region, with 6.3 percent growth in FY2020/21. However, it is also one of the poorest, with a per capita gross national income of $890. [1]Ethiopia aims to reach lower-middle-income status by 2025.The country is now implementing phase II of its Growth and Transformation Plan that aims to build a solid industrial base to bring structural transformation and make Ethiopia a manufacturing hub in Africa by 2025. Moreover, the country is carrying-out a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy to identify opportunities and entry points for green industrialization, to develop an economy-wide green growth vision. Ethiopia’s industrialization approach has strongly focused on developing specialized industrial parks, maintaining environmental sustainability, building vertically integrated industries, and enhancing skills development – through strong collaboration with the private sector.

 Introduction

Within the bigger picture of  Strengthening social cohesion by supporting local economies and social development initiatives especially for women and youth and enhancing industrial and labor relations in the Modjo Leather City, IRC(in partnership with PIN and Solidaridad) has been implementing a project supported by EUTF contributing  to the reduction of irregular migration from Ethiopia by creating greater economic and decent employment opportunities for young men and women through creating green jobs and social cohesion in Modjo leather city.

There are fourteen tanneries (14) around Modjo which are causing environmental and social problems from their untreated wastes. High levels of air, water and soil pollutions are repeatedly reported from Modjo by the local and federal Environmental regulation agencies from unsustainable leather value chain operations. Tanneries do not have any solution to manage their solid waste. This waste could be valorised into new products but there is limited knowledge and capacities in Ethiopia among leather actors and enablers. Local communities have complained and have prohibited the tanneries from dumping their harmful industrial wastes in their farmland areas since September 2019. In Ethiopia, corporate social responsibility (CSR) not well understood by companies. Recent study on CSR of LLP sector revealed that firms’ learning social responsibility is at emergence stage with the state and foreign market pressure as key motivators. 

In response to alleviate the above problems, IRC and its implementing partners have planned to promote social cohesions through well-developed Corporate Social Responsibilities for private sector to support community development, facilitate economic (decent green employment for local population) and support private sectors to meet environmental/sustainability standards.

To this end, the IRC need an experienced individual consultant on corporate social responsibilities who will work on the implementation of CSR in the project intervention area, develop case studies regarding CSR implementation, identify key legal instrument (national and international) to support the implementation of CSR in Ethiopia or elsewhere with respect to the leather sector. The consultant will prepare well organized monthly& quarterly reports based on the reporting timeline, truck the progress & present the finding on progress update meetings.

Overall Objective of the assignment of the research consultant

General objective:

To facilitate the planning and implementation of CSR activities in Modjo, focusing on improving social cohesion among tanneries, public sectors, and local community institutions.

Specific objectives:

1. Facilitating the creation of common pool CSR fund and guideline for planning, implementation, and monitoring evaluation of the fund utilisation
2. Train project stakeholders (CSR committee members on effective fund and project fund management  
3. Strengthen the capacities of different community-based committees in project management
4.  Develop mechanisms for the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of small projects based on the community interest and needs. This involves identifying projects to be financed by the pool fund and creating various formats for project planning (such as panning and MOU formats). Additionally, provide training to community members in project management.
5. To facilitate & ensure the implementation of at least 30 CSR projects and ensure the institutional sustainability of the project by building the capacity of project steering committee and establishing the linkage among firms, community representatives and local government.
6.  To facilitate the implementation of CSR by using programme design and strategy recommended on the CSR research for the IRC Green jobs in the leather sector in Modjo, Ethiopia.
7. Create awareness about the importance of integrating long-term economic, environmental, and social aspects in the tanneries’ business strategies while maintaining global competitiveness and brand reputation.
8. Identify new areas of engagement will need to follow-up with community consultations
9. Develop sustainability strategy for future of CSR engagement

Methodology: 

• The assignment will take 4 month and to achieve this, IRC will provide initial mobilisation, training, and capacity building of the community so that the community and local government will effectively engage, plan, and implement community-based project in collaboration with firms that will enhance social cohesion in Modjo.

Scope and Delimitation of the Assignment: 

• This assignment limited to the leather sector (including the tannery industries and other LLI) and thematically on corporate social responsibility (responsible business), doing desk review and analysis from the field level from tanneries and communities affected by tanneries waste. Geographically, the scope of the assignment is limited to Modjo leather town despite, we are required to collect relevant inform information else ware in the country or global.

Expected Outcomes:

• Project stakeholders will have clear ideas for CSR planning, monitoring and evaluation and implementation option based on the existing research and data.
•  At least thirty projects (30) funded by the CSR pool fund and sustainability strategy developed for beyond the current programming.
• community, CSR committee capacity enhanced in the field of small project management

Deliverables / Outputs:

• Support the establishment of corporate social responsibility policies, action plans and funds (IRC)
  • Support companies to develop well organised CSR policies/plans based on stakeholder inputs and adopt voluntary standards
  • work closely with top management of companies and local government/CSR committee to get their buy-in for the development of organised CSR policies/plans.
  • Set up or strengthen project committee to ensure the planning and implementation of small community-based projects
  • To follow the implementation of the CSR policies and support exchanges between companies and the communities in collaboration with local municipality/government.
  • Help the companies, government, and community to develop business case for priority community development projects.

Implement community development project 

• To achieve the action
  • Facilitate community level discussion for identification of viable projects to be financed by the common pool CSR projects, is on truck

 Strengthen project management committee.

• IRC already established a project management committee drawn from different government sectors led by Environment Protection Authority (EPA). The role of the project management committee is to appraise community projects, fund management and monitoring and evaluation of the projects (including fund utilization report).  The government office (through technical department) will be supported to help the community development projects through planning, monitoring, and evaluation.

To achieve the action

• IRC will provide training for fund management committee members 
•  It is envisaged to implement a total of 30 community-based project in Modjo that will be financed by the CSR pool funds. Thus, the consultant on behalf of IRC, will ensure the institutional sustainability of the project by building the capacity of project steering committee and establishing the linkage among firms, community representatives and local government.

6.    Timeline of the Assignment

• The assignment expected to be conducted for 6 months from the September 1^st to the February 29^th, 2024.

7.    Report to:

• Country ERD Coordinator, who will lead the development of the workshop and provide the necessary support. 

Qualifications

Expected Profile of the Consultant/Researchers

• The consultant expected to hold the following qualifications to be deemed eligible for the role:
• The consultant(s) should have relevant academic qualifications and must be in possession of at least a master’s degree in one of the following: Business administration, social science, or any other relevant qualification
• The consultant(s) should have knowledge of designing and undertaking scientific and applied research.
• Proven experience of successfully undertaking such high-profile assignment
• The consultant(s) should have proven experience of in the sphere of CSR development and implementation
• Knowledge of facilitation approaches and programming required
• Knowledge and experience in institutional development approaches including institutional capacity development as well as community-based projects implementations
• Be conversant with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan and other national level development programs and contemporary trends and concepts
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• High proficiency in written and spoken English
• Familiarity with the cultural construction and community set up of the project areas.
• A demonstrated level of professionalism and an ability to work independently and in high-pressure situations under tight deadlines.

THE CONSULTANT /Researcher PROFILE

• The consultant /researcher profile should be submitted in accordance with competency requirement stipulated above in the expected researcher profile.
• Relevant experience related to the assignment
• Contacts of organizations previously worked for
• The consultant/ Researcher profile should be submitted in accordance with competency requirement stipulated above expected researcher profile.
• Proven record of conducting similar assignments on time

Management

• The overall management of the assignment will lie with the IRC Ethiopian team hosting it, which will provide administrative support.
• The researcher would review the existing information, listen to the IRC team’s experiences ideas and expertise, to deliver the assignment.
• In other words, the process would not be based on new research or data collection.
• There will be strong leadership, input and guidance from the ERD team staff from IRC Ethiopia.
• We will also require a facilitator for the implementation for the CSR policies and strategies in the identified tanneries.

RESPONSE AND PROPOSAL SPECIFICATIONS

Those interested in the consultancy firms must include in their application a detailed technical and financial proposal with the following components:

TECHNICAL

• Technical description of the assignment in line with the TORs
• Methodology, that will be used in undertaking the assignment
• Time and activity schedule

FINANCIAL

• Consultant’s daily rate excluding transport, Accommodation, and Meal costs, will be covered by IRC, when the consultant/trainer is in-country, Ethiopia.