About RefuSHE
RefuSHE Kenya protects, educates and empowers orphaned, unaccompanied and separated refugee girls and young women to build healthier and more resilient futures for themselves and their children. The organization works across protection, education, skills development, livelihoods and economic empowerment.
Background Context
RefuSHE is embarking on a four-year Angaza program delivered by a consortium of implementing partners , seeking to advance economic and financial inclusion for diverse refugee and host community young women aged 18–35, including persons with disabilities, operating within the informal economy in camp and urban contexts. To bypass systemic barriers to formal employment, the program scales refugee-led, gender-responsive models through a multi-pronged strategy combining market-relevant skills training, apprenticeships, access to capital, and market linkages to strengthen young women-led micro-enterprises and livelihoods.
Kenya has an established body of research on refugee livelihoods, labour markets, market systems and economic inclusion. To avoid duplication, this assignment will not undertake a new broad market assessment; rather, it will critically assess and validate existing evidence against the current operating context. We seek a consultant to test that evidence against the 2026 context, fill critical gaps with targeted primary research, and translate findings into clear, evidence-scored livelihood pathways.
Core question: What can Angaza confidently rely on from existing evidence about young women’s economic opportunities in the target locations; what has changed; what remains uncertain; and which economic pathways should Angaza prioritise?
SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES
The consultant will deliver the following workstreams and associated deliverables.
Workstream
1. Inception
Kick-off, review of Angaza documentation, stakeholder mapping, refined methodology, sampling frame and tool design.
Inception report with detailed workplan;
validation tools (employer, women worker/entrepreneur, KII and FGD guides)
2.Evidence mapping & quality review
Catalogue market, labor, value-chain, socioeconomic, financial-inclusion, digital and programme-evaluation evidence; grade each source for recency, method, geography, gender/refugee lens and 2026 relevance.
Evidence inventory; evidence quality/validity matrix; electronic evidence library
3. Evidence synthesis
Extract findings into a structured matrix; identify common findings, trends, contradictions and gaps; classify findings as valid, changed, outdated, contradicted or inconclusive.
Evidence synthesis matrix; evidence gap matrix
4. Targeted primary validation
Proportionate fieldwork to test priority findings and close critical gaps with employers, market actors, women workers/entrepreneurs, key informants and selective FGDs. No large household survey.
Stakeholder validation matrix; clean primary datasets and codebook
5. Thematic validation
Labour market (roles, skills, wages, hard-to-fill jobs); enterprise and value chains (demand, profitability, upgrading); financial inclusion; digital economy (online work, BPO, e-commerce).
Thematic findings within interim and final reports
6. Women’s inclusion & barriers lens
Access, participation, earnings, progression, agency, dignified work and resilience; barriers incl. childcare, mobility, safety, harassment, documentation, licensing, language, finance and social norms.
Women’s economic inclusion and barriers analysis
7. County comparison
Compare locations on demand, employment, enterprise, income potential, women’s and refugee accessibility, barriers and partnership potential.
County market comparison matrix
8. Sector scoring & programme validation
Score existing, adjacent and new sectors (weighted 1–5 framework with High/Medium/Low evidence rating); test Angaza partners’ programmes (beauty, dressmaking, ICT, artisan, entrepreneurship) from training to income.
Sector opportunity and validation matrix; programme validation matrix; new/untapped opportunity analysis (at least five sectors)
9. Reporting & validation
Decision-support interim report; validation workshop with the Angaza consortium to test findings.
Interim validation report (25–35 pages.); validation workshop and presentation
10. Strategic translation
Pathway-level recommendations: target group, intervention model, partners, KPIs, risks and indicative resources; each classified Scale / Continue / Redesign / Pilot / Explore / Do not prioritize.
Final assessment report; strategic opportunity matrix; 2026–2030 investment recommendations; PowerPoint of key findings
WHAT YOUR TECHNICAL PROPOSAL SHOULD COVER
We encourage applicants to go into depth. The technical proposal should cover:
- Understanding of the assignment and of the refugee economic-inclusion context in Kenya, including the Refugees Act 2021 and the Shirika Plan.
- Evidence-synthesis methodology: search strategy, inclusion criteria, how evidence strength and 2026 validity will be graded and how contradictions will be resolved.
- Primary validation approach: proposed sample sizes and sampling by location, stakeholder group, refugee/host and disability status; tools; interpretation for Somali, Arabic, French and other refugee languages; data quality assurance.
- Approach to each scope workstream and annex tool, including how sectors will be scored, how new sectors will be identified and tested, and how the training-to-income pathway of existing programmes will be assessed.
- Detailed 8-week workplan: week-by-week activities and milestones, timing of each deliverable, review and feedback points, level of effort per team member, and risks (access, permits, security, timelines) with mitigation.
- Ethics, safeguarding and data protection: informed consent, Department of refugee services clearances, do-no-harm and referral procedures, and compliance with the Kenya Data Protection Act.
- Team composition and CVs (with a strong focus in economic inclusion/livelihoods; market systems/value chain; labour market; gender and women’s economic empowerment; quantitative and qualitative research).
CONSULTANT LEAD REQUIREMENTS
- Postgraduate degree in economics, labour economics, development studies, business, livelihoods or a related field.
- At least 8 years’ experience in market systems, livelihoods and economic inclusion research, including validating or synthesising evidence across multiple locations.
- Proven experience in labour-market and value-chain analysis, refugee economic inclusion in Kenya/East Africa, and gender-responsive research.
- Strong mixed-methods and data-analysis skills; ability to translate evidence into practical programme and investment recommendations.
- Fluency in English and Swahili; working knowledge of Arabic and French desirable. Certification as a data processor with the ODPC.