About the Organization
Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a Related Organization of the United Nations and the leading UN agency on migration. It works closely with governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners to promote humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all, providing services, technical assistance, and policy advice to both migrants and States.
In Ethiopia, IOM supports the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to reduce protection risks and respond to the needs of the most vulnerable populations. Its programming is guided by a rights-based approach that prioritizes safety, dignity, and accountability, while ensuring meaningful participation of affected individuals and communities. IOM is also committed to upholding child safeguarding principles and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse across all its interventions.
Within this framework, the Protection Unit plays a central role in ensuring that the rights, safety, and dignity of migrants and displaced populations are upheld through a “do no harm” approach. It delivers both mainstreamed and specialized protection services, including child protection, prevention and response to gender-based violence, mental health and psychosocial support, counter-trafficking assistance, and support to vulnerable migrants through return and reintegration programmes. In addition, the unit strengthens national systems by building the capacity of government and partners, supporting policy development, enhancing referral mechanisms, and engaging communities to reduce protection risks and promote safer migration.
Job Summary
East Hararghe is one of Ethiopia’s major migration-prone areas along the Eastern migration route, characterized by recurrent irregular migration, return migration, youth unemployment, limited livelihood opportunities, climate-related shocks, and socio-economic vulnerabilities. To address these challenges, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with government institutions, implementing partners, and local communities, has implemented a range of livelihood, community-based reintegration (CBR), and individual reintegration interventions aimed at improving economic self-reliance, strengthening community resilience, and promoting sustainable reintegration of returnees. These interventions have included the establishment and support of cooperatives, provision of livelihood assets and entrepreneurship and skills training, community infrastructure support, business development initiatives, and individual economic reintegration assistance across several woredas of East Hararghe.
Over the years, these interventions have contributed to improved access to livelihood opportunities in target areas and enhanced community involvement in reintegration processes. However, recent monitoring findings, field observations, and stakeholder consultations indicate that several cooperatives and livelihood initiatives are facing challenges related to profitability, operational functionality, governance, member participation, access to finance, market linkages, and long-term sustainability after the completion of IOM interventions. In addition, infrastructure limitations such as inadequate access to electricity, water, transportation, and communication services continue to constrain the growth and competitiveness of some livelihood initiatives. Furthermore, under the upcoming interventions, IOM is keen to ensure local socio-economic contexts, livelihood systems, migration dynamics, and market opportunities, as well as the degree of coordination and integration among relevant IOM units and external stakeholders including the local government are taken into consideration during intervention design and implementation.
Against this backdrop, the proposed assessment seeks to generate evidence on the livelihood and socio-economic context of East Hararghe, including existing livelihood zones, business opportunities, priority sectors, migration and re-migration dynamics, and community knowledge, attitudes, and practices that may influence reintegration outcomes. The assessment will examine the root causes of prior underperformance, assess the viability and sustainability of existing livelihood and cooperative models, identify feasible and scalable CBR business approaches for returnees and host communities, document lessons learned and good practices, and provide practical recommendations to strengthen future programming, sustainability strategies, and investment decisions aimed at achieving durable reintegration outcomes in East Hararghe.
The consultant will be responsible to assess the socio-economic and livelihood context of East Hararghe and evaluate the performance, viability, sustainability, and effectiveness of community-based and individual reintegration interventions and identify factors that promote or hinder sustainable reintegration to inform future livelihood programming and investment decisions. Under the overall supervision of the Senior Programme Coordinator (Protection), the consultant will work in close coordination with the MEAL Team and other technical focal points, as required. The consultant will be responsible for carrying out the assignment in line with IOM standards, guidelines, and timelines, and will provide regular updates on progress throughout the consultancy period. All deliverables produced under this consultancy shall be submitted to IOM Ethiopia for review, feedback, and approval.
Key Responsibilities
Conduct a contextual analysis livelihood systems, economic opportunities, migration and re-migration dynamics, and community knowledge, attitudes, and practices relevant to reintegration in East Hararge.
Assess the technical, financial, and commercial viability of existing CBR/CBP cooperative business models and other livelihood interventions such as planned Enterprise Development Fund (EDF).
Evaluate the performance, outcomes, and sustainability of existing livelihood and reintegration interventions and identify the root causes of underperformance, if any.
Explore linkages between livelihood opportunities, TVETs, JJob Centres, and sectors/business models that the communities and government stakeholders consider to be the best fit for the areas of intervention.
Assess the effectiveness of intervention design, participant selection and targeting, stakeholder engagement, and participation throughout the programme cycle.
Examine governance and coordination structures, institutional capacities, and the contributions of government institutions, implementing partners, and community stakeholders to programme sustainability.
Assess the effectiveness of internal IOM coordination and the application of integrated and multi-sectoral programming approaches as well as external coordination between IOM, the government counterparts, communities and other stakeholders.
Provide stakeholder mapping to inform programme design and future engagement.
Identify good practices, lessons learned, and scalable livelihood models that can strengthen sustainable reintegration outcomes in East Hararghe.
Develop evidence-based recommendations to improve the sustainability, profitability, scalability, and impact of future interventions.
Performance indicators for the evaluation of results
Sr.No
Deliverable
Timeline
1
Inception Report detailing the refined methodology, work plan, sampling strategy, and data collection tools.
Within 14 working days of contract signature
2
Field Data Collection Report including survey datasets, FGD and KII transcripts/notes, summary of consultations conducted, preliminary findings, and documentation of data quality assurance measures.
15 October – 30 November 2026
3
Draft Assessment report including data cleaning, analysis, and report writing, covering: Findings by thematic area/sector, Regional comparisons, Gap analysis, Key stakeholder analysis, Preliminary recommendations
1 December – 20 December 2026
4
Preparation for Learning and Action Planning Workshop: Identify and contact participants in coordination with IOM Team, send invites, prepare agenda, develop learning agenda questions and roadmap for discussions. Share the drafts for feedback before sharing with participants.
21 December 2026 – 14 January 2027
5
Learning and Action Planning Workshop: Present assessment findings, ask learning agenda questions, facilitate discussions, and support the development of action plans.
15-16 January 2027
6
Final Assessment Report incorporating feedback received on the draft report and workshop discussions and the presentation of the results to IOM team The final report shall include an Executive Summary, Methodology, Findings, Lessons Learned and Good Practices, Conclusions, Recommendations, and an Action Plan with assigned roles and responsibilities. Following the completion of draft report, present it to IOM team.
17 January – 31 January 2027
Key assessment questions
Below are the list of key questions the assessment needs to address or respond to.
What are the key socio-economic, livelihood, and migration dynamics in East Hararghe, and what livelihood opportunities and business models are most viable for returnees and host communities?
To what extent are existing livelihood and reintegration interventions achieving their intended results and demonstrating sustainability?
What factors contribute to intervention success, and what are the root causes of underperformance and sustainability challenges?
Were programme design, participant targeting, stakeholder engagement, and participation adequate and responsive to the local context and needs?
How effective are the governance arrangements, institutional capacities, and stakeholder contributions in supporting intervention performance and sustainability?
Are Bureau of Labor and Skills departments, decentralized agro-departments and any other relevant decentralized services supporting similar types of intervention? Is technical and...