1. Background and Context
Somali Lifeline Organization (SOLO), in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and with funding from the IKEA Foundation, implements a Livelihoods Programme in the Dadaab Refugee Complex, Garissa County. The programme supports refugee and host-community households to build sustainable, market-oriented livelihoods, with a particular focus on agriculture and allied sectors such as poultry, honey value chain, livestock (meat and milk), and textiles.
Through a rigorous identification process, the programme has organized 350 participants into 10 livelihoods groups of 35 members each (aggregate unit), distributed equally between refugee and host communities (50% / 50%), and drawn from Ifo1, and Dagahaley camps and neighbouring host-community villages including Bulla Kheir and Dadaab Host. Members have self-selected livelihoods sectors and are now ready to move from basic registration into structured capacity building that equips them to run their enterprises profitably and sustainably.
SOLO/NRC now seeks to engage a qualified training consultant or firm to design and deliver a practical, hands-on training package covering two complementary thematic areas: (a) core business skills, and (b) market participation and cross-cutting skills including gender and social inclusion, leadership, life skills, legal awareness, and quality and branding.
2. Rationale
Many group members currently operate small-scale production activities with limited exposure to formal business practice: informal or absent record keeping, ad hoc pricing that does not reliably cover costs, weak customer care and marketing practice, and limited experience negotiating with buyers or honouring contracts. Refugee members in particular face additional barriers to market participation, including restricted movement, limited legal and regulatory awareness, and constrained access to formal markets, while women across both communities often face compounded barriers linked to time poverty, decision-making power, and access to leadership roles within groups.
A structured, practical training package is therefore required to convert production-focused groups into viable, market-oriented enterprises; to strengthen group governance and inclusion so that gains are equitably shared; and to build the confidence, negotiation ability, and legal literacy members need to participate safely and profitably in local markets.
3. Purpose and Objectives
3.1 Overall Objective
To strengthen the business, market participation, governance, and life-skills capacities of 350 members of 10 SOLO/NRC-supported livelihoods groups in Dadaab, enabling them to operate viable, market-oriented, and gender-inclusive enterprises.
3.2 Specific Objectives
- Equip participants with practical entrepreneurship, record keeping, costing and pricing, customer care, and marketing skills applicable to their specific livelihoods sector.
- Build participants' understanding of local market dynamics and demand, and strengthen their negotiation and contract management skills.
- Strengthen gender and social inclusion practice, and leadership and governance capacity, within the 10 groups.
- Build participants' life skills and soft skills to support individual and collective decision-making, resilience, and cooperation.
- Raise awareness of the legal and regulatory environment relevant to trading and group enterprise in and around Dadaab.
- Strengthen participants' understanding and practice of product quality and branding to improve market competitiveness.
4. Scope of Work
The assignment covers two complementary training components, to be delivered to each of the 10 groups. The consultant/firm is expected to develop a detailed curriculum against the indicative content below, adapt it to the specific sectors and literacy levels of each group, and translate/deliver in Somali and/or Kiswahili as appropriate.
4.1 Component A. Practical Business Skills
Sub-topic, indicative content, and indicative duration
Entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial mindset; opportunity identification; business planning basics tailored to the participant's sector (poultry, kitchen gardening, crop farming, livestock) for 0.5 day
Record keeping: Simple, low-literacy-friendly tools for recording sales, expenses, stock, and savings; separating business and household finances for 1 day
Costing and pricing: Calculating production/unit costs, setting profitable prices, break-even basics, responding to competitor and seasonal price changes, for 1 day
Customer care: building customer relationships and trust, handling complaints, and repeat-business practices for 0.5 day
Marketing strategies: identifying customers and market channels, low-cost promotion, and group/collective marketing approaches for 1 day
4.2 Component B. Market Participation, Governance, and Crosscutting Skills
Sub-topic, Indicative content and Indicative duration
Market dynamics and demand: Understanding local/Dadaab market structures, seasonality, demand assessment, and identifying viable market opportunities for 1 day
Negotiation skills: Practical negotiation techniques with buyers, suppliers, and off-takers, including role-play practice for 0.5 day
Contract management: understanding, negotiating, and honoring simple supply/off-take agreements; managing disputes for 0.5 day
Gender and social inclusion, leadership and governance, GESI awareness, equitable participation in group decision-making, group leadership roles, and transparent and accountable group governance structures for 1 day
Life skills and soft skills: communication, teamwork, problem-solving, conflict resolution, stress management, and goal setting for 0.5 day
Legal and regulatory awareness; relevant national and county trading regulations; business registration basics; rights and obligations of refugee and host traders for 0.5 day.
Quality and branding; basic quality control/assurance for produce and simple branding and packaging to strengthen market competitiveness for 1 day.
Total indicative contact time is 4 days for Component A and 5 days for Component B per group (9 training days), plus follow-up coaching described in Section 7. The consultant/firm may propose an alternative sequencing or balance of days, with justification, in their technical proposal.
5. Target Participants
Livelihoods groups formed under the SOLO/NRC registration exercise - 10
Members per group, standard group size - 35
Total participants: 10 groups × 35 members = 350
Community distribution: Refugee community / Host community (50% / 50%)
Camp locations include Ifo1 and Dagahaley camps (5 groups) and Host-community locations - Bulla Kheir, Dadaab (5 groups)
Participants include both male and female members across a wide age range, with varying levels of literacy. The consultant/firm must design and facilitate sessions that are accessible to low-literacy adult learners and give equal opportunity for participation to women, men, youth and persons with disabilities. SOLO/NRC will share group-level lists (anonymized) confirming exact composition by sex, age, camp/village, and sector at contract signing.
6. Training Methodology
The training must be practical and participatory and should draw on adult-learning principles. At minimum, the consultants/firm are expected to:
- Use experiential, hands-on methods: role play, simulations, group work, case studies, and, where feasible, market/field visits rather than lecture-based delivery.
- Adapt materials for low-literacy participants, using pictorial, oral, and demonstration-based tools alongside written materials.
- Deliver in Somali, with facilitators fluent in the languages spoken by participants.
- Apply gender-sensitive facilitation, ensuring equal voice and participation for women and men and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities.
- Conduct a pre-training assessment to establish baseline knowledge/skills and a post-training assessment to measure learning gains.
- Support each group to produce a simple, practical output from the training (e.g., a basic costing sheet, record-keeping template, or group action plan) rather than knowledge alone.
- Provide at least two follow-up coaching/mentoring visits per group after the classroom training to reinforce learning and support application (see Section 7).
7. Duration and Indicative Schedule
The assignment is expected to run over approximately 8–10 weeks from contract signing, inclusive of inception, delivery to all 10 groups, follow-up coaching, and reporting. This is an indicative timeframe; the consultants/firm should propose a detailed work plan and team composition (e.g., number of parallel facilitation teams) in their technical proposal, with justification for any variation from the indicative schedule below.
Phase
Activity
Indicative duration
Phase 1
Inception: desk review, curriculum design/adaptation, translation of materials, submission of inception report and training plan - 1 week
Phase 2
Delivery of Component A and Component B classroom training to all 10 groups (9 contact days per group; groups may be trained in parallel by a facilitation team or sequentially) - 4–6 weeks
Phase 3
Follow-up coaching/mentoring visits (minimum two per group) and post-training assessment- 2–3 weeks
Phase 4
Consolidation, final reporting and handover of materials and datasets - 1 week
Exact start and end dates will be confirmed at contract signing.
8. Deliverables
Deliverable
Inception report, including finalized curriculum, session plans, and translated/localized training materials— Within 1 week of contract signing
Pre- and post-training assessment tools and completed assessment data/report
Tools before delivery; report after each group's training
Signed attendance registers for all 10 groups, disaggregated by sex, age, camp/host village, and group—throughout delivery
G...