Call for Proposals (Implementing Partner): Creative Economy Jobs for Refugees and Host Communities in Turkana County Full Time NEW

1. Introduction

PROSPECTS is an innovative inter-agency partnership between the Government of Netherlands, the World Bank, IFC, ILO, UNHCR and UNICEF. The goal of the partnership is to strengthen the socio-economic enabling environments of communities that host different forcibly displaced populations (IDPs and refugees) to ensure sustainable decent work, training and education opportunities, as the policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks facilitate this integration process. ILO is implementing a range of interventions under this partnership. In the period 2024-2027, the ILO will continue to enhance socio-economic inclusion for refugees and host communities through programming to improve livelihoods and expand economic activities.

The creative economy is defined as cycles of creating, producing, and distributing goods and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as primary inputs (UNCTAD, 2022). It also involves economic, cultural and social assets as they interact with technology and intellectual property to produce a vibrant economy.

Sector Potential and Decent Work Deficits

In Kenya, the creative sector contributes 5% to the national GDP (GoK, 2023). According to the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO (KNATCOM), Kenya’s creative economy is not only a source of jobs, but a beacon of innovation and unity. The commission firmly believes that sound cultural policies will enhance the creation of opportunities for decent work, poverty reduction, social resilience, gender equality inclusive education, and well as contribute to solutions to climate change and environmental challenges. In 2023, the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports led the development of a draft Kenya Creative Economy policy whose goal is to foster sustainable economic growth, innovation and cultural enrichment by leveraging the creative industries. The policy once finalized and implemented will support the sector to optimise its capacity and contribute to both social and economic benefits.

In 2022, the ILO conducted a study on ‘promoting decent work in the African cultural and creative economy’[1]. The objective of the research was to identify the challenges and opportunities underpinning decent work in the culture and arts sector in Africa; to provide an outline of trends shaping the nature of work in the African cultural and creative economy, such as technology, globalization, demographics, and the COVID-19 pandemic; and to conduct an analysis of the decent work challenges in the different countries and subsectors. The study documented the dynamics of the creative economy highlighting key characteristics of the sector including informality, the absence of standards and norms, the over-representation of microenterprises, insecure forms of employment, precarity and uncertainty characterising work relationships.

The report further stated that employment in the cultural and creative economy is often temporary or part-time and is most often undertaken by freelancers, through project-based work and piece rate workers.

Turkana County

The Turkana crafts sector includes beadwork, basketry products, leather products among other handcrafts. The ILO Turkana Value Chains Assessment of 2022 stated that the sector mainly employs women and girls and provides opportunity for women without formal education. For basketry, the key inputs include reeds, dye and tools (knife, stick, small hoe and panga). Palm tree leaves, which form the reeds, are sourced from shores of Lake Turkana and the Turkwel River. Suppliers of reed trek over the shores to collect them either for production or for sale in Lodwar and Lokichar. Dye is mostly extracted from local trees or bought from local shops. Production is done by women who have been trained over years through informal apprenticeship. The weaving skill is passed from experienced weavers, usually older women, to younger girls over a long period of time. The main products include laundry baskets, doormats, brooms, coasters, table mats, shopping baskets and lampshades. Production is done by individuals and sometimes in groups-where they benefit from collective training and business development services.

Among refugees in Kakuma, there have been groups trained to engage in basket making at scale. In 2019, Action Africa Help International (AAH-I) supported over 100 women to engage in basketry in Kalobeyei refugee settlement[2]. AAH Kenya in conjunction with Bawa Hope[3] supported design processes, quality control and diversity of products, with some of the products accessing the export market.

The market for basketry products in Turkana County is still developing. The county has a market centre in Lodwar where most of the products are sold from. Women traders collect products from the other areas (Eliye, Lokitaung, Turkwel, Kangatosa) and sell their produce to both consumers and other retailers. The basketry chain has been supported by various organizations at different functions of the value chain. At production, women producers are normally organized into groups. The formation of the groups has been supported by different NGOs such as AAH-I, Joyful Women Organisation (Joywo), and Diocese of Lodwar. Turkana Women Handcraft Group (Lodwar) and Kakwanyang Women Group (Turkwel) are examples of groups thriving in basketry production. NGOs also provide credit and training on entrepreneurship, and some support enrolment into health insurance and social security. Key challenges in the sector include low levels of product development, lack of market information, limited business and skills capacity, and poor market linkages.

2. PROSPECTS Intervention

The ILO PROSPECTS project has prioritized the creative sector in Turkana County as it presents an opportunity to improve socio-economic outcomes for women involved in culture and arts sector. ILO will target interventions that seek to increase the visibility of products made in Turkana through market access interventions, strengthening entrepreneurship and improving quality of production, skills and innovative technologies. The ILO will work on systemic change[4]in identified value chains, facilitating value chain actors to effectively play their roles to address constraints that hinder the sectors from growth. The Approach to Inclusive Market Systems (AIMS) methodology will be used to identify market opportunities and develop local actors’ capacities to exploit them as well as to achieve sustainability and scale. The interventions will include working with creative collectives, groups and cooperatives to link them with markets for market-led product development, market-informed innovation, adoption of cost-effective technologies and upskilling and reskilling to improve product quality. For Turkana County, the project will work with women and youth crafts producers to support product development and market access. Interventions will also include backward linkages, working with the private sector and potential buyers to support local product development informed by market needs, access to productivity-enhancing technologies, training and linkage to government business support services etc. During ILO’s scoping exercise on the sector the needs identified included need for product design and development skills, linkage to market information, and better production organizing. To respond to the identified needs and contribute to enhancement of the creative sector, PROSPECTS is seeking to initiate a capacity development and market linkages intervention aiming at revamping the creative economy in Turkana County, targeting refugees and host communities. The objectives of the joint interventions will be: –

1. Product development capacity building for 4 producer groups in Turkana County: The partner will develop a product design and development training schedule targeting groups engaged in crafts production in Turkana County, specifically basketry, bead work, and textiles. Outputs under this objective will include customized market driven product development training for each of the groups covering topics like product design, styles and trends, design diversification, tools and equipment recommendation, production planning, costing etc Products developed under this objective will be informed by current market trends, and buyer preferences, linking to specific markets.
2. Manufacturing mentorship for identified groups- this will include assessment of the groups’ workshops and provision of advice on how to improve production efficiency, workflow planning, raw materials sourcing and productivity improvement. Identified group leaders will also benefit from a 1-week emersion experience at successful local manufacturer workshop, with support from the project. This will provide practical learning on organizing production and running a successful small manufacturing business.
3. Quality improvement: The partner will work with the producer groups to develop quality assurance plans depending on product type. The output of this is a quality checklist, and training integrated in the product development training modules.
4. Production planning and workplace organization: The selected partner will work with the groups to develop their capacity to organize their production processes, raw material sourcing, and organize their workshops ensuring occupational health and safety guidelines are observed.
5. Access to markets: This will include training on market targeting, and marketing. It will also involve provision of market information and feedback on products developed. The partner will also support to develop a product range that will be market tested and linked to markets both locally and internationally.
6. Linkages for business development services: The implementing partner will link targeted producer groups with business development services i.e. business skills trainings through the Chamber of Commerce and other agencies including Government agencies, linkage to financial service providers- both MFIs and banks,

3. Expected Results

1. Strengthened producer groups with improved business models and incomes
2. Increased number of jobs created for refugees and host communities through the producer groups.
3. Improved working conditions and workspaces, as well as OSH practices.
4. Enhanced access to business development services, supply chain networks, resulting to business growth and better incomes.

Outputs

1. Profiling of identified producer groups and documenting their product lines and their group business needs, including their workplace and OSH review.
2. Development and adaptation of product design and production manuals to be used for training, in collaboration with the relevant Government actors for certification and compliance.
3. Develop a production quality checklist adapted to different products
4. Conduct product development trainings to the target ground
5. Create market linkages both local and international utilizing digital platforms, connecting producer groups to market systems for sustainability.
6. Link producer groups to other producer networks and associations for cross learning and solidarity to address challenges affecting their businesses.

Reporting

The partner will be expected to provide a monthly activity plan, activity reports, monthly reports and quarterly reports. The implementation plan will capture the outcomes of the activities implemented, lessons learned, and challenges experienced. ILO will provide reporting templates to the partner (narrative and financial) as well as a data collection sheet. The partner will also involve the ILO PROSPECTS team in all activities for technical support and consultations.

4. Payment Schedule

The project will adopt an activity-based payment schedule guided by the deliverables in the activity plan. Informed by the technical proposal and enlisted deliverables, ILO and the selected partner shall jointly agree on the delivery schedule to ensure concurrence and implementation harmony.

• 1st tranche – maximum 30 % of contract value: will be paid upon signing of the contract successful completion of delivery 1 including: development of workplan and completion of log frame, mapping of target groups in Turkana County (refugees & host communities), and potential market linkages. The preparatory activities and relevant report are to be submitted within 3 weeks of contract signing.
• The remaining 70% of the contract value will be paid in 3 tranches. The tranches will be based on the delivery schedule agreed upon with the selected partner informed by their technical proposal and agreed schedule of interventions at contracting stage.

5. Implementation period

The proposal and budget plan will cover 15 months implementation between January 2026- March 2027

6. Partner Eligibility

The potential implementing partner should have the following qualifications:

1. Legally registered in Kenya and having the staff, systems, processes and tools to effectively deliver on the assignment
2. The organization can be a Limited Company, Social Enterprise, or a not-for-profit Company with a track record of creating market linkages and working with women producer groups.
3. Ability to demonstrate capacity to effectively support interventions in Turkana County, including the Kakuma Refugee Camp. Physical presence in Turkana County will be an added advantage.
4. Having been in operation for more than 3 years with documented operational and financial performance.
5. Experience in product development and setting up production units, training producer groups using adult learning methodologies.
6. Ability to demonstrate previous market linkages for producer groups to market outlets both locally and internationally.
7. Awareness on decent work deficits, and ability to design outputs to address them including but not limited to access to economic opportunities for increased incomes, better workplace safety and health, access to social protection services, among others.

Management arrangement

The assignment will be handled by the implementing partner in close collaboration with ILO, other stakeholders and PROSPECTS partners in the target area.

The implementing partner will perform the assignment under the supervision of National Programme Officer Enterprises and the overall guidance of the PROSPECTS Kenya Chief Technical Advisor. The Implementing partner will also receive technical guidance from the ILO technical specialist on Enterprises and Market Systems Development based in Pretoria and SME Unit Technical Specialists based in Geneva.

7. Evaluation criteria

EVALUATION CRITERIA | MARKS

TECHNICAL EVALUATION | 85 Marks

• Submission application with relevant support documents
• Understanding of the TOR, precise methodology and demonstrated experience
• Understanding of the target group, socio economic activities, gender dynamics, potential and roles in the project implementation
• Concise presentation of strategy, outcomes, outputs, activities and results, monitoring and evaluation framework
• Competent management (qualifications and experience)
• Clear articulation of the potential risks and strategies to mitigate them
• Clear exit strategy with sustainability embedded at the end of the project

FINANCIAL EVALUATION | 15 Marks

• Concise presentation of outputs, activities and budgets for the activities
• Value for money proposal
• Clear separation of activities to be delivered by implementing partner and activities to be subcontracted/facilitated by partner
• Precise presentation of the administration costs and operational costs
• Proposed contribution by partner to the project (in kind or co-financing)

TOTAL 100 marks

[1] Promoting decent work in the African cultural and creative economy | International Labour Organization (ilo.org)

[2] See https://www.actionafricahelp.org/handicrafts-weaving-hope-for-women-and-girls-in-turkana/

[3] Bawa Hope is a Fair-Trade company which works with marginalized handicraft artisans in Kenya. We connect creative women and men who produce high quality products with access to global markets. https://bawahope.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=4

[4]Systems Change Initiative for productive employment | International Labour Organization (ilo.org)

What is a systems approach? | International Labour Organization (ilo.org)

Tagged as: International Labour Organization, Kenya