Uganda: Consultant - Innovation Center Human Centered Design - Uganda

Project Location(s): Yumbe, Bidibidi settlement and Rhinocamp settlement
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Background:**

Uganda is Africa’s largest refugee hosting country and one of the top five worldwide. As of January 2018, Uganda hosted 1.3 million refugees, most of whom have fled South Sudan’s conflict and unrest and settled in Uganda’s West Nile region. Cities and towns have sprung up overnight in remote communities of Bidibidi settelement. Cities and towns need stronger markets in order to support livelihoods of refugees over the long term. While livelihoods programming of development actors has focused on agriculture, it will take more than agriculture and income generating activities (IGAs) to build a diverse, sustainable economy that not only supports refugees but also integrates the host community. An Innovation Centre concept was originally fostered from the ReHope Pilot to develop alternative employment opportunities for refugee settlements. BRIDGE program aims to develop an Innovation Centre concept that improve access to employment and entrepreneurship through focus on social enterprises and technology. The project has a number of partners from the private sector to community-based organization to international NGOs that should work in strong coordination with one another. Two Innovation Centres have been built in Bidibidi refugee settlement. The first focuses on agriculture as a platform for developing farming as a business and off-farm microenterprise. The second focuses on technology and social enterprise to engage new opportunities for employment, with support around digital literacy, linkages to employment through a skills mapping and job placement platform, and engagement of existing and new social enterprise concepts that offer employment while also solving social challenges. The third innovation centre is based in Rhinocamp and focuses on agroforestry.

Purpose / Project Description:

Each Innovation Centre will support a start-up mindset engagement in agriculture, technology, environmental protection and social enterprise development through an interactive, collaborative space. Each Innovation Centre aims to develop its own revenue streams which potentially could, in the future, support the operations of the Innovation Centres over the long-term. A key activity for all three Innovation Centres is to develop a central brand and business model for the operations of the centres, responding to community needs, and defining key operational costs and potential revenues streams to support the long-term running of the centres. Each business model will sketch our revenue scenarios over a three-year operational period by the end of the BRIDGE project. The concept should stay responsive to what the surrounding communities require.

We’re looking for a Human Centred Design consultant to work on the following objectives, activities and deliverables.

Consultant(s) Objectives:

• Carry out a mapping exercise to identify all key stakeholders and target communities.
• Carrying out assessment of how community sees role of the center (preferably using human centered design approach) to feed into sustainability planning
• Recommendations how the Innovation Centers can adopt the needs of the community
• Work together with the Business Development Consultant and Graphic Design consultant to address the needs of the community.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant(s) will:

• Mapping of relevant stakeholders and targeted communities
• Conduct a needs assessment within the community of the centers to consult refugees and host-community members about their needs, expectations and activities that makes them to visit the centers frequently.
• Consultations and engagements with local government agencies, UNHCR, Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and district
• Organize a HCD workshop with all key stakeholders for each center
• Presentation/validation of findings to Mercy Corps and other stakeholders
• Develop a report with all key findings and present it to key stakeholders for each Innovation Center

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant(s) will:

• Approved workplan and methodology for overall engagement
• Report of mapping exercise of relevant stakeholders and targeted communities
• Presentation of initial findings for feedback from the Mercy Corps team before development of full reports
• Needs Assessment Report of the community surrounding the three Innovation Centres. This report should establish links to the actual and potential services offered by the Innovation Centres to address the needs of the community.
• Presentation of key findings.

Timeframe / Schedule:

October-November

The Consultant(s) will report to:

Program Manager BRIDGE

The Consultant (s) will work closely with:

Program team, Innovation facilitators, BRIDGE Partners

Required Experience & Skills:

Mercy Corps is looking for one or multiple consultants who together meet the requirements below:

• Minimum 8 years of experience in Human Centred Design, including experience working in Uganda and particularly West-Nile
• Experience in human-centered design thinking, co-creation and innovation; experience in research in development issues is required
• Bachelor’s degree required. M.A, M.S., M.Sc., or equivalent in International Development, Business Administration, Economics or related field is preferred
• Demonstrated experience in needs assessments (preferably Human centered Design)
• Solid understanding of the current refugee situation in Uganda
• History of working effectively and respectfully with host country government, private sector, INGO and NGO partners in complex environments.
• Excellent analytical, research, writing and concise and compelling communication skills;
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Apply Here