Rapid Market Assessment Consultant

Through local partners, MERATH implements relief and development projects for thousands of displaced and vulnerable families across Lebanon along with livelihoods projects to help families gain essential life skills.  MERATH has implemented six years of livelihoods activities including various vocational trainings, financial literacy and business entrepreneurship trainings, and mask sewing groups for vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugees.

MERATH is currently working with Loving Hands, a small sewing factory and shop that sells local products made by women, such as purses, bedsheets, duvet covers, school uniforms, and more. The aim of this project is to assist Loving Hands in scaling up the work they are doing by building capacity and expanding the business with the goal of helping them be economically sustainable. Additionally, the project aims at conducting a rapid market assessment to determine what kind of goods the factory should produce so as to not saturate the market further. MERATH is looking for an experienced consultant to assist in conducting the assessment so that Loving Hands can tailor goods to market needs as well as determine their target customer base.

Goal and Objectives

The overall objective of the rapid market assessment is to provide market analysis that would contribute towards assessing and identifying gaps, and existing and potential marketable goods in the market, and provide recommendations for goods that can be produced that would provide Loving Hands with a competitive advantage in the market. Additionally, the assessment should aim to highlight opportunities where certain links in the value chain can be strengthened and expanded. Additionally, the selected consultant should analyze how Loving Hands positions itself on the market and provides advice on how to improve its position in the spirit of partnership and in line with the values of MERATH.

Methodology

This assessment should apply a series of tools to gather, analyze, interpret, summarize, and monitor market data to obtain a basic understanding of the market using a series of questions to prompt the analysis. This will be a participatory assessment that fosters active and meaningful involvement and should include conducting Focus Group Discussions (FGD), in-person interviews and/or phone call interviews with Loving Hands key staff, as well as collecting market information by visiting selected marketplaces and collecting information on commodities from key informants and traders (wholesalers and retailers). Additionally, the assessment should include mapping and locating networks of crafts and handmade productions and identifying products with potential for high economic revenues and marketing potential.

Deliverables/Expected Output

The consultant will draft a report that will be shared with the partner organizations involved in the projects. Additionally, the consultant will provide direct feedback, as required, to the partner organizations. 

The Consultant is responsible for:

• Guidance and directions to achieve the purpose and objectives of the evaluation.
• Conducting the evaluation.
• The day-to-day management of operations of this evaluation assignment.
• Regular progress reporting to MERATH's Program Officer, particularly if any unforeseen issues arise.
• The development of results.
• Consolidation and presentation of assessment findings and writing the final assessment report.
• The production of deliverables in accordance with contractual requirements. 

Qualifications Sought 

• Consultant will have strong expertise in livelihoods programming in complex contexts such as Lebanon. 
• Consultant will have significant prior experience conducting similar high-quality rapid market assessments. 
• Consultant will have a keen understanding of community-based development projects and will also ideally have experience working in partnership with small-scale community-based organizations, ideally churches, to carry out relief and development projects.
• Consultant will follow participatory, strengths-based approaches to the assessment.
• Consultant will demeonstrate the utmost respect and professionalism to all project stakeholders.
• Consultant will have a keen understanding of the significant challenges of working within the Lebanese context.
• The consultant will engage openly with the local community, listen to, and synthesise varied perspectives.