Market orientation for CBI's Gender transformative project in Benin's shea sector

CBI is looking for consultants for its new gender transformative project in Benin's shea sector. The consultants will provide expert advice and work on export development in the shea butter and production sector. Please express your interest by 19 December.

• Provide business export coaching to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
• Analyse the shea butter and production sector. For this, experts will use methodologies aligned with systems change, such as Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches;
• Explore opportunities for improving women's position in the value chain. The experts will do this by analysing gender roles, positions, and activities in (micro) SMEs' (MSMEs)daily operations in shea butter production.

About the project 

This project focuses on Benin's shea butter industry, aiming to improve the lives of women who work in it. It will find and improve business models to remove challenges that stop women from getting fair benefits. The project will support women’s groups who collect shea nuts, make shea butter, and work in small or medium businesses that export shea butter and related products to local, regional, and international markets. It uses a gender-focused approach to make sure women in this industry get fair and equal opportunities resulting from their work.

Role of the consultants

This tender is for 1 contracting party. You are invited to put together your own team of experts.

Type of expertise

CBI invites contractors to assemble a team that can deliver:

• In-depth expertise in shea butter production in Benin and insights into demand for shea products in regional and EU markets;
• Support to improve the position of women in agro-value chains;
• Institutional development guidance with a focus on systems change.

Type of activities

• Advise and coach (M)SMEs in shea butter export to regional and/or EU markets;
• Analyse participating SMEs and institutional partners during training;
• Create a blueprint of selected (M)SMEs during training sessions regarding gender roles in their daily operations.
• Provide an overview of the lessons learnt from (value chain) analyses, studies and previous donor projects that focused on improving the position of women in Benin's shea sector;
• Design and implement a business export coaching programme for a period of 6 to 7 months;
• Analyse the participating SMEs and institutional partners during training, and advise them on lessons learnt, failures and what worked well;
• Identify opportunities for gender issues related to (1) productivity of the SME / shea butter production, or (2) SME's commercial interests;
• Make a stakeholder analysis of the export-enabling environment.

Download the market consultation documents

You can download the market consultation documents via the TenderNed documentation page. Please read the documents carefully.

How to express your interest

• You must submit your interest and necessary documents online via the Dutch government's online tendering system, TenderNed.
• To submit your interest, you must first register your company at TenderNed.
• For companies located outside the Netherlands, TenderNed has information in English about how to use TenderNed to apply for a tender.
• You can submit in Dutch or English.

Express your interest by 19 December: Market orientation for consultants for CBI's gender transformative project in Benin's shea sector.

Questions?

Please send any questions about the tendering process and content of the market orientation to CBI via TenderNed. Please note that we will answer all questions collected during the questions period and publish them anonymously via TenderNed.  

For technical questions about TenderNed, contact the TenderNed service desk. The service desk is available on weekdays between 8:30 and 17:00 CET. If you are calling from the Netherlands, dial 0800 836 3376. To call from abroad, dial +31 70 379 88 99. You can also email servicedesk@tenderned.nl.