Job Title: Market Mapping of Time-Saving Technologies, Products & Services
Project Name: UCARE
Job type: Consultancy
Location of Position: Northern Ghana
Reporting to: UCARE Field Project Manager
Remuneration: In line with market rates
Indicative LOE/Time Frame: 20 days over Jun-July period
Citizenship: Ghanaian
Language Requirements: Fluency in English; proficiency in Dagbani, Gonja, or Mampruli an asset
Application Deadline: June 18, 2025

Application Instructions:

1. A cover letter is mandatory to be considered. Cover letters should effectively align your skills and experiences with the specific job responsibilities outlined in the position’s description, demonstrating your aptitude and enthusiasm for the role, your daily fee and current availability.
2. Click the “Apply now” link to upload your cover letter and CV (Curriculum Vitae). Only successful candidates will be contacted. No phone calls please.
3. Alinea is an international development consultancy providing technical and management expertise that helps people improve their lives. We work with governments, investors, companies, and communities to create lasting change. Over 38 years, Alinea has successfully delivered more than 1000 projects worldwide. alineainternational.com

Alinea International does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment and hiring process. All offers of employment or job opportunities with Alinea International that include any form of a request for payment of fees or collect information on bank accounts are fraudulent. Any requests for such payment or information should be refused and reported to your local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action and to Alinea International.

DEIAB Statement Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging 
At Alinea International we value diversity, equity, inclusivity, accessibility and belonging in everything we do. We are an equal opportunity employer opposed to all forms of discrimination. We actively seek and encourage applications from people of diverse backgrounds recognizing that an inclusive workforce enriches our organization and achieves smarter, more innovative results.

Protection
Alinea is committed to the protection of children and vulnerable adults. Due to the nature of our work, all candidates will be subject to due diligence checks and extensive background checks where appropriate.

Project Description:
The United for Care-sensitive Approaches to Rights and Empowerment (UCARE) Project is a five-year project (2024-2029) funded by Global Affairs Canada that seeks to enhance the realization of women and adolescent girls’ rights to equal distribution of domestic work and reduced burden of unpaid care work in Northern Ghana.

UCARE will work collaboratively with national partners, regional and local governments to create an evidence-based, gender-responsive and care-sensitive policy and programming environment, and with families in northern Ghana to improve the agency and decision making of women and adolescent girls to exercise their rights related to recognized and valued unpaid care work.

The UCARE project will partner with local organizations SEND, NETRIGHT and women’s rights organizations using the Gender Model Families approach to recognize, reduce and redistribute the burden of UCW more equitably within households. UCARE will be implemented in 10 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern, Northeast and Savannah regions, covering both urban and rural communities, reaching 225,000 women and men, and adolescent girls and boys.

    
About the work
To inform evidence-based advocacy and investment, UCARE is seeking a consultant to map existing labor and time-saving technologies, products and services and assess community demand in its 10 operational districts. The mapping will directly inform the design and launch of the UCARE Special Fund, a small grant mechanism that will channel resources to local civil-society groups, women-led enterprises, cooperatives and grassroots innovators (not to government agencies) so they can meet the growing, community-identified demand for labour and time-saving care solutions.

The assignment will:
* Locate demand hotspots, communities where women and girls spend the most time on unpaid care work i.e. water collection, fuel gathering, childcare or food processing.
* Profile high-potential local actors, organizations already piloting, or able to pivot to, care-responsive products and services (e.g., community childcare centers, women-owned clean-cookstove businesses, women groups offering laundry services), with priority being give to women owned or led businesses.
* Analyze gaps and opportunities, where demand is unmet and what catalytic small grants could unlock rapid uptake.
* Generate practical design inputs, grant window options, eligibility criteria, optimal grant sizes, support services, and MEL touchpoints, so the Special Fund can be operationalized quickly and reach the right local change-makers.

Objectives:
* Catalogue existing suppliers and solutions (product specs, pricing, channels).
* Quantify household, enterprise and institutional demand and willingness-to-pay (sex, income, education disaggregated).
* Analyze market dynamics (value chains, policies, financing, barriers).
* Recommend practical, cost-cutting, gender-responsive actions to expand access, including how to address existing gaps and barriers in the current context.

The Role
The consultant will deliver:
1.      Inception report (methodology, sampling frame, tools, workplan)
2.      Cleaned dataset & interview transcripts
3.      Market-mapping report (≤ 25 pages + annexes)
4.      Advocacy slide deck (≤ 15 slides)
5.      2-page policy brief summarizing key findings & recommendations
All deliverables must be in English, in editable Word/PDF (reports) and PPT (deck), and will be reviewed and finalized with the UCARE team.

4. Methodology, Activities and Timeline
Consultants must adopt a mixed-method, gender-responsive approach (desk review, Key Informant Interviews, enterprise surveys, gender segregated FGDs, rapid price scans). All data will be disaggregated by sex, age, income, education and location.
Alinea photography and FPIC policies must be adhered to.

Please see the full job ad on alineainternational.com for the full activities and timeline details

5. Consultation Plan
* Consultant will engage:
* UCARE Field Project Manager
* MMDA/RCC planners & budget officers
* Gender-Model-Family members, WROs, enterprises, Chamber of Commerce
* Community leaders & women’s groups
* Objectives: refine methodology; validate initial findings; ensure local relevance.

6. Management and Reporting 

The consultant reports to the Field Project Manager. Weekly virtual check-ins will monitor progress; the consultant will incorporate UCARE feedback within three working days of receipt.

 
7. Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

All deliverables and data are the property of UCARE/Alinea International. The consultant must maintain confidentiality, comply with data-protection standards, and disclose any potential conflicts of interest before contract signature.

8. Financial Proposal 

Submit a day-rate and any anticipated incidental costs (communications, software, internet). Total cost must be inclusive of taxes and not exceed 20 working days. Alinea will request fee substantiation of all daily fee requests. Payments will be disbursed against approved deliverables.

Required (two separate PDF files):
* Technical Proposal (max 4 pages): understanding, methodology, detailed workplan, team CVs, past one work sample.
* Financial Proposal: itemized daily rate + expenses, inclusive of all taxes.
* Questions accepted until 18th June 2025; responses shared with all bidders.

Required Qualifications:
* Master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Business, Gender Studies, Development Studies or related field
* ≥ 5 years market research/value-chain analysis experience
* Demonstrated gender-responsive research & analysis skills
* Proven facilitation, report-writing & presentation abilities
* Women-led or Ghanaian-owned firms encouraged to apply.