TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. With five decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

Nespresso began embedding sustainability into its supply chain in 2003 with the launch of the AAA Sustainable Quality™ Program. The AAA Program is first and foremost a program for fostering long-term relationships with farmers while at the same time embedding sustainable practices into activities on farms and in surrounding landscapes and improving yields and the quality of harvests. Today, Nespresso sources over 90 percent of its coffee through the AAA Program, which translates into favourable conditions for more than 100,000 farmers in 13 countries. The AAA Program has evolved considerably over time. While quality and productivity improvement through sustainable farm management is still at its core, it also focuses on building community and landscape resilience and responding to the wider systemic challenges the coffee sector faces such as gender inequality.

Description

Nespresso and TechnoServe are working together in Ethiopia to deliver the AAA Sustainable QualityTM Program ('AAA Program'). In this context, we completed a gender analysis of a selected AAA Cluster in Ethiopia and identified a strong interest among women coffee farmers to improve their role in household planning. We believe complementary training on financial literacy and household decision-making will contribute to advance gender equality and women's economic empowerment which in turn will drive better economic performance of the coffee farm and the household, as well as spillover effects including improved health and education of community members.

Objectives and Scope

TechnoServe seeks to contract an individual or an organization to design and pilot financial literacy training for populations with low literacy and numeracy skills, specifically women, in AAA households, in Ethiopia. The Consultant will work closely with Nespresso's Gender Specialist and TechnoServe's Africa Gender Advisor throughout the design and pilot of the training.

In close collaboration with TechnoServe and Nespresso, the Financial Literacy Curriculum Developer will create a locally-relevant financial literacy training curriculum (number of modules, TBD). The training will need to incorporate non-traditional adult education techniques to support understanding and adoption of financial decision-making tools without aiming to provide comprehensive or sophisticated financial knowledge. TechnoServe and Nespresso will also be running a pilot in parallel to this activity on nutrition in the same communities. TechnoServe will manage the two activities and the consultant is not expected to be involved in the nutrition activity directly but needs to be aware and coordinate with others needed.

Tasks and Responsibilities

1. Identify learning goals and outline of the training curriculum and approach to measure success: The consultant will conduct a set of focus groups with the target population to identify the specific topics that are most relevant to the target population's needs. Based on these learnings and in collaboration with TechnoServe and Nespresso, the consultant will define the topic and number of modules, the learning goals for each module, and the approach to measure whether the participants effectively increased their financial literacy skills and are applying the learnings. The project intends, at least, to conduct an assessment at baseline and endline.

2. Develop the training curriculum including the content and facilitator guide for each financial literacy module: The consultant will write or adapt existing financial literacy training curriculum to be integrated into the AAA Sustainability Program. The training curriculum refers to the content (ie. teaching material, tools) and facilitation guide (ie. lesson plans guiding the trainer on what the participants need to learn and how to deliver the content effectively) for each financial literacy module. The scope of the curriculum will be defined by the consultant, based on focus groups, the amount of existing content that can be leveraged and the need to develop new content, which would also require additional support like graphics.

The training will be delivered to women and their spouses and must consider gender dynamics in its content and delivery methods. The training curriculum will follow these criteria:

• Structure: All lessons should adhere to the same structure (e.g., the same overall progression from introduction of a concept to personal application)
• Pedagogy: All lessons should be highly interactive, participant-centered and cater to multiple learning styles. The program as a whole must use situational and participatory instructional methodology and follow TechnoServe's adult learning principles. Given the focus on low-literacy adult population, the training will design simple heuristics or routines for financial decision-making that are well-suited for populations with low literacy and numeracy. The training should develop and leverage visual tools like pictures, non-traditional learning methods such as discussion groups as a tool for learning, other gamification, edutainment methods etc., with the aim of making the presentation of complex information easier to comprehend, more attractive, and effective in reinforcing messages to individuals.
• Locally relevant: The curriculum will be informed by global best practices, designed to be relevant and responsive to the Ethiopian cultural context and needs of the target population, while maximizing the potential for adaptability to other contexts.

The consultant is responsible for coordinating graphic design required for the teaching material. TechnoServe will be responsible for the translation of the training curriculum into Amharic or Oromifa, in coordination with the consultant.

3. Field test financial literacy modules: The consultant will lead the field testing of the curriculum with a subset of the target population to make adjustments and refine it before the pilot. TechnoServe AAA field staff will support field testing by the consultant.

4. Design and provide support during pilot roll-out, and assess effectiveness: The consultant will work with Nespresso and TechnoServe to design the pilot program and train AAA field staff on the delivery of the training modules. The consultant will provide part-time support during the pilot roll-out and will guide the field team in collecting insights to assess the effectiveness of the training delivered as well as farmer feedback. TechnoServe will be responsible for overseeing the field team and monitoring farmer attendance, as well as collecting the baseline and endline data on learning and adoption. The consultant will analyze the data to understand pilot success in increasing financial literacy skills and adoption as part of the learning report (see below).

5. Finalize training curriculum: The consultant will update materials by incorporating learnings from the pilot to ensure a locally-relevant and field-tested financial literacy training curriculum.

6. Pilot results and learning report: The consultant will develop a report describing the specific results (farmers trained and learning and adoption achieved), rationale for curriculum design and recommendations for future scale-up.

The activities, main deliverables and illustrative time frame are:

Activity

Deliverable

Expected LOE over project duration

Project Start-Up

Week-by-week work plan for the project

Training curriculum outline and learning goals, based on in-country focus group discussions

Approach to measure pilot success (increased financial literacy skills and adoption)

2 weeks

Design training

Draft training content (ie. teaching material, tools) and facilitation guide (ie. lesson plans guiding the trainer on what the participants need to learn and how to deliver the content effectively) for each financial literacy module, with feedback from TechnoServe's coffee team.

Conducted one-week field testing

Training content and facilitation guide updated and readied for pilot after a review by TechnoServe and Nespresso

Design parameters for pilot developed (e.g. participant selection) together with TechnoServe and Nespresso

6.5 weeks (beginning mid-May)

Pilot training

Delivered ToT to AAA field trainers who will run the pilot

Coach TechnoServe staff during pilot execution with several groups of women and their spouses (size TBD)

Analysis of participant learning and adoption against goals. Analysis of feedback received

Part time support throughout pilot duration (3-6 months details to be confirmed)

Finalize deliverables

1) Finalized training curriculum based on learnings from pilot, including a) content (teaching material, tools) and b) facilitation guide (lesson plans) for each financial literacy module

2) Pilot results and learnings report, including results, rationale for curriculum design and recommendations for future scale-up

3 weeks

Required Skills and Experience

• Master's degree with a focus on or significant exposure to education, financial inclusion, economic development, and international development

• Demonstrated experience in the design and delivery of training curriculum for population with low literacy/numeracy skills, particularly through train the trainer model
• Experience in financial literacy capacity building of bottom of the pyramid population preferred
• Experience integrating gender dynamics and the principles of women's economic empowerment into curriculum preferred
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Previous work experience and understanding of local context in Ethiopia necessary
• Well versed in participant-centered, experiential facilitation methodologies
• Experience facilitating TOT workshops