DRC Terms of Reference (TOR) for Consultancy Services

1. Who is the Danish Refugee Council?

Founded in 1956, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading international NGO and one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement. Active in 40 countries with 9,000 employees and supported by 7,500 volunteers, DRC protects, advocates, and builds sustainable futures for refugees and other displacement affected people and communities. DRC provides protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance; supports displaced persons in becoming self-reliant and included into hosting societies; and works with civil society and responsible authorities to promote protection of rights and peaceful coexistence. DRC presence exists throughout the displacement cycle from emergency response to acute displacement needs to working towards durable solutions for those in protracted displacement or returning to their places of origin as well as working towards prevention of displacement.

For this piece of work, the Consultant will report to DRC Regional Office / Consortium Manager but will be working with DRC Ethiopia and DRC Sudan and other partners as part of the Consortium created to deliver the H.E.R program of which DRC is prime.

2. Purpose of the consultancy

DRC will adopt a systems approach to the H.E.R. program to align with DRC strategic ambitions to institutionalize the use of this approach to achieve more scalable and sustainable outcomes through local actors.

The H.E.R. program was conceived through collaboration with a donor wishing to work in fragile, nexus environments to address the needs of host and displaced Sudanese female populations focusing on long-term strengthening, integration and resilience outcomes. The program will be delivered in two countries in parallel – Benishangul, Ethiopia and Gedaref, Sudan – over a two-year period with the potential for extension.

The H.E.R program has a holistic theory of change and will be working in a variety of sectors – health, protection (particularly for women’s health, GBV survivor support, documentation and land rights), nutrition, economic recovery and peacebuilding. Many of the activities in these areas to date have been through siloed direct aid provision and there is now a need to move to more resilient interventions that leverage existing systems and local actors to scale to reach the needs of host and displaced populations and facilitate movement towards durable solutions in protracted displacement situations.

Whilst, some program activities will have to adopt their originally conceived approach to their activity implementation, there is flexibility to adapt other interventions and/or use the evidence gathered from this consultancy to propose alternative intervention strategies to the donor. The Consultant will be expected to work in partnership with DRC management and field teams to build their capacity through a ‘learning by doing’ approach to adopt a new mindset to co-design programs applying a systems approach. We intend to work in partnership with the Consultant, not outsource work activities, co-developing work activities with DRC Inclusive Systems experts at HQ and country-level.

The Consultancy will support local teams to achieve the above by providing additional capacity and technical expertise during program setup phase. The support will be split into four distinct areas:

1. Field Research Support – the Consultant will utilize existing secondary information and programmatic presence in both regions, to map gaps in existing knowledge to facilitate rapid data collection (in the field and virtually) to build a more comprehensive systems analysis. The Consultant will be expected to support tool creation, ready field teams and provide technical backstopping support to field teams to help adapt investigations as data is collected.
2. Intervention Analysis & Design – convert analysis to design iterations of existing proposal interventions in collaboration with Consortium partners through well-facilitated design workshops which shall also identify operationalization considerations for any design changes.
3. Intervention Implementation Strategy – each intervention area should show prescriptive next steps/activities for implementation, workplans (sequenced and layered as relevant with clear identification of intervention type e.g. direct, indirect, facilitative), proposed use of budgets and local actor/partner engagement strategies.
4. MEL Systems and Baselines – for each intervention area creating intervention guides with results chains, monitoring requirements, and baseline information. Interventions should all lead to support reporting outputs and outcomes for the program’s theory of change.
5. GESI Integration- GESI is central to this program, and interventions are expected to adopt a GESI-transformative approach wherever possible. This includes considering gender equality, social inclusion, and the needs of marginalized groups in the analysis, design, implementation strategy, and MEL systems, ensuring that outcomes reflect meaningful, transformative impact. The consultant is expected to support and advise on embedding GESI considerations throughout all stages of the program.

Due to access issues, we expect that the Consultant will support the Ethiopian teams in country (in Benishangul and Addis Ababa) and lead Sudanese teams virtually. As such, the Consultant will need to show successful experience in supporting teams through virtual guidance.

An extension to the Consultancy may be considered if the Consultant delivers satisfactory deliverables and support to the DRC Team to monitor implementation quality.

3. Contextual Background

Ethiopia: The Consortium will work in Benishangul with Sudanese refugees in already established camps and host populations bordering the area. Ura woreda in Ethiopia hosts approximately 76,342 people and over 12,000 Sudanese refugees, with an additional 18,721 asylum seekers expected soon. Unlike Sudan, the context lacks active conflict but faces severe resource and service constraints in a predominantly rural setting. Refugees encounter significant legal and cultural barriers to integration, including unclear timelines for registration, National IDs, and work permits, which restrict access to financial services and employment. Infrastructure gaps—poor roads, high transport costs, and limited credit—compound market isolation, while reliance on informal gold mining exposes both hosts and refugees to exploitation.

Humanitarian aid reductions have worsened food insecurity, forcing negative coping strategies. Tensions over scarce resources such as water, land, and firewood are rising, threatening social cohesion. The Ethiopian government’s shift toward development-oriented refugee integration, including allocating 300 hectares for joint cultivation, is promising but undermined by inequitable land access and lack of supporting systems like input supply, training, and market intelligence. Social and health systems are fragile, with only two health centers and 41 posts serving both populations, facing severe shortages in staff, medicines, and infrastructure. Malnutrition among children exceeds emergency thresholds, and sexual and reproductive health services are inadequate.

Refugee women face compounded vulnerabilities: many are female-headed households, survivors of sexual violence, and at high risk of GBV due to poor shelter, lighting, and distant facilities. Cultural practices such as FGM complicate outreach efforts. While refugee-led organizations could strengthen peacebuilding and service delivery, lack of formal recognition by local authorities limits their role. Political constraints on Out-of-Camp permits and employment rights further restrict durable solutions. For systems analysis, priorities include mapping interdependencies between legal frameworks, economic inclusion, health and nutrition systems, gender protection, and governance, while designing scalable, inclusive interventions that layer humanitarian aid with long-term system development under current policy constraints.

Sudan: The Consortium will work in Gederaf with Sudanese IDPs in already established camps and host populations in the area. Gedaref State is a major agricultural and trade hub in Sudan, but its economic and social systems are under extreme pressure due to conflict, climate shocks, and the influx of nearly one million IDPs and 60,000 refugees. Initially, IDPs contributed positively to the local economy by diversifying businesses and services, but recent relocations to poorly serviced settlements outside the city have severely reduced access to livelihoods, infrastructure, and social networks. Food insecurity is widespread, driven by looted grain reserves, currency collapse, inflation exceeding 100%, and climate-related crop losses. Agricultural production is semi-mechanized and rainfed but rising input costs and wage depression have eroded household purchasing power.

Market distortions caused by government interventions, such as fixed exchange rates, have further undermined confidence and created upward pressure on parallel markets. These dynamics have left both host and displaced populations highly vulnerable, with 40% of the state’s population facing acute food insecurity and staple food prices doubling since 2023. Public health and social systems have nearly collapsed under the strain. Facilities face severe staffing shortages, unpaid workers, medicine stockouts, and poor infrastructure, while cholera outbreaks, malnutrition, and mental health crises are escalating. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, facing gender-based violence, trafficking, and exclusion from economic systems despite being primary labor in agriculture and livestock. GBV prevention and survivor support require urgent investment in health, psychosocial services, and livelihoods, alongside community engagement to challenge harmful norms.

Climate shocks, such as flooding during the rainy season, have worsened displacement conditions, leaving many IDPs in uninhabitable shelters. Operational access for aid agencies remains a major barrier due to bureaucratic delays in project and research approvals, visa restrictions, and tight controls on sensitive data collection. For systems analysis, key priorities include mapping interdependencies between economic recovery, health system resilience, gender inclusion, and governance, while designing interventions that strengthen local systems, avoid undermining existing structures, and ensure scalability and sustainability beyond external aid.

Solutions from the Start: DRC’s Approach to Addressing Protracted Displacement

DRC seeks to move beyond short-term humanitarian assistance by pursuing durable solutions while also strengthening self‑reliance for displaced populations, even when durable solutions are not yet possible. Progress is often constrained by restrictive legal and regulatory environments and by operating in remote, underserved areas with fragility often exacerbated by conflict or climate stresses. Where durable solutions are viable, DRC designs for long‑term, sustainable outcomes; where they are not, it focuses on improving self‑reliance while advocating for policy change to enable durable solutions in future. Because traditional humanitarian programmes can reinforce aid dependency, the Consortium aims to adopt systems approaches—supported by a consultant—to design more sustainable interventions. Using a pragmatic hybrid of direct, indirect, and facilitative actions, the goal is to meet immediate needs without undermining progress toward either strengthened self‑reliance or eventual durable solutions.

DRC is strengthening its use of systems approaches and localization, with the consultancy focused on three key areas: Making Systems Work for the Displaced (S4D), which adapts economic and social systems development with displacement-affected populations; building resilience across the nexus, which analyses how shocks and stresses affect systems and displaced populations across humanitarian–development–peace contexts; and integrated technical expertise, drawing on DRC’s four sectors to design holistic, multi‑sector systems interventions as well as partner expertise in health systems.

4. Scope of Work and Methodology

The following activities will be required for both geographic areas – Benishangul and Gedaref – due to their differing contextual and operational realities.Both countries share a common theory of change and intervention areas, however the design of the intervention areas will be tailored to be contextually relevant.

• Key scoping considerations for the activities below are:Systems analysis will explore three core systems – healthcare, agriculture and protection – and/or relevant supporting systems as a result of the scoping for this work.
• Whilst the work activities will remain the same in both countries, it is likely the Ethiopia team will have greater staff capacity and access than Sudan to perform activities. The Consultant should design assuming the need to provide more support to the Sudan team which will likely be remote unless the Consultant already has presence in Gedaref.
• It is likely that the Consultant (or supporting DRC/Partner teams) will be able to support with some primary data collection in Beninshangul but may have access constraints in Gedaref. DRC will identify potentially other means of verifying data assumptions/gaps. The Consultant should expect that a lot of the data needing to be collected will already be known to local partners and should do extensive discussion with them first to identify underlying data gaps or assumptions to investigate rather than plan extensive primary field data collection activities.
• The Consultant will need to be a competent generalist comfortable in applying a systems approach to multiple sectors – health and nutrition, economic recovery and protection – and understand how to integrate critical cross-cutting factors of gender, GBV and peacebuilding into intervention strategies.
• It is not expected that the Consultant lead on all deliverables and fieldwork activities. It is expected that the Consultant work with country teams to expand their capacity (amongst competing priorities) and assure the quality of their work (e.g. lead in backstopping). The Consultant will be expected to leverage Consortium capacity for fieldwork and not be left to do it alone although the Consultant will be expected to prepare teams and quality assure any fieldwork done.

ACTIVITY 1: Inception and Desk Review

The Consultant will coordinate with the Interim Consortium Manager and Country Technical Coordinators to:

1. Review all secondary information and program proposal.
2. Collaborate with DRC management to understand program backgrounds, opportunities, and limitations to align deliverables with proposal constraints.
3. Co-create a workplan

An Inception Report will be created (max 5 pages total – not one report per country) that will:

• Identify major data gaps or validation needs for prioritizing analysis and intervention design.
• Define how the Consultant will deliver the workplan and coordinate with both country teams to preemptively arrange activities, meetings, and deadlines.
• Explain how the Consultant will partner with DRC management and field teams to build capacity through a ‘learn by doing’ approach, both in-person and virtually.
• Detail agreed ways of working to facilitate cooperation between the Consortium and the Consultant.
• Propose timing/stage gates for quality assurance and workplan reviews with DRC Technical Advisors. If subcontracted parties are involved, include clear quality assurance mechanisms.
• Note – as there are two countries to support the Consultant will need to work with them in parallel to achieve deliverables within expected Consultancy timeframe.

ACTIVITY 2: Field Research Support

The Consultant will build on existing analyses by identifying remaining knowledge gaps, developing tools, and guiding rapid field and remote data collection. This includes mentoring field teams, adapting investigative approaches as new information emerges, and ensuring that research captures how economic, social, and service systems function under strain. The resulting analysis will inform both immediate intervention opportunities and longer‑term strategies for self‑reliance and durable solutions to support Activity 3.

ACTIVITY 3a: Intervention Analysis & Design

Using the completed systems analysis, the Consultant will co‑design intervention modalities with Consortium partners through structured workshops. This includes comparing proposed systems‑oriented approaches with the original proposal activities to justify any recommended adjustments. The Consultant will help country teams determine which activities can begin within existing donor parameters and with which target groups based upon the socio-economic targeting profiles identified in the proposal. Designs will integrate DRC’s multi‑sector expertise to ensure interventions address interconnected constraints rather than isolated symptoms. Given the insufficient timeframe for realizing systemic change within two years, the Consultant should present a long-term vision using this program to build foundations for sustainable outcomes.

ACTIVITY 3b: Intervention Implementation Strategy

For each intervention area, the Consultant will translate design decisions into practical implementation strategies with clearly sequenced workplans, identification of intervention types (direct, indirect, facilitative), budget use, and local actor engagement approaches. The goal is to reduce long‑term aid dependency by adopting hybrid modalities that meet immediate needs while enabling systems to function more effectively for displaced populations over time. The Consultant will coach teams on when to use direct delivery versus a more facilitative systems approach, including how to apply systems tactics within complex or distorted environments such as refugee camps.

The report will include:

• Prioritization, sequencing, layering, and integration of interventions.
• Prescriptive intervention descriptions with clear next steps and specific design and implementation considerations.
• A mapping of hybrid system intervention modalities to help DRC Teams understand their interventions, sustainability risks, and when to transition support.
• Ideas to address distortion or dependency behaviors from humanitarian assistance, potentially involving peacebuilding colleagues.
• Consideration of ongoing activities by other actors or policy changes that may indirectly support or impact interventions.
• References to learnings from working in nascent or thin systems and refugee/camp economies to inform design and timeframes.
• Evidence-based justifications for any deviations from original proposals, explaining how prior learnings have been incorporated.
• Local actor identification and engagement strategy:
  • Identify potential local actors for prioritized interventions.
  • Coaching on identifying appropriate local actors based on will/skill/risk appetite.
  • Apply learnings from working thin systems to inform local actor selection.
  • Educate on different facilitation tactics and engagement, co-design, and trust-building with various stakeholders (e.g., local government, MNCs, smallholder farmers).
  • Set expectations on how facilitation differs from delivering humanitarian outputs and the differing timeframes for realizing change.

ACTIVITY 4: MEL/MRM Systems

This activity aims to showcase the MRM system required to deliver and measure systems change programs and provide a vision for future country strategies/business development. The Consultant will work with DRC Program and MEAL teams (including a dedicated Consortium MEAL Manager who will be expected to co-develop the materials with the Consultant) to develop results chains, and indicator frameworks for the intervention areas identified in Activity 3. MEAL teams will also need system risk monitoring tools to identify change requirements for interventions and shocks/stresses to trigger crisis modifiers.

The Consultant will support MEAL teams in understanding how to monitor self-reliance indicators (SRI) if required and MINKA indicators. The Consultant will utilize collected data to inform the baselines to avoid need for additional baselining activities. The Consultant will foster a culture of adaptive management within the MEL and Program teams. It is essential to educate teams on collecting data from local actors safely and respectfully, aligning with data they may already be collecting. The MEL system must capture reach for direct, indirect and spillover/multiplier reach as well as create indicators for AAER (initial systems behaviour change signal monitoring).

5) Deliverables & Estimated LOE

The Consultant must be able to start work early January 2026 and complete all work by end of March 2026. The Consultant can propose how best to split time between Ethiopia and Sudan based upon the Consultant’s locations, experience and local country team capacity. It is expected that the Consultant will likely need to spend more time working on Sudan deliverables, than Ethiopia, due to existing country capacity but Activity 1 will determine this following discussions with country teams.

6) Duration, timeline, and payment

The applicant needs to provide tentative schedule of activities required to complete the overall scope of the work with an appreciation of working on two programmes concurrently and risk management plan in place for project management. The applicant is invited to suggest amendments to the workplan and activities with justification but should note that due to implementation delays on both programs (but field analysis having already been completed to a good standard), DRC would like to see a reasonably condensed timeline proposed.

7. Composition of Team

It is expected that this Consultancy will require a strong lead Consultant with experience with systems approaches in fragile contexts and adaptability. As DRC want to co-deliver and design this work with the Consultant as part of the learning approach, it is not envisioned that the Consultancy proposal should propose a large team and that a singular Lead Consultant accompanied with ad-hoc context/sector specialist support may be more appropriate.

DRC is flexible to the Consultancy structure proposed to deliver this work and welcomes applications from both singular international and local consultantsas well as a hybrid of both. Where a hybrid approach is proposed, the quality assurance mechanisms of the Consultancy will need to be clearly articulated in the proposal as well as detailed distributions of work activities / LOE between international and local Consultant within the team.

DRC welcomes applications that may have a combination of remote and in-country support as long as the proposal of how to deliver remotely is well justified in the proposal. The proposal must state when the Consultant team proposes to work in-country versus working remotely. Please note that any Consultant applying must be able to travel within Ethiopia. The Consultant is expected to provide the list and composition of the team with their experience and expertise as per the requirement of TOR.

8. Eligibility, qualification, and experience required

Essential:

Applicant, organizations/institutes or firms, with individuals specialized and highly experts in market system development with proven experience of inclusive systems work, with at least two experiences in fragile contexts or protracted crises. The proposed team for this assignment is expected to have strong technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work and deliverables tailored to needs and professional capacities of the target group. The consultancy service provider should have:

Eligibility:

• Demonstrated capacity of understanding the organisational constraints of applying MSD/M4P/ISA techniques in nexus programming / humanitarian organisations
• Demonstrated experience in leading (market) systems analysis in complex / fragile environments
• Demonstrated capacity through experience of working with private sector and public sector actors in MSD programs.
• Proven experience in Protection, Gender and/or GBV – one of these is required for this consultancy given the nature of the work that is not dominated by Economic Recovery alone
• Strong facilitation and capacity development techniques proven through previous training or coaching activities
• Proven experience of innovation in product/services, business design, financial modelling for challenging environments and marginalised groups

Qualification:

• Individuals with a minimum Master’s degree in business management, economic development, social-sciences, development studies or equivalent relevant experience (a Bachelor’s degree will suffice if significant work experience provided in substitute)
• Qualified and certified in MSD and/or M4P or evidenced commensurate experience

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of proven experience in (market) system approaches (MBP, MSD, M4P) in humanitarian/development programming
• Significant experience in planning and leading systems analysis in person and remotely
• Proven experience of 5 to 8 years in providing coaching and mentorship to programs with systems approaches and ability to discuss systems beyond economic systems
• Experience in value chain development, business model development, and/or human-centred design in thin/nascent market systems and/or working with marginalised populations

Skills and knowledge:

Strong technical skills and experience on inclusive systems programs, institutional capacity building and organizations system development, and provision of technical assistance.

• Expertise and proven capacities in designing systems approach toolkits comprised of all necessary tools required across the program lifecycle. An indictive list of tools to be part of toolkit to be provided in the proposal.
• Evidence of past similar assignments, particularly working in thin/nascent market systems and/or with marginalised/displaced populations
• Familiarity with the local context, climate change and security situation in Ethiopia and Sudan
• Demonstrated technical skills and knowledge of data analytics, both quantitative and qualitative.
• Individuals with proven capacity and experience of developing successful business models and facilitation skills.

Language requirements:

• Written and spoken fluency in English
• Working knowledge of Amharic or Arabic is an advantage

Desirable (not essential):

• Experience in climate-sensitive agriculture
• GBV/VAWG

9. Technical Supervision & Quality Assurance

The Consultant can expect to start with a seasoned management team that has been introduced to the concept of systems approaches in Ethiopia and Sudan. DRC field and project teams have some systems experience and know their working contexts well. Partners within the Consortium have basic systems trainings but limited experience. Guidance will be required on how to apply the concepts to field programming, following a sequenced program methodology, adapting it to a fragile context and learning to manage uncertainty and designing intervention strategies (where previously teams have been used to following program designs determined at proposal stage with minimal opportunity for iteration).

The Consultant will work directly with the following DRC Team members on the program:

1. Ethiopia Head of Inclusive Systems
2. Ethiopia Economic Recovery Coordinator
3. Ethiopia Protection Coordinator
4. Sudan Area Manager
5. Sudan Economic Recovery Coordinator
6. Sudan HDP Coordinator
7. Sudan Protection Coordinator

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of:

1. Interim Consortium Manager
2. Ethiopia Head of Inclusive Systems
3. Global Lead for Inclusive Systems

10. Location and support

The Consultant can be delivered full-time in country by an Ethiopian or Sudanese resident and/or international consultant through a hybrid of remote and in-country work.

11. Travel

Following travels may be required for this assignment:

• Potential field work travel to Benishangul, Ethiopia and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Certain activities could be supported remotely (e.g. Sudan activities). Note if applicant is Sudan based, the Consultant will be expected to be able to work from Gedaref. We will not be doing field work due to access contraints.

The Consultant will provide her/his own computer and mobile telephone. For work in-country and field work in the area of assignment, DRC will provide domestic transportation, lodging, and other field and logistics arrangements. The Consultant will cover cost of international travel, visa fees, insurance, in country food and transport cost for personal use. Therefore, consultants are expected to make adequate provision of these cost in the financial proposal. Logistics must be planned in advance to avoid delays with permits/flights especially to camp locations.