Terms of Reference Market Systems Specialist (Consultancy)

About Max Foundation

Max Foundation is a thriving international nonprofit organization (NGO) committed to providing a healthy start in life for every child. With an annual program budget of €6 million and 55 employees, our head office is located in Amsterdam. And country offices in Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

Our programs, serve as a ‘design lab,’ developing scalable solutions in safe water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), nutrition, food security, and maternal health, all with the ultimate goal of improving child health. We support entrepreneurs to play a key role in providing solutions to the complex challenges faced by children, their families and their communities. With

evidence and learnings from our integrated solutions, we influence the development sector and governments to apply them on a broader scale, tackling problems from multiple angle. We emphasise market systems development to stimulate demand and supply of essential health promoting products, embed resilient change, and make markets work for communities.

Role Purpose

For our Ethiopia office we are seeking a Market Systems Specialist to bring strategic clarity and technical depth to the development of a number of new programmes and to strengthen the market system approach in Max Foundation Ethiopia’s existing programme portfolio. This consultant will help to articulate what a market systems approach implies in the Ethiopian context, and beyond, and ensure that entrepreneurship and market systems thinking are further enhanced in new and ongoing initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Technical support to Proposal Development
• Provide deep technical guidance on designing systemic interventions for programmes related to rural women entrepreneurs, food systems and climate resilient WASH systems
• Refine strategies across service delivery, finance, enabling environments, and partner engagement
• Articulation of market system approach in existing programmes
• Collaborate with internal teams to articulate our market systems approach, both in theory and in practice, for WASH, nutrition, and MAH services
• Document impact and learning related to entrepreneurship and market system interventions to date
• Facilitate capacity building for staff, partners, and government actors on understanding and adopting market systems thinking in rural Ethiopian settings

Cross-Programme Support

• Infuse market systems thinking into existing programmes, ensuring consistency and coherence across our portfolio
• Support the analysis and generation of business models that offer inclusive and affordable WAS & FNS services
• Participate in strategy sessions and contribute to partner alignment and systemic scale-up logic
• Prepare briefing materials to communicate MSD principles clearly to diverse internal and external audiences

Required Profile

• 8–10 years of experience in market systems development, especially in WASH, nutrition, food security, or health markets in East or Sub-Saharan Africa
• Proven success supporting NGO or development models embedding entrepreneur-led market systems, especially in low-income, rural contextsStrong ability to contextualise and
• communicate complex MSD concepts in simple, actionable terms
• Demonstrated experience in co-creating learning materials, delivering workshops, and strengthening internal capacity
• Excellent writing and analysis skills, with flexible collaboration style

Contract & Remuneration

• Duration: September–December 2025
• Effort: ~8 hours/week (~14 consultancy days)
• Remuneration: Competitive daily consultancy rate, commensurate with experience

Organisation: Max Foundation

Location: Addis Abeba, Ethiopia

Time Commitment: ~8 hours per week (~14 consultancy days total)

Duration: September to December 2025

Contract Type: Part-time consultant