Terms of Reference (TOR) Women-led Homebased Food Micro-Franchise Model

General Objective

To design, pilot, and validate a scalable, commercially viable (MSD)-aligned micro-franchise hub framework that integrates homebased food with active green mobility platforms in Addis Ababa. The initiative aims to sustainably increase the net incomes of marginalized women and youth by establishing resilient localized market connectivity, eliminating digital exclusion, and optimizing green last-mile logistics cost structures.

Specific Objectives

The service providers are expected to address the following specific objectives, utilizing their market expertise to propose the most effective, flexible, and non-duplicative implementation details:

• Design and Operationalize the Micro-Franchise Hub Framework: Women-led neighborhood franchise hubs, aggregating home-produced meals with quality assurance.
• Leverage Active E-Mobility and EV Logistics Networks: leverage existing infrastructure or facilitate partnership with green mobility providers that enables youth delivery riders to use electric vehicles (EVs) for aggregated food delivery, potentially clustering the buyers’ locations, reducing fuel and maintenance costs and increasing net daily earnings.
• Deploy Low-Barrier Digital Market Linkages: Leverage existing low-barrier digital channels such as messaging boots, lightweight apps, and /or creating partnerships with commercial platforms to connect informal producers with corporate and consumer demand while minimizing onboarding barriers and avoiding duplication of existing technology.
• Facilitate Technical and Operational Capacity Building: Design targeted, essential technical support, including food safety and hygiene protocols for home-based women producers, and basic hub operational management training for franchise operators.

Required Qualifications:

Institutional and Technical Experience

• MSD & Partnership Facilitation: Proven experience applying Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches and structuring non-subsidized public-private partnerships to drive sustainable, systemic market changes.
• Micro-Franchise Hub & Network Design: Minimum 3–5 years of experience designing, launching, and managing localized micro-franchise hub models, including food aggregation, quality control SOPs, digital market linkages, and commercial strategies for informal women producers and neighborhood food MSEs.
• Green Logistics & E-Mobility Integration: Demonstrated expertise in urban green logistics, specifically integrating micro-franchise hubs with existing private electric vehicle (EV) networks, e-mobility logistics platforms, and asset-financing structures (such as Lease-to-Earn or Battery-as-a-Service).

  Methodology and Sustainability

• Hub-Centric Operational Framework: Proven capacity to design, adapt, and deploy a viable micro-franchise hub operating system, financial cost-recovery models, and accessible digital onboarding tools tailored for informal women producers and youth riders.
• Field-Based Execution & Onboarding: Demonstrated use of practical, field-based delivery approaches focusing on live hub coordination, local marketplace coaching, real-time platform integration, and on-the-job support rather than classroom-based training.
• Addis Ababa Ecosystem Alignment: Ability to map, link, and integrate localized neighborhood food hubs with active e-mobility infrastructure, digital job platforms, and local market supply chains within the Addis Ababa context.
• Commercial Scalability & Exit Strategy: Capacity to validate the hub model’s operational cost recovery and market willingness to pay, delivering a clear blueprint to attract private capital for city-wide scaling independent of donor subsidies.

  Governance and Capacity

• Responsible Business Conduct: Established and verifiable policies on corporate ethics, safeguarding, data protection, and responsible management of informal sector participant data.
• Language & Reporting Alignment: Strong institutional communication capacity, including professional English proficiency for high-level technical reporting and key stakeholder engagement, paired with full Amharic fluency among field teams for direct hub operations and community trust-building.

For more requirements and qualifications, please see the detailed TOR in the link below.

>>>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NklSOiyCb6ZLBWFHAnK-LTVZ8_ib_yi1/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110887480410632260964&rtpof=true&sd=true