Operations Consultant - Technical Assistance (Updated TOR)

Food for Education (F4E) is an award-winning, African-led non-profit organization building systems for large-scale, locally financed school feeding. F4E provides hot, nutritious, low-cost meals to public primary school children, leveraging centralized and decentralized kitchens.

In partnership with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ethiopia School Meal Initiative (ESMI), F4E is supporting the Dire Dawa City Administration in Ethiopia with technical assistance on setting up its school feeding program. Drawing on F4E’s experience in Kenya, where daily feeding programs reach over 600,000 students, will support the Dire Dawa administration to serve tens of thousands of students and scale progressively.

To ensure contextually relevant, evidence-based and sustainable implementation, F4E seeks a highly skilled Ethiopia-based Consultant to provide technical assistance on school feeding, stakeholder management, support policy and operational frameworks and guide capacity-building efforts for kitchen setup and program monitoring

The primary objective of this assignment is to provide direct, high-quality facilitation and advisory support to Food for Education in developing a cohesive, actionable and costed school feeding program. The consultant will also contribute to laying the groundwork for related systems strengthening efforts in establishing a sustainable school feeding program in Dire Dawa.

The Consultant will be embedded within the F4E Public Affairs team and will be responsible for the following:

3.1 Stakeholder Engagement & Facilitation

1. Act as the primary technical facilitator and coordinator between F4E, Ethiopian non-governmental stakeholders and key government institutions, including the Dire Dawa City Administration and its Education Bureau as well as any relevant actors involved in school feeding, nutrition and education programming.

2. Map and build relationships with key stakeholders across government, development partners, civil society organizations, the private sector and local communities involved in school feeding and child nutrition initiatives.

3. Facilitate inclusive consultations to support collaborative program design, implementation and knowledge sharing.

4. Propose clear timelines, institutional arrangements and roles and responsibilities among key stakeholders to ensure strong ownership, coordination, and long-term sustainability of the technical advisory support for the school feeding program.

5. Represent F4E in technical working groups, coordination meetings and policy forums related to school feeding and nutrition and regularly report insights and recommendations to F4E leadership.

3.2 Technical Support to the School Feeding Program

1. Support the development and refinement of operational and programmatic frameworks guiding school feeding implementation in Dire Dawa City.

2. Contribute to the development of a program implementation roadmap, including operational guidelines and sustainability considerations.

3. Ensure alignment with relevant Ethiopian government policies, procedures and program standards.

4. Contribute to the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, including indicators to track programme performance and outcomes.

5. Support the development of knowledge and learning materials to facilitate technology and operational knowledge transfer from F4E’s Kenyan experience.

3.3 Strategic Advisory & Risk Management

1. Provide intelligence on political and institutional dynamics affecting the program’s development and implementation in Ethiopia.

2. Advise on culturally appropriate and politically viable strategies for government engagement.

3. Identify potential bottlenecks or risks to the technical advisory support and potential implementation risks and propose mitigation measures, including but not limited to funding delays, capacity constraints, political turnover, data gaps, etc.

3.4 Scoping, Governance and Capacity Building

1. Conduct a scoping exercise to map existing systems and identify gaps across the school feeding value chain in Dire Dawa (from food procurement, storage and preparation in central kitchens to distribution and school-level reporting).

2. Recommend governance structures, including roles, responsibilities, and data flow between relevant government departments, partners, and F4E.

3. Identify opportunities for integration or alignment with existing government data systems (such as education, health, or nutrition information systems) to ensure interoperability and coordinated data use.

4. Assess capacity-building needs for government and programme staff to improve data collection, analysis, reporting, and evidence-based decision-making, particularly from a sustainability perspective of kitchen handover and other operational transition plans.

1. Joint Work Plan: List of activities and timeline for the consultancy period .

2. Monthly Progress Reports: Activities, engagements, insights and risks.

3. Brief on Data Governance and Capacity Needs summarizing roles, data flow, and recommendations to strengthen institutional data use.

4. Final Assignment Report: Summary of findings, processes, and recommendations (end of contract) as well as a sustainability plan for the program in Ethiopia - Dire Dawa.

1. Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Public Policy, Law, Economics, Development Studies, Education, Nutrition, or related field.

2. Minimum 10 years of professional experience in stakeholder engagement, education, development, systems strengthening, or nutrition/health programming in Ethiopia.

3. Demonstrated experience working with or within the Government of Ethiopia (MoE, MoH, MoA or other social sector ministries).

4. In-depth knowledge of Ethiopia’s political, administrative and policy-making processes.

5. Expertise in education policy, social protection, public finance, or nutrition policy (desirable).

6. Experience facilitating high-level stakeholder workshops and technical working groups.

7. Demonstrated fluency in both Amharic and English, with strong verbal and written communication skills

8. Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills for building trust with senior officials.

9. Ability to work independently and with distributed teams.

The initial contract will be 6 months, with a strong possibility of extension based on performance and evolving programme needs.

The consultant must be based in Ethiopia with frequent travel to Dire Dawa expected, with the ability to attend in-person meetings with government and other stakeholders as required. Travel to Kenya is envisioned from time to time to ensure an understanding of F4E’s operations.

Interested candidates are invited to submit:

• A detailed cover letter outlining relevant experience and approach.

• A current CV.

• Three relevant samples of work

• A proposed daily rate and availability.

These TORs outline the core responsibilities but may be adapted in consultation with the consultant to meet the evolving needs of the assignment.