MERCY CORPS - Tender 468 - Determinants for MSME Resilience Research Consultancy

It is in the midst of extreme shocks that we can test our theories and best measure what matters for resilience. As Lebanon faces a severe economic crisis, Mercy Corps intends to conduct a 6-month non-evaluative research project that seeks to determine which capacities (and in which combinations) best contribute to the resilience of micro, small, and medium enterprises and the functions and actors that support them. Why is it some businesses are able to survive or even thrive, while others are failing? What are the key market system functions increasing their resilience? How resilient are these in turn?

Addressing Program and Policy Analysis: Provide state of the art analysis into the economic and human impacts of the pandemic on multiple ongoing shocks and the effects on those most vulnerable, differentiated by age, gender and intersecting identities (e.g. ability, displacement status). This will inform program design and adaptation and recommendations to inform policy and collective action.

The research will fill crucial knowledge gaps and provide actionable recommendations for Mercy Corps in Lebanon and the Middle East more broadly. It will:

1. Test key assumptions about what factors affect individual business and local market system resilience to the 2019-2020 economic crisis.

2. Generate actionable findings to inform Mercy Corps’ economic recovery and development strategies in vulnerable areas in which we work – particularly on how our response efforts can help strengthen business and local market system resilience to future such crises.

3. Leverage the evidence to influence the priorities and practices of donors, policy makers, and aid agencies in providing impactful economic survival, recovery and development assistance that contributes to reducing vulnerability in crisis and post-crisis settings.

4. Contribute to Mercy Corps’ broader leadership on Market Systems Resilience and Employment, feeding into our learning agenda as well as donor and policy influence efforts at the global level.

Interested applicants who wish to apply to this opportunity are kindly requested to follow the link below, fill in the needed information and download a copy of the tender documents

https://daleel-madani.org/civil-society-directory/mercy-corps/calls/mercy-corps-tender-468-determinants-msme-resilience-research-consultancy