Consultant - Advancing Gender and Youth Inclusion in Ethiopia’s Seed Systems through Action Planning, Tools Development, and Capacity Strengthening.

Consultant

REF: REF: C/AGRA/06/2026

AGRA seeks to recruit a consultant who can provide supports to AGRA Ethiopia based on the below terms of references of the assignment/project: Advancing Gender and Youth Inclusion in Ethiopia’s Seed Systems through Action Planning, Tools Development, and Capacity Strengthening.

AGRA founded in 2006, is an African-led African-based organization that seeks to catalyze Agriculture Transformation in Africa. AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. As the sector that employs the majority of Africa’s people, nearly all of them small-scale farmers, AGRA recognizes that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.

AGRA is rolling out a new 5-year strategy to catalyze and sustain an Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa to increase incomes and improve food security for 30 million farmers. Under this strategy, AGRA will deliver through an approach that simultaneously catalyzes change at farmer level, strengthens input and output market systems and puts government at the center to enable and champion private-sector-led agricultural growth at national level.

1. GENERAL BACKGROUND

Agriculture remains central to Ethiopia’s economy and the livelihoods of its people, contributing approximately 32% of the country’s GDP and employing over 72% of the labor force (NBE, 2021). It also accounts for more than 70% of export earnings, provides 90% of raw materials for manufacturing industries, and remains the primary source of livelihoods for the majority of the rural population (FAO, 2022). The sector underpins the livelihoods of more than 17 million smallholder households, who depend primarily on rain-fed crop production (CSA, 2020).

Beyond its significant economic contributions, agriculture is critical for ensuring food security, creating employment opportunities, substituting imports, generating foreign exchange, and driving inclusive and sustainable economic transformation. Within this context, seed systems play a pivotal role in enhancing productivity, strengthening resilience, and improving access to high-quality, market-oriented crop varieties.

Ethiopia has made notable progress in strengthening its seed systems, including improvements in production, regulatory frameworks, and institutional coordination. However, access to and participation in seed systems remain uneven. Women and youth continue to face structural, institutional, and socio-economic barriers that limit their participation and benefits across seed system functions (SeedSAT; Seed Sector Performance Index).

These barriers vary across contexts. Factors such as age, land ownership, geographic location, and socio-cultural norms influence how individuals engage with seed systems. For example, young or landless women may face different constraints compared to women with established land rights, while gender roles and decision-making dynamics differ across regions such as Oromia and Amhara and across crop value chains (FAO, 2011; World Bank, 2019).

Existing analyses highlight persistent challenges, including limited access to improved seed for women farmers, low participation in seed-related enterprises, weak gender responsiveness of extension services, and limited use of comprehensive and updated sex- and gender-disaggregated data for planning and decision-making (SeedSAT; Seed Sector Performance Index). However, these analyses often do not translate into practical, context-specific guidance for implementation within Ethiopia’s institutional and delivery systems.

In addition, while technical solutions are important, they are insufficient to address underlying socio-cultural constraints such as land ownership norms, household decision-making, labor division, and mobility. Addressing these factors is essential to ensure that increased access to seed technologies leads to meaningful participation, agency, and benefits for women and other marginalized groups (FAO, 2011; CARE, 2019).

Building on this, the consultancy will undertake a targeted analysis and implementation-oriented engagement process to identify context-specific barriers and opportunities affecting women and youth in Ethiopia’s seed systems. The assignment will translate findings into actionable interventions, practical tools, institutional pathways, and implementation guidance, including a prioritized action plan and capacity support for key stakeholders.

The consultancy is also expected to support the institutionalization of gender and youth-responsive approaches within Ethiopia’s seed systems by strengthening stakeholder ownership and integration into existing systems, structures, and service delivery mechanisms.

By bridging the gap between analysis and implementation, this work will support more inclusive, responsive, and sustainable seed systems that enhance equitable access, participation, decision-making, and benefits for women and youth.

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Overall Objective

To advance the effective integration of women and youth within Ethiopia’s seed systems by improving their access, participation, decision-making, and benefits through context-specific analysis, practical action planning, tools development, and capacity strengthening across seed production, multiplication, distribution, marketing, and access.

Specific Objectives

• To review and validate existing evidence on gaps, barriers, and opportunities affecting women and youth within Ethiopia’s seed systems.
• To identify and analyze key structural, institutional, socio-cultural, and economic factors limiting the participation, inclusion, and benefits of women and youth across seed production, multiplication, distribution, marketing, and access.
• To identify practical and scalable opportunities for improving women’s and youth’s access, participation, decision-making, leadership, and benefits within seed systems.
• To develop a practical and implementation-oriented action plan with priority interventions, defined stakeholder roles, implementation pathways, and measurable indicators to strengthen gender and youth inclusion within seed systems.
• To design and/or adapt practical tools, guidance materials, and participation models (e.g., guidelines, checklists, and operational tools) to support seed sector actors in effectively integrating gender and youth-responsive approaches into their operations and service delivery systems.
• To strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders through targeted training, technical support, and institutional mechanisms to promote the adoption, institutionalization, and sustainability of gender and youth-responsive approaches within Ethiopia’s seed systems

3. SCOPE OF WORK

The assignment will be implemented in purposely selected 4 (four) woredas from Oromia, 2 (two) woredas from Amhara, and 2 (two) woredas from Central Ethiopia Region, with a focus on key crops such as wheat, horticulture, and soybean. The assignment will adopt a practical and implementation-oriented approach to ensure that findings and recommendations are translated into actionable interventions, institutional mechanisms, and user-friendly tools that can support continued application within Ethiopia’s seed systems.

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Task 1: Review and Synthesis of Existing Analyses

Activities

• Review relevant documents, studies, and reports on Ethiopia’s seed systems, with a focus on the participation of women and youth.
• Synthesize existing evidence to identify key gaps, barriers, and opportunities affecting women and youth across seed production, distribution, marketing, and access.
• Identify priority issues and data gaps requiring further validation or analysis.

Output

• A concise synthesis report outlining key gaps, barriers, opportunities, and data gaps affecting women and youth, to inform the assessment and action plan.

Task 2: Targeted Gender and Youth Assessment

Activities

• Conduct a targeted assessment of seed systems to understand the participation of women and youth across seed production, distribution, marketing, and access.
• Map key stakeholders involved in seed systems and assess their roles, influence, and capacity to support the inclusion of women and youth.
• Analyze the roles of women and youth, including decision-making, leadership, and control over resources and benefits within selected seed value chains, taking into account differences such as age, literacy, household structure, income, land ownership, and socio-economic status.
• Analyze institutional arrangements and relevant policies to identify gaps and constraints affecting the inclusion of women and youth.
• Identify priority entry points and opportunities for women and youth in seed production, multiplication, processing, distribution, and marketing.
• Identify and analyze disparities in access to seed extension services and information.
• Validate findings through consultations with stakeholders at different levels.

Output

• A validated assessment report outlining participation patterns, stakeholder roles, gender and youth dynamics, institutional and policy gaps, and priority entry points for improving inclusion.

Task 3: Development of Gender and Youth Inclusion Action Plan

Activities

• Define priority interventions to improve the inclusion of women and youth across seed production, distribution, marketing, and access, based on assessment findings.
• Propose actions to address identified structural, institutional, and policy gaps affecting women and youth.
• Identify roles and responsibilities of key actors, including public institutions, cooperatives, private sector actors, and service providers.
• Outline clear implementation pathways, including sequencing of actions and required resources.
• Integrate simple, practical, and measurable indicators to track progress in improving access, participation, decision-making, and benefits for women and youth.
• Identify practical approaches for institutionalizing and integrating the proposed actions within existing seed sector systems, structures, and service delivery mechanisms.
• Validate the proposed actions and approaches with key stakeholders.

Output

• A prioritized, practical, and validated action plan outlining interventions, roles, implementation pathways, institutional integration mechanisms, and indicators for improving the inclusion of women and youth.

Task 4: Development of Practical Tools, Frameworks, and Participation Models

Activities

• Translate the action plan into simple and practical tools (e.g., guidelines, checklists, operational guidance, and participation models) that can be used by seed sector actors.
• Adapt the tools to different users, including cooperatives, extension agents, public institutions, private sector actors, and development partners.
• Develop or review inclusive, customized, and tailored training materials to support the use of the tools and action plan.
• Test and validate the tools with selected stakeholders to ensure they are practical, user-friendly, and easy to apply.
• Ensure the tools and guidance are scalable and adaptable for continued use beyond the consultancy period.

Output

• A practical and user-friendly toolkit (including tools, operational guidance, participation models, and training materials) to support implementation of actions for improving the inclusion of women and youth in seed systems.

Task 5: Institutional Capacity Strengthening and Training

Activities

• Deliver targeted training sessions to key stakeholders on the use of the action plan and tools.
• Facilitate practical sessions to demonstrate how the tools and approaches can be applied in real implementation contexts.
• Facilitate stakeholder