Job Title Consultant – Design of a Small Grant Fund
Project Name United for Care-sensitive Approaches to Rights and Empowerment (UCARE)
Job type Consultancy
Location of Position Remote (local field travel required)
Reporting to UCARE Project Director & Project Field Manager
Remuneration In line with market rates
Indicative LOE/Time Frame Up to 22 days beginning in Jan and completing no later than March 31, 2026
Citizenship Canadian/Ghanaian
Language Requirements English
Application Deadline January 23, 2026

Application Instructions:
A full proposal is required and must be uploaded as 1 document. Proposals must contain the following:

1. Technical Proposal (maximum 4 pages), including:
– Understanding of the assignment
– Proposed methodology
– Work plan and timeline

2. Curriculum Vitae demonstrating relevant qualifications and experience (including academic qualifications).
3. Financial Proposal clearly stating the daily rate and total cost
4. A sample of relevant past work (e.g., manuals, policy briefs or research reports)

To submit your proposal, click the Submit Proposal link.
Shortlisted applicants may be invited for a brief virtual interview. Women and consultants with experience in gender-responsive research are especially encouraged to apply.

 

Alinea is an international development consultancy providing technical and management expertise that helps people improve their lives. We work with governments, investors, companies, and communities to create lasting change. In 40 years, Alinea has successfully delivered more than 1000 projects worldwide. alineainternational.com

At Alinea International we value diversity, equity, inclusivity, accessibility and belonging in everything we do. We are an equal opportunity employer opposed to all forms of discrimination. We actively seek and encourage applications from people of diverse backgrounds recognizing that an inclusive workforce enriches our organization and achieves smarter, more innovative results.

Alinea is committed to the protection of children and vulnerable adults. Due to the nature of our work, all candidates will be subject to due diligence checks and extensive background checks where appropriate.

 

Project Description:
The United for Care-sensitive Approaches to Rights and Empowerment (UCARE) Project is a five-year project (2024-2029) funded by Global Affairs Canada that seeks to enhance the realization of women and adolescent girls’ rights to equal distribution of domestic work and reduced burden of unpaid care work in Northern Ghana.
UCARE works collaboratively with national partners, regional and local governments to create an evidence-based, gender-responsive and care-sensitive policy and programming environment, and with families in northern Ghana to improve the agency and decision making of women and adolescent girls to exercise their rights related to recognized and valued unpaid care work.

The UCARE project partners with local organizations SEND, NETRIGHT and women’s rights organizations using the Gender Model Families approach to recognize, reduce and redistribute the burden of UCW more equitably within households. UCARE will be implemented in 10 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Northern, Northeast and Savannah regions, covering both urban and rural communities, reaching 225,000 women and men, and adolescent girls and boys.

About the work
This Consultancy is intended to design a Small Grant Fund to encourage local businesses to invest in time saving products, services and technologies. The UCARE project will support to MMDAs to address UCW in their districts and communities, and to build concrete actions which will redistribute and reduce the amount of time women and girls spend in carrying out unpaid care work tasks. The Gender Model Families program will also result in a more equitable sharing and redistribution of UCW within households. UCARE’s Theory of Change assumes that the less time women and girls spend on UCW, the more time they will have to pursue other activities (i.e. education, healthcare, economic activities or leisure), and will lead to an increased demand for time saving products, services and technologies.

The Role
The consultant will be responsible for the design of the Fund and to produce an operations manual to guide its implementation.
The Consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Design and propose the set-up of the fund including legal, operational, financial and reporting procedures and arrangements.
• Develop the governance, management and operational structures and other policies including communication/promotions and performance management requirements.
• Identify and develop the detailed operational modalities for the fund (category/size of grant, award cycle, duration of grant period, eligibility criteria, approvals, others).
• Identify and propose technical expertise required for the management of the fund.
• Identify the capacity building and technical assistance that will be required by the grant recipients to ensure sustainability.
• Design a monitoring and evaluation framework for the fund.
• Propose a mechanism for the exit, closure and sustainability of the grant recipients’ businesses.
• Develop an operational manual for the Fund.
• A report on the proposed fund design with supporting rationale and evidence (with date established in consultation with the Consultant).

Tasks and LOE

• Submission and approval of the inception report – 2 days
• Review of existing documentation and consultations with UCARE, partners, and relevant experts (as approved) – 3 days
• Proposed Fund design recommendations (outline) plus additional research, including methodology – 3 days
• Conduct of additional research – 5 days
• Elaboration of Fund Design (final document) – 4 days
• Draft Operations and Management Manual – 3 days
• Presentation to UCARE Management – 1 day
• Finalization of Design and Manual – 1 day

Total     22 days

 

Consultation Plan
The consultant will engage with:

• UCARE Project Field Manager, Canadian Project Director and relevant technical advisors.
• Members of MMDAs in UCARE project districts; field staff working for UCARE implementing partners; participants of the GMF program; local suppliers, distributors, SMEs, NGOs and producers in target districts and from other locations in Ghana that supply the northern regions of focus.

Management and Reporting
The consultant will report to the UCARE Project Field Manager/Project Director and work closely with the technical team at the Project Management Office and Alinea headquarters in Canada. Regular virtual check-ins will be scheduled and the consultant will provide brief weekly progress updates throughout the assignment. UCARE will provide timely feedback on drafts, and the consultant is expected to incorporate comments within agreed timelines.

Intellectual Property and Confidentiality
All reports and materials produced under this consultancy will become the property of UCARE. The consultant must maintain the confidentiality of any sensitive information shared during the assignment and comply with data protection standards. UCARE retains all rights to the deliverables. The consultant must disclose any potential conflicts of interest before contract signing.

Financial Proposal
Interested consultants must submit a financial proposal detailing their daily professional fee and any anticipated incidental costs (i.e. communication, software subscriptions, or internet usage) required to complete the assignment. Consultant will be required to substantiate all fees requested. The total cost must be inclusive of all taxes and must not exceed 22 working days. Payment will be made in two instalments tied to the delivery and approval of specific outputs as outlined in the Scope of Work.

Required Qualifications:

• A minimum of a Master’s degree in Local Economic Development, Public Policy, Finance and/or Economic Development.

Proven experience in:

1. Business & Finance: Incentives, investment attraction, entrepreneurship.
2. Project Management: Implementing development initiatives effectively.
3. Marketing & Communications: Promoting local assets and community vision.
4. Community Engagement: Working with diverse stakeholders (public, private, non-profit).
5. Data Analysis: Assessing needs, tracking progress, and evaluating impact.
6. Grant and/or Fund management.

• Strong skills in gender-responsive, mixed methods research including qualitative methodology
• Knowledge and understanding of the care economy and specifically unpaid care work
• Experience working in northern Ghana preferably in Savannah, Northern and/or Northeast regions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English