Local consultant for the Investment Project Development for selected Municipalities

1. Duty Station of the Consultancy: Home based (with field visits and stakeholder engagements as required).
2. Duration of Consultancy: 40 days (over a period of 11 months; March - December 2026).
3. Nature of the consultancy: A short-term, results-driven assignment to support selected municipalities in preparing one investment-ready project each. This includes mapping local assets and resources, developing feasible and attractive project proposals for returnees, diaspora, and their families to foster entrepreneurship and local economic growth, while ensuring alignment with national priorities and existing development initiatives.
4. Project Context and Scope

The programme “Enhanced Opportunities for the Returning Migrants in Georgia”, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission to Georgia, aims to support the sustainable reintegration of returned migrants in Georgia and improve their economic and social well-being, by enhancing the responsiveness and coordination of national and local stakeholders, improving the contribution of local self-governments and other local stakeholders, including through provision of information and services to returnees, and increasing the opportunities for economic reintegration, social inclusion, and financial inclusion of returnees and their families.

The programme adopts a comprehensive reintegration approach at the individual, community and structural levels, emphasizing a gender-sensitive and human rights-based approach. The programme builds on existing policies, such as Georgia’s Migration Strategy 2021-2030, while aiming to address gaps in governance, coordination and capacity at both local and central levels.

Recent migration trends in Georgia reveal an increase in returns, especially from EU+ countries, including rejected asylum seekers and long-term migrants, which is straining the reintegration system. Returnees often face difficulties reintegrating due to limited employment opportunities, skill mismatches, psychological distress and restricted access to services. Reintegration efforts are hampered by insufficient support, lack of coordination between central and local authorities and limited involvement of local stakeholders, private sector actors and diaspora networks. Economic reintegration remains a significant challenge, coupled with gender-specific barriers impacting female returnees’ economic inclusion.

The main challenge the programme intends to tackle is the insufficient and unsustainable reintegration of returned migrants in Georgia, which hampers their social and economic inclusion and limits their potential contribution to the development of their communities and the country. The overall goal is to enable migrants to achieve economic self-sufficiency, social stability and psychosocial well-being, thereby strengthening their ability to contribute to Georgia’s development.

Key objectives:

1. Strengthen the institutional capacity of national stakeholders to implement a consolidated comprehensive reintegration framework.
2. Empower local self-governance and other local stakeholders to address community development and reintegration challenges.
3. Support returned migrants in overcoming employability and employment barriers, improving financial literacy and accessing tailored social services.
4. Leverage the diaspora’s expertise and investments to contribute to local economic development.

Beyond individual reintegration support, the programme places strong emphasis on strengthening local economies through sustainable investment initiatives that benefit both returnees and host communities. Within this framework, IOM will support the development of investment projects in 7 selected municipalities, with the objective of attracting and mobilizing resources for local development, job creation, and income generation, particularly in migration-affected areas.

The investment projects will be developed in close cooperation with:

• Selected municipalities: Lagodekhi (Kakheti), Baghdati and Khoni (Imereti), Ozurgeti (Guria), and C. Poti, Khobi and Senaki (Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti);
• National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) to ensure alignment with municipal priorities and capacities;
• Enterprise Georgia to ensure consistency with national investment promotion frameworks, entrepreneurship support mechanisms, and available incentives;
• Relevant central and local government institutions, including the Ministry of Regional Development, as well as development partners active at the local level.

The consultant will play a key role in translating initial investment ideas into well-structured, realistic, and investment-ready project proposals, aligned with municipal development strategies, national investment priorities, and reintegration objectives.

Under the direct supervision of the IOM Programme Manager and in close coordination with NALAG and Enterprise Georgia, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Conduct Initial Assessment of Investment Potential and Municipal Asset Mapping

• Review existing socio-economic data, municipal profiles, development strategies, sectoral analyses, and previous consultation outcomes relevant to the selected municipalities.
• Analyze key demographic, economic, and migration-related trends, including returnee profiles, labor market dynamics, and business activity.
• Conduct a mapping of municipal capacities, as well as existing and planned investment initiatives.
• Identify priority economic sectors and value chains with strong potential for investment, job creation, and reintegration impact (e.g. agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, services, logistics, fisheries, green economy), with particular attention to opportunities for synergies and complementarities with existing or planned projects, programmes, and private-sector initiatives in the selected areas.
• Prepare a concise Investment Potential Assessment Report for each selected municipality.

2. Engage Stakeholders and Hold Introductory Meetings

Identify and map key stakeholders at local and national levels, including municipal authorities, local businesses, returnee groups, civil society organizations, Enterprise Georgia representatives, and development partners.

Organize and facilitate introductory meetings (including consultation workshop) with municipalities and key partners to:

• Present the objectives and methodology of the assignment;
• Validate priority sectors and investment directions;
• Clarify roles, expectations, and coordination mechanisms.

3. Support Municipalities in Drafting Investment Proposals (with Synergy, Diaspora, and Remittance Focus)

Provide technical assistance to municipalities in drafting one prioritized investment project proposal per municipality, ensuring they are:

• Technically sound and financially realistic;
• Clearly linked to local development needs and reintegration objectives;
• Aligned with national and regional development plans and leveraging synergies with other projects and initiatives in the area.

Support municipalities in developing key proposal components, including:

• Problem analysis and justification;
• Description of investment activities and infrastructure needs;
• Employment and income-generation potential;
• Preliminary cost estimates and financing options;
• Sustainability and risk considerations.

Ensure that proposals are structured in a format suitable for presentation to potential investors, donors, or national support schemes, and explicitly describe:

• How the proposed investment builds on, complements, or scales up other ongoing or planned initiatives in the municipality or region;
• How the project leverages local assets and services;
• How diaspora engagement, returnee investment, or remittance-based financing can realistically support implementation. other ongoing or planned initiatives in the municipality or region.

4. Finalize and Validate Investment Proposals

• Consolidate draft proposals and incorporate feedback from IOM, NALAG, Enterprise Georgia, and municipal stakeholders.
• Organize and facilitate a validation workshop with selected municipalities and key partners to review, refine, and validate the proposed investments, ensuring ownership, feasibility, and alignment with local development priorities. Where necessary, complement the workshop with targeted validation meetings with individual municipalities or partners.
• Finalize a set of investment-ready project proposals (one per selected municipality).
• Provide recommendations on next steps for resource mobilization, investor outreach, and potential piloting.

5. Organizational Department / Unit to which the Consultant is contributing

“Enhanced Opportunities for the Returning Migrants in Georgia”.

Responsibilities

1. Category B Consultants: Tangible and measurable outputs of the work assignment

• Deliverable 1: Inseption report, outlining methodology, workplan, and stakeholder engagement approach, submitted by 25 March 2026.
• Deliverable 2: Investment potential assessment report for each selected municipality, submitted by 5 May 2026.
• Deliverable 3: Final consultancy report, submitted by 15 December 2026.

Performance indicators for the evaluation of results

• Delivers the listed deliverables on time and with good quality.

Qualifications

Education

• Advanced university degree in economics, public policy, business development and administration, or a related field.

Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in local economic development, business development, investment planning, or project development.
• Demonstrated experience working with municipalities and local authorities in Georgia.
• Strong understanding of Georgia’s investment climate, regional development policies, and entrepreneurship support mechanisms.
• Experience in facilitating participatory workshops and multi-stakeholder consultations.
• Familiarity with migration, reintegration, or community development programmes is a strong asset.

Skills

• Excellent analytical, drafting, and communication skills

Languages

• Fluency in Georgian; working knowledge of English is an asset.

IOM’s official languages are English, French and Spanish.

Proficiency of language(s) required will be specifically evaluated during the selection process, which may include written and/or oral assessments.

Travel required

• Travel within Georgia is foreseen. There will be no additional resources for allocated for travel, this will be included in the consultancy fee.

Required Competencies

IOM’s competency framework can be found at this link. Competencies will be assessed during the selection process.

Values - all IOM staff members must abide by and demonstrate these three values:

• Inclusion and respect for diversity: Respects and promotes individual and cultural differences. Encourages diversity and inclusion.
• Integrity and transparency: Maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.
• Courage: Demonstrates willingness to take a stand on issues of importance.
• Empathy: Shows compassion for others, makes people feel safe, respected and fairly treated.