AGRA, www.agra.org, is a not-for-profit organization working with African governments, other donors, NGOs, the private sector, and farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa. AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa.
AGRA’s new strategic plan (2023-2027) sets out to catalyze the growth of sustainable food systems in Africa by influencing and leveraging partners to build a robust enabling environment where the private sector thrives, and smallholder farmers are empowered to produce sufficient, healthy food. AGRA will operationalize its strategy by supporting the development of an effective private sector enabling and regulatory environment focusing on building agricultural input supply, extension, and output marketing systems in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda. Three additional countries (Ivory Coast, Togo, and Zambia) will be part of the initial 11 target countries but on light touch and as when resources allow.
AGRA’s experience in transforming food systems in Africa has shown that an overarching constraint of African agriculture revolves around policy. On the one hand, agricultural policy decisions in Africa are politically driven with minimal evidence, if any, of their return and impact. On the other hand, the implementation of policies is weak and at times lacking altogether. Thus, the role of public policy in agricultural transformation and its contribution to better human welfare in SSA cannot be overemphasized.
Through the Hub for Agriculture Policy Action (HAPA), AGRA has been providing policy advisory services to governments seeking to reform, refine, and/ or develop a more clearly defined policy direction. The approach recognizes the urgent need for timely policy support to the agriculture sector, which plays an important role in ensuring inclusive growth. It also recognizes the demands for political expediency and the need to ensure that a particular policy direction is anchored in evidence.
Context and Rationale of the Consultancy
HAPA was designed in July 2020 as a distinct service offering by AGRA to provide consolidation and translation advisory services (the HAPA approach) to governments seeking to reform, refine and/ or develop a clear policy direction. HAPA’s approach recognizes the urgent need for timely policy support to the agriculture sector, which plays an important role in ensuring inclusive growth. It also recognizes the demands for political expediency and the need to ensure that a particular policy direction is anchored in evidence. The approach also addresses the challenge posed by the high turnover of senior government decision-makers by engaging local capacity and building on existing knowledge and partnerships while drawing on global best practices.
The outcome of HAPA’s work is to enhance evidence use in policymaking by political players. Through its data and information consolidation and translation approach, HAPA was expected to improve policy environments for enabling agriculture and food systems transformation and ensure timely and responsive policies. The following outputs were planned.
- Avail evidence to support various policy options and on time.
- Enhance local capacity for evidence-based policymaking.
- Improve understanding among governments on the consolidation and translation approach.
As the implementation of the HAPA project comes to an end in October 2023 and given its unique positioning and being one of its kind in Africa, AGRA is seeking a consultant qualified and experienced in organizational learning and project evaluation to review the results delivered and document experiences and lessons learnt for scaling out going forward. The review will also highlight challenges that require to be addressed and make recommendations on ways of sustaining HAPA’s results in AGRA-supported countries. An important aspect of the review will be to revisit the results framework and assess its quality for further improvement.
This lesson-learning review will support the strengthening of the future of AGRA’s data and evidence-based decision-making processes by synergizing its efforts across the continent. Such lesson learnings have the potential for supporting the replication of solutions/interventions that have worked in one country and transfer them to another with a relative degree of certainty on the potential outcomes. Additionally, the lesson learnings have the potential to drive a stronger focus on supporting AGRA’s strategic direction, and investment decisions of business lines and countries, for better decisions and the targeting of resources more effectively and improve performance and impact over time.
Objectives of the Consultancy
Since November 2020, HAPA has supported demand-driven policy asks by governments. To date, HAPA has received asks for evidence-based policy support from 8 out of the 11 AGRA target countries. HAPA has supported 15 government requests, and more governments are asking for HAPA support (as of February 2023).
With its analytical policy work, HAPA has implemented projects in areas such as:
- Burkina Faso: Rice Import Substitution Policy,
- Nigeria: Development of the Strategic Grain Reserve
- Ghana: Development of the Grains Development Authority (GDA),
- Kenya: (i) Kenya Agricultural Sector Extension Policy, 2022, (ii) Developing a National Agricultural Research Fund (NARIF)
- Tanzania: (i) Implication of fiscal reforms to promote investment in agro-processing industries, (ii) Economic implications of Sunflower and Palm oil substitution, and (iii) Strategy for “Building a Better Tomorrow” Flagship.
- Malawi: (i) Determining Optimal Stock Levels for the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR); (ii) Regulatory assessment of the Crops Bill
- Zambia: (i) Support to M&E Policy, (ii) Assessment of the Agriculture Credit Act (2010)
- Mozambique: (i) National Agriculture Insurance, (ii) Price volatility of agricultural commodities/products
- Uganda: Responsiveness of public expenditure in agriculture on the livelihoods of farmers in Uganda
The purpose of this assignment is therefore to review and come up with lessons on the progress of the HAPA initiative since inception. The assignment will culminate in a lesson learnt report that will be presented at a Learning Event in October 2023. The aim of the lesson-learning event is to share the successes and best practices in evidence-based policy-making by governments. During the event, policymakers shall also share the challenges they encounter and lessons learnt in conducting and providing consolidation, translation, and advisory services. It will also provide the opportunity to present and discuss the technical support deliverables, their agriculture stakeholder proprietorship and political mastery. It is expected that this event will foster and promulgate peer learning among the AGRA countries that have received technical support through the HAPA initiative. The event will set the stage for the next phase of data and analytics support to countries by eliciting country needs and priorities on the subject.
The specific objectives of this consultancy are to.
- Review and report the project’s achievements,
- Document lessons learnt,
- Highlight any shortcomings that may have limited results delivery, and
- Recommend ways of sustaining HAPA’s results.
- Design the next phase of data and evidence-based policy and evidence support to AGRA countries.
To address the assignment objectives, the consultant shall undertake the following duties:
- Review HAPA’s documents including its results framework to understand the planned results. Using the project’s progress reports, the consultant shall assess and report the status of results delivery. The review will also enable the consultant to identify challenges that may have been already mentioned during the progress reporting.
- Develop clear lessons on HAPA’s engagements with governments and how the results deliver from HAPA support and transformed policy development and making.
- Assess the quality of the results framework (results statements, indicators) and recommend ways of improving.
- Develop summarized lessons from country investments.
- Design and develop the Implementation Framework/Model for Data and Analytics leading to the development of an Operational Plan.
- Support the planning and execution of the HAPA lesson-learning event in October 2023.
Deliverables
The consultant will produce:
- An inception report that provides details of the consultant’s understanding of the assignment purpose, objectives, and scope of work. The inception report will provide a detailed description of the consultant’s methodology and tools, expected output(s), working outline of the final report, detailed budget, and work plan for the entire exercise.
- A review of HAPA investments by country.
- A draft lesson learning report to be reviewed and validated by HAPA. Using HAPA’s plan as the benchmark, the consultant shall make a conclusion whether the results delivered were satisfactory or otherwise.
- A final lesson-learning report to guide the lesson-learning event in October 2023. The final report will also document the lessons learnt from the experiences of HAPA and present any challenges gathered with possible solutions and recommend a way forward for HAPA.
- Lesson learning event report: This report shall document the success of HAPA, its approaches and methodology, and government enjoyment.
- Implementation Framework/Model: provide a conceptual model of implementation – that includes specific procedures and strategies that seem to promote quality implementation.
Duration of the Assignment
The work will be conducted over a period of three (3) months starting August 2023, and the consultant shall explicitly indicate the level of effort needed for the tasks to be assigned.
Copyright
All materials/documents arising out of this consultancy work shall remain the property of AGRA.
Management arrangements
In carrying out this assignment, the consultant will be supervised directly by the Head of the HAPA Unit or his designate. The HAPA Team shall provide day-to-day management and logistical support.
Effective communication channels will be established to ensure timely feedback and collaboration throughout the consultancy.
The language of the materials and reports shall be English.
All deliverables submitted by the consultant shall be approved by the contract supervisor before any payment is made.
Invoices and Payment
The Consultant will submit the corresponding invoice to AGRA. Payment of consultant fees will be made against deliverables, which will only be deemed accepted once AGRA comments have been effectively incorporated and approved by the contract supervisor.
Location and nature of the assignment
The consultant should be a resident of Kenya working from home. Regular physical consultations (say once or twice a fortnight ) will be carried out with the HAPA team based in AGRA Nairobi.
Contractual terms
Annex D stipulates the draft general terms and conditions that will govern the contract between AGRA and the successful consultant. AGRA will enter into a Consultancy Agreement which will be fully negotiated after a bidder is selected.
The consultant should possess the following qualifications and expertise:
- At least a Master’s degree in degree in any one of these fields: Monitoring and Evaluation, Agricultural Economics, Public Policy, Economics and other related disciplines. A PhD will be an added advantage.
- At least 5 years of professional experience in organisational learning, Monitoring and Evaluation and learning in relation to agriculture and rural development.
- Substantial knowledge of, and experience in, organisational learning, Monitoring and Evaluation, policy design, and roll-out of analytical frameworks, tools, processes, and other documents to facilitate the technical development of results frameworks and M&E tools.
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience with Agriculture Sector programmes.
- Experience in working with multi-stakeholder platforms and processes, or other complex collaboration and partner management platforms across sectors, including agriculture.
- Experience in building capacity of government and partner staff in areas of coordination, M&E and institutional review.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and experience in working with a wide range of individuals in government, private sector, and civil society.
- Ability to create organizational work plans based on higher-level goals.
- Excellent oral, facilitation, and written communication skills; work well in diverse teams, with efficiency and diplomacy.
- Excellent ICT and knowledge management skills.
Interested individuals shall be evaluated against the following technical criteria:
- Qualifications………………………………………………………………………………….20%
- Relevant academic qualifications
- Experience of the consultant………………………………….……………………………….40%
- Meet requirements as outlined under section 10 above.
- Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out.
- Proposed methodology and work plan ………………………………………….….40%
Understanding of the project/assignment requirements, practicality of the proposed methodology relative to the context of the assignment, proposed work plan, risk assessment and mitigation strategies integrated into the assignment, planning, appropriateness of the implementation schedule to the project timelines and project quality assurance measures.
Total Score……………………………………………………………………………………………………100%
Note:
- Minimum technical score – 75%
- AGRA will negotiate with the consultant with the best technical score equal or above 75%.
a) Technical Proposal
- Detailed Curriculum Vitae
- Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out.
- Proposed methodology and workplan for the assignment. The technical approach and methodology should explain the understanding of the assignment objectives; analytical strategies; and the degree of detail of expected outputs. The work plan should describe the implementation of the main activities/tasks of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, and tentative delivery dates of the deliverables.
- The technical proposal should be comprehensive yet brief e.g., in PowerPoint and should not exceed 10 pages. CV, copies of academic certificates and other supporting documentation may be attached as annexes.
b) Financial Proposal
- The consultant shall provide a financial proposal for carrying out the assignment. The breakdown of the unit and total fees shall be provided. Use the templates provided under Annexes A, B and C for the financial proposal. You may modify them where necessary.
- Reimbursable costs if applicable shall be quoted separately. These will be reimbursed based on the actual cost incurred.
- Professional fees shall include the applicable withholding tax.
- If the financial proposal is silent on taxes, AGRA shall assume that these are inclusive.
- Prices must be quoted in USD ($). Contracting will be in USD, bidders are encouraged to have a USD bank account.
- The financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected.
Guidelines for Preparations and Submission of Proposals
- The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.
- The proposals SHALL be submitted to [email protected] by the deadline indicated in the synopsis.
- The technical proposal shall not exceed 10 pages.
- The proposal and ALL Attachments submitted via email SHALL NOT exceed 10MB.
- VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for a period of 90 days from the date of bid closure.
- Financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected. The password shall be requested from the consultant that attains the highest technical score above 75%.
