DEADLINE EXTENSION: ToR for livestock value Chain/end Market Systems Analysis for Apecified products to identify bottlenecks and opportunities in El-Afweyn District, Sanaag region, Somaliland

ToR for livestock value chain/end market systems analysis for specified products to identify bottlenecks and opportunities in El-Afweyn District, Sanaag region, Somaliland.

BACKGROUND

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty. It has been working in Somalia/Somaliland since the 1970s, play a key foundational role in supporting Somali people and communities to provide development and lifesaving programs.

It provides civil society development and has been called by many current and past partners “the mother of Somali civil society.” Support for women’s rights, women’s advocates, and gender equality has been a steady component of the program, and many leading advocates for women’s rights, gender equality, and women’s issues were once partners or trainees of Oxfam. We are an international confederation of 19 organizations (affiliates) working together with partners and local communities in humanitarian, development, and campaigning, in more than 90 countries. All our work lead by three core values: Empowerment, Accountability, Inclusiveness.

In 2021, Oxfam developed a 10-year strategy with new program directions focusing on just economy and economic development, Inclusive governance, gender justice, Conflict-sensitive humanitarian response, and resilience to climate and fragility.

Oxfam is part of a larger SomRep consortium that unites seven international organizations to reduce disasters by building community resilience. Oxfam has chosen to work in the most challenging and marginalized areas in the Somaliland-El Afweyn district, plagued by recurring droughts and prolonged conflict.

The Somalia resilience program (SomRep) is a platform united by seven international non-governmental organizations to respond to climate-related shocks’ risk by introducing resilience and livelihoods interventions targeting the pastoralist, agro-pastoralist in a rural and urban setting. The program aims to build the absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities of the people in Somalia by maximizing their capabilities to revive and improve natural resources to withstand recurrent climate stress. The consortium composed of seven international organizations (Oxfam, AAH, Care, DRC, ADRA, COOPI, World vision) which were formed following the famine of 2011 to find better ways to leverage collective sectoral expertise and long-lasting relationships with communities to tackle the challenges which recurrent shocks pose to families in Somalia. The Somalia resilience program (SomRep) goal is to increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable Somali people, households, communities, and systems to climate shocks and other related risks in pastoral, agro-pastoral, and peri-urban livelihoods zone.

This project’s main objective is to increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable people, households, communities, and systems in targeted pastoral, agro-pastoral, and peri-urban livelihood zones by improving adaptive capacity, absorptive capacity, ecosystem health, local civil society capacity to manage resources and promoting learning and research. The following are the overall project goal and the expected results.

Project background and context

The DFAT7 project interventions are now in seven years of implementation. Implementing the interventions started after conducting vulnerability assessments such as GCVCA(gender climate vulnerability capacity assessment), which allow Oxfam to holistically study and understand the gender and climate factors aggravating the community vulnerability to shocks and stress. The GCVCA ensures full community and local government involvement in developing community resilience plans.

Once the GCVCA assessment gets completed, the development of community adaptation action plans(CAAPs) and contingency plans followed, which help communities articulate the needs/gaps, potential activities to address these, and what each stakeholder would contribute towards each scheduled set of actions.

DFAT7 has implemented numerous interventions that are entirely in line with the above-expected results. Key activities carried out include establishing saving groups, supporting early-warning committees, NRM committees, devised CAAPs for 15 communities in the El-Afweyn district and set up pastoral farmer field schools, and provided agricultural inputs and tools to enable pastoralist to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices.

The infrastructural interventions financed by the DFAT7 project consist of rehabilitating and constructing irrigation canals for either full or supplemental irrigation. The irrigation canals aim to increase water access by farmers to boost crop and fodder production and, on the one hand, as a mitigation measure against shocks from drought, especially at times of drought. Ongoing activities include fodder production and preservation training, kitchen gardening, environmental impact assessment to inform suitability of soil and water for crop production, and solarization of water points to leverage access to water for irrigation.

The DAFT7 project considers lessons learned from the DFAT6 and incorporated them into the DFAT7 proposed activities. The DFAT6 achievements included the following; increase in the proportion of more resilient households due to the expanded financial inclusion. 23% of families are engaged in savings groups’ activities; additionally, at least 70% of these populations have accessed a loan from village saving and loan associations. This project has translated into more robust shock responses among households in project sites. In 2019 despite more than 50% of SomReP sites being either under Stress or Crisis, according to IPC ratings, program participants in savings groups had a 15% higher chance of attaining acceptable food consumption scores or a 20% lower chance of achieving poor consumption scores. SomReP project invested in the coverage expansion of Village Savings and Loans Associations across the El-Afweyn district.

Description of the Consultancy

Though livestock is the foundation of the Somali economy, limited information is available on livestock and livestock product value chains. There is a significant limitation on literature, knowledge, and information regarding the livestock products value chains, especially in the El-Afweyn district.

As a result, this study aims to promote knowledge generation, provide in-depth analysis on the various phases of livestock product value chains and market systems, and document existing and emerging opportunities and challenges to smallholder producer and marketing associations. The consultant(s) will undertake a review and map out the value chain to identify bottlenecks and opportunities at several levels, including but not limited to product, process, technological, institutional, and markets.

The assessment report will inform and guide Oxfam’s upcoming interventions to improve the community livelihoods and longer-term resilience-building initiatives. The report will also help producers, aggregators, and processors understand customer preferences and adjust production, marketing, and value-addition strategies to meet consumer demands best.

More specifically, the assessment will:

• Map out essential market actors along the value chain for meat and milk. The value chain for hides and skin value chains should also be investigated, identifying the key markets and recommending their feasibility and sustainability.
• Examine potential secondary economic opportunities (value addition opportunities) that can be carried out by women and youth
• Evaluate and understand current informal relationships and governance mechanisms among actors along the value chain
• Understand the potential risks involved with value chain development in the El-Afweyn district’s context and how those can be lessened/mitigated.
• Examine the potential livestock products (meat, milk, hides, and skin) value chain market and advice on:
  • At any given time, the production levels seasonality of production within El-Afweyn district, based upon production potential as a basis for developing a marketing action plan for the existing producer/marketing groups.
  • Existing comparative advantages for livestock products in El-Afweyn district
  • Assess the size of the markets, the volume of sales, and market integration
  • Access to the market and data accessibility;
  • The potential secondary markets for the identified value chains and their segmentations;
  • Entry/regulatory requirements for different types of agricultural/livestock enterprises;
  • Quality assurance and other market standards in operations and to investigate the best way to be done and adhered to along the identified value chains.
  • Most viable value chain development approach El-Afweyn district.

The consultants will focus on three major areas.

Products

1. Identify the marketing of various products within the respective VCs;

• The product supply chain.
• Volumes of each product used in the market
• value addition, packaging, and pricing
• Consumer perceptions and preferences.
• Evaluate market opportunity and actors at the end market.

2. Outline the supply chain market actors.
3. Assess relations within the supply chain market actors.
4. The linkage between producers, traders, and processors, and transporters.

Market Potentiality:

1. Develop market size (domestic and external) and market entry and penetration by domestic producers
2. Pursue a VCA to examine the various actors in the chain, systemic challenges, and bottlenecks,
3. Identify constraints that limit market expansion.
4. Approximate market viability of the recommended product services in the value chains.
5. Identify domestic and external end-user in the market(end-markets), including cross-border trade for the identified products.

Group Marketing and Value Chain Efficiency and Effectiveness

1. Assess the utility and potentiality for upgrading market efficiency through group marketing; suggest a better way of realizing this and minimum quality standards required.
2. Establish the existence of any producer groups for the various products.
3. Outline level of market orientation and market integration by producers.
4. Propose a process for institutional formation to facilitate the establishment of producer/marketing associations to collectively market for the prioritized products.
5. Recommend changes and enhancement in the value chain system to make ensure linkages of the livestock and livestock product producers with the major markets and increased incomes from the sale of their products. 

Proposed Methodology

Oxfam expects the consultant to employ a methodology that is suitable for consultant objectives and deliverables. However, it anticipates for the consultant to use quantitative and qualitative methods, availing of participatory tools and data collection techniques, including but not limited to FGDs and KIIs. The consultant should pursue a desk review of relevant documents. Other literature may exist, such as government policy/ strategies, project documents, reports. The consultant will also interact with MOLPD focal points and the Somaliland chamber of commerce to consolidate information. The consultant will have fully engage a sample of target project primary stakeholders, i.e., agro-pastoralist, producer, and marketing associations livestock traders, brokers, and end-market users.

Expected Output

• A detailed analysis of overall market opportunities of the different sub-sector products that can potentially be explored
• Where possible, provide recommendations that can be used to make informed decisions on future investment opportunities, particularly value addition opportunities within the sub-sector.
• Outline and examine the different market channels for livestock products, summarizing opportunities and additional investments, challenges, and potential interventions.
• Please provide information on market segmentation and its requirements with a possible examination and decision based on the best enterprises for women and youth.
• Analyze basic business support services needed to strengthen the market systems for very poor producers. Identify existing service gaps that need to be filled and by whom?
• Study the competitors of El-afweyn district and livestock products sub-sector, examine the basis of the competition, and determine the existence of any unique selling points of the competitors. Further, identify the consumers’ perception of the district products and advise on the benefits of branding of El-Afweyn livestock products, and advise about the brand-name modalities.
• Make key recommendation(s) for a functional business model for El-Afweyn district livestock value products variety. The consultant(s) should develop a workable model that enables vulnerable groups to engage in meaningful business ventures; provide practical and context-specific recommendations on increasing benefits to producers/marketing associations and livestock traders (both formal and market enablers or brokers) on opportunities in the sub-sector.
• Recommend the most feasible livestock products value chain development approach in line with the fragile context of the El-Afweyn district.

Timeline of the Consultancy

The proposed consultancy timeline is 30 days. The value chain process should consume no more than 27 days to be completed. However, this should be included interaction with Oxfam technical and field staff, beneficiaries, key stakeholders, and report writing. The expected commencement of the assessment is February 15^th.

Qualification and Experience

• Should at least have a master’s degree in Agriculture, Economics, and Business related disciplines, Development Studies, with a minimum of seven (7) years of substantial experience in agribusiness research and practice with a good understanding of local value chain development.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of Somalia with practical working experience or research/surveys in such environments.
• Experience in effective interaction with local and national institutions, government departments, and business service providers.
• Be conversant with current business models and practice around the agricultural sub-sector.
• Demonstrate practical application of crosscutting themes like gender mainstreaming, and gender competence, M&E, advocacy.
• Should have good spoken and written communication skills in English and Somali.
• Have proven experience in using participatory tools and methodology.
• Past experiences working on livestock value chain development will be an added advantage.

Application Procedure

• The consultant must meet the above-required qualification and experience. Interested applicants who meet the requirements should submit a detailed technical proposal (including lead/co-lead Cvs) including, a detailed work plan, a proposed detailed breakdown budget for the assignment. Similar previous work conducted will be an added value for the applicants. All applications should submit on or before the deadline via SOM-Consultancies@oxfam.org latest on 18^th February 2021