TOR: CONSULTANCY TO ASSESS FEASIBILITY AND STRENGTHENING OF CONTRACT FARMING IN Afgoi Lower Shabelle SOMALIA

Position:

Short Term Consultancy

Location:

Afgoi Lower Shabelle Region

Contract Period:60 Days

A. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

A_1: *About CARE Somalia*

Since 1981, CARE has been providing emergency relief and lifesaving assistance to the Somali people. Some of CARE’s main program activities since then have included projects in water and sanitation, sustainable pastoralist activities, civil society and media development, small-scale enterprise development, primary school education, teacher training, adult literacy and vocational training. CARE works in partnership with Somali and international aid agencies, civil society leaders and local authorities. CARE has most recently broadened its work to include economic empowerment, food and nutrition security, humanitarian response and sexual and reproductive health. This consultancy call is hence a first of many efforts to impact food security and secure incomes from agricultural production for Small holder households. CARE Somalia is currently operational in the northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland. For more information, visit https://care.org/our-work/where-we-work/somalia/

A_2: About Contract Farming

Contract farming involves agricultural production being carried out on the basis of an agreement between the buyer and farm producers. Sometimes it involves the buyer specifying the quality standards and pricing levels, with the farmer committing to deliver as agreed at a future date. In Somalia, contract farming is ether too nascent or mostly inexistent. CARE would therefore wish to understand the factors determining success and or failure of contract farming in volatile and fragile settings of Somalia (i.e. type and attributes of products, regional location, and socio-economic characteristics of potential farmers etc). In line with other CARE programs, contract farming is envisioned to Increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable Somali people, households, communities and systems to climatic shocks and other related risks in targeted agricultural and agro-pastoral livelihood zones. It is not only meant to build the capacity of famers to access markets and to negotiate for better commodity trade terms but also to improve incomes as well bolster production standards for exploration of external markets. Contracting in farming also pools risks and discounts effects of low pricing due to over supply at times of harvest by securing a market and a future price today. The envisaged model will bring together producers and buyers and also close the financing and service loop by roping in financial institution and value chain service providers as depicted in the sample model below

B. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT

B_1: Objectives

CARE is seeking to contract a consultant to conduct activities aimed broadly at strengthening contract farming in Somalia through understanding the context of contract farming in select value chains, determining success factors, mapping institutional, trust and contract enforcement enablers and developing sample contract prototypes. Specifically, the consultant will be required to:

1. Conduct a reconnaissance study of farmer readiness to engage, highlight existing regulatory framework and develop risk informed and mitigation strategies
2. Map out selected value chain support service providers, financial institutions and potential market linkages
3. Develop strategies for building farmers’ capacity to engage and determine sample workable agreements or contract prototypes.
4. Develop strategies for regular contract farming monitoring, evaluation and learning to enhance strengthening and entrenching the model for the benefit of agro-producers in Somalia

B_2: Scope of Work

The consultant is expected to undertake activities that will build efforts to strengthen contract farming in Somalia, these will include but will not be limited to:

1. Conduct Reconnaissance survey to

i. Determine suitability of the region for a chosen agricultural commodity

ii. To map out potential markets

iii. To determine farmers’ willingness to engage in the chosen agricultural commodity

1. Draw business plans for the selected commodities
2. Determine appropriate type of agreement for different commodities (production, marketing financial or personal)
3. Develop prototype contractual agreement based on the nature of agreement
4. Profile risk scenarios for contracting small holders (production, financial, market, institutional)
5. Provide risk mitigation strategies such as but not limited to insurance, participatory climate scenario planning etc
6. Establish the presence of Agro-dealers for promotion of identified commodities
7. Identify and facilitate linkages with financial institutions to support farmers and buyers
8. Develop the capacity of farmers in areas of:

i. Technical support services

ii. Individual and group Negotiation skills

iii. Financial literacy

1. Inventory of agricultural extension services with relevance to commodities to produce and provision of technical support to the farmers
2. Explore the existing regulatory framework and application regarding contract agriculture in Somalia
3. To enlighten stakeholders on existing legal guideline and regulations management of contract farming in Somalia if they exist
4. To provide both formal and informal conflict resolution mechanisms among stakeholders
5. Promote establishment of infrastructure to support contract farming
6. To regularly Monitor and evaluate the performance contract farming in Somalia

C. DELIVERABLES AND QUALIFICATIONS

C_1: Deliverables:

The Consultant/firm is expected to produce and deliver:

1. An inception report that includes workplan, methodology and deliverable highlights
2. An assessment/reconnaissance report detailing levels of farmer readiness, regulatory framework for contract farming, risk informed strategies, available and potential support institutions (legal, trade/business, markets, community etc)
3. Strategies and frameworks for farmer capacity building including business plans for select value chains, training manuals and sample contracts/agreements
4. Workable monitoring and evaluation framework for strengthening contract farming

C_2: Qualifications Criteria

The Specific Experience required of the consultants (or as a firm) relevant to this Assignment include;

• 5+ years’ experience in crops product related production and marketing regimes with private sectors including, conducting assessments and implementing interventions.

• Track record of supporting small and medium enterprise in agriculture especially in improvement of their business skills and technical performance, efficiency and ultimately to sales increase, costs and risk profile reduction.

• Strong knowledge and extensive experience working in overseeing survey, assessment and/or evaluation teams.

• Track record of using different business and institutional assessment tools and experience of conducting field survey using the tools.

• Experience of value chain actors’ mapping and an analysis of their potential for increased participation with external support

• Ability to appraise and understand farmers bottle necks and develop strategies

• Understanding farmers production environment and recommending pathways for market linkages, trust and capacity building for innovation adoption

• Experience developing realistic monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks for new or unpopular interventions in risky and fragile settings such as Somalia

C_3: Key-Experts’ qualification and competence

The team leader should have a minimum of masters’ degree in agriculture, agribusiness, agricultural economics, statistics, social sciences, community development or any other relevant international development or related fields.

o The team members should have a minimum of 5 years of local and/or international experience as training providers/ consultants/project managers/researchers.

o The team members should also include experts with a minimum of master’s degree in crop science, specifically in agribusiness and value chains analysis.

o Proven track record of piloting assessments, developing assessment tools and practical experience specific to Somalia, in agriculture and on various levels of the value chains will be an asset.

o Strong interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal), client relationship management skills, including with senior management.

o Ability to travel and demonstrated ability to work independently and within a

multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural team.

o Strong organizational and time management skills, ability to adapt and be flexible;

o Strong proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook and Power Point).

o Excellent proficiency in English and local languages

D. SPECIFIC TERMS & CONDITIONS /CRITERIA**

D_1: Confidentiality Statement

All data and information received from CARE for this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in the execution of these Terms of Reference. All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these Terms of Reference are assigned to CARE. The contents of the written materials obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties except with express and advance written authorization from CARE.

D_2: Ownership of Materials

Any deliverables under this assignment in any form will be the property of CARE including intellectual property developed under this assignment. All Project outputs including reports and other creative work called for by these Terms of Reference in written, graphic, audio, visual, electronic or other forms shall acknowledge the support of CARE. Such acknowledgment shall contain the CARE logo.

Application process

The consultant is expected to submit:

1. Up to date CVs
2. Technical proposal
3. Financial proposal

Please send your complete technical and financial proposal, as separate attachments to the same email to Som.Consultant@care.org clearly marking the subject line “ASSESS FEASIBILITY AND STRENGTHENING OF CONTRACT FARMING IN Afgoi Lower Shabelle SOMALIA .”** no later than 16 January, 2021