TERMS OF REFERENCE TO RECRUIT A COMPANY HELPING IN ESTABLISHING AGROFORESTRY TREE NURSERIES IN 11 SECTORS OF MUSANZE (2), KARONGI (2), NYANZA (3), GISAGARA (3), NYARUGURU (1).

PROJECT: Improving Food Security and Boosting Farm Income for Women Smallholder Farmers in Rwanda-IFS Project.

1. Background to TUBIBE AMAHORO (TA)

Tubibe Amahoro Association (TA) is a community-based, a human rights promoter and community development led organization founded in 1995 right after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda by some of the survivors and human rights defenders. TA was granted the legal status through the Ministerial Order n^o 41/08.11 of 31/03/2011 found in official gazette (OG) n^o 33 of 15/08/2011[1]. TA dreams to “Achieve a society of equity in which laws and human rights are respected by everyone” and, therefore, defining its mission as “To promote respect for human rights and integral socioeconomic progress of Rwandan population by emphasizing civic participation, access to justice, sustainable community livelihood and gender promotion.” Thus, based on that strategic orientation, TA basically strives for the fulfilment of the citizens’ rights in its all aspects [human dignity, civil rights, economic rights, justice, equality, positive peace and unity among Rwandans.

Strategically, TA’s interventions articulate on four (4) mains pillars: (1) civil participation, consisting of influencing policies, and building capacities of the right holders to effectively participate to the fulfilment of their civil rights, influencing service providers to account…; (2) access to justice, comprising projects of raising awareness of the communities on policies, laws, rights…for them to claim for them where they are violated or unfulfilled; projects to provide assistance to rights violations victims especially the victims of GBV through psychosocial centres (IWACU Centre; RUHUKA Centre), trainings of families living in domestic violence…and eventually, those providing legal aid services; (3) Environmental protection and Rural community development, comprising projects focusing on agroecology, projects working on climate change (environmental justice), and projects aimed at supporting local communities to engage in small projects generating income; and (4) gender promotion pillar, a programme consisting of sensitizations and campaigns aiming at raising awareness on gender equality, unpaid work redistribution, rethinking on our traditional cultural beliefs, habits and attitudes nurturing gendered inequalities.

Tubibe Amahoro currently operates in 9 districts of Rwanda with respective local offices; those being Karongi [head office], Rutsiro, Ngororero, Burera, Nyanza, Gisagara, Nyamagabe, and Nyaruguru. TA works with around 900 community volunteers Comprising Governance Focal Persons (GFPs), Paralegals, and Counsellors; all coordinated by personnel varying between 10 and 20 staff.

To achieve its mission, TA has always worked with core support of its members and donors like Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), ActionAid International-Rwanda (AAR), Ambassade de France in Rwanda (French Embassy), UNDP/Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), RCN-Justice et démocratie, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)…In this respect; Tubibe Amahoro jointly with Actionaid-Rwanda gained a fund from the European Union (EU) to implement “Improving Food Security and Boosting Farm Income for Women Smallholder Farmers in Rwanda-IFS Project” or KUNGAHARA project. It is a three-year project (November 2023-October 2026) lining with TA’s 3^rd and 4^th Pillars (as described above), the AAR’s Country Strategy Paper (CSPII) aiming at strengthening resilient livelihoods and secure climate justice and which focuses on specific issues namely (i) Access to land, resilient livelihoods, and food security, (ii) Agro-ecology and sustainable environment and (iii) Access to markets and financial services.

One of the outcomes to achieve priority 2 is that women smallholder farmers are able to practice agroecology, increase productivity, advance value chain management and are linked to financial institutions for credit to expand their businesses. The main economic sector of this densely populated country is agriculture, an activity that engages 70% of the population with half practicing exclusively subsistence agriculture mostly in very small farms often on hillsides with limited terracing and low levels of irrigation. These small farms are very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, long droughts and unpredicted heavy rainfall that can have devastating impacts, destroy livelihoods, and threaten household food and nutritional security of whole communities. As in most countries of the world, Rwanda has also suffered from the consequences of the COVID -19 pandemic that exposed the fragility of the country to external shocks. Russia’s war in Ukraine has exacerbated these fragilities, particularly with regard to food, fuel and fertilizers, and it threatens a sharp rise of hunger levels and an increase in the number of severe food insecure households. In a move to contribute toward addressing the above needs and constraints, IFS/KUNGAHARA is designed to address three interrelated problems:

1. Low level of food production and farm income by women farmers and their cooperatives.
2. High levels of food insecurity and under-nutrition, particularly among children and women.
3. Increasing Inflation rates [13.88% (2022); 14.03% (2023)][2] which are partially due to Ukraine-Russia war; This invasion directly affected agricultural inputs supply (lack of fertilizers) and food supplies (lack of cereals, sunflower oil…).

2. Activity Significance

The activity consists of promoting agroforestry. Practicing agroecology implies farming in 3 dimensions: the roots reach deep into the ground to cycle nutrients and store carbon, while above the ground, the trees protect crops and serve for animal feeds. Agroforestry contributes to promote agroecology and hence to the environment protection including fighting the erosion. This activity will mainly strive to avail various types of agroforestry trees and fruits. The fruit trees will help improving the nutrition through availability of enough fruits at household and local markets.

3. Objectives of the consultancy

The overall objective is to establish 11 tree nurseries across 11 target communities. The targeted communities (i.e., administrative sectors) are as follows:

4. Trees and fruits’ categories/families and quantity of seedlings to be produced

The tree nursery establishment expert will be requested to produce the following types of seedlings:

Distribution of tree nurseries, and quantity of seedlings to be produced as per district

5. Expected output

The activity outputs will include

• At least 330,000 seedlings produced and distributed to target women-led smallholder farmers’ cooperative members in the 5 districts (Gisagara, Nyanza, Nyaruguru, Karongi, Musanze).

6. Deliverables

The expert company/firm will deliver the following specific activities or items:

• An inception report detailing the nurseries successful establishment approach, a complete establishment roadmap, and a detailed produced seedlings distribution plan.
• Establish 11 tree nurseries comprising agroforestry trees and improved fruit trees and produce a minimum of 330,000 seedlings to be distributed to 110 women-led smallholder farmer cooperatives supported by IFS/KUNGAHARA project in 5 districts of Gisagara, Nyanza, Nyaruguru, Karongi, and Musanze.
• Produce, every 2 months, a progress report on the nurseries’ development.
• Produce a final report at the completion of the assignment (after the complete distribution of the produced seedlings to the target beneficiaries).

7. Approach will be used

The qualified company/firm is deserved the full responsibility to set up an appropriate approach to establish these required nurseries; however, it will be required to closely work with the women-led smallholder farmers’ cooperatives’ representatives who have been trained on “Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture” (NSA) and/or eventually with farmer promoters in the targets communities to establish and monitor the development progress of the seedlings before they are distributed to the farmers.

Nurseries will be established in each one of the 11 sectors (in the 5 districts).

8. Period for nurseries establishment

The nurseries will be started in July 2024.

9. Technical and financial proposals

Detailed TECHNICAL and FINANCIAL proposals must be submitted in English in a PDF document.

The Technical Proposal should not exceed 5 pages and should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the tasks set forth and the candidate’s capacity to perform the assignment. The following information should be provided in the technical proposal:

• In-depth description of the candidate’s recent experience in a similar assignment.
• Description of the methodology proposed to reach the deliverables.
• Up-to-date C.V. (max. 5 pages) of the Consultant and eventually his/her technical team members.

The following information shall be disclosed as part of the technical proposal:

• Statement to certify that all the information provided in the candidate’s bid is, to the best of its knowledge, accurate and complete. Any misleading or false information may result in disqualification of the candidate at the sole discretion of TUBIBE AMAHORO.
• References
• List of previous contracts and their amounts and addresses of the contracting authority. TUBIBE AMAHORO has rights to verify the information provided by the bidder.

Administrative documents:

• TIN/VAT certificate;
• Company registration certificate;
• Proof of EBM invoice.

N.B: Withholding tax of 15% will be considered if the consultant is not registered with RRA .

The financial proposal should be submitted in Rwf with sufficient details on each stage of the nursery establishment to facilitate cost analysis. The proposal must also specify the cost of the monitoring involving the target cooperative beneficiaries.

The financial proposal of the selected candidate will be reviewed during contract negotiations to determine the final contract price.

10. How to apply

Proposals must be addressed to TUBIBE AMAHORO organization not later than Friday, 14^th June 2024 at 10:00 am; you should mention “Application to the consultancy to Establishment of Agroforestry tree nurseries under IFS/KUNGAHARA project” on the following email: sowpeace@gmail.com .

Duly submitted bids will be publicly opened two days after the deadline at 11:00 am. In case of enquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email: sowpeace@gmail.com or a direct call to TA Program Manager: 0785830876.

You are requested to adhere to the deadline, proposals submitted after the deadline will be automatically rejected and returned unopened to the bidder.

Done at Karongi, 31/05/2024.

Pierre Célestin KABANO

Executive Secretary of TUBIBE AMAHORO