CARE INTERNATIONAL IN RWANDA

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Terms of Reference for Conducting an Agriculture Value Chain analysis for Supporting and Enhancing Resilient and Viable Employment Opportunities (SERVE) Project

I.             Background

CARE is a leading humanitarian and development organization fighting global poverty. CARE seeks a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. We work around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. CARE International aims to be a global force and a partner of choice within a worldwide movement dedicated to ending poverty. Globally, CARE and partners through its vision of overcoming poverty by 2030, intends to support 200 million people from the most vulnerable and excluded communities to overcome poverty and social injustice. This is through 6 impact areas of promoting Gender Equality, Climate Justice, Humanitarian, Right to Health, Right to Food Water and Nutrition and Women Economic Justice.

CARE International in Rwanda, along with consortium partners Duharanire Amajyambere Y'Icyaro (DUHAMIC-ADRI),Pro-femme Twese Hamwe (PFTH), Association of Micro Finance Institutions Rwanda (AMIR), and UrwegoBank, are currently implementing SERVE project ( Supporting and Enhancing Resilient and Viable Employment Opportunities), an agricultural enterprise and financial inclusion intervention to be delivered over five years, with the overall objective of building a resilient, sustainable, gender equitable and inclusive entrepreneurial environment that increases dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for predominantly female youth in agricultural value chains in 10 districts across Rwanda.

The project will focus on two main key areas of change; Firstly, inclusive sustainable growth for youth-led agricultural Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) which will be attained through strengthening the growth levers of productivity, access to finance, entrepreneurship and market linkages in the green bean, chili pepper, tomato and poultry value chains. Secondly, an enhanced policy and social norms environment will encourage and enable key stakeholders to deliver a more equitable, inclusive, and responsive agricultural sector, thus reducing key policy and social barriers to entry for youth, especially female youth, enabling their participation and valuing their contributions as economic and agricultural actors.

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Beyond the consortium partners, various types of strategic alliances will be harnessed in the project to achieve targeted results. Key partnerships to highlight include national government ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN). Key civil society partners include the Chamber of Youth, plus Youth forums and associations. Each partner will have a specific role in the project and will bring value-addition with their unique experience and expertise.

Along the implementation of the project, strong collaboration with the private sector is a central aspect of SERVE. Financial service providers (FSPs), including microfinance institutions, banks and insurance providers, will work in close collaboration with CARE to develop tailormade formal financial products/services for participants. More focus will also be centered on the development of digital solutions in order to accelerate reach and systematically address the gendered digital divide which blocks female, especially rural, youth from accessing formal financial services. Additionally, CARE will collaborate with the private sector for the entrepreneurship components, including linking female youth with mentors, potential buyers and regulators.

II.           Justification/Rationale

The SERVE project prioritized value chains have indicated potential signals to offers a wider range of employment and business opportunities for youth specifically female youth actively participating across their various nodes and is therefore a unique sector for economic development at local level, providing income security for workers in both urban and rural areas. Some of these value chains are potentially excellent sources of micronutrients and could be affordable for consumers if supply to the market is consistent and sufficient. Besides their nutritional qualities, they likely offer excellent opportunities for productivity increase and income improvement for the value chain actors/operators, PFY inclusive. It is also key to note that, youth engagement across horticulture value chains as well as poultry farming has predominantly played a crucial role basically in bringing produce from the farm up to the consumption stage thus positively impacting their livelihoods.

With the above, for a proper orientation of the project interventions, there is a strong need to clearly understand opportunities specifically tied to different nodes of the selected value chains that could be fully exploited by the targeted group, as well as existing limitations encountered and ways on how they could be bridged by the project interventions for the targeted group to maximally benefit from the project invested efforts while ensuring gendered value chains, creating dignified jobs as well as closing identified policy gaps.

It is against this background that the project looks forward to recruiting an experienced and qualified consultancy firm to undertake a comprehensive analysis in the three dimensions. Along the analysis to be conducted, it is expected that experts shall have to deep dive into already existing study reports on value chain analysis specifically the above underlined SERVE prioritized value chains, gendered value chain analysis, plus existing agriculture policy reforms, climate change adaptation policies specifically linked to the selected value chains, review prior underlined findings and policy recommendations and finally narrow down their extracted findings to specific targeted value chains with a particular focus on the targeted group.

III.         Overall Objective of the Analysis

The main objective of the assignment is to conduct a thorough value chain analysis and set baseline values indications for each of the targeted value chains ( tomatoes, chili, green beans and poultry), ensure comprehensive analysis of the current status for gender mainstreaming and climate adaptation and mitigation efforts across all nodes of the prioritized value chains as well as critically analysing existing, projected and pipelined agriculture financing policies plus other policies (including environmental policies and climate adaptation plans for National Determined Contributions to be able to set a strategic transformational plan for the prioritised value chains.

The analysis will provide evidence-based information on existing opportunities and constraints across targeted value chains and recommend possible solutions to unlock identified bottlenecks. The analysis will also provide evidence-based information for specific and relevant implementation orientation as well as systemic approaches to address identified bottlenecks across targeted/selected value chains thus ensuring a tangible and sustainable impact in the lives of the youth in agriculture specifically targeted Predominantly Female Youth (PFY).

Specific objectives of the analysis

1. Conduct a market system, environmental and climate risks and opportunities analysis to thoroughly diagnose the selected value chains (Green beans, tomatoes, chili, poultry) if these are valid for further analysis and set baseline values for each of the four prioritized value chain,
2. Conduct a gendered agriculture value chain analysis among the prioritized value chains and recommend practical and implementable policy actions to be focused on in the project interventions,

• Conduct agriculture financing policies analysis (Agriculture financial inclusion related policies) and other policies across SERVE selected value chains to better understand policy entitlement situational status for actors operating across the different functions of value chain nodes, identify gaps/bottlenecks encountered and propose strategies to bridge the gaps. Identify current practices of agricultural value chain financing and how finance flows between actors and how that is supporting, limiting efficiencies within the value chains.

Examine and recommend additional and new possible employment opportunities for youth specifically predominantly female within these value chains and specific value chain nodes across the intervention districts that can be fully exploited by the targeted group.

IV.         Methodology and approach

The methodology to be deployed along the execution of the assignment should include; review of all existing study reports basically narrowing down to the prioritized value chains for secondary data collection, gather primary data relevant to the selected value chains and targeted group in the intervention districts. Both collected primary and secondary data will be useful along the extensive and intensive analysis for policy reforms recommendations as well as a fundamental basis for baseline setting for the SERVE intervention activities. The consultancy firm is expected to use digital tools (Kobo toolbox, Survey CTO,) for primary data collection.

V.          Scope of the analysis

The analysis is expected to exhaustively cover three main thematic areas; Agricultural market systems analysis (narrowing down to specific prioritized value chains and targeted group); gender equality and youth inclusion analysis across the prioritized value chains plus rigorous analysis of the agriculture financing policies and other relevant policies.

1)   On agricultural value chains and market systems analysis, the following tasks are to be accomplished; 

1. Rigorously analyses SERVE selected value chains and rank them in the order of their importance in terms of criteria (economic, nutrition, gender, institutional, and environmental) with particular weight given to youth employment specifically female youth,
2. Rank value chain (performance) fit for youth employment (specifically predominantly female youth) across districts of intervention,

• Identify value chain nodes that are most attractive to youth/female youth across the prioritised value chains and underline possible incentives in the indicated areas,
• Analyze the levels at which selected value chains are susceptible to risks/shocks (climate change effects, pests and diseases, market volatility- price fluctuations),
  • Include a detailed and District-specific analysis of the vulnerabilities and capacities to face those risks/shocks, taking into consideration different groups (farmers, VC actors, extension and financial service providers, institutions, etc.), especially youth and female youth. For climate change, analyze 1) the effects of climate change-induced shocks (e.g., floods, landslides, etc.) and stresses (e.g., prolonged droughts) on the agricultural market systems/MSMEs in the selected VCs, per node; 2) the way market systems and actors in the selected VCs respond, adapt and absorb these shocks and stresses currently (i.e. their capacities to); 3) gaps and/or opportunities identified in current capacities the project should address/capitalize on.

1. Analyze the ecological suitability and the environmental risks and opportunities (e.g., green technologies or climate-smart practices already in use), along with proposed mitigation or improvement/scaling-up measures, of the selected value chains across the districts of intervention, Analyses and give indications on capital investment requirements for the selected value chains, and provide profitability analysis,
2. Analyse and highlight market structures for the selected value chains in relation to youth specifically female youth,

• Highlight major skills gaps for youth engagement across selected value chains,
• Identify bottlenecks/limitations encountered by youth especially female youth along their involvement across these value chains,

1. Assess opportunities that are/can be explored by female youth across the prioritised value chains,
2. Analyze existing initiatives and propose implementable models for organizing and empowering female youth actors in order to make their business more viable and sustainable,
3. Assess agriculture conformance to requirements and standards to the market,

• Set baseline values for the selected value chains,
• Assess the suitability, competitive and comparative advantages of the selected value chains,
• Identify policy gaps that hinder female youth practitioners across nodes of the selected value chains,

Recommend measures that could be taken forward across project interventions to close the identified gaps,

• Identify and Recommend at least two additional value chains that can be potential for youth employment creation in each district,
• Recommend framework for design, implementation, monitoring, risk management and evaluation of selected value chains development strategies.

2)    Gender and youth inclusion analysis, the following tasks should be accomplished; 

1. Thorough review of the existing studies supplemented with primary data collection from key informants at National, District up to the community level and provide a comprehensive and updated status of Gender Equality in Rwanda .
2. Examine gender and power dynamics on areas for improvement in maximizing benefits for female youth engaged in agriculture value chains and more specifically in the selected value chains,

• Identify the key gendered factors affecting young women right from household to policy level (existing gender related threats, weaknesses, opportunities, and strength) including in relation to their vulnerability and capacity to respond, absorb and adapt to climate change,

1. Examine the impact of family members on predominantly female youth participation across the prioritized value chains,
2. Identify and document high potential areas for predominantly female youth to engage,
3. Identify the level of access and control over resources for youth and young women,

• Clearly highlight the best strategies/approaches to be used that are aligned with CARE’s Gender Equality Framework and are Gender transformative,
• Outline key gender issues/inequalities encountered by value chain actors across different stages of the 4 value chains,

1. Assess the effect of double work burden on Predominantly female youth which limits their full involvement/participation across value chain nodes,
2. Elaborate findings and recommendations with implementable measures/strategies/interventions for the gender mainstreaming along SERVE project Implementation,
3. Recommend appropriate strategies to engage and sustain predominantly female youth with disabilities across prioritised value chains,

• Recommend mechanisms for predominantly female youth refugees Inclusion across prioritized values chains in the districts of intervention.

3)   Agriculture financing policy and other policies analysis, the following tasks should be accomplished; 

1. Conduct a thorough analysis of the agriculture financing policies on selected value chains to identify best practices, opportunities, and constraints across their nodes/stages, including formal and informal financing, plus possible de-risking mechanisms,
2. Map existing interventions by Government and other development agencies in supporting and enhancing agriculture financing policies and identify synergies,

• Analyses existing financial instruments supporting agriculture financing, and propose mechanisms to stimulate private lending to agriculture value chains specifically targeting female youth engaged in prioritised value chains,

1. Identify opportunities and entry points for SERVE Project to effectively expand agriculture financing access to youth specifically female youth across selected value chains,
2. Advise on suitable agriculture financing models/policy interventions, that could be directly deployed by the project for the targeted group to effectively tap into existing opportunities,
3. Identify existing agriculture policy entitlements that have been established to be exploited by the value chain operators specifically targeted value chains as well as the targeted groups,

• Examine the exploitation level of those identified entitlements and underline limitations/bottlenecks encountered,
• Analyse environmental policies and climate adaptation plans for NDCs and recommend practical interventions for predominantly female youth to better exploit opportunities across prioritised value chains,

Recommend intervention/enforcement approaches to be deployed along SERVE implementation to close identified gaps and ensure maximal exploitation of those policy entitlements by the targeted group across selected value chains. 

VI.       Deliverables

For the accomplishment of the assignment, the following deliverables will be required;

1. An inception report focused on a deeper understanding of the objectives and scope of the assignment, clear methodology and approach to be deployed, analysis framework/methods of analyis, data collection tool (questionnaire) plus the digital tool to be used, report outlines as indications of the expected report structure plus the roadmap to ensure achieving the expected results within the prearranged timelines. In addition, the consultancy team shall have to provide value chain ranking criteria which will be subjected to a pre-approval before initiation of the assignment,
2. Three separate progress reports on the above underlined three thematic areas (Value chains and market systems, gender and inclusion plus policy analysis) to be subjected to all key stakeholders review and inputs,
3. One final consolidated report (containing all the information on the three thematic reports) to be validated by SERVE Project stakeholders. 

VII.     General Qualifications

The consultancy firm conducting this assignment should in general respond to the following general qualifications and skills;

1. At least a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Gender studies and policy development studies or related fields; with a minimum of 10 years of experience in Agribusiness, Agriculture value chain financing analysis, gender and youth inclusion analysis related aspects,
2. The consultancy team members should have a strong background in agriculture sciences,

• The consultancy firm should hold a minimum of five (5) years' experience in similar business consultancies,

1. Strong background in Agriculture value chains, market systems, environment and climate policies, agriculture financing policies and gender mainstreaming analysis,
2. High level of understanding and practical experience and models for agriculture value chains intra-development among developing countries,
3. Having been involved in female youth economic empowerment studies would be an added advantage,

• Excellent writing and reporting skills,
• Good working knowledge for the use of standard computer software.

More specifically, below is a brief description of the desired set of skills and experience for each member of the team of experts to conduct this study:

Team Leader should possess the following qualifications and experience as Agriculture value chains/ Market Expert:

1. Minimum a master’s degree level in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Food policy analysis or related fields,
2. Minimum 10 years in Agriculture Value chains analysis and markets assessment both at National and International level,

• Agribusiness development expertise with good understanding of agriculture value chains horizontal and vertical coordination with gender lenses,

1. Understanding of the Rwandan agribusiness ecosystem and value chain development context,
2. Expertise in the elaboration of investment business plans and value chain assessment, as well value chains policy analysis preferably in the above project selected value chains,
3. Strong agriculture sector analytical skills,

• Capacity to dialogue with different sector’s stakeholders.

Gender Expert

1. Minimum a master’s degree level in gender development studies, international development studies with a strong background in agriculture value chains and market systems development,
2. Minimum 10 years’ experience in designing gender policies and strategies,

• Strong gender analytical skills with a specific attention on inclusive agriculture value chain approaches,

Having been prior involved in similar assignments, for instance; analysing gender and youth mainstreaming strategies and establishing policy actions for poor and marginalized women as productive economic actors in agriculture sector. 

Policy Analysis Expert

1. Minimum a master’s degree level in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Food policy analysis or related fields,
2. Strong background in agriculture value chains and market development systems, gender policies, environment and climate plus agriculture financing policies,

• Minimum 10 years in designing agriculture policies and strategies,

1. Policy development expertise with good understanding of agriculture value chains horizontal and vertical coordination with gender lenses,
2. Understanding of the Rwandan agribusiness ecosystem and value chain development context,
3. Good understanding of the agriculture financing policies, with a clear lens on youth and women barriers to access agriculture financial services,

• Strong sector policy analytical skills,
• Capacity to analyse and synthesise policy findings from various existing reports and be able to draw recommendations that could be exploited by SERVE targeted group,

High level quality report writing skills.

Data Collection and Cleaning Expert

1. Minimum a master’s degree level in Economics, Applied Agricultural Economics, and Statistics,
2. Minimum 5 in conducting qualitative and quantitative data organization and analysis with the use of up-to-date statistical analytical software packages,

• Strongly conversant with relevant and up to date statistical analytical software packages.

High level quality report writing skills.

Duration of the assignment

The consultancy firm shall have a duration of 2 months to complete the assignment. However, the consultancy firms shall have to indicate their own realistic workplan in the proposals to be submitted.

Supervision

The Consultant will be directly supervised by the Impact Measurement Team Leader in close collaboration with SERVE project team.

Information Confidentiality

All information to be shared during the documentation will be treated with confidentiality and used solely to facilitate the activity and the final product and row data are sole property of CARE. The consultant shall be required to collect and submit signed consent forms for all the interviewed people during the assignment.

How to apply 

Interested providers are requested to submit their application files through the following email address : RWA.Procurement@care.org no later than June 12^th,2023   with the following subject: “application for the consultancy to Conduct an Agriculture Value Chain analysis” 

The application file should contain the following documents:

The application file should contain the following documents:

1. Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team or individual who is proposed to carry out the work (if a team is envisaged, ensure the repartition of roles is clearly explained)
2. Firm or individual profile including a full legal name, jurisdiction of incorporation, and address of the company,

• A contact name, email address, and telephone number to facilitate communication between CARE and the vendor,

1. Bank account information including the scanned copy of blank check or document from the bank confirming the bank account information (name, account number, swift code, …);
2. A technical proposal, including a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved with a clearly indicated timelines. Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team of experts to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions in this assignment should be integral parts of the document,
3. A financial proposal detailing various costs associated with the delivery of the above services, the financial proposal must be a separate document from the technical proposal,

• Minimum 3 authenticated certificates of similar work done in the past five (5)years,
• Minimum three (3) sample reports for similar/related assignments conducted in the last five (5) years,

Company profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance

Kigali, 2^nd June 2023 

Procurement unit