Consultancy Opportunity 

SCOPE OF WORK (SOW) 

Assignment Title: Agriculture Market Analysis and Cooperative Partner Selection - CORE Rwanda   

Assignment Locations: Rwanda

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Contract (Level of Effort): Up to a maximum of 30 days

Intended dates: December 2023 to January 2024 

1. Project Background

Land O’Lakes Venture37 is implementing the Cooperative Resilience and Equity Activity (CORE) cooperative development program in Rwanda and Zambia, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal of the CORE activity is to foster vibrant, sustainable cooperative ecosystems in Rwanda and Zambia, in which self-managed agricultural cooperatives and all their members flourish economically and socially. Through CORE, Venture37 will take a localized and market-responsive approach, engaging market actors, including women and youth, in activity design, implementation and measurement. CORE will 1) Inclusively strengthen the capacity of cooperatives by dynamically responding to their unique challenges and market opportunities by adapting existing, tested tools. 2) Improve the cooperative enabling environment by working with private and public service providers to deliver market-responsive and well-coordinated services to cooperatives. 3) Spur innovation, learning and continuous improvement in the local and global development community through embedded applied research.                         

2. Objectives and Tasks

The CORE activity in Rwanda aims to strengthen enterprising agricultural cooperatives to become more commercial, entrepreneurially creative, and competitive in the market.

By conducting an analysis of the Rwandan agricultural commodities market, this assignment will inform CORE on the ideal selection criteria for partner cooperatives, implementation geographic districts, existing potential partners, corresponding market opportunities and challenges for cooperatives to prosper. 

To achieve this, the consultant is expected to carry out several analyses and information gathering to assist the CORE project staff in the identification of potential cooperative partners in promising agricultural value chains. The tasks include but not limited to:

1. Value Chain Selection: In collaboration with the CORE technical team, and in line with Government of Rwanda’s strategic priorities, USAID strategic sectors, the Rwanda Cooperative Agency’s (RCA) strategic plan, RCA’s list of registered cooperatives, conduct an analysis of agricultural value chains in Rwanda, and make recommendations to Venture37 based on their market potential and presence within them of enterprising cooperatives. The consultant will assess the maize, beans, dairy, horticulture, and potato value chains. The consultant may propose additional value chains for the project that could be considered as promising. 

2. Identification of Cooperative Opportunities and Challenges: Through various consultative sessions and market research including consultation with the CORE technical team, analyze the existing opportunities and challenges for cooperatives in the selected value chains to become more commercial as well as trusted actors in the private sector. 

3. Market Actors Mapping: Identify existing local market actors, that are or have potential to provide services (i.e., processors, transporters, buyers, training) to agriculture cooperatives and produce a matrix of their current intervention versus their areas of potential collaboration and synergies with CORE. 

4. Geographic Targeting: Informed by the selected value chains, partner selection and market actor mapping, work with the CORE technical team to analyze the Rwandan districts’ different potential to participate and add value to CORE. 

5. Cooperative Selection: In close collaboration with the CORE technical team, propose criteria for selection of partner cooperatives, and where possible propose local cooperatives who would be considered as partners to CORE activity. Submit specific and actionable set of recommendations to CORE team. 

3. Outputs and deliverables

4. Qualification/Experience

• Minimum five years’ experience in project/program implementation, market assessments
• At least 5 years of technical field experience working with/on development of cooperatives, market, agriculture and or SMEs in Rwanda and or in the region.
• Proven track record conducting market analysis, and partner selection.
• Understanding of agriculture sector development and cooperative issues in Rwanda
• Proven record in delivering high quality outputs on time and on budget.
• Experience working in Rwanda/Fluent in Kinyarwanda
• Available for assignment as soon as possible.

Interested consultants are encouraged to send their cover letter explaining their interest and justifying their candidacy, CVs/profiles, two certificates of completion of similar assignments to Procurement.CDP@landolakes.com no later than November  26^th, 2023 at 6:00PM Kigali time. The title of the email must include “Market Analysis, CORE Rwanda.”

Other Considerations:

Land O’Lakes Venture37 will provide transportation, venue hire and other necessary logistical supplies, but arrangements must be agreed upon with the assignment manager prior to making any cost commitments.