REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

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Summary Assignment Information:

Overall Project Background :

At SNV, we envision a world where, across every society, all people live with dignity and have equitable opportunities to thrive sustainably. We apply our strong foundations and technical expertise within and across three inter-related sectors of agri-food, energy, and water, which are critical to enabling people to lead dignified lives and thrive. Within and across these sectors, we work on three core themes: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), climate adaptation and mitigation, and strong institutions and effective governance. Across these sectors and themes, we also focus on impact driven finance, digitalisation, systems change, and youth.

Soil Values, a 10-year program (2024-2033) financed by the Netherlands Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), is a transformative initiative unfolding across Burkina Faso, Mali, Northern Nigeria, and Niger, where the primary objective is to establish sustainable soil fertility management as a cornerstone within the farming systems of the Sahelian and Guinea Savanna regions. The program’s approach focuses on Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) in the context of participatory landscape management to catalyse viable business cases and incentivize adoption by farmers, market actors, and policymakers. To ensure regional coherence, the neighbouring corridor countries of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire will actively participate in dialogues concerning the south-north trade of fertilizers and regional food security.

SNV is seeking a GESI consultant or consulting firm to support the Soil Values project in conducting a research- based multi-country GESI analysis using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro- WEAI) and developing an accompanying project level GESI strategy. The consultant will be supported by four full-time national GESI advisors in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Northern Nigeria as well as a Multi-Country GESI Advisor based in Nigeria who will oversee the consultancy. The consultant must demonstrate the ability to hire and oversee local organisations, consulting firms, and enumerating teams across the four Soil Values countries for the purposes of primary data collection.

Consultancy Objective : 

Maradi (Goulbi Maradi), (x) Taoua (Maggia) of the twenty-one (21) targeted watersheds of the program. Where accurate, consistent, comprehensive, and credible GESI data exists within similar contexts, the findings of some watersheds would be extrapolated to other watersheds to ensure cost and time efficiency of the process. Specific states and regions across the four target countries are Kano and Jigawa states in Nigeria, Maradi and Tahoua in Niger, Boucle Mouhoum Inferieur, and Hauts-Bassins (Kou) in Burkina Faso, and Segou (Niono excluded) and Sikasso in Mali.

The study will examine the following domains of analysis: Patterns of decision making, social norms, beliefs and practices, Access to and control over resources including access to and ownership of land, Laws, policies, regulations, and institutional practices, (including stakeholder and governance structure, Role’s responsibilities and time use, and how they relate to Soil Values communities in terms of soil health, sustainable land development and integrated watershed management and other soil health-related areas (e.g., landscape management, inclusive markets, policy development) and to:

• Ensure a Do No Harm approach to activity design and implementation to prevent negative unintended consequences to communities,
• Identify context specific gender and social gaps, roles, culture, and norms that must be taken into consideration during activity design and implementation to ensure that interventions are equitable and aim for sustainable impact for all project participants regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic level, ethnic/religious status, immigration status, disability as well as other social determinants,
• Identify the major challenges limiting the participation of specific groups (including women and youth, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and farmers, ) in the adoption of innovations, technologies, practices related to integrated management of soil fertility as well as their participation in local governance of landscapes and watersheds.
• Provide practical recommendations and a strategy/action plan document to help project staff and partners to reach project targets in a GESI-responsive manner while aspiring to GESI-transformative approaches whenever possible.
• Identify and address gaps in the global knowledge base related to GESI and soil health in sub-Saharan Africa using rigorous research methodologies.

Application/Proposal Requirements :

The consultant/firm should prepare both Technical and Financial proposals. The financial proposal should be in Euro or USD. This should include daily cost of research team including Local NGOs, consultant or Civil Society Organization (CSOs) to be consulted, travel and logistics, and all related research costs. It should also state budget justification for each budget line item, explaining why the expense is necessary and how the cost was estimated. Financial proposal should also reflect value for money.

Submission Criteria :

Proposals should be sent to NG-Procurement@snv.org with subject line “Soil Values Multi Country GESI Analysis”.

Deadline for submission: 1st September, 2024. Consultant should note that applications will be reviewed on rolling basis. It is advisable to proposals early.