Background

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a dynamic, African-led partnership working across the African continent to help millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty. Under its new strategy (2016-2020) AGRA is seeking to catalyze an agricultural transformation in eleven (11) key focus countries.  AGRA’s mission, is to trigger an African-led Green Revolution based on smallholder farmers in Africa by 2020 by doubling the incomes of at least 30 million farm households through productivity improvements and access to markets and finance among other interventions.  To achieve this, AGRA works with African governments, international partners, the private sector and public institutions to mobilize resources and the required political support to invest in projects that strive to address food insecurity and increase the incomes of smallholder farmers.

In the last decade, Burkina Faso has registered rapid growth of 6% per annum in an economy where Agriculture contributed to 30% of the GDP in 2012, employing 90% of the workforce.  (FAO FAPDA Country Fact Sheet 2014).   This has been supported by key structural reforms by government and key interventions by development agencies.  The country’s economy is mainly driven by cotton production. Despite this growth in the economy Burkina Faso’s staple crop production is still very low standing at 1MT/ha due to the negative effects of climate change, poor soils, limited use of quality inputs, and ineffective extension services.  Mali, on the other hand, has demonstrated much slower growth in agricultural development in the past decade. The country has been bedeviled by drought, insecurity and poverty.  Only 33% of its vast territory is arable land.  Despite these challenges, the country has registered robust growth in the agriculture and service sectors leading to a projected growth rate of 5.8% in 2016.  This is attributed to partly to the effects of input subsidy reform. (The World Bank, June 2018).

AGRA has in the last decade, funded agricultural projects totaling ~$41.5m in Burkina Faso and Mali, in research and capacity-building, input systems development, markets development, postharvest management and policy reforms.  In this new phase, AGRA plans to invest a total of $74.5m in both countries to improve the livelihoods of 1.7 million smallholder farmers over 5 years.  (AGRA Burkina Faso & Mali Operational Plans 2017).

With agriculture occupying the better share in the economies of these countries, interest has been generated among agricultural development actors desiring to take advantage of the current relative political calm and the promising economic growth to help develop the sector.  Recent interventions by agricultural development actors and the political will to transform agriculture into a thriving industry, has resulted in an increase in institutions intervening in agriculture that address key bottlenecks along the value chain.

In view of the above, AGRA will work with a wide range of grantees in institutions of government, the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the public and private sector,  NGOs and academic institutions to implement its projects.  Each of these grantees are expected to possess certain capacities for them to manage resources in order to deliver successfully.   A number of potential partners have been identified.  However, as part the process of identifying partnerships, AGRA conducts due diligence on potential partnerships to determine their capacity to implement projects on AGRA’s behalf.  AGRA uses the OCA tool to do this.

AGRA is, therefore, inviting expressions of interest from eligible consultancy firms with extensive experience in conducting organizational capacity assessments on different types of entities: public, private, academic, and NGOs.  This exercise is expected to inform the selection of potential institutional partners as well as guide the design and delivery of organizational capacity development activities to institutions deemed to possess the required experience to work alongside AGRA in implementing its projects.  A list of selected institutions will be provided to the selected consultancy firm.

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to carry out organizational capacity assessments of selected institutions in Burkina Faso and Mali in order to determine their suitability to serve as implementing partners on AGRA interventions, and to recommend capacity development measures to help these institutions achieve project goals.

Scope of work and tasks

1. Conduct an organizational capacity assessment (OCA) of selected institutions to check on their suitability to partner with AGRA in project implementation by:

• Orienting each organization prior to the assessment to enable them to participate effectively in the assessment
• Meeting with entity leads – Professional experience, knowledge of the agricultural sector, skills, and capability of leadership.
• Assess the stability of the organization checking various documents as evidence of good governance
• Assess the Foundation of the Organization of the institutions
• Meeting with staff and consultants – Capacity of project management, human resource management, financial management, procurement system, and monitoring & evaluation of interventions.
• Review various documents as evidence of available due processes
• Assess the capacity of the organization to learn, do its own M&E
• Meet with selected collaborating partners – local and international networks that can provide additional technical inputs and backstopping.
• Field visits to meet beneficiaries and to physically observe on-going projects and assess facilities and equipment
• Convening a participatory exercise with the organization to agree on the composite score for each assessment area, identifying priorities gaps/needs

2. Analyze the OCA highlighting critical capacity gaps to be addressed

3. Develop an action plan to fill the capacity gaps identified in the OCA

4. In a report submitted to AGRA, provide each partner’s summarized findings, priority areas for organization development and recommendations of strategies and action plans for each organization.

5. Prepare a trend analysis report covering all assessments conducted in the country to identify consistent areas for development and/or any outliers

6. Provide a follow-up tool within the OCA that provides continuous feedback on capacity development measures taken and the outcomes across the areas interrogated.

7. Develop a capacity implementation reporting template that the organization will use to report on progress on gaps identified.

Qualifications of the team:

• The consultancy team should be composed of persons with experience in conducting organizational capacity assessments across different sectors; specifically public, private – for profit and NGO’s.

• The lead consultant should possess a minimum of a Master’s degree in agricultural development, institutional development, public administration, financial management and accounting, monitoring & evaluation, or a related field.

Experience:

• The lead or a member of the team should possess significant experience in working with and/or strengthening the organizational capacity of different ranges of institutions in the public and private sector in sub-Sahara
• A background in Organizational Development, Financial Management, and Monitoring & Evaluation is required.
• Advanced working knowledge and experience working in the international development sector, preferably in agricultural development, in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Competencies:

• Outstanding analytical skills, able to analyze and synthesize large volumes of data, draw conclusions and provide strategic and practical recommendations
• Outstanding communication skills, including report writing and oral presentations

Language:

• Fluency in English and French

Deliverables

• Inception report and work plan
• Progress report
• Final report detailing the requirements given in the scope above.

Duration of consultancy

This consultancy will be for 30 working days from the signing of the contract and is expected to terminate by January 2019.

Clarifications

Questions and/or clarifications may be submitted to Procurement on procurement@agra.org by November 16, 2018.

Application Requirements

Technical proposals should be a maximum of 3-pages and contain the following information: (a) Company profile expertise and experience

(b) Summary of the proposed approach/ methodology for completing the assignment

(c) Draft work plan to estimate the number of days for the various tasks/deliverables, and (d) references. Note: in the event that a lead consultant is submitting an application; they should include the CVs of all proposed consultants as an Annex.

Financial proposals should be not more than 1 page and indicate the consultant’s daily rate and any other costs required to fulfill this assignment.

Interested firms are invited to provide a financial proposal covering fees and expenses.  Extensive travel and field visits will be required for the better part of this assignment.  In order to minimize costs, it is expected that a thin team from the selected institutions staff complement will conduct the field visits while a complementary desk team will provide additional research and reporting support.

Preference will be given to consultancy firms with qualifying nationals of Burkina Faso or Mali in their teams, or persons resident in the West Africa Region in order to save on heavy travel costs.

Working Relationships

The consultant will work closely with the Senior Program Officer (Extension & Capacity Building) and the Grants officer.

Other Documents Required

Copy of Company Registration Certificate (Applicable to companies)

Copy of National Identification (Applicable to individuals)

How to apply

Interested applicants should send their profile, along with technical and financial proposals in plain sealed envelopes clearly showing the consultancy opportunity name addressed to:

Procurement Office, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, West End Towers 4^th Floor, Kanjata Rd.
P O Box 66773 – 00800 Nairobi – Kenya.

or

E-mail: Procurement@agra.org

On or before 4^th January, 2019 at 11.59pm East Africa Time.

Application prices must remain valid for 90 days from the application closing date.

“The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa reserves the right to accept or reject any application and is not bound to give reasons for its decision”.