Consultant at TechnoServe

Description
TechnoServe is seeking proposals from qualified consultants for the following scope of work. For information on the timeline, application requirements, and evaluation criteria, please review the full Request for Proposals #P0014867 here. Please submit your proposal for this consultancy to buy+US+P0014867@tns.org by October 19, 2022.

Scope of Work.

Role:  Consultant

Location:  Remote, with travel to 3 geographies (e.g., Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi,   

Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Mali, Zambia)

Timing:  Approximately 4.5 months (November 2022 – March 2023) – can be split to ~46 weeks per country as well

Languages:  English (written and spoken) 

Project Objective

Over four months, the Consultant will assess the main delivery models that are used to develop output market and trade systems for increased farmers’ income and food security. The main goal of this assignment is to compare existing and potential delivery models for strengthening output markets and trade systems with quantified potential/projection of impact. Based on this, AGRA seeks a list of impact investment funds with the investment appetite, skills, and investment profile to invest in farmersourcing businesses and their target countries. Then, the team will recommend best practices for creating effective technical assistance that can attract more impact investments in food crop value chains. Finally, the Consultant would model an investment plan with cost estimates, suggested highimpact partners, and entry points for AGRA as part of a realigned strategy. 

Activities and Workplan

TechnoServe will use its strategic approach to problemsolving to frame this complex problem and develop a clear strategy for AGRA with specific programmatic outcomes at the end.

• Assess landscape and identify solutions: The team will spend time with AGRA partners meeting with the relevant actors to understand their current incentive structures, the historical and current challenges, and the structural changes or investments required to overcome them. We will also identify and interview investors, aggregators, warehouse operators, processors, and service providers to inform our understanding of their incentives, and the types of needs we need to prioritize. 
• Develop a strategy: countries, sectors, partners: Any strategy needs to make choices around how to achieve this in practice, which should be primarily driven by the intrinsic attractiveness of mechanisms for the various key actors. Within this activity, the team will meet with potential investors, offtakers, and industry stakeholders to understand their appetite to invest in the various mechanisms and what support they require to create a successful business case. We will also have conversations with the AGRA team about how to adjust the existing portfolio in terms of building on existing relationships and/or forging new ones.
• Detail investment plan and impact plan: We will develop a topdown estimate of the cost to create the priority mechanisms based on reasonable benchmarks developed in earlier activities.  We will also identify areas with high potential for external coinvestment based on TechnoServe’s knowledge and experience with donors of different natures. This analysis, together with the findings from the updated strategy, will be rolled up into a summary investment/impact case for AGRA and potential impact investors.
• Develop roadmap: We now have all the inputs required to craft the roadmap that will guide AGRA in the implementation of its updated delivery models. This will include:
• Timeline of mechanisms with corresponding targets and annual investment.
• Scale, investment, and impact projections.
• Project management responsibilities and action plan.
• Next steps for partnership conversations.
• The results from our work will be presented to AGRA across four workshops during the project.

Team

The Consultant will work with the TechnoServe staff in New York, TechnoServe agriculture teams incountry offices, and Partner staff. Contact with TechnoServe field staff and Partner teams will be critical to align efforts, connecting stakeholders, and prioritizing investments. 

External technical consultants will be recruited to provide targeted support with interpretation of technical data (e.g. nutrition data) and the development of technical assumptions (e.g. for the farmer business case model). 

The Consultant will perform interviews with farmers, suppliers, processors, exporters, industry associations, and trade associations. The Consultant will analyze data inputs from across these sources, create an analytical model and produce an overview of the critical areas for investment. Finally, the Consultant will triangulate and synthesize this data to create an accurate picture of the opportunity to redirect AGRA’s roadmap for investment going forward.

Deliverables

Based upon the activities above, the Consultant will deliver the following in English:

Deliverable

Kick Off and Defining Objectives | Kickoff presentation with AGRA stakeholders to understand work to date, success, challenges, and broad underlying objectives of the strategy; align on lessons from prior work |  Week 2

Country 1: findings | Conduct workshop with AGRA to share findings from Country 1 research | Week 6

Country 2: findings | Conduct workshop with AGRA to share findings from Country 2 research | Week 10

Country 3: findings | Conduct workshop with AGRA to share findings from Country 3 research | Week 14

Final Deliverable and Strategy (Including resources, Partners) | Present final strategy with vision, targets, KPIs, detailed design for focus mechanisms, investment, income, and nutritional outcomes, and tangible next steps/implementation plan | Week 16

Skills and Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to effectively service clients/partners in the private sector
• Professional experience in developing countries 
• Proven analytical and modeling skills
• Demonstrated leadership skills, teamwork, and relationship building
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong computer skills, including MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
• Able to work independently, flexibly, and responsively
• Able to adapt to changing working conditions
• Professional level of spoken and written English

Logistics

If travel is required, TechnoServe will cover travelrelated costs including international airfare, incountry accommodation, incountry transportation, a per diem for living expenses, visas and vaccinations, and emergency evacuation insurance.

The Consultant will report to TechnoServe’s Strategic Initiatives team and will also collaborate with incountry teams. While under the supervision of the Strategic Initiatives team, the bulk of the Consultant’s work will be independently driven and executed.