Alliance For A Green Revolution In Africa (AGRA)- Request For Proposal For Consultancy For Assessment Of Agricultural Policy And Regulatory Status And Gaps For Agribusiness Investments In Targeted African Countries

DEADLINE: 21ST FEBRUARY, 2022
ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR CONSULTANCY FOR ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND REGULATORY STATUS AND GAPS FOR AGRIBUSINESS INVESTMENTS IN TARGETED AFRICA COUNTRIES

SYNOPSIS OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

(1) Background
Agricultural policies in sub-Saharan Africa are generally characterized by outdated policies, missing legislation and gaps in regulation and over-regulation, among other issues. Due to lack of data and analytics, several policies and regulations are not evidence-based, and hence tends to yield unintended consequences and limited impact at scale. There are also challenges in terms of implementation capacity. In instances where policies and regulations are in place, governments have struggled to enforce and implement reforms due to inadequate inter-agency coordination, lack of adequate knowledge, lack of technical and human capacity of mandated institutions, among other factors. Overall, agricultural policies are not providing the much needed enabling business environment that can make businesses flourish and service smallholder farmers. As a result, many well-intentioned policies have served to deter, rather than promote SME growth and participation in agricultural markets.

Against this background, AGRA has been guided by a systems approach to drive change and transformation and clearly understood that there are regulatory and policy gaps under these systems and so the Policy and regulatory interventions have been guided by that understanding and are key to unlocking the optimal functioning of input and output market systems. AGRA’s policy work was informed by regional and continental policy frameworks (such as CAADP), GrowAfrica, private sector and insights drawn from our AGRA’s in-country implementation work. These insights have guided transformation and systems development interventions, which were designed to address policy and regulatory failures which compromised the pace of agricultural change and system functioning. Thus, initial policy identification choices drew from a combination of:

• AGRA’s on-going investments including consortia investments across priority countries, such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria etc.
• Independent external evaluations of MIRA and AGRA’s Strategy 2.0.
• Flagship design work of National Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIPs) in Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Mozambique.
• Policy Prioritization through Value Chain Analysis (PPVC) work by BFAP, IFPRI, Tegemeo, Sokoine, and MAFAP in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Malawi.
• The agricultural regulatory assessments by the World Bank

The above assessments informed by AGRA’s own in-house assessments, led to a set of priority areas that focused on specific interventions that were critical in unlocking the optimal functioning of systems. AGRA’s investments in the last strategy did not cover all policy failures that existed in the agricultural space. There was prioritization on what needed to be done along key systems such as seed, fertilizer, markets and extension. Some of the areas were not prioritized but remain critical – and these include areas such as extension, nutrition, gender, resilience to climate change.

(2) Context
The implementation of AGRA’s strategy 2.0 has seen several achievements and notably, through the Micro-reforms for Agribusiness in Africa (MIRA) program, supported 74 policies across 11 countries and two (2) regional economic communities (RECs) through various policy development stages. Given that AGRA’s policy work targeted at least 5 policy reform in each of the 11 countries and having started with the initial 5 countries at inception, the expanded scope of the regulations and policies supported over the past strategy show how AGRA has been able to stimulate demand for policy reform across a number of Africa countries. Consequently, through these efforts, AGRA has been able to support countries to effect broad-based systemic change by updating outdated policies, creating new policies and frameworks where there were previously none, and streamlining policies in instances where there were duplications and/or over-regulation.

AGRA is concluding its 2017-2021 strategy implementation and will be implementing a new 5+1 Strategy 2022-2017 with 2022 being a bridge period. Building from lessons from its current strategy implementation, and insights from national and global development dynamics, AGRA is positioning itself to be a critical player in shaping agriculture and food systems transformation in Africa and beyond. AGRA’s policy work has been subjected to three (3) independent evaluation.

The first was the 2016 Institutional Evaluation that aimed at assessing the institutional readiness in the implementation of the 2017-2022 Strategy. This evaluation noted that AGRA’s policy work, premised from Policy Nodes and Hubs as well as the Micro policy Reforms in Africa Agribusinesses (MIRA) was institutionally well positioned to strengthen the enabling the business of Africa’s agri-SMEs. This was complemented by the second, and 2020 AGRA’s mid-term process evaluation of the 2017-2021 Strategy which noted that that remarkable progress had been made in the area of policy and advocacy despite the short duration policy/advocacy activities had been in place vis-à-vis the political economic challenges in the geographies implementation took place. This was also augmented by the third and final evaluation (2020) Independent Evaluation of MIRA project, which pioneered and shaped AGRA approach to policy and advocacy. This evaluation noted that the project had made significant progress in areas it was being implemented and in doing this, curved a strategic niche for AGRA in the agriculture policy and regulatory reform area in supporting countries identify and prioritize for reform regulatory constraints that need to be addressed.  The last and forth evaluation is the recent overall AGRA end of Strategy Evaluation that noted the instrumentality of AGRA’s policy work in unlocking policy failures in the systems it was implementing. Among the common areas identified in the last two evaluations was the inadequacy of evidence on the implementation of over 30 policies that were enacted during the life of AGRA Strategy.

These four independent evaluations further emphasized what AGRA’s internal assessment had highlighted, the need to directly build on the achievements of the ongoing policy and regulatory success/wins and continue with actual reform implementation. All the evaluation’s and AGRA’s own assessment noted that while approval of policy/regulatory reform has been central in establishing the legal foundation for the functioning of input and output markets systems, it is not sufficient to improve the enabling environment and thus the need to direct attention to facilitating the actual implementation of approved reforms. Further AGRA’s policy approach is considered to apply an innovative inclusive and consultative approach to regulatory and policy reform compared to others (see Independent MIRA Evaluation (2020)).

Overall, there a number of lessons have been learnt and worth noting. For instance, regulatory reforms and laws are reaching the implementations stage quicker compared to before, down to between 3-5 years, from 8-10 years. As of October 2021, forty-two (42) policies have been enacted and moved into implementation stage over the past three years – out of a targeted 45 policy wins over the life of the strategy.  This is due to the popularization of AGRA’s interventions and approach that is premised on inclusive participatory stakeholder consultations, and evidence-based policy making.

(3) Problem Statement and Proposed Approach
Despite AGRA’s success in driving policy and regulatory reform, there are still system failures that require attention, and the business environment is not yet ideal due to either, over-regulation, under-regulation, poor implementation, lack of institutional and technical capacity to enforce and implement policies. For instance, fertilizer adoption rates are still low, and fertilizer distribution systems remain challenged by policy failures. Furthermore, the majority of seed systems in Africa are beset with critical challenges and thus still struggling to produce and distribute high-quality varieties in sufficient quantities to reach a critical mass of smallholder farmers.

Against this backdrop, AGRA endeavors to continue providing technical support for governments to develop appropriate policies and regulatory frameworks which enable the private sector to play a driving role in the development of competitive input supply chains. To this end, AGRA will undertake country assessments to concretize the understanding of the national regulatory and policy status and gaps. The assessments will provide a rigorous analysis of the regulatory environment, which will allow AGRA to have a deeper understanding of the status as well as gaps constraining trade and investment and overall business environment, and in turn, prioritize policy interventions. The assessments will be done with a view to support the identification and prioritization of regulatory and policy reforms that serve to improve the operational environments of the agricultural sector.

Previously, AGRA partnered with World Bank to launch and socialization of 2017 and 2019 agriculture policy and regulatory assessments and indicators in several AGRA countries. This partnership with the World Bank was used to assess progress and status of various types of policy and regulatory as well as understand policy gaps and challenges. AGRA’s partnership with the World Bank has provided a model and framework of how clear and robust systems gaps analysis can be done. However, a number of questions have been raised, particularly around issues of sustainability and ownership of the benchmarking process across countries and over various key stakeholders. Therefore, during the bridge period, AGRA will also focus on refining and expanding regulatory assessments, with a view to draw lessons and build institutional capacity to carry on the policy diagnostics work and identify crucial gaps that will inform investments opportunities and priorities. AGRA will examine how it can best provide leadership, technical support as well as management of  some of existing data collection processes, as well as how best to engage governments in the use of  data for policy and regulatory reform prioritization. To inform this new direction and opportunity, AGRA, will thus commission a scoping study to assess options for AGRA’s role in regulatory assessments and reform in Africa, identify and assess the technical capacity of potential data collection partners, as well as explore options for the future branding of agricultural regulatory work following principles of stakeholder ownership and mutual accountability. This scoping study will be part and parcel of this assignment.

This work will be done by:

(1) Creating a clear line of separation between data collection and policy implementation. AGRA will work with Governments and other key technical partners – who are the formulators and implementers of policy reforms – in data collection.

(2) AGRA may focus on a broad range of regulatory performance indicators that measure best practice, and guide reviews and peer-learning. In this sense, AGRA will work to understand gaps, shape interventions and support the refinement and roll-out of the “Agribusiness-Enabling” Diagnostic Tool that will be used to facilitate private public dialogue.

(3) Focusing more on policy reform implementation through a results-oriented approach that draws insights from government commitments in country-level dialogues. The bridge grant period will identify a set of key policy reforms that can result in ‘quick wins” to gather momentum for policy implementation. This approach will focus on how to operationalize policy reforms and strengthen implementation focus.

(4) Critically examining previous regulatory assessments and use them as a guiding framework for going into the countries, undertaking gap analysis, and identifying priority investments. The bridge grant will provide a platform for institutional learning and capacity enhancement so that AGRA can engage technically competent partners to scale out the diagnostics work.

The Terms of Reference (ToR) articulates activities within year 2022 (bridge grant period), which are a foundational phase the new Five-Year AGRA and PIATA Strategy [2022-2027]. Thus, the work contained herein builds on an existing body of work that has been established since 2017, while extending the efforts to fit the strategic imperatives for AGRA’s Strategy 3.0.

(4) Overall Objectives and Scope of the Assignment 
The overall objective of AGRA’s policy assessment is to obtain a better understanding of the regulatory and operational environment shaping the function and efficiency of key agricultural systems such as input market systems (e.g., seed, fertilizer, machinery etc.), output market systems, as well as market enablers (e.g., finance, extension, storage and logistics etc.), among others. To this end, AGRA seeks to conduct policy and regulatory gaps assessments along each of the systems and come up with a key prioritize set of investments in the target countries.

The specific objectives of the work are:

• To assess the status of the enabling environment for agricultural market systems, aforementioned.
• To attain a better understanding of the gaps that require further attention for policy and regulatory reform for systems to function optimally.
• To come up with a country by prioritized policy reforms by system that will guide AGRA’s policy investment in the new strategy
• To examine opportunities for AGRA to strategically position itself and bolster its capacity to carry on with regulatory diagnostics work, including the management of regulatory data collection in AGRA countries, engagement of technical partners, as well as engaging governments in the use of the regulatory data for policy reform and prioritization.

The gap analysis and policy investment prioritization will be done through the following ways:

(1) Rigorous and independent data collection that ensures clear lines of separation between implementers and evaluators, to avoid any conflict of interest.

(2) Facilitation of robust grassroots public-private dialogues that are centered on identifying gaps and crafting home-grown interventions.

(3) Supporting the identification and prioritization of micro-reforms through targeted approaches that focus on operational bottlenecks.

(4) In-depth scoping study to explore options for AGRA’s role in regulatory reform in Africa, assess technical capacity of potential data collection partners, and exploring options for the future branding of regulatory reform work, including coming up with a robust communications strategy.

(5) Scope of Work
To comprehensively address the objectives above mentioned, AGRA will hire firm that will do data collection, data processing and analysis, as well as report writing, synthesis and dissemination. More specifically, the firm will:

(1) Work in close consultation with AGRA and (where possible with World Bank Country Teams) to do a needs assessment that defines the data collection methodology and approach.

(2) AGRA will support the expert firm and their affiliate experts and data collection agents, as well as administering, training, and executing requirements for data collection.

(3) Develop and/or update comprehensive survey instruments that are targeted for specific stakeholders such as Government, Private Sector, non-governmental organizations/development partners, etc. including pre-testing innovations that emerge from the co-creation processes.

(4) Learn to implement the designed and developed data capturing system, with a clearly defined set of privileges and access rights for data entry and analysis.

(5) Develop a comprehensive implementation plan for the surveys and risk mitigation measures, as well as quality control initiatives to attenuate any data discrepancies.

(6) Execute data cleaning, verification, and analysis – and ensuring that quality checks and consistencies are maintained.

(7) Presenting the raw data and analysis, and the consolidated findings, which are to also be submitted in the form of a comprehensive report, as well as a synthesis report for dissemination.

(8) Undertake a prioritization approach to identify key policies to be reformed by each country during the next AGRA strategy.

(6) Deliverables 
(1) A comprehensive inception report detailing the methodological approach to data collection, and link how this links to the Agribusiness-Enabling diagnostic tool, and the operationalization of regulatory reform.

(2) A comprehensive set of high quality, verified and validated data on:

• Input systems – e.g. supplying seed, registering fertilizer, securing water, registering machinery, sustaining livestock, protecting plant health, etc.
• Output systems – e.g. local, national and regional commodity markets (i.e., domestic and cross-border trade),
• System enablers – e.g., accessing finance, delivering agricultural extension and post-harvest loss.
• Policy and State Capability System – e.g. policies, regulations, mandated institutions, inter-agency coordination, human and technical capacity, institutional capacity etc.

(3) A design of a dynamic and effective public-private dialogue platform, which recasts the interaction of government and private sector through an effective public-private dialogue platform.

(4) A country by country prioritization of regulatory reforms emanating from the themes discussed in the public-private dialogue platform, as a viable mechanism to assess policy failures, identify regulatory needs, and the prioritization of regulatory reforms.

(5) A comprehensive strategy document detailing AGRA’s future role in regulatory and policy reform diagnostics that was led by the World Bank in Africa, including managing the data collection engaging governments, as well as overall management and communications of an regulatory performance indicators. The report should also clearly articulate the requisite technical capacities of potential data collection partners and sub-grantees AGRA could work with in PIATA 2.0, critically evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of those partners, as well as providing guidance on how to procure and quality assure the work of those partners.

(7) Location and nature of the assignment
During the grant period, AGRA aims to cover all fourteen (14) AGRA priority countries namely, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Cotê d’Ivore, Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia) at least four in each quarter – excluding the first quarter which will be set aside for planning, recruitment and training.

(8) Duration of the Assignment
The assignment is expected to take a duration of 10 months.

(9) Copyright
All materials/documents arising out of this consultancy work shall remain the property of AGRA.

(10) Key Qualifications and Experience Required 

The consulting firm shall have:

(1) A sound reputation with demonstrated in-depth knowledge of public and private sector-led agriculture in Africa

(2) Previous experience of conducting similar analyses of African agriculture.

(3) In-country presence in and deep knowledge of target AGRA priority countries.

(4) Experience in working with government agencies, private sector and development partners is an added advantage.

(5) Propose key personnel with the following qualifications, experience and competencies. The key positions should include but not limited to the following: Lead Consultant/Project team leader, Associate Consultant, etc.

(1) Lead Consultant/Team Leader
(1) At least a Masters or PhD in Law, Policy, Economics, Development or Agricultural Economics, etc.

(2) At least 10 years of progressive experience in leading donor-funded projects and development work in the field of (agricultural and market) policy and regulation.

(3) Experience in working in sub-Saharan Africa a must

(4) Fluency in English (and French will be an asset).

(5) Previous experience of conducting regulatory assessments and similar analyses of African agriculture.

(6) In-country presence in and deep knowledge of target AGRA priority countries

(7) Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the policy landscape in Africa.

(8) Experience in working with government agencies, private sector and development partners is an added advantage.

(9) Experience in CAADP/ Malabo/ AUDA-NEPAD related issues is an advantage.

(10) Good references for reliability, dedication, and an ability to work unsupervised.

(11) Previous experience in providing technical support/conducting assessments to the AGRA target countries is an advantage.

(2) Associate Consultant (s)
(1) At least a Masters Degree in Law, Policy, Economics, Development or Agricultural Economics, etc.

(2) At least 8 years of progressive experience in leading donor-funded projects and development work in the field of (agricultural and market) policy and regulation.

(3) Experience in working in sub-Saharan Africa a must.

(4) Fluency in English (and French will be an asset).

(5) Previous experience of conducting regulatory assessments and similar analyses of African agriculture.

(6) In-country presence in and deep knowledge of target AGRA priority countries.

(7) Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the policy landscape in Africa.

(8) Experience in working with government agencies, private sector and development partners is an added advantage.

(9) Experience in CAADP/ Malabo/ AUDA-NEPAD related issues is an advantage.

(10) Good references for reliability, dedication, and an ability to work unsupervised.

(11) Previous experience in providing technical support/conducting assessments to the AGRA target countries is an advantage.

(11) Evaluation Criteria
Interested firms shall be evaluated against the following technical criteria:

(1) Organizational Capacity……………………………………………..10%

Company profile, company accreditations and certifications.

(2) Experience in similar assignments…………………………………..25%

(3) Proposed approach, methodology and work plan…………………..25%

Understanding of the project/assignment requirements, practicality of the proposed methodology relative to the context of the assignment, proposed work plan, staffing schedule, risk assessment and mitigation strategies integrated into the assignment, planning, appropriateness of the implementation schedule to the project timelines and project quality assurance measures.

(4) Experience and Qualification of key personnel…………………….40%

Total Score………………………………………………………………….100%

NB:

• Selection Method – Quality Based Selection (QBS)

(12) Pre-Bid Meeting
A pre-bid meeting has been scheduled as per the timeline summarized in the synopsis above. The purpose of the pre-bid meeting is to respond to bidder’s questions and provide further clarification on the objectives and scope of the assignment.

Interested bidders are required to register on the link provided in the synopsis. A calendar invite will be shared to bidders who have registered by the deadline indicated above.

(13) Application Submission Requirements 
(1) Technical Proposal

(1) Company profile, Certifications and accreditations.

(2) Proposed Methodology, approach and workplan with clear timelines.

(3) Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments carried out.

(4) Proposed key staff, their roles including their CVs, academic and professional certificates.

(5) The technical proposal shall not exceed 20 pages. CVs, copies of academic certificates and other support documents may be attached as annexes.

(2) Financial Proposal 
(1) The firm shall provide a financial proposal for carrying out the assignment. The breakdown of unit and total fees per person (for each proposed consultant) shall be provided. Use the templates provided under Annexes A, B and C for the financial proposal. You may modify them where necessary.

(2) Reimbursable costs if applicable shall be quoted separately.  These will be reimbursed based on actual cost incurred.

(3) Professional fees shall include the applicable withholding tax.

(4) VAT shall be quoted separately and is only applicable to firms registered in the following countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Mozambique).

(5) If the financial proposal is silent on taxes, AGRA shall assume that these are inclusive.

(6) Prices must be quoted in USD ($). Contracting will be in USD and bidders are encouraged to have a USD bank account.

(7) The financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected.

(14) Guidelines for Preparations and Submission of Proposals 

(1) The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.

(2) The proposals SHALL be submitted to procurement@agra.org by the deadline indicated in the synopsis.

(3) The technical proposal shall not exceed 20 pages.

(4) The proposal and ALL Attachments submitted via email SHALL NOT exceed 10MB.

(5) VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for a period of 90 days from the date of bid closure.

(6) Financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected. The password shall be requested from the firm that meet the best technical score above 75%.

ANNEX A: FINANCIAL PROPOSAL FORM FPF-1 SUMMARY OF COSTS

Note: Payments and contracting will be made in USD

ANNEX B: FINANCIAL PROPOSAL FORM FPF-2 BREAKDOWN OF REMUNERATION  

When used for Lump-Sum contract assignment, information to be provided in this Form shall only be used to demonstrate the basis for the calculation of the Contract’s amount; to calculate applicable taxes at contract negotiations; and, if needed, to establish payments to the Consultant for possible additional services requested by AGRA. 

ANNEX C: FINANCIAL PROPOSAL FORM FPF-3 BREAKDOWN OF [REIMBURSABLE EXPENSES]

When used for Lump-Sum contract assignment, information to be provided in this Form shall only be used to demonstrate the basis for calculation of the Contract amount, to calculate applicable taxes at contract negotiations and, if needed, to establish payments to the Consultant for possible additional services.

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