DEADLINE: 18TH MARCH, 2022
GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION (GAIN)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES
MAPPING AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF BUSINESSES, BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS AND COOPERATIVES IN THE RICE, MAIZE, CASSAVA AND ORANGE-FLESHED POTATO VALUE CHAINS
PROJECT BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF WORK
(1) ABOUT GAIN
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with both governments and businesses, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people.
At GAIN, we believe that everyone in the world should have access to nutritious and safe food. We work to understand and deliver specific solutions to the daily challenge of food insecurity faced by poor people. By understanding that there is no “one-size-fits-all” model, we develop alliances and build tailored programmes, using a variety of flexible models and approaches.
We build alliances between governments, local and global businesses, and civil society to deliver sustainable improvements at scale. We are part of a global network of partners working together to create sustainable solutions to malnutrition. Through alliances, we provide technical, financial and policy support to key participants in the food system. We use specific learning, evidence of impact, and results of projects and programmes to shape and influence the actions of others.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, GAIN has representative offices in Denmark, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, we have country offices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania. Programmes and projects are carried out in a variety of other countries, particularly in Africa and Asia.
GAIN’s Workforce Nutrition programme aims to improve the nutrition of workers and farmers in low- and middle- income countries or communities. The programme focuses on improving the access and demand for healthier diets using existing business structures as an entry point (workplaces or supply chains). GAIN began its workforce nutrition programme in 2013 and has reached over 230,000 estate workers, smallholder farmers and their families in the tea, cocoa and garment supply chain across Africa and Asia. We currently work with partners in the tea sector (India, Kenya, and Malawi), cocoa sector (Ghana), garment sector (Bangladesh), and we are running pilots in a variety of industry sectors in Mozambique.
Our work on biofortified crops aims to scale access to and demand for nutrient-dense varieties of commonly consumed staples such as maize, sweet potato and cassava through targeted support to address challenges and constraints to increased production and consumption of these foods. We do this through market development and commercialization, such as in our partnership with HarvestPlus and through noncommercial pathways focused on farming households and public procurement systems. A key part of our approach is improving the enabling environment for biofortified seeds, crops and food products through advocacy, catalytic financing, and the licensing of technology and related services.
GAIN supports businesses, especially micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), through most of our programmatic offerings. This support is coordinated through the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network (SBN), which is convened by GAIN in Nigeria and was launched in 2016 to improve and strengthen the private sector’s contribution to nutrition. The Network has supported businesses with brokering business- to-business linkages, facilitating connections to government and other sectors, including development partners, and capacity building for MSMEs to address critical barriers to start, grow and scale their business. Specific support areas include access to finance, access to markets, quality control and assurance in their production processes, and food safety and nutrition education
(2) BACKGROUND
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is issuing this Request for Proposal (RFP) and will be the administrative lead organization for this RFP.
The purpose of this RFP is to engage the services of a Service Provider to conduct a mapping and needs assessment of businesses, business associations and cooperatives functioning in four (4) selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each of the four selected states of Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa and Oyo in the cassava, maize, rice and orange-fleshed sweet potato value chains; identify technical and non-technical gaps and limitations of these businesses in regards to accessibility, affordability, and the inclusion of women and youth in value-added agriculture; documenting to what extent those gaps can be bridged for business sustainability. This assessment will inform the implementation of the Business Support workstream on the Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples project in the focal states for the next four years.
The Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples project is currently implemented by The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in partnership with GIZ and the Green Innovation Centre for the Agricultural and Food Sector in Nigeria (GIC), with support from the German Government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The Strengthening nutrition project will strengthen the GIC priority value chains and improve food security and safety through improved diets for farmers, farm workers, other workers in businesses in these value chains, and among the wider population in Nigeria.
The business support component will empower women and young people and unleash the creativity and energy of youth and women to support their families, succeed in agri-business and attempt to tackle malnutrition, prevent food borne illnesses as well as food and social insecurity. This workstream will increase women and youth involvement in value-added agriculture and entrepreneurship that directly addresses the specific challenges that women and rural youth face in the four focal states for this project. It will respond to opportunities to harness the political will at local, state, and national levels in Nigeria to invest in creating economic opportunities for women and youth in the production, processing, and sale of nutritious and safe foods. This will be achieved by significantly increasing the knowledge and information available to women and young people about nutrition, food safety, increasing their participation in decision-making and targeting business support and investments so they can bring forward innovations, increase livelihood opportunities and build nutrition sensitivity into the GIC value chains.
This will be carried out using three interlinked approaches:
- Improving nutrition quality of staple foods produced by SMEs and farmers involved in GIC activities.
- Improving the capacity of food safety and value chain actors to adhere to standards and regulations on best practice.
- Supporting technical innovations for supply chains through innovation challenges and innovation clinics.
(2.1) AGRIBUSINESSES IN NIGERIA
The agricultural sector remains the largest employer in Nigeria, employing more than 36% of the labour force and accounting for 22.35% of the Gross Domestic Product in Q1 2021. With 82 million hectares of arable land, and only 34 million hectares cultivated and the country’s large and growing population, agriculture is increasingly becoming important as a source of consumer and industrial demand.
Agribusinesses poses an opportunity to solve the challenges in the different value chain components (i.e., production, processing, distribution, and marketing), eliminate wastage, support sustainable development, create decent jobs, and reduce poverty levels. However, these businesses continue to face several challenges which negatively affects their growth, sustainability, and impact. In recent years, Nigeria has seen an increase in the number of Agricultural technology (Agritech) start-ups aiming to address these challenges faced by smallholder farmers and to improve their livelihoods through better access to inputs, credit, assets, and markets. Supported by Incubators, Innovation labs, Accelerators, angel investors and other Enterprise Support Organizations, these start-ups are still faced with similar strident barriers, including a challenging business environment, an ecosystem not geared to support long-term growth, low levels of agricultural knowledge and skills and limited access to funding opportunities. With impact investors, venture capital firms and large corporates shying away from Nigerian Agritech due to the perceived risk of investing in agriculture and the opportunity cost compared to other sectors. There is a huge need for holistic support of Agribusinesses in Nigeria for sustainability and scalability.
Considering this, GAIN is commissioning an assessment to collect this information, which will then be used to strengthen the value chains in the focal states through the provision of technical assistance, financial assistance and facilitation of partnership and linkages in the cassava, maize, rice, and orange-fleshed sweet potato value chains.
(3) OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The main objective is to conduct a mapping and needs assessment of businesses, business associations and cooperatives functioning in value chains; identify technical and non-technical gaps and limitations of these businesses regarding accessibility, affordability, and the inclusion of women and youth in value-added agriculture and to what extent those gaps can be bridged for business sustainability.
The specific objectives are to:
(1) Conduct a mapping of businesses, business associations, commodity associations (including, but not limited to farmers association, aggregators, processors, transporters, retail organizations, Agritech startups, cooperatives, and incubation hubs) in four (4) selected LGAs in each of the four selected states of Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa, and Oyo that operate in the cassava, maize, rice, and orange-fleshed sweet potato value chains.
(2) Collect information on the categories of enterprise, value chain, the priority staple crop, location, technical and non-technical gaps, and major impediments regarding accessibility, affordability, sustainability and the inclusion of women and youth in value-added agriculture.
(3) Clarify and rank the needs and priorities of value chain actors.
- What do businesses in the Maize, Rice, Cassava and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato value chain see as the aspects of the value chain that functions well and what are the areas that need improvement? What are the most important improvements that could be made to benefit youth and female-led businesses in the project states?
The results of this assessment will be used by GAIN to strengthen business support interventions across the value chains, provide more specific support to businesses as well as understand the strategies to be adopted to capacity building and impact investment in Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa and Oyo states.
(3.1) PROJECT STATES, LGAs AND VALUE CHAINS
Under the guidance of, and in consultation with, the GAIN team responsible for the SNIPS project, the Consultant shall carry out the objectives outlined above in Kaduna, Benue, Nasarawa and Oyo states across four LGAs and value chains as detailed below:
S/N States LGAs Value Chains 1 Kaduna Lere, Giwa, Chikun, Kauru Maize 2 Nasarawa Kokona, Doma, Lafia, Awe Rice 3 Oyo Iseyin, Afijo, Iddo, Oyo West Cassava, Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato 4 Benue Otukpo, Gboko, Makurdi, Gwer East Rice, Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato
(4) SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES
(4.1) SCOPE OF WORK
The successful applicant shall provide the following services:
- Develop an inception report (including detailed methodology and justification, a detailed study protocol, sampling plan where applicable, data analysis plan) interview guides, consent forms and data collection tools that align with previous GAIN programmes for review and approval by GAIN.
- Conduct desk review of project documents and secondary data sources as appropriate.
- Obtain relevant access and data collection permissions as appropriate, e.g., local government.
- Carry out all primary data collection, quality assurance, data entry, cleaning, management, and analyses.
- For any primary data collected, provide GAIN with raw and clean datasets. If quantitative data are collected, data documentation must be provided using
- Develop report outline and format of the final database for review and approval by GAIN.
- Draft full report, including literature review, methods, data collection activities, results, and conclusions/recommendations.
- Revise and finalize report based on inputs from GAIN.
SUBMISSION
Complete proposals should be submitted in electronic copy to: rfp@gainhealth.org
DEADLINE
Completed proposals should be submitted by 5:00 pm WAT on 18 March 2022.
