Alliance For Green Revolution In Africa (AGRA)- Request For Proposal For Consensus Building And Institutionalization Of Outcome-Oriented Sustainable Farming Approaches

DEADLINE:15TH APRIL, 2022
ALLIANCE FOR GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR THE CONSENSUS BUILDING AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OUTCOME-ORIENTED SUSTAINABLE FARMING APPROACHES

Synopsis of the Request for Proposal

Evaluation Criteria

Mandatory Eligibility Requirements:
(a) Company profile.

(b) Trading license or Certificate of incorporation or Certificate of Registration

(c) Tax clearance certificate (Applicable to firms originating from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique).

(d) List of current and past clients/ /references/agreements and their contact details.

(e) CVs of key personnel.

Evaluation Criteria
(a) Organizational Capacity ………………………………………………………………………………….10%

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

(c) Proposed approach, methodology and workplan………………………………………………..25%

(d) Experience and qualifications of key personnel …………………………………………………40% 
Total:………………………………………………………………………………………….100%  

NB.
(1) Minimum technical pass mark for technical evaluation is 75%

(2) AGRA will negotiate with the firm that attains the best technical score

TERMS OF REFERENCE
CONSENSUS BUILDING AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF OUTCOME-ORIENTED SUSTAINABLE FARMING APPROACHES

(1) Introduction
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an African-led nonprofit organization established in 2006 to transform agriculture into farming as a business that thrives, putting farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy. AGRA’s mission is to catalyze and sustain an inclusive agricultural transformation (IAT) in Africa through innovation-driven productivity increases, and access to markets and finance that improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers. With its headquarters in Kenya, AGRA has country teams present in 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

(2) Background of the Assignment
In the context of food insecurity, a changing climate, dwindling natural resources and increasing social and economic inequalities, concerns for more healthy food systems and the ecosystem services that support them, have been gaining momentum particularly as more scientific evidence becomes available. However, the conventional approaches of agricultural sustainability, with largely industrial, specialized few commodities, mechanization and economies of scale may not necessarily work for sub-Saharan Africa due to the different settings and contexts. Hence, there are calls to re-examine this approach considering the broader environmental, food security and socio-economic challenges of Africa.

African agriculture is still suffering from high yield gap, natural resources degradation and vulnerability to climate change, particularly drought and flooding. In Africa there was a 30% increase in the frequency and duration of drought events since the year 2000 . Only in 2019, the climate crisis affected over 33 million people across east and southern African countries in food insecurity as a result of floods, landslides, drought and cyclones. It has been impacting SSA more than and other continents because its economies are largely based on weather-sensitive crop-livestock systems but also due to the low adaptation capacity of communities to threats of climate change.

The recently concluded UN food systems summit  made critical recommendations to ensure a climate resilient and food secured community, among them (i) Boosting Nature-Positive Production at Sufficient Scales that would curb climate change, reducing emissions and increasing carbon capture, regenerating and protecting critical ecosystems and (ii) Building Resilience of communities to Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stresses. There are multiple approaches out there proposed to address these challenges, including regenerative agriculture, agroecology, sustainable intensification, sustainable farming and so on. However, we are still in search of operationalization of these approaches to support smallholder farmers, their aspirations, needs, livelihoods, rights, and how these needs interact with the resource base in a sustainable way.  This also calls for an integrated approach and strong partnership across scales and disciplines.

AGRA considers Sustainable Farming (SF) as a viable strategy for responding to these multiple challenges faced by SSA; which is an integrated approach for achieving multiple goals of improving the productivity and profitability of small-scale farmers, managing climate and market risks while enhancing soil health, and ecological services of landscapes and livelihoods. It is derived by the local food systems, economic profitability, efficient and recycled use of resources, benefiting from renewable energy, and most importantly adopting agroecological principles.

Continental and regional platforms established at local or higher levels could serve as a strategy to explore technological, organizational, and institutional solutions, making them ideal for addressing farming system problems in an integrated manner. Platforms and policy forums would also serve as a space for learning, action, and change in sustainable food systems. The forums could bring a group of institutions, represented by key individuals with different backgrounds, expertise, and intere sts, comprising traders, food processors, researchers, government officials, and development partners. The members come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities, and find ways to achieve their goals. Innovation Platforms facilitate interaction and collaboration within and between networks of farmers, governmental and non-governmental service providers, policymakers, researchers, private sector players, and other stakeholders in the agricultural system.

It is against the above background that AGRA seeks the services of an expert in regenerative agriculture with an understanding of African agriculture and its context to support AGRA’s Programme Innovation and Delivery Division; and the Strategy Development Unit in conceptualising and defining key elements of sustainable farming for its 2030 strategy implementation. The experts will work with and support the AGRA team to identify key innovations and related tracking indicators at country and regional level.

(3) OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The objectives of this project would be:

• to mobilize influential, regional research networks, academics, private sector, development partners and government institutions towards institutionalization and operationalization of sustainable farming in research, development and planning of agricultural systems in targeted AGRA countries,
• synthesis the available knowledge and innovations for enriching the sustainable farming framework by lessons and innovations learned from the differing concepts and approaches and
• develop Theory of Action for sustainable farming workstream and operationalization plans by respective countries.

The firm will work closely with AGRA’s resilience and sustainable farming team, under the supervision of the Vice President of Programmes Innovation and Delivery.

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