DEADLINE: 20TH JUNE, 2022
ALLIANCE FOR A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA (AGRA)
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR CO-DEVELOP FARMING-SYSTEM SPECIFIC, EXTENSION CONTENT FOR ENHANCING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEMS IN THREE REPRESENTATIVE FARMING SYSTEMS OF AFRICA
SOLICITATION REFERENCE NO.: RFP/078/RES/2022
Synopsis of the Request for Proposal
| Solicitation Reference No. | RFP/078/RES/2022 |
| Title of Solicitation | Co-develop farming-system specific, extension content for enhancing climate change adaptation and resilient food systems in three representative farming systems of Africa |
| Work Stream | Sustainable Farming |
| Issuing Office & Address | Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Website: www.agra.org |
| Point of contact for clarifications, questions | AGRA General Procurement, Procurement@agra.org |
| Email Address for submission of Proposals | AGRA General Procurement, Procurement@agra.org |
| Location of the assignment | Regional (Sub Saharan Africa) |
| Solicitation Issue Date | June 6, 2022 |
| Deadline for submission questions and clarifications | June 13, 2022 5:00PM East African Time |
| Confirmation of interest in this consultancy | Interested consultants/bidders are requested to register on the link below by June 13, 2022, 5:00PM EAT. Any additional communication will be shared with those that will have registered on the link below. For Registration Link click: HERE |
| Deadline for Answering questions and clarifications | June 15, 2022 5:00PM, East African Time |
| Deadline for Submission of Proposals | June 20,20225:00PM, East African Time. Please include the subject line “RFP/078/RES/2022” of the email. |
| Type of consultant | Consultancy Firm |
| Anticipated Award Type | CONSULTANCY AGREEMENT |
| Procurement Method | Quality Based Selection (QBS) |
| Evaluation Criteria | Mandatory Eligibility Requirements: Company profile. Trading license or Certificate of incorporation or Certificate of Registration Tax clearance certificate (Applicable to firms originating from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique). Three reference letters of similar work carried out CVs of key personnel. Evaluation Criteria Organizational Capacity ………………………………………………………………………………….10% similar assignments …………………………………………………………….…….25% Proposed approach, methodology and workplan………………………………………………..25% 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 |
1. Introduction
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a dynamic, African-led partnership that is working to put the smallholder farmer at the center of economic development in the continent. In the just completed strategy (2017-2021, PIATA 1)
AGRA sought to catalyze an agricultural transformation in eleven (11) key focus countries, namely: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. AGRA’s overall goal is to catalyze and sustain an Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa to increase incomes and improve food security of at least 30 million smallholder-farming households with a set of targeted catalytic downstream and systemic investments coupled with government engagement made through its alliance of partners.
2. Background of the Assignment
Last mile delivery of knowledge, inputs and markets has been a challenge in African agriculture due to weak extension systems that are not able to reach small holder farmers. Public sector driven extension systems in most African countries have been severely weakened since early 1990s due to weak funding allocation by Governments. Extension worker to farmer rations of 1:3000 or even up to 10000 farmers are common in many sub-Saharan Africa countries. Over the past four years, AGRA’s partners strengthened the Extension Systems through the identification and training of self-employed VBAs to teach farmers about the value of improved crop varieties, improved fertilizer blends, and good agronomic practices to improve the productivity of key staple food crops (mainly maize) in their farming systems. We supported VBAs to get basic knowledge and skills to support farmers adopt good agronomic practices for major staples. However, the available extension contents are not only biased towards maize, but these are also rarely integrating crop production with natural resources conservation, climate change adaptation, and land restoration. With climate change and increasing food demand due to population increase, there is a need to employ more integrated and diversified farming that could lead towards sustainable farming.
Sustainable farming, which is linking farms with healthy ecosystems, demands growing a wide range of crops including fruit trees, vegetables, and drought-tolerant crops to ensure production of food and generation of income during periodic droughts (adaptation to climate shocks and stresses). It, therefore, involves crop diversification from key staple food crops to other preferred crops within their farming systems. Crops including root and tuber crops such as yams, cassava, and sweet potato, oilseed crops such as sunflower, and sesame, legumes such as groundnuts, vegetable crops, and tree crops will minimize climate risks. The inclusion of these crops, as well as livestock (e.g., poultry) can assist farmers to reduce the risks of climate shocks and stresses while improving farm productivity. Given the diversity of farming systems in Africa, and most of our target countries lie in the Maize-based, Sorghum-millet-based and dry crop-livestock-based farming systems, there is a need to develop context-specific and easy-to-use extension content along with availing technological options for farmers to innovate and integrate the best fitting solutions to their local situations.
3. Objective of the assignment
The two major objectives of this consultancy are to:
- Co-create and validate farming system specific, targeted extension content for sustainable farming that responds to climate change for potential use by VBAs and other extension service providers in target countries; and
- Package,avail and institutionalize context-specific extension content to extension service providers aligned to priority information needs of farmers for potential use in target countries
