Re-Advertisement: Terms of Reference for an Impact Study: Scaling Investment for Resilience of East Africa Coffee Producers Project

Deadline Date: Sunday, 31 May 2020

Tags: finance
Organization: Solidaridad Eas & Central Africa
Country: United Republic of Tanzania

Preamble

Solidaridad strives to be an organization that understands the signs of modern times, seeking to be a Civil Society Organization (CSO) with its own place and role in society, while simultaneously interacting with Governments and markets. The organization envisions a world in which all we produce, and all we consume can sustain us while respecting the planet, and the next generations. Solidaridad embraces the public-private and people partnerships (PPPP) in order to test innovations, speeding up change and take success to scale. Globally, Solidaridad works around coffee and other 12 commodities / sectors (http://www.solidaridadnetwork.org

Program Summary

The Coffee Resilience Program 2018-2020 dubbed Practice for Change (PFC) is a multi-country program on 2 main result areas as per Solidaridad Strategic vision: Good practices and Robust Infrastructure. The program supports 23,500 small and medium scale coffee farmers/producers across 3 East African countries; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. The program was designed to address a myriad of challenges facing East African Coffee farmers which include; high costs of production, poor governance at cooperative level, decreasing coffee productivity, poor quality of coffee, erratic weather conditions, low income earned by coffee farmers, limited access to finance for coffee farmers and the need for a data driven sector

Despite the above issues, smallholder farming is a resilient practice and has a strong future for East African coffee producers. Smallholder farming has stood strong despite the tribulations that some of these countries have undergone since the 70’s. It is however, imperative that the sector players should continue to work in a more coordinated and collaborative manner. Solidaridad East and Central Africa in a consortium with the public and private sector players work towards driving an inclusive, resilient and economically viable coffee production region that moves from slow and small to speed and scale. The program has been running since January 2018 in Kenya-(Kirinyaga, Meru, Nyeri, Machakos and Embu Counties), Tanzania- (Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions), Uganda (Kapchorwa and Kiruhura Districts) and targets over 23,500 smallholder farmers and medium size farmers.

Expected Outcomes:

1. Increase productivity to 4 kg of cherry per tree (baseline is 2 kg per tree) for smallholder coffee farmers and 6 kg of cherry per tree (baseline is 3 kg per tree) for medium scale farmers as result of GP by 2021.
2. Increase quality by 25% (premium grades reaching 70% from 45%) as result of GP package by 2021.
3. 20% increase in income for farmers as result of increased coffee productivity & diversification.
4. 10% women membership and direct access to knowledge and income from coffee by 2021.
5. Economic and farming performance data available to farmers, cooperatives and financial institutions through ICT solutions.
6. Farmers access finance to invest in good practices and/or new technologies.
7. 1M Euro of blended finance secured from financial institutions or investors to implement in good practices and robust infrastructure by 2021.
8. Improved governance, efficiency and accountability in coffee cooperatives involved in the project.

The objectives of this impact study are:

1. Assess the impacts (both intended and unintended) of the program, measure the magnitude of the impacts, and determine the causal factors underlying the impacts.
2. Provide information that improve the effectiveness of the coffee program implemented by Solidaridad East and Central Africa.
3. Examine the relevance of best practices promoted by Solidaridad East and Central Africa on the program outcome areas

Study Methodology:

The methodology for this study will include both direct and indirect data collection, analysis and cross referencing and formulating recommendations thematically and as area/site specific. The Consultant will finalize the methodology to undertake this study in line with the scope of the assessment, presented and refined with the management during the inception meeting.

The methodology used during this assessment will overall, include, but not be limited to the following:

a. Review existing relevant secondary information and reports related to the East Africa coffee origin.

b. Review of previous Solidaridad coffee project level documents and reports.

c. Discuss with key Solidaridad staff, partners and key informants at Office and field implementation levels.

d. Carry out field visits in the implementation areas for data collection, observations and triangulation.

e. Hold community level participatory meetings and focused group discussions for data collection and information gathering.

f. Carry out household level survey for data collection through structured questionnaires.

g. Data collection will also entail analysis of climate risks and vulnerability where both secondary data and primary data through qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be done.

h. Special emphasis will be put on women spaces, youth engagement and people with disabilities participation, so as to understand and recommend interventions on issues concerning these interest groups from a gender, youth and people with disability inclusion’s perspective.

i. Use of data from local institutions or organizations.

j. Data analysis and verification of analyzed data.

Deliverables:

1. Work plan and expression of interest (EOI) for the baseline study, outlining;

a. A detailed methodology for implementation of the study, including proposed sample sizes.

b. Draft data collection tools (The Consultant shall refine proposed standard indicators in reference to the proposed project indicators and the Solidaridad impact study guidelines.

c. A detailed timeline for the study

2. Presentation of survey methodology to Solidaridad team in an inception meeting and to incorporate suggestions in final inception report.

3. Draft report of the study for the feedback and comments of Solidaridad and partners involved.

4. Presentation on the main findings of the study for validation involving project teams, and other stakeholders as agreed with project team.

5. A final report in English with a maximum of not more than 40 pages, excluding annexes and consisting both hard and soft (CD ROM/USB) copies, with the following sections:

§ Executive Summary

§ Introduction

§ Literature review

§ Methodology

§ Findings of the study.

§ Conclusions and recommendations as per the project’s outcomes, outputs, activities, and indicators

§ Electronic annexes with the site-by-site raw data used for the analysis.

Scope of work:

The assignment will cover Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. In Kenya, it will cover Kirinyaga, Embu, Machakos, Nyeri and Meru Counties. In Tanzania, it will cover Kilimanjaro landscape whereas in Uganda it covers the eastern regions.

Coordination and cooperation:

The Consultant undertaking the study will work with Solidaridad Regional/Country coordination team.

Expert/Consultant’s Profile:

Individual Consultants or consultancy firms/companies with verifiable research work in the coffee sector are encouraged to express their interests.

1. Relevant degree(s) in social sciences or development studies,

2. Strong experience with and knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods and sampling strategies

3. Experience with in designing and conducting studies using experimental or quasi-experimental techniques. Experience with longitudinal study designs desired.

4. Statistical analysis skills and strong proficiency with data analysis packages.

5. Proven experience in conducting baseline study surveys, impact studies and evaluations, preferably on coffee industry

6. Research experience working with coffee farmers is an added advantage

7. Excellent communication and written skills in English