Recruitment of a consultant to manage the receipt, review, and revision of the TAAT policy studies – Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department (AHAI) Rue Joseph Anoma, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Cote d’Ivoire

E-mail: K.JOHM@AFDB.ORG & D.BENNIRAN@AFDB.ORG

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANCY

FOR A CONSULTANT TO MANAGE THE RECEIPT, REVIEW, AND REVISION OF THE TAAT POLICY STUDIES.

 

Brief description of the Assignment : Working from the respective regional member country, the Consultant will review and analyse the impact of national and regional agricultural policies in Africa.

The broad objective of the assignment is for the consultant to receive, review, and validate reports of the TAAT Policy Studies in 10 countries (Nigeria; Senegal; Uganda; Mauritania; Mozambique; Guinee Conakry; Tanzania; Zambia; Ghana; DRC). The review also includes both the assessment and synthesis of national and regional agricultural development strategy papers and their alignment with the Feed Africa Strategy and the assessment of the Enabling the Business of Agriculture in the RMCs. In addition, the Technical consultant is expected to develop an explicit Bank-specific AVCD policy/approach which will include a common terminology; a consistent set of fundamentals, technical guidelines and toolkit to be used by operations staff. Moreover, He/she is required to develop a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to track the outputs, outcomes and impact of AVCD focused interventions;

Department issuing the request : Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department

Place of assignment : The Consultant will be based at the Bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for the duration of the contract.

Duration of the assignment : 12 months

Tentative Date of commencement : 01 March 2019

Detailed Terms of reference for the assignment : [TORs below]

Deadline for applications : 01 February 2019

Applications to be submitted to : Mr. Johm Ken K.JOHM@AFDB.ORG & Ms. Dorra Ben Nirane D.BENNIRAN@AFDB.ORG

ANNEX I

Terms of Reference for a Consultant to Manage the Receipt, Review, and Revision of the TAAT Policy Studies.

1. Introduction

The African Development Bank, through its Agriculture and Agro Industry Department (AHAI) and Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Department (AHFR), provides support for the delivery of the Feed Africa Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (2016-2025). This Strategy aims to end hunger and rural poverty in the next decade through self-sufficiency and export leadership in 18 priority commodity value chains specific to the continent’s agro-ecological zones. Realizing the objectives set forth in the strategy requires a public sector enabled and private sector driven approach to increase productivity; value addition; investment in infrastructure as well as promote an enabling agribusiness environment and increased capital flows for inclusive and sustainable food and nutrition security.

The Bank wishes to recruit the services of an individual consultant to support its work on review of agricultural policies and their impact in Regional member Countries (RMCs). The consultant will be responsible to receive, review, and revision of the TAAT Policy Studies in 10 countries (Nigeria; Senegal; Uganda; Mauritania; Mozambique; Guinee Conakry; Tanzania; Zambia; Ghana; DRC). The consultant will also oversee implementation of recommendations on the evaluation of the Agricultural Value Chain Development (AVCD) approach by the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) department of the Bank.

2. Background

The Banks is leading agriculture policy analysis in 10 countries to review, assess, analyze, synthesis and integrate various sectoral and macroeconomics policies, laws and regulation impacting the agricultural sector using agriculture policy consultants. The review also includes an assessment of their achievements, success factors, constraints or hurdles into a comprehensive, harmonized, consistent and coherent policy review document that can be used as a sourcebook to provide guidance in policy incentives to grow the agricultural sector. In addition, the technical consultant is expected to make critical recommendations to the management of the AHAI based on results and findings from the desk review research, prospective policy intervention areas that exhibit potential for immediate impact.

The consultant is expected to evaluate and validate draft reports from policy consultants on implementation and impact of national and regional agricultural development plans and policies. The review and writing process by the consultants is expected to go through about two or three drafts in terms of content, structure and design, each submitted for technical peer review within AHAI-AfDB. The consultant will oversee this process and ensure it meets the original goals of the agricultural policy analysis. In writing, integrating and editing the review reports, the consultant is required to communicate in language that can be well-understood by a general audience. The consultant will be required to demonstrate through his or her writing an understanding of the successes and failures of the national and regional agricultural development strategy implementation, policy reforms and what needed to be done differently to achieve the broad vision of the agricultural development or transformation in RMCs. The final product will be a well-reviewed assessment of the current national and regional agricultural development policy accomplishments, impacts and gaps ready to support and guide policy dialogues, Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and negotiations with policymakers at the RMCs.

The AVCD methodology is central to the Bank’s agricultural sector portfolio and the Feed Africa Strategy (2016-2025). In this context, AVCD refers to the identification, comprehensive analysis, targeted support and mitigation of risk for a specific value chain(s) that has the capacity to generate benefit for all actors engaged in input supply, production, storing, transporting, processing, marketing and consumption; with a particular focus on inclusive approaches that generate additional benefit to smallholder farmers, women and youth.

In 2017, the Bank’s Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) department conducted an evaluation of Bank’s support to AVCD over the period 2005-2016 with a view of generating lessons and recommendations for supporting the implementation of Feed Africa Strategy. The purpose of this evaluation was two-fold namely to a) assess the performance of the Bank’s project approaches in relation to AVCD with respect to relevance, effectiveness and sustainability; and b) provide key lessons that can be applied for designing new AVCD interventions and improving ongoing ones. The results of the evaluation revealed that substantial potential for strengthening the AVCD approach exist within the Bank’s strategies and operations.

Most of the fundamentals for AVCD are evident to varying extent throughout the Bank’s interventions. However, all will require strengthening to achieve the intended outcomes of the Feed Africa Strategy via an AVCD approach. In particular, to increase relevance, greater focus could be given to generating a clear approach and guidance on how to incorporate AVCD features in project design, particularly in applying value chain analysis, focusing on responsiveness to markets, and profitability while supporting sustainability. The consultant will ensure that recommendations from the IDEV study are being mainstreamed into the Bank’s Feed Africa projects and loans.

3. Objective of the Assignment

The Consultant will be required to :

1. Rreceive, review, and validate reports of the TAAT Policy Studies in 10 countries (Nigeria; Senegal; Uganda; Mauritania; Mozambique; Guinee Conakry; Tanzania; Zambia; Ghana; DRC) ;
2. Assessment and synthesis of national and regional agricultural development strategy papers and their alignment with the Feed Africa Strategy ;
3. Assessment of the Enabling the Business of Agriculture in the RMCs ;
4. Develop an explicit Bank-specific AVCD policy/approach which will include a common terminology, a consistent set of fundamentals, technical guidelines and toolkit to be used by operations staff ;
5. Develop a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to track the outputs, outcomes and impact of AVCD focused interventions ;
6. Lead the organization of a Bank-wide capacity development program/event to disseminate and mainstream the AVCD approach into operations ;
7. Carry out any other activities directly related to this assignment.

4. Qualification and Experience

• The consultant should have at least a Master’s Degree in agricultural policy, agricultural economics, economics with considerable knowledge in the areas of Agricultural Policy and AVCD ;
• The candidate must have at least 20 years’ experience working in his/her area of specialty ;
• S/he should have the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with different levels of government officials, private sector agencies and relevant stakeholders ;
• The consultant should have had previous experience working with multi-lateral development institutions in implementing donor funded projects with a sound understanding development projects ;
• Proven capability, capacity and experience in crafting high level policy review documents, reports and book projects written within a development and research and economic policy institutions and organization or university environment ;
• Working experience within multicultural teams and international organizations or companies and highly knowledgeable of Africa’s social, agricultural and rural development and economic development issues, questions and challenges ;
• Ability to synthesize, weave and link complex propositions, theories and model outputs into a coherent message and document that can be published as a sourcebook to guide policy dialogue, negotiation and advocacy missions to RMCs ;
• S/he must have extensive knowledge and experience in working in Africa ;
• The consultant must be conversant with the Bank’s project cycle activities ;
• S/he must be computer literate ;
• S/he should have excellent communication skills and be proficient in both written and spoken English.

 

5. Duration :

The duration of the assignment will be 12 months commencing on 1^th March 2019.

6. Location :

The Consultant will be based at the Bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for the duration of the contract.

7. Reporting Requirements :

The Consultant will report to the Director of the Agriculture and Agro-Industries Department (AHAI) S/he will be directly supervised by the Lead Adviser on Special Initiatives (AHAI.0).

Please send a one page Motivation letter and an updated Curriculum Vitae (see AfDB Personal

History Form (PHF) available at : https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Generic-

 

Documents/CONSULTANT_JOB_APPLICATION_FORM.docx