REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: Consultancy for needs assessment for the establishment of new and strengthening of current regional centers of leadership
CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT SELECTION
Reference No. (as per Procurement Plan): BW-CCARDESA-2023113-CS-INDV
The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) has received financing from the World Bank toward cost of the facilitation of the implementation of the Food Systems Resilience Project (FSRP) and intends to apply part of the proceeds to engage an individual consultant to lead the needs assessment consultancy for the establishment of new and strengthening of current regional centers of leadership under Food System Resilience Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The overall objective of this assignment is to assess the needs of the National Agriculture Research and Extension Systems (NARES) for them to be able to conduct agricultural research and extension services for use in supporting the establishment of new Regional Centers of Leadership (RCoLs) and strengthening the existing RCoLs.
The scope of methods should be selected to fit the purposes and context of the needs assessment and able to set priorities and criteria for solutions to be used by CCARDESA and partners for sound decision-making to improve the capacity of human, physical, and financial resources with the aim of improving the delivery of programs, services, organizational structure and operations, or a combination of these elements. The consultant will be expected to synthesise data and draft the assessment report and present the findings of the assessment during validation meetings and update the report based on comments received.
The consultant will be expected to, among others, undertake the following tasks:
Under needs identification, the consultant is expected to categorize the countries into two thus:
a) Identification of the capacity gaps for the RCoLs and NARES
Group 1: The countries with already established RCoLs. These countries were capacitated through CCARDESA to establish Regional Centers of Leadership based on their priority commodities. Malawi was capacitated to be the Centre of Leadership in maize-based farming systems, and Mozambique became a leader in rice-based farming systems. At the same time, Zambia was supported to become a leader in Legume based farming systems. The countries were supported in improving infrastructure and human capacity through long- and short-term trainings. The consultant is expected to analyze how the RCoLs utilize the facilities and identify the emerging challenges that will require further support to operationalize and sustain the RCoLs fully. In addition, the consultant is expected to generate lessons for use in supporting the establishment of the new RCoLs.
Group 2: The second category comprises the countries that have not established RCoLs in the priority value chains. This will target 13 SADC Countries, excluding the three Countries with already established RCoLs (Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia) and the Countries currently being supported to establish the RCoL (Angola and Lesotho). The consultant will be expected to establish the priority commodities and determine the capacity needs of these countries to establish a Center of Leadership in the specific commodities.
The consultant is also expected to analyze the agricultural/farming technologies and services to identify gaps for supporting the upgrading of existing national centers through institutional linkages with regional and international networks and academic and research institutions; for coordinating specific knowledge and expert exchange programs working with national and regional centers.
b) Assessment of high-level policies, initiatives, institutional arrangements, and even budgeting decisions that have cross-cutting relevance to food systems resilience.
The consultant will review policies, assess entry points for building a resilience-focus into national planning mechanisms and policies, and develop a new-generation framework for carrying out agricultural public expenditure reviews (PERs) that offer insight into opportunities to better align public resources with resilience-informed policy priorities. The consultant will carry out policy and value chain analyses, needs assessments, and other analytical work, notably focusing on seed production and regulatory systems, intellectual property rights, and biosafety regulations to activities on regional policy dialogue.
c) Identify the actions and resources required for CCARDESA to strengthening the research system’s response to the challenges of climate change.
The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa now invites eligible individual consultants to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested consultants should provide information (Comprehensive CVs that show description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions) demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.
The shortlisting criteria are:
The consultant shall be well qualified and experienced as required and appropriate for execution of the assignment. The consultant should possess necessary technical capacity and resources to perform the assignment of such nature including relevant equipment and software. The Consultant shall have the following minimum qualifications and experience:
• Education: At least a Masters degree in Agriculture, Social Sciences, development studies, Strategic Management, or equivalent.
• Experience: At least fifteen (15) years of professional experience in conducting capacity gap assessment studies with emphasis in human, infrastructure, financial, and institutional policies.
• Experience: Minimum of ten (10) years experience in leading assessment of policies at national and regional levels preferably in Agriculture.
• Language Requirements: English will be the working language. Knowledge of French and Portuguese will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrable ability to write concise technical papers and synthesis reports on subjects related to the assignment; and
• Experience in policy analysis will be an added advantage
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 1.9 of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants by World Bank Borrowers (“Consultant Guidelines”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Further information (terms of reference) can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0900 to 1630 hours.
Interested Individual Consultants should submit their expressions of interest, detailed curriculum vitae and a brief technical proposal to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) not later than 01st February 2024. Applications should bear the name of the assignment in the subject field.
The Procurement Officer
Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research in Southern Africa (CCARDESA)
Ground Floor, Red Brick Building
Plot 4701 Mmaraka Road
Private Bag 00357
Gaborone, Botswana
E-mail: procurement@ccardesa.org
Tel: +267 3914997
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