hiring of Consultant to Assess Performance of the Farmer Learning and Resource Centers (FLRCs) and Producers Market Organizations (PMOs)

         Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

               Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock

(بخش مالداریNHLP--Livestock Component)

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

For hiring of Consultant

to Assess Performance of the Farmer Learning and Resource Centers (FLRCs) and Producers Market Organizations (PMOs) established under National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP).

(FLRC and PMOs Assessment Consultant - INDIVIDUAL)

Publication Date: September 25^st, 2019

National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) Livestock Component:

Grant No.:TF013820 – Project ID: P143841

REOI No. HC-CS-2019-131

The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has received Grants No. TF-013820 for financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) of MAIL, and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

1. 1 Introduction:

The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has received Grant No.TF-013820 for financing from the World Bank towards the cost of the National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) of MAIL and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.

The National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) is a program of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The project was scheduled to run for 6 years in the first instance, from January 2013 to December 2018 – with a two-year extension that extends the program through December 2020. The NHLP is a successor and up-scaling program to the Horticulture and Livestock Project (HLP), which was implemented by MAIL from January 2007 to December 2012 with financing from the World Bank and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF). The HLP developed and piloted a model for agricultural extension, which is the vehicle of service delivery to farmers in the NHLP. The NHLP is part of MAIL’s response to Afghanistan’s agricultural development strategy, the National Agricultural Development Strategy (NADS) whose objective is: Economic growth and food security depend upon natural resource management, increasing agricultural production and productivity, improved physical infrastructure and market development. This is the path to poverty reduction, licit crops and national security. This is the mission of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

Agricultural Production and Productivity is one of the 4 national priority programs of the NADS. Its objective is “to sustainably increase the production and productivity of Afghanistan’s farmers and herders through the provision of enhanced inputs, services and research; to move Afghanistan closer to self-sufficiency in basic crops, expand production of cash crops (vegetables, horticulture and industrial crops) to meet domestic and export demands, and improve the supply of animal products for the food and handicrafts industry”. The NHLP is MAIL’s lead program in the Sub-Programs Horticulture and Livestock of the Agricultural Production and Productivity (APP) national priority program. In its approach, the NHLP closely follows the following guiding principles of the NADS: Demand-driven, diverse and flexible, relevance and impact, efficiency and sustainability require that agricultural development be driven by local consumer and market demand, adapting to Afghanistan’s changing conditions and agro-ecological, social and cultural diversity.

1.2- Farmer Learning and Resource Centers (FLRCs):

The FLRCs are platforms for information exchange and experience sharing. The FLRCs is to assist in the articulation of the farmers’ demand for extension services and is to provide a mechanism for linking the “demand” with “service suppliers”. This public– private partnership framework shall define the role of all stakeholders and identify the capacity needs in MAIL to meet its public sector responsibilities (National Agriculture Extension Policy (NAEP) of MAIL, Part II: Implementation Strategy, 2016).

Objectives of the FLRCs:

• To communicate aggregated farmer demands to providers and monitor service provision.
• To ensure that the quality and quantity of the demanded service is adequately provided for within an agreed time frame.
• To improve community driven decisions on agriculture extension interventions
• To strengthen development of the local institutions and build supportive linkage between intuitions
• To unify MAIL-MRRD efforts toward development and farmers’ empowerment
• To encourage Cluster CDCs to support agricultural initiatives and assist in the process of identification and prioritization of problems and formation of farmers groups through Agricultural Sub-committees (ASCs)
• To maintain collaboration between stakeholders on communities’ requirements

The Farmer Field School (FFS), a group-based, intensive and hands-on extension methodology, is considered as one model of FLRCs. It emphasizes discovery-based learning through regular field observations and collective analyses of the results, rather than adopting pre-designed techniques and solutions. The FFS approach to learning will ensure that the work is relevant to the needs of resource-poor farmers, enabling their own decision-making on undertakings within their means and due consideration of the environmental context. FFS adopts an informal approach to educate farmers through the learning-by-doing process. The horticulture growers will form the prime ‘learning material’ while additional field studies may be conducted to address specific problems.

According to the FFS approach, farming is considered as a matter of decision-making, such as which crop to grow, variety to use, management practices to adopt, etc., and the decision-making is basically determined by the degree of understanding of all these practices. Traditionally, all farmers have a wealth of practical experience, but they also have many misconceptions and fears about farming. Many farmers do not get the opportunity to benefit themselves from an understanding of basic science about farming. Farmer Field Schools train farmers to make wise decisions by combining the basics they learn during FFS and their inherited practical farming experience. This better decision-making enables farmers to improve their production and farm income on a sustainable basis and paced according to their means.

To-date, the NHLP has established 63 of a planned 250 FFSs. To move forward with establishing the remaining centers, it is imperative to independently assess the performance of the current FFSs. The assessment will provide feedback on the current status of the FFSs and will inform the NHLP, MAIL, World Bank, and other stakeholders whether the established FFS has brought about the desired program effects, how it has supported the National Agricultural Extension strategy and to which extent it has met the FLRC objectives outlines above. In addition, the assessment will provide recommendations on how to maximize the impact of the FFS approach and provide guidance on any necessary revision to the current implementation model, with special reference to sustainability and further evolution of the process through local farmer consultation via CDCs.

1.3- Producers Market Organizations (PMOs):

Under NHLP a Common Interest Groups (CIGs) are comprised of 15-25 farmers/members. From the common interest groups (CIGs) working on a particular horticulture or livestock value chain, PMOs are formed on selective basis. These POMs are legal entities registered with the Ministry of Justice and other relevant governmental organizations e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and its Directorate of Seeds Certification.  seAnd are the federated units of the CIGs that would play an advocacy role with a stronger collective voice. They are expected to be in a stronger position to negotiate with traders and wholesale markets, due to their increased supply capabilities, structure and capacity build by NHLP Marketing team.  The PMOs might also be able to buy inputs at cheaper prices due to volume discounts they would be in a position to negotiate. All the plat forms like Shuras shall be used to organize and increase the market efficiency.

Objectives of the PMOs:

• Establishment of productive backward and forward Market linkages
• Capacity building of the farmers on agribusiness development and marketing
• Technical and financial support to PMO-members, Village Groups Leaders (VGLs) and Lead Farmers (LFs)

PMO establishment and registration

1. For each of the horticulture commodity, the CIGs are already functional in the communities. One PMO comprises of ten CIGs, and each district has tentatively one PMO. If this arrangement is not feasible and numerous PMOs (each comprised of ten CIGs) will have to be formed from a district, the PMOs will be further federated into district PMOs. 

2. For the livestock commodities as none of the commodities have formed CIGs yet except for poultry, support from the VGLs will be required to form groups and then PMOs. For poultry from the existing or new CIGs, ten CIGs will be grouped from a geographical location to form one PMO, for dairy four CIGs (two male CIGs and two female CIGs) will form one marketing committee which will have a common collection point and three marketing committee (comprising of 12 CIGs total) will form one PMO which will be responsible for marketing as well as operation of one collection center.  When the livestock start their production of commodities like Milk and fish the Extensions worker shall be engaged for marketing too.

3. The PMOs are registered with the statutory registering authority of the Government of Afghanistan and are legal entities with a constitution developed separately for each entity as is currently being practiced and functioning bank account for transaction. A membership fees is paid by each CIG member to be a part of the PMO. In addition, there is provision of regular savings or service fees to cover various transaction and travel costs for PMO members.

4. The PMOs constitutes of democratically elected committee members who are trained by NHLP marketing unit in coordination with the horticulture and livestock technical teams in the field on linkages with traders, markets and service providers, maintaining books of accounts and data of transaction.

5. The major responsibility of each of the PMO will include linkages of the CIGs and farmers with the local and international traders, locating and trading with local and international markets, functioning as the federated body responsible for representing the CIGs from a particular value chain.

6. All the PMOs receive training, initial linkage support and other technical assistance required to set up and upscale the business from NHLP team in various stages such as production, post-harvesting, processing, marketing or trading.

Till date NHLP marketing unit has established 78 Producer Market Organizations (46 male PMOs and 25 female PMOs) from the planned 200 PMOs till end of project. Out of 78 PMOs 18 are registered with the Ministry of justice and 28 others are documented and registration is under process.

2. Description of Assignment:

2.1- FLRCs Assessment:

The assessment will investigate if the NHLP Farmer Field Schools are established, equipped, resourced, and managed as intended to empower farmers to learn and develop the skills and knowledge required for informed decision-making in complex situations. The assessment will determine to which extent the process of FFS establishment has been demand driven based on the needs of the farmers and to which extent farmers actively participate in learning and applying the knowledge to improve farming practices. It will identify bottlenecks in meeting the FLRC objectives and propose recommendations how to address them.

The assessment will focus on the following key areas:

• Assess overall performance and reach of FFS at the district and community level.
• Asses to which extent FFSs meet the FLRCs objectives and how they address key priorities within the NAEP.
• Highlight the role and relevance of FFS activities in responding to today’s farming challenge.
• Review FFS basic learning cycle and follow-up action mechanism.
• Measure consistency in FFS program activities across FLRCs.
• Take stock of the type of capacity needs at FFSs.
• Through examples, examine FFSs capacity in understanding and identifying community needs.
• Assess FFS engagement with relevant actors and stakeholders at the community level.
• Role of FLRCs in the extension system.

2.2- PMOs Assessment:

The assessment will explore the effectiveness of established PMOs and services provided to them. The assessment will find out the efficiency of the organizations, how the organizations assist the farmers to enhance quality, search for markets and develop their bargaining skills.

The assessment will focus on the following key areas:

• Overall functioning and institutional capacity of PMOs.
• Services delivered to PMO- members.

• Capacity building through conducted trainings for the PMOs.
• Skills and Knowledge of PMOs for Business initiation and development.
• The market linkages, B2B linkages I,e, partnership established between PMOs members and traders, exporter and processers.
• Assessment of PMO-members, LFs, and VGLs technical and financial support.
• Role of PMOs in the extension system.

3. Specific Tasks:

3.1- FLRCs:

• Review existing relevant background information related to NHLP interventions in horticulture and Livestock sub-sectors in Afghanistan.
• Closely work with NHLP management and M&E staff, MAIL, WB and EU Delegation to get a solid understanding of the FLRC concept and program objectives under its current and planned FFS interventions. 
• Prepare an assessment work plan for NHLP and MAIL management review and approval.
• Design assessment methodology and sampling /survey strategy with reasonable justifications.
• Conduct field visits to FFSs to interview FFS team, farmers and relevant stakeholders (e.g. DAIL, Agricultural Sub-committees of CDCs).
• Assess the operational capacity of FFS using FFS programming frameworks.
• Review the role of FLRCs in the extension system and propose necessary adjustments to consolidate FLRCs and the integrated of the system.
• Prepare assessment report and provide recommendations on way forward.

3.2- PMOs:

• Review existing relevant background information on NHLP’s interventions, particularly the marketing activities.
• Closely work with NHLP management and M&E staff, MAIL, WB and EU Delegation to get a solid understanding of the PMO concept and program objectives.
• Prepare a separate assessment work plan for PMOs for review.
• Design the methodology for conducting PMOs assessment
• Conduct field visits to relevant districts to interview PMO members, traders and other relevant stakeholders.
• Prepare assessment report on the findings and provide recommendations on way forward.
• Review the role of PMOs in the extension system and propose necessary adjustments to consolidate PMOs and the integrated of the system.

4. Qualification Criteria for hiring a consultant

• Master’s degree in agriculture, business administration, economy or relevant field
• Expertise/experience in the agriculture sector in Afghanistan  
• Seven to ten years of experience in program design, management and evaluation
• Expertise/experience in assessing organizational performance with a similar scope of assignment;
• Excellent analytical writing skills in English. Fluent in both Dari and Pashtu.
• Familiarity with World Bank programs is an asset

The consultant will be hired for a period of 40 Days.

The National Horticulture and Livestock Project (NHLP) of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, now invites eligible consultants ("Individual Consultants") to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Further details can be obtained from the TOR.

(A)           The REOI should provide in an envelope or through e-mail.

(B)           The short-listing criteria are as following:

 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, January 2011 ("Consultant Guidelines"), setting forth the World Bank's policy on conflict of interest. In addition, please refer to the following specific information on conflict of interest related to this assignment: as per paragraph 1.9 of Consultant Guidelines. 

A Consultant will be shortlisted based on qualification.

For receiving soft copy of the TOR please contact Mr. Ahmad Waleed “Khawar” Senior Procurement Specialist through the address below during office hours -08:00 till 16:00 hours.

wkhawar@live.com; habib.rezazada@mail.gov.af; and mohammadullah.sahil@mail.gov.af

Expressions of interest must be delivered to the addresses mentioned above by (October 17^th, 2019 at 1530 Hrs Kabul Afghanistan Local Time).

Consultancy Department

Procurement Directorate

Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock

Attn: Mr. Mohammadullah "Sahil" Director of Procurement.

Jamal Mina Kabul University Road, Kabul, Afghanistan