At least 5 years of experience in projects in Africa that have a strong social equity or inclusion aspect
- Minimum Qualification :Unspecified
- Experience Level :Mid level
- Experience Length :5 years
The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) is a non-profit, autonomous international agricultural research center with headquarters in Taiwan and five regional offices around the globe. WorldVeg's research and development work focuses on breeding improved vegetable lines, developing and promoting good production practices, reducing postharvest losses, and improving the nutritional value of vegetables. The center aims to raise awareness of the importance of vegetables for improved health and global poverty alleviation. For more information, please visit our website: worldveg.org.
WorldVeg seeks an enthusiastic and dedicated consultant to conduct External Evaluation of the project ‘Veggies4Planet&People: Enabling Vegetable Business Development in East Africa for more jobs and better human and environmental health’. The consulting service will be in WorldVeg Kenya office, ESA duration 7 weeks staring in January 2025 with the following expected deliverable;
• Detailed proposal for the external evaluation
• Literature review, meetings, field visits and interviews
• A report including executive summary, evaluation methodology, key findings, conclusions, and actiona-ble recommendations
1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
In 2019, the IKEA Foundation and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) agreed to develop a 5-year initiative with a budget of € 6 m called “Veggies4Planet&People” (V4P&P), implemented by WorldVeg and SNV – The Netherlands Development Organisation, with the aim to create jobs and income, particularly for youth and women, in the vegetable sector in Ethiopia and Kenya. At the farm level, V4P&P has been promoting regenerative agricultural technologies. The approach of the project has been summarized as follows:
• to create vegetable value chains by enabling young people to produce and sell a diverse range of vegeta-bles, particularly traditional African vegetables.
• to strengthen vegetable value chains by supporting existing groups or establishing new vegetable business networks (VBNs).
• to sustain VBNs through mentoring, coaching, and support in marketing.
• to improve vegetable production by introducing new technologies to restore, maintain or improve the health of the soil, reduce production costs, reduce postharvest losses, and enhance product quality.
The four innovation areas in the theory of change that the project has been working on are:
• Expanding and diversifying existing Vegetable Business Networks
• Regenerative and circular vegetable production and processing practices
• Sustainable seed and input systems
• Media & policies promoting vegetable production, marketing, and consumption
The project officially started on 1st July 2020 and is now in its final year of implementation. Before the end of the project, WorldVeg and the IKEA Foundation prefer to conduct an external project evaluation.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY AND EXPECTED RESULTS
a. To develop a detailed proposal for the consultancy which is to be approved by the project manager
b. To review the achievements of the V4P&P project in terms of outputs, outcomes, and impacts
c. To evaluate implementation process, partnerships, and overall management
d. To review and prioritize the lessons that have been learned and documented in relation to the original pro-ject objectives and theory of change (ToC)
e. To provide recommendations regarding:
i. maintaining or scaling achievements post-project
ii. addressing needs of targeted populations
iii. measures to ensure continued impact and long-term sustainability, e.g. stronger partnerships and resource mobilization
iv. a concept for a feasible follow-up project
v. strategy on engaging and influencing policy-makers based on current findings of the project
vi. changes to current ToC
3. WORLDVEG’S RESPONSIBILITIES
The Associate Director General, Dr. Gabriel Rugalema, will be available to respond to any queries regarding the study. He will provide guidance and advise to the Consultant as necessary.
Submission requirements
• A concise proposal (maximum 5 pages or less) consisting of:
o Introduction describing the understanding of the assignment
o Overall methodology including the evaluation matrix, outlining key questions for informants and detailing how data will be collected and analyzed.
o Workplan in the form of a Gantt chart (activities and timeframe)
o Outline of the report
• Curriculum vitae of experts intending to conduct the evaluation
• Budget indicating consultancy fees and all other expected costs. (a 4WD vehicle and driver will be made available for the field data collection in Ethiopia and Kenya, while the project will directly cover costs related to the driver and the vehicle.)
Standards
The consultants are requested to adhere to the UNEG quality standards of project evaluation (UNEG ethical guidelines for evaluation , 2020 )
4. PAYMENT MODALITY
The consultant will be paid on the basis of achieved deliverables; the consultancy will cover daily allowances for enumerators if any, per diems for the consultant, local transport costs, and communication expenses, as agreed with the Project Manager. The maximum amount available for the consultant contract is Euro 48,000. One 4WD vehicle and driver will be made available for the assignment by the project in each country while costs related to the driver and the vehicle will be directly covered by the project. The Consultant will submit the invoice and original receipts to the following address:
5. DELIVERABLES AND CONCRETE TIMELINES
No Deliverable / Expected output Due by
1. Reading project documents and publications and submission of a detailed proposal 10 Jan 2025
2. Field studies and interviews in Kenya: 24 Jan 2024
3. Field studies and interviews in Ethiopia 31 Jan 2024
4. Writing up, revisions, and submission of final report 21 Feb 2024
6. REPORTING LINE, LOCATION AND DURATION OF THE CONSULTANCY
The Consultant will report to Dr. Gabriel Rugalema. The preparatory work will be carried out in Nairobi in consultation with colleagues from WorldVeg. The field work will be carried out in Kenya and Ethiopia where the project activities are. The total duration of the consultancy is estimated to be 7 weeks.
7. FACILITIES AND SUPPORT PROVIDED BY WORLDVEG
The study will be conducted in collaboration with the project staff of WorldVeg and SNV, who will connect the consultant to the project sites and VBNs. The following documents will be provided for the literature review;
• Project proposal and annexes
• Annual technical reports and donor feedback
• Key Performance Indicator reports
• Baseline and midline reports (randomized control trial)
• Occasional reports and popular media publications
• Inception meetings reports
• Learning events reports
• Mid-term evaluation report
• Strategic Oversight Management (SOM) reports
• 1st V4P&P International Conference proceedings
• Published papers and abstracts generated by the project
• Project e-newsletters
• Partner reports: Shujaaz, CABI, ODI
Annex: original donor project proposal (2020) – webpage: any issue to access the above annex, contact Daniel Kuria vie email : daniel.kuria@worldveg.org
8. QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
For this assignment, we require at least two people:
• a social scientist
• a biophysical scientist
The professional requirements for the social science aspects are:
• at least 5 years of experience in projects in Africa that have a strong social equity or inclusion aspect
• profound experience in agricultural value chain development, linking farmers to markets, or small and me-dium enterprise (SME) development in agricultural settings
• familiar with influencing policy at local or national levels
• sound experience in monitoring and evaluation
The professional requirements for the biophysical science aspects are:
• profound understanding of vegetable or agricultural seeds systems
• at least 10 years of experience in research or development of smallholder vegetable production systems, and regenerative agriculture or natural resources management
• good scientific publication record
Application process
Go to:
The application deadline is 20th December 2024
CV & Profile should be in PDF and labelled with the applicants 1st & 2nd Name.
We will acknowledge all applications but will only contact short-listed
