Job Description

Kilimo Trust

Terms of Reference for Competitive Africa Rice Initiative in East Africa (CARI-EA) Project Mid-Term Review

1. Introduction

Kilimo Trust (KT) is a not-for-profit organization working in agriculture for development across the East Africa Community member countries.

KT has increasingly become the go to partner organization for market-led agricultural value chain development in the region.

KT vision is to see “sustained and equitable wealth creation, food and nutrition security for smallholder farmers and other VC actors”.

Our mission is to make agribusiness a transformative tool for wealth creation, food and nutrition security for over 500,000 smallholder farmers and other VC actors in the next five years beginning 2018.

The core business of KT is to structure national and regional trade in agricultural products for enhanced wealth, food and nutrition security for smallholder farmers and other VC actors.

In partnership with the EAC Secretariat, Kilimo Trust is implementing a three-year project (2019 – 2022) commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

The central aim of CARI-EA project is to enable locally produced rice in East Africa to competitively substitute the current over 300 million US$ worth of rice imports to the East Africa Common Market.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to inclusive transformation of the rice sector in East Africa for sustainable increase in incomes of 220,000 women, men and young people employed in the value chain of locally produced rice in the East Africa Community.

The Project has three specific objectives:

a) Increase productivity, commercialization, profitability and resilience for enterprises of smallholder producers of rice.

b) Strengthen and expand access and competitiveness in the national and regional markets for the locally produced rice.

c) Strengthen local, national and regional enabling policy and institutional environment for optimal commercialization of the rice sector.

The above objectives are pursued through the delivery of the following results:

a) 20% reduction in imported rice into the EAC Common Market

b) 50% increase in net incomes for paddy farmers

c) At least 75% of smallholder farming households using structured markets (input and output)

d) 50% increase in average yield (MT/ha) of rice

e) 20 % increase in volumes of rice sold by households through structured trade (Household commercialization level)

f) 500,000MT of paddy sold through structured markets valued at US$ 111,500,000.

g) At least 60% of SHFs and SMEs accessing finance and other BDS services valued at over US$ 6 million.

h) At least 50% increase in the number of farming households using post-harvest technologies/facilities.

i) At least 30% increase in adoption rate of target improved productivity technologies or management practices at farmer level

j) At least 3 climate smart technologies and/or management practices introduced to paddy farmers.

k) EAC rice strategy developed and used by EAC member states to review/develop their National rice strategies.

EAC rice platform established and operational.

The implementation approach of CARI-EA Project is to build strong and sustainable business trading consortia led by processors/millers as anchor partner linked to Farmers Business Organizations e.g. Cooperatives; Input agro-dealers (i.e. suppliers of agricultural production enhancing technologies e.g. seed, fertilizers, agrochemicals and post-harvest handling technologies, etc.); Business Development Service providers (Extension, Mechanization, Financial and other services) and large distributors of rice products.

This is facilitated through a matching grant facility with the private sector implementing partners. Furthermore, the project will work with large business entities currently invested in the rice importation business, to interest them to increase sourcing and marketing of rice produced locally in the EAC region.

CARI-EA will focus on rice millers as the central drivers of the competitiveness levels required to substitute imports in addition to exploring ways to increase manufacturing of tertiary products from rice to expand markets.

The major envisaged outcome is that the supported SMEs processors will increase efficiency in local sourcing of paddy from smallholder farmers including quantity, quality and consistence in supply through village-based aggregation supported by contract farming model that will contribute to reducing transaction costs of the millers and increase the profitability of SHFs’ enterprises, to facilitate sustainability beyond the current funding.

2. Objective of the Mid-term Review

The objective of this exercise is to assess CARI-EA project performance at the mid-point of project implementation focusing mainly on the project goal, primary and intermediate outcomes, and outputs.

The mid-term review will examine CARI-EA implementation against the hereunder criteria by addressing the following questions on relevance, effectiveness, value for money, sustainability and review of project risks and assumptions.

The Consultant will develop a more detailed analytic framework of questions and sub-questions to carry out the review.

2.1 Relevance and strategic fit of the project:

To what extent the project objectives/outcomes are relevant to the needs of the beneficiaries?

Specifically:

• Smallholder farmers, Matching fund grant partners, SMEs, millers and processors, Village agents and aggregators, National governments and their agencies, women, and youth.

Were project methodologies and approaches in line with the project partners’ capacities and expectations?

To what extent have the project’s interventions so far contributed to promoting import substitution of rice in the EAC?

Should the project design and methodology be modified to improve its relevance in the remaining period? If so, how?

2.2 Project progress and effectiveness

To what extent has the project been making progress towards its planned objectives?

• What have been achieved so far?


• What are the major constraints so far?

To what extent has the project secured the commitment of the project partners and built-up community (at farmer level), National and regional ownership?

To what extent has the project ensured the interests of women and youth are fully taken into account in developing project outputs and carrying out project activities?

CLICK HERE for a detailed Terms of Reference

9.0 Application Procedure

Application documents are required to be submitted online via email to: recruitment@kilimotrust.org before 5pm of 19th May 2021.

Application documents MUST include the following:

i) A letter stating why you consider your firm suitable for the assignment.

ii) Brief technical proposal which include methodology on the approach and implementation of the assignment, and the work plan for implementation of the assignment.

iii) Financial proposal indicating professional fee and a breakdown of expenses (unit price together with any other expenses) related to the assignment.

iv) Personal CVs of leading technical personnel proposed for this assignment highlighting qualifications and experience in similar projects; and

v) Work references – contact details (email addresses) of referees (firms for whom you’ve produced similar assignments).

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