The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) invites interested experts in vulnerability and risk management with an understanding of African agriculture and its context to tender RFP documents for the following works:
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an African-led nonprofit organization established in 2006 to transform agriculture into farming as a business that thrives, putting farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy. AGRA’s mission is to catalyze and sustain an inclusive agricultural transformation (IAT) in Africa through innovation-driven productivity increases, and access to markets and finance that improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers. With its headquarters in Kenya, AGRA has country teams present in 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Applications are invited for:
Title: Request for Proposal (RFP) – Vulnerability Mapping and Advisory for Prioritization of Investment in AGRA Target Countries
Reference No: RFP/012/PID/2022
Background
Most farming communities in SSA experience persistent risks associated with climate change, land degradation, and conflict. For millions of small-scale farmers in SSA, variability and unpredictability of climate is a major challenge and poses a risk that can critically restrict farming options and limit their development. Rural livelihoods are particularly under threat due to recurrent drought, floods, and new pest invasions, largely brought about by climate change posing risks rendering them to be more vulnerable. Droughts and floods alone could account for 80% of the loss of life and 70% of the economic losses in SSA. These extreme events not only erode the benefits emerging from technology adoption and use but also the response capacity of communities to other stressors. Traditional risk management mechanisms are rarely sufficient for adapting and coping with these stressors. These risks are exacerbated by non-climate drivers relating to low absorption capacity and resource needs that have contributed to reducing the resilience of small-scale farmers over time. These trends, among others, include deforestation for household energy, excessive erosion, soil nutrient mining, and increasing population pressures resulting in over-exploitation of water and land resources.
Understanding people’s vulnerability to extreme events is complex as it depends on the interaction of both biophysical and socioeconomic drivers that determine the capacity of farming communities to cope and adapt to recurrent events. We will consider existing risk management tools such as the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal, which may serve as one stop shop for climate information and tools, the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments tool , which identified factors that contribute to vulnerability due to both direct and indirect effects of climate change, as well as non-climate stressors, and PARM , which embed both knowledge management and capacity development tools to empower farmers, governments and stakeholders to manage their risks and develop effective and context-specific strategies and tools. Timely identification of vulnerable regions could be used as an entry point for both addressing the processes that cause and exacerbate vulnerability and prioritizing investment towards climate change adaption. Adaptations to climate change could be effectively implemented by local communities such that their efficacy is less dependent on the actions of global players, whereas mitigation of climate change requires international cooperation. The outputs and outcomes of this project will generate information on what to adapt to and how to adapt, and the resources to implement the adaptation measures.
It is against the above background that AGRA seeks the services of an expert in vulnerability and risk management with an understanding of African agriculture and its context to support AGRA’s Programme Innovation and Delivery Division; and the Strategy Development Unit in conceptualizing and defining key elements of its resilience programming for its 2030 strategy implementation. The expert will work with and support the AGRA team to map and characterize risks and drivers of vulnerability and develop corresponding advisories to guide and prepare policy makers and local institutions to respond to extreme events.
Objectives of the Assignment
The specific objectives of this initiative would be done in:
- Maize-based systems in Eastern Africa (Rwanda, Ethiopia)
- Sorghum- based Sudano-Sahelian zones (Nigeria, Burkina faso)
- To review and identify the types and frequency of stressors and risks predominantly affecting agricultural systems and livelihoods and identify hotspot areas within the SSA region and the target countries,
- Capitalize on existing and appropriate vulnerability maps, enriched with context and country specific data and develop an overlay map for guiding investment
- Develop and validate the farming system and stressor specific climate advisory in close collaboration with the major national institutions
- Suggest priority investment areas, intervention, and policy for enhancing resilience at farm and community scales
Scope of Services
The key role of the firm will include support for developing an enhanced strategic vision, strengthened project oversight:
- Inventory and characterization of the existing tools that could be leveraged for climate risk and other related risks
- Data mining from existing Atlas datasets, and enriching them with in-country/region specific data layers for other disaster types in target countries
- Explore under which socio-economic conditions local land users are not making appropriate choices in terms of risk management as they may not get immediate financial benefit.
- Document the available risk adaptation approaches adopted by the local community
- Desk review to assemble the available country scale risk maps, publications on major climate-related stressors
- Stakeholder consultations for validation of the maps and prioritization of major stressors from their perspectives.
- Organizing stakeholder meetings with key players, think-thank meetings with key governmental institutions and development partners for validation and policy prioritization
- Develop influential policy briefs and other communication materials on major risk factors, their implication on food security and resilience and recommend climate smart practices to reduce risks and enhance resilience of systems.
Deliverables and Measurable Outputs of the Work Assignment
The consultancy will significantly contribute to achieving Outcome of the Sustainable farming workstream through identifying, characterizing, and mapping the vulnerable hotspots and potential solution packs that are critical for investment in AGRA target countries through:
- Output 1: Historical vulnerability report: Past and current causes of vulnerability over time and their potential effects on productivity and peoples’ livelihoods at district and country levels are documented and widely shared
- Output 2: Needs assessment report: Community priorities of stressors and associated investment needs in the respective countries in managing agricultural, climate-change-related risks prioritized and the potential benefits from these investments estimated
- Output 3: Vulnerability maps for decision making: Locations and districts that are highly vulnerable to a certain type of risk are mapped, and critical investment needs are specified. Solution packs for each stress or will be identified and widely communicated.
Qualifications of the Consultancy Firm
- Minimum 10-year experience in similar assignments
- Proven evidence in mapping and digitizing natural resources, climate risks, production factors, evaluation of land capability and other resources;
- Experiences and evidence of owning datasets, mapping capability, networks and research capability in the wider SSA region. Description of and links to the similar projects produced and which are relevant to finance and EU legislation
- Strategic vision, strong technical and analytical capabilities;
Application Closing Date
17:00 hours (East African Time), 28th April, 2022.
Submission of Documents
Complete proposals SHALL be submitted to: [email protected]
Please note the following:
- Please include ‘RFP/012/PID/2022″ on the subject line on the email.
- The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.
- The technical proposal shall not exceed 20 pages.
- The proposal and ALL Attachments submitted via email SHALL NOT exceed 10MB.
- VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for a period of 90 days from the date of bid closure.
- Financial proposal shall be sent as a separate attachment and MUST be password protected. The password shall be requested from firms that meet the minimum technical score of 75%).
Click Here (MS WORD) for a detailed description of the RFP.