Terms of Reference for Baseline Assessment on Resilient Agriculture that Works for Youth (RAY) Project – Practical Action

Introduction

Practical Action is an international development organization putting ingenious ideas to work so that people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Project Background
Practical Action is commencing a five-year project that will be implemented in Kisumu, Homabay, Siaya, Migori, Nyamira, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga Counties. The project aims to make agriculture an attractive and resilient employer for young people by promoting agricultural livelihoods for the youth underpinned by agro-ecological principles and practices. The project goal is to make agriculture an attractive and resilient employer for young people. Over the next 5 years, we will increase income, and job opportunities for 100,000 (age 18-35) young people in the nine counties through effecting systems change within the agriculture sector to make this an attractive work sector that offers dignified work. Additionally, the project will contribute towards poverty reduction within target counties as youth’s start earning or improve their income levels through skills development, enhanced access to market and finance.

Scope of Work

The assessment will be conducted in two phases:

Market Systems Analysis

The market systems analysis will support two objectives

• It will provide data that informs the baseline survey, principally by helping us target young people in targeted value chains.
• It will provide a preliminary assessment of market systems and market actors that then informs further market analysis and planning.

The market systems analysis will include, for each value chain, the following:

• Mapping of the core market -the ‘value chain’ – including an assessment of all of the actors involved from production, through processing and value addition to the final retail operations.
• Mapping of the associated input and services markets for each value chain including but not limited to, providers of finance, training support, inputs and energy.
• Mapping of the ‘enabling environment’, the rules, regulations, policy and social norms which influence the nature of market activity and are specific to that value chain.

For each of these sections of the market system, the analysis will identify the following:

• The role and importance of different actors and their interconnection
• The presence and role of young people, specifically identifying where they are located (which economic activities) and type of roles they have. This will include an assessment of the value they are obtaining and the ‘decency’ of the work they undertake – are their jobs temporary, permanent, voluntary etc.
• Constraints to the participation of young people in specific parts of the market system. This will include factors that hold back young people from either participating, from gaining fair reward or from getting ‘decent’ work.
• Opportunities to increase the participation of young people in specific parts of the market system. This needs to focus on the potential, of specific roles in the value chains to: increase absolute numbers of young people participating; improve the value captured by young people; improve decent work for young people.
• General constraints that are impeding the growth of the sector. This includes factors that may be appropriate for market systems interventions led by combinations of the private sector actors and national and county governments.

The assessment will guide the development of a strategy that is inclusive and opens opportunities for young men and women. It will further provide an understanding of the relationships and dynamics that determine market inclusivity, thereby enabling the project to address the root causes of market systems problems and work towards improving market conditions for all the actors.

Baseline Assessment

The baseline assessment is primarily intended to establish a robust account of the current situation in the target communities in relation to the project objectives. Data from the baseline will be used to re-test the project assumptions, refine project implementation priorities, and establish baseline measures and final targets to monitor progress throughout the project lifecycle. The assessment will focus on the project outcome areas and is aimed to provide information on the status of young men and women in agriculture including their income levels.

Project objectives:

• To Improve knowledge and skills for 100,000 young men and women that will lead to change in practice through adoption of Regenerative Agriculture (RA) technologies and improved business management practices
• To improve resource flows by facilitating 85% of the target young men and women access appropriate and affordable financial products and services from YSLAs and FSPs to enable them to establish/grow Agri enterprises
• To improve access to land and equipment for young men and women by strengthening land lease processes and facilitating business linkages between young people and equipment suppliers
• To increase access to markets for young men and women through strengthening relationships and connections and developing commercial offtake/aggregation models to enable youth led agri enterprises to thrive
• To alter negative perceptions of young women in agriculture to enable community and market actors to actively encourage and endorse young women participation in agribusiness

The project KPIs include:

• Number of supported youth led enterprises reporting increased revenue
• Number of youth employed/self-employed in the selected value chains
• Number of young men ad women adopting RA practices
• Number of young men and women with improved business management practices
• Number of young men and women accessing financial products and services
• Value of financial products/services received by young men and women
• Number of young men and women accessing agricultural resources ( Land and Equipment)
• Number of young men and women benefiting from new market linkages
• Value of sales from market linkages
• Change in perception/mindset towards agribusiness as a source of livelihood

The baseline assessment will seek to:

1. Establish the baseline data for each of the project indicators which will be the basis for subsequent monitoring of how efficiently project activities are being implemented and the overall achievement of the project results
2. Test the relevance and appropriateness of the set project objectives and indicators relative to the project target groups including how practical it is to collect the data in terms of cost, frequency of collection as well as sex and age disaggregated analysis

Methodology

Stage 1- Market systems analysis

The methodology of the market systems analysis, responding to the areas set out in 3.1., is expected to involve:

• Review of existing information. This will include project proposal, reports/data from government and private sector actors among others
• Primary research: This will include interviews with market actors from the targeted value chains including private sector businesses such as aggregation hubs/networks, input suppliers, off takers etc., Government officials and others. These could be a combination of individual interviews and group meetings with several actors at the same time.
• Validation meetings with market actors and Practical Action staff to review findings, adjust conclusions and if necessary, conduct additional research.

Stage 2- Baseline assessment

A combination of primary and secondary data collection and participatory methodologies can be employed during the assessment. It is imperative that the study is leveraged as much as possible to obtain consistent, reliable, and replicable data.

The primary data should include a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and participatory methods. These may include (but not limited to): Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, Observations, Document / desk reviews etc.

Relevant data collection tools will be developed by the consultant in consultation with Practical Action team, and an appropriate and representative sampling method and sample size discussed prior to the approval of the inception report. We seek to ensure our sample sizes are representative to make robust claims from our primary data. The community will be actively involved throughout the entire study. The government line ministries/County government and private sector stakeholders will provide the needed secondary data / information through key informant interviews.

Stage 3- Analysis

The consultant will be required to outline a clear analysis framework as part of the inception report. This is to ensure robust triangulation and clear use of primary and secondary data to generate findings and recommendations.

The consultant will be required to share preliminary findings with Practical Action. This will be a key opportunity to verify findings and support the development of the final report

Step 4: Validation

The consultant will be required to present the findings to Practical Action staff as well as stakeholders who participated in the study. This will include government stakeholders, private sector actors as well as young men and women who will be involved in the project.

Expected Deliverables:

Inception report containing the following:

• Approach of the study including framework for activities.
• Work plan with detailed framework of activities
• Methodology to be applied for both the market systems analysis and the baseline survey
• Analysis framework
• Proposed content outline for the report, schedule, and any logistical propositions.
• Data collection tools
• Limitation of assessment

1. A market analysis report responding to the areas of investigation set out in 2.1.
2. Baseline report summarizing the main findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
3. Updated log frame with baseline figures and targets for each KPI
4. A power point slide deck summarizing the main findings, conclusions and recommendations from report presented to internal stakeholders at Practical Action and participants of the study
5. Delivery of cleaned dataset in SPSS format as well as raw dataset (Excel), final tools used, qualitative data transcripts

Administrative and logistical support

The Consultants will report to the Project Manager with technical oversight by the M&E team.

The project team will provide day to day support during the assignment to support the actualization of this assignment and within stipulated timelines

Practical Action will also provide the following:

• All necessary program documents required.
• Facilitate travel and accommodation for the lead & Co-lead consultant

The consultants on the other hand will:

• Recruit and train research assistants (if necessary)
• Pay research assistants based on reasonable market rates
• Facilitate field travel for the research team

Profile of Potential Consultant

This baseline should be undertaken by a senior consultant who has the range of skills and experience in order to deliver an insightful baseline assessment for the project. They should be experienced in gender sensitive data collection techniques and can lead the data collection team. It is expected that the consultant will have the following qualifications and experience:

• Extensive and demonstrated experience in designing, facilitating, and coordinating baselines/evaluations in the development sector by non-governmental and donor (bi-lateral and multilateral agencies)
• Extensive experience in conducting market systems analyses.
• Extensive and demonstrated experience in the use of mixed methods approaches (integrating quantitative and qualitative data), statistical analysis and interpretation of results.
• Experience using digital data collection methods, for example, ODK.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and coordinate a multi-disciplinary team in DME activities.
• Team members comprising market systems development practitioners. agricultural economists, youth experts, policy and gender experts who possess more than 10+ of experience with Masters’ and above level education, lead consultant with PhD level education
• Have a well-versed understanding and extensive knowledge of the target counties geographically, interns of terrain, local population, and other details of the counties, and has carried some related or similar work in the lake region.

Timelines

This consultancy will take place in the months of January and February 2023. The market analysis will be conducted within a period of 25 days with the market analysis report submitted end of January. The baseline assessment will thereafter take a period of 30 days with the final approved baseline report submitted end of February. Final work plan duration shall be agreed with the selected consultant before signing of the agreement.

Terms of Engagement

Payment for the study shall be done in three tranches as indicated below

• Tranche 1 (20% of the total cost): Upon successful submission of inception report
• Tranche 2 (30% of the total cost): submission and acceptance of the of 1st draft of the report
• Tranche 3 (50% of the total cost): submission and acceptance of the final report

Note that the payments will be done subject to the consulting entity meeting quality and timely delivery of stated task. Furthermore, all reimbursable costs will be supported by payment vouchers including slips demonstrating payment of government tax.