Call for Expression of Interest: Consultant Roster Nutritious Foods Financing Facility, GAIN

PROJECT SUMMARY

The Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F or ‘the Facility’), comprising Fund and Technical Assistance Facility, seeks to exploit market-based solutions that support GAIN’s overall goal to advance nutrition outcomes by improving the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially those most vulnerable to malnutrition. N3F is a pioneering, nutrition-focused investment facility developed to scale up affordable nutritious foods in emerging markets and among vulnerable consumers.

N3F is an important extension of GAIN’s programs, targeting small- to medium-sized enterprises throughout Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that scale up production and distribution of locally produced nutritious foods. Further, the N3F aims to have a demonstration effect showing that nutrition and nutritious foods are an investable and commercially viable investment theme. The N3F will, therefore, play an important part of GAIN’s broader objective to influence other major finance actors to invest in nutrition.

As a complement to the financial support provided by the debt fund, a technical assistance facility (TAF) provides valuable capacity-building support to SMEs. This capacity building, administered through the TAF, will help de-risk the investments and ensure that the supported companies produce safe, nutritious foods that meet GAIN’s criteria and that are in line with local regulations and global best practices for the production and marketing of safe, nutritious foods. Based on the outcomes of an initial business needs assessment, GAIN will recommend a package of TA for the SME which may include general business development services (for business planning, strategy development, financial and business management) and/or specialized TA pertaining specifically to the production of safe and nutritious foods.

N3F is prioritizing SSA countries with a robust pipeline of SMEs. These include Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

GAIN therefore invites prospectus from competent firms and individuals to offer high quality technical assistance to support selected investee SMEs under the N3F program. The shortlisted service providers will be incorporated into a database and will be contacted to submit proposals on an as-needed basis. This is an expression of interest aimed at refreshing and broadening the database of service providers.

Service Providers will be expected to contribute to the achievement of the N3F program objectives as well as GAIN’s mission, working in close cooperation with the TAF and GAIN program staff. The consultants will be expected to travel to the business premises of the investee SMEs for project implementation, make evaluations and analysis, deliver high quality and practical technical assistance packages, draft reports, and recommendations.

This EOI specifically targets technical experts with experience in providing consulting services in;

• Food safety and quality management, including supply chain management (e.g. training of supplier smallholder farmers), logistics and distribution, gap assessment for certifications and implementation of standards, and post-harvest loss management
• Product development, formulation and process engineering and optimization
• Market development, including marketing, advertising, distribution, and sales
• Achieving business scale
• Financial management
• Corporate governance
• Business processes optimization including documentation and digitalization
• Environmental resource and waste management, including environmental impact assessment
• Gender equality and equal employment opportunities

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• Legally registered and eligible to operate in either Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Ivory Coast or Senegal.
• Company must have been in operation more than five (5) years.
• Individual consultants and Project Leads must have minimum of 10 years of experience while other technical personnel must have a minimum of three (3) years relevant experience.
• Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the project, not acting as an intermediary/consultant.
• Experience of SME related work, especially in the Agriculture and Nutrition sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Be willing to comply with all technical and financial requirements for participation in the program, including reporting and documentation of project activities, communication strategy and capacity development opportunities.
• Proven ability to work in international, multi-cultural environments.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and ability to facilitate trainings.
• Excellent oral and written knowledge of English and/or French or Portuguese, proven ability to develop high-quality written documents

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The interested firms and individuals should send their EOIs by filling in the standard form here-https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=5p57WYL4o0eqcbb3cbgP22P5AmJv1WNHj6k7vtxjZ_dUNjJOOERPSDZEVkUyVzBUQTE4SDdTVzNDNiQlQCN0PWcu detailing their capacity, experience in providing technical assistance as well the proposed areas of support to the targeted food SMEs.

Please submit your applications by July 1st, 2022, at 11:59pm CAT by using the standard form. In addition, we invite interested individual candidates or consulting companies to submit the following application documents by email to n3f@gainhealth.org:

Consulting company:
1. A detailed capacity statement in respect to area of technical expertise, track record and proposed scope (1 page)
2. A CV of the proposed project lead (max. 3 pages).

Individuals:
1. A CV of the individual consultant (max. 3 pages)
2. A detailed capacity statement in respect to area of technical expertise, track record and proposed scope (1 page)

The documents can be sent to n3f@gainhealth.org with the code EOI N3F-TAF-SPS 2022 in each document name. Applicants may submit questions to n3f@gainhealth.org up until July 1st 2022.

Please note that this is a relaunch of a previous EOI published two years ago with the purpose to refresh and broaden the current database of service providers. If you have already submitted your expression of interest in 2020, please indicate so in the standard form. In this case, we ask you to email us any updated documents, bearing in mind that we have your initial information at record.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF APPLICATIONS

Applications will be screened and short listed as standby technical assistance service providers for N3F’s Technical Assistance Facility over the next four years as the need arises. There is no obligation by GAIN to contract firms or consultants that have been selected. Criteria for shortlisting includes:
• Company/Consultant information
• Education Background and Qualifications
• General Work Experience
• Technical competence
• Track record
• Communication skills.

NOTIFICATION

Due to high volumes of applications received, should you not have received feedback on your application within one month of the closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful. We reserve the right to withdraw any of our consultancies at any time.