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Consultancy Title: Request for Proposal (RFP) for Developing Vanilla Industry Strategic Plan

Organisation: TechnoServe

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

 

About US:

Since 1972, TechnoServe has been working in Uganda with farmers, cooperatives, suppliers and processors to strategically develop competitive industries around key crops, including cash crops such as cocoa and coffee and staples such as maize and rice. We are helping farmers make the transition from subsistence to commercial production, assisting processors to improve operations and identifying opportunities for investment in agriculture. We are also supporting the diversification of Uganda’s economy through entrepreneurship programs that empower men and women to create thriving small- and medium-sized businesses in a variety of sectors.

 

TechnoServe Consultant’s Role

CRS, TechnoServe and Frontier Co-op are implementing VINES, a five year, $13 million, USDA Food for Progress program that will make Uganda the world’s next leading supplier of high-quality vanilla. VINES will leverage the expertise of CRS and its world class consortium of partners, associated experts and leading international buyers to provide technical assistance to enhance the production of safe, clean, pure vanilla, develop market links with US trade networks, and strengthen an enabling public policy network to reduce vanilla theft to transform the lives of 16,200 farmers, 356 self-employed service and input providers, 480 processors’ employees; and generating 15,820 new on-farm seasonal and permanent processing jobs to reach 32,856 vanilla stakeholders.

In turn, this will provide international buyers with a new origin that will stabilize the extreme price volatility for this unique spice. The program period is being implemented from 2020-2025.

The consultant will support two work streams to help the project achieve its objectives for the Vanilla sector, namely:

 

Industry Strategic Plan

Using Techno Serve’s well-established Industry Strategic Plan (ISP) model, develop a comprehensive ISP with input from VANEX (Uganda Vanilla Exporter’s association) and the Vines team.  Develop analysis-based pitch and marketing materials to promote vanilla’s economic potential and highlight investment opportunities, based on the “Cajou Demain” model produced by Techno Serve’s BeninCaju program or the Potato ISP from Kenya.

• The consultant will provide critical leadership to the development of an ISP for the vanilla sub-sector in Uganda, with a focus on the local, regional and global markets.
• The consultant will design the approach for developing the ISP including determining data collection needs, collecting/analyzing the data as well report writing.
• The consultant should adopt a participatory approach to ISP development to ensure increased ownership of VANILLA sub sector strategy and adoption of identified opportunities by stakeholders.
• The consultant will leverage relationships already established with TechnoServe Uganda’s beneficiary entrepreneurs as well as ecosystem’s stakeholders and leverage past and ongoing industry assessments or plans being developed by other local NGOs of Donors, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture. The consultant will therefore be expected to leverage industry experts and institutions in the delivery of the ISP.  The Consultant will engage widely with a diverse set of vanilla market actors including farmers, cooperatives, traders, service providers, processors, buyers, government agents (district and local) and others as well as the Vines team. The consultant will have a reporting line to Business Sustainability and Upgrading Manager-VINES and technical oversight by the TechnoServe Uganda Country Director.

 

Objectives of the Assignment

The overall purpose of this assignment is to;

• Develop a clear road map and strategy for radical transformation of the VANILLA sub-sector for the benefit of value chain players. TechnoServe will use results of the ISP to build into business models, refine the BeniBiz project approach as well as a pilot strategy for VANILLA value chain integration initiative.
• To achieve this, the consultant will lead development of a Uganda VANILLA ISP which clearly distills opportunities, challenges, identifies requirements for investment and infrastructure, and documents policy gaps in this sub-sector.

 

Scope of work and Detailed Tasks

A core question of the ISP is why the VANILLA market system is not working efficiently and effectively for the benefit of all players including small scale VANILLA farmers. Key elements to be brought out by the ISP include, but are not limited to, the following:

Industry and market dynamics. Key questions include:

• What is the size of the VANILLA industry in terms of value and volume and how does it contribute to GDP? How competitive is the industry?
• What is the pace of industry growth and how is the future trajectory?
• How is the demand dynamics including imports and exports and how has this changed over time? What is the projected demand?
• What is the comparative consumption per capita (compare regionally and globally) and how has this changed over time?
• What are the key drivers of demand and how is this changing?
• Is there momentum likely to lead to positive change in the industry (for example -alliances, new investors, technological innovations etc)?
• How relevant is VANILLA sub-sector to the poor?
• What are the barriers/drivers to sub-sector growth including exports?

Value chain participants and their functions: Key questions include:

• Who are the players in the VANILLA value chain? Who is participating in the value chain and what is their market share? What is their positioning?
• What is the structure, dynamics and interactions of the value chain?
• How much value is each node of the value chain creating and extracting? What is the share of revenue in each stage of the value chain?
• What is the nature of products including quality issues?
• How have transactions changed over time (value, volume, type, suppliers, quality, and consumers?
• How can performance be improved for each stage/player in the value chain?
• What are the opportunities and requirements for investment in the value chain?
• Do small scale VANILLA farmers have the potential to benefit from these investments?
• What are the drivers/barriers to value chain growth?

Market system structure: Key questions include:

• Who are the players in the market system? Where is the greatest potential for benefitting small scale VANILLA farmers and reducing poverty?
• What is the relationship between the players in the market system commercial and noncommercial? Are there any hidden transactions or other forms of informality?
• What supporting functions and rules (including policy) are hindering the efficient functioning of the core function? Why have market players not resolved the problems themselves?
• What is the capacity (technical, financial, physical, strategic, personal or cultural etc) of the market players and their ability to perform relevant functions?
• Is performance of each player in the market system adequate? Are the right players involved? Are there roles that are missing?
• Why are these key functions and rules underperformed? Why have more pro-poor inclusive solutions/alternatives not emerged within the system?
• What are the incentives that drive behavior across various levels in the market system?
• What are system level constraints/root causes for underperformance? Is it feasible to address priority constraints? Is sequencing important? Does one system level constraint need to be addressed before another? Who should address the constraints?
• Are there opportunities for stimulating system wide disruptive innovations?
• How do we incentivize players to adopt integration? Which collaborative actions will improve productivity and which actions will damage it? How should partners’ goals be aligned to share risks and rewards?
• What/who are the blockers and drivers of systemic change?
• What will motivate partners to deliver interdependent and integrated systems rather than just components?
• In what ways does the market system need to change in order to serve the poor better?
• What is the potential of attracting more players or services including public/private investment?
• What is the likelihood of achieving pro-poor system change led by market players?
• Is there a best-practice way to institute a creative environment where innovation soars and new products emerge?
• Is it possible to build-in flexibility to adjust as necessary to changing market system conditions?
• How should a national VANILLA intervention be structured, designed and coordinated in light of decentralization/devolution?

Recommendations for actions and interventions that will grow the sub-sector. This should include, among others:

• What should be the vision and strategy for transforming the VANILLA subsector?
• What should be the theory of change?
• How should public and private investments be prioritized?

 

Deliverables

This assignment will have the following deliverables: 

• Work plan that includes a clearly defined research schedule developed and approved for the Industry Strategic Plan
• Industry Strategic Plan
• A draft and final PowerPoint report that includes: industry, value chain and market system analysis as well as recommendations for interventions
• A Stakeholder Review and Validation Workshop
• Presentation to Ministry of Agriculture

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Skills & Requirements

• The ideal candidate must hold a Master’s Degree in economics, business or related field is an advantage.
• PhD is an added advantage
• Strong team management and networking skills
• Strong background in business and strategy development
• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong interpersonal communication and information-gathering skills
• Ability to structure and manage complex tasks
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills
• Ability to work independently, delivering high-quality end products
• Excellent writing and PowerPoint presentation skills
• At least three years of consultancy experience related to the assignment.

 

How to Apply:

Guidelines for Application

Potential interested and qualified individuals/consultants are requested to submit a proposal for conducting this assignment and include all necessary documents that show competence in the advertised assignment such as, cover letter, updated CV in addition

to the documents listed below. These should be submitted via email to Procurement tendersug@tns.org

 

Submission of the proposal:

A proposed technical plan of conducting the assignment, which includes:

• A clear description of the proposed assignment and detailed methodology
• Schedule of work

A separate financial proposal (including all cost breakdowns in detail of the professional fees, operational costs, etc.).

 

Additional documentation to submit:

• Capability statement, including description of previous experience, and demonstrated ability to conduct this assignment.
• Updated curriculum vitae of the team leader and all other team members (if applicable) who will undertake the work, clearly indicating qualifications and experiences
• Contact details of two recent organizations where similar services of the team leader have been utilized including contact details and title of assignment.
• Samples of 2 most recent similar assignments

 

Duration of engagement

The assignment to be completed in a period of 2 months.

The copyright of the materials shall remain with Technoserve and no materials are to be re-produced without prior consent of the organization

 

TechnoServe is an Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities, Females, Protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.

 

Deadline: 25^th March 2022

 

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