Agriculture Value Chain Consultant - Remote

Job Description

- Agriculture Value Chain Consultant - RemoteCompany: Industry: Non-Profit and Social Services Job Location: Amman, Jordan Career Level: Senior (Team Leader/Staff Supervisor) Date Posted: 03-08-2022 Ref. Number: 152574 Years of Experience 3 - 16Agriculture Value Chain Consultant - Remote and Requirements The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Today, 13.4 million people in Syria - more than half of the countrys population - are in need of humanitarian assistance with needs increasingly being exacerbated by economic decline. Of these, 6.8 million are refugees and asylum-seekers who have fled the country. This is no short-term humanitarian episode. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relationships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair. IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis with an annual budget in excess of $140 million and a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by more than 1,250 staff in the region. IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the fields of health, child protection, early childhood development, education, women?s protection and empowerment, non-food items and food distribution, cash assistance, water and sanitation, protection and rule of law, and livelihood programming. Our work in these challenging settings gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, security, funding and coordination. The IRC is implementing a food security project in Northwest Syria which aims to support vulnerable households have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This will be achieved by providing services that support vulnerable individuals in restoring their agricultural livelihoods for personal food consumption and as an income generating opportunity and agricultural market system strengthening, as well as supporting the Agricultural market system strengthening. Accordingly, the IRC is seeking to hire a short-term consultant to achieve the following deliverables.ConsultancyObjectives:The purpose of this Agriculture Value Chain Consultancy is to provide an in-depth value chain analysis for 1 to 3 agriculture products in NWS including: (1) stakeholder analysis for the selected value chain ; (2) identification of major gaps in the value chain; (3) suggest solutions that meet IRC requirements and industry best practices when working with households, small holder farmers, and micro and small market supporters (market actors). A political economy analysis (PEA) will be incorporated into the assessment design, tools development and final report. The PEA will be carried out via desk review as well as integration of PEA-specific questions into Key Informant Interviews (KII?s). Key questions to be answered/analysis areas as part of the PEA are: Technical support on PEA, including tool design and data analysis can be provided as necessary by IRC?s Governance Technical Advisor. The final report should be fit-for-purpose to allow the IRC to use this analysis to design humanitarian programming in NW Syria which will aim to enhance individual and community level food security by increasing production and decreasing its cost.Scope of Work:The consultant is expected to undertake the following: * Within the project area, identify growth potential, market trends and competitiveness of selected value chains.* Value chain mapping that depicts the chain actors and their functions and inter-relationships.* Identify and examine constraints and opportunities within the selected value chains.* Identify the underlying policy, institutional, and infrastructural issues that affect the competitiveness and exclusion of the selected value chains.* Identify institutions and organizations working for selected value chains from national to local levels that can contribute to pro-poor value chain development.* Conduct a political economy analysis (PEA) of the NW Syria context and address the key questions identified above, mapping out mitigation strategies for the chosen value chains (IRC PEA Technical support can be provided if the selected consultant is inexperienced in this field).* Provide training for IRC?s Syria-based agronomists.* Ensure that gender, age, and disability are well considered in the analysis and recommendations.Specific Consultancy Deliverables:The following are the expected outputs from the consultant: Deliverable 1: Provide training for IRC?s staff on (general) Market-Based Approach to programming and Value Chain Assessment: * Develop the detailed workplan based on the agreed deliverables* Conduct an introduction section for the relevant staff about the market-based approach and value chain analysis (1-2 days).* Train the team on the data collection techniques and different approaches to value chain assessments.* Through the interactive training, set up the selection criteria and scoring in order to select the agricultural value chain. Deliverable 2: Desk review and value chain selection * Conduct the desk review for the value chains (products)* Conduct value chain selection in coordination with the IRC agriculture team to select 1 to 3 products Deliverable 3: Design the data collection tools * Identify the data collection mechanism for both qualitative and quantitative data.* Design data collection tools for each data set (qualitative and quantitative).* Identify the list of interviewees and the random sampleNOTE:IRC team can support in conducting the actual data collection in the field Deliverable 4: Analyze the collected data * After receiving all the collected data, organize the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data.* Conduct a stakeholder analysis* Develop both narrative and visual representations (e.g. graphs, charts etc.) to support explanation of the analyzed data. Deliverable 5: Final report and training * Submit the final report in Word format in addition to PDF, which include but not limited to: + Introduction+ Context Overview+ Political Economy Analysis (PEA)+ Value chain map for the current situation+ Economic analysis, production and market costs and revenues, value additions and profit margin along the chain including income and employment+ Data Analysis & Constraints+ Recommendations (for potential interventions) which target home-based and small-holder farmers as well as micro and small market players (including development of a table of suggested interventions (on the micro level) with clear guidelines on the implementation of the suggested interventions)+ Value chain map that indicates the improvements after implementing one or all the recommendations+ Conclusion+ Annexes: For example; List of stakeholders consulted, list of potential agri-business interested to collaborate with the project through contractual arrangements, list of potential supporting business that will enhance the improve the role of the farmers to increase the productivity and reduce the cost. * Develop a presentation detailing main insights and findings in the report and conduct a 2 hour presentation to IRC members on the analysis findings.Duration, level of effort, and payment schedule:The initial timeline expected to complete the analysis is 40 days were it will be reflected in the detailed working plan. Payment will be based upon the submission of high-quality deliverables. Quality standards will be established by IRC with expectations clearly outlined to the consultant at the start of the project. The payment schedule will be as follows: * Payment 1: 40% | On completion of

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