Consultancy: Digitalisation for Agriculture - Addressing Challenges in the Enabling Environment

Company Description

Stichting SNV Nederlandse Ontwikkelings Organisatie, (hereinafter referred to as “SNV Netherlands Development Organisation” or “SNV”) is a not-for-profit international development organisation, that applies practical know-how to make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty. SNV is established as a Foundation (Stichting) in The Netherlands. We use our extensive and long-term in-country presence to apply and adapt our expertise in agriculture, energy and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to local contexts. SNV has over 1,300 staff in more than 25 countries in The Netherlands, Asia, Africa and Latin America. SNV depends 100% on project finance. This requires us to work efficiently and to deliver impact at scale. Annual turnover is around €130M-€140M.

Job Description

CORE-Africa (COVID-19 Response and Resilience Initiative for Food Value Chains in Africa - CORE) is an SNV initiative that aims to strengthen responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and overall resilience across 9 DGIS funded (and SNV implemented) agriculture and value chain projects in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in ways that contribute to resilient food systems and strengthen the coping ability of actors in those systems. The CORE project was created for 2 years to backstop a portfolio of DGIS funded – SNV implemented field projects in responding to the immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as more structural challenges emerging. CORE has five overlapping components:

1. Resilience of farmer/SME inputs and services.
2. Resilience of market channels to consumers and various segments among them.
3. Integration of Hygiene, Health, and Safety arrangements in food VCs.
4. Use of Digitalisation for Agriculture (D4Ag) for strengthening resilience.
5. Understanding and operationalizing resilience, across several of the above areas.

This assignment is focussing on the fourth component with a mapping of practical strategies and approaches that will enable SNV, to address four key structural barriers to the effective application of D4Ag in the transformation of Agri-Food Systems in the countries where SNV works:

1. Low levels of public investment in the D4Ag ecosystem i.e. the enabling environment beyond agriculture and the specific D4Ag infrastructure,
2. Gaps in public-private collaborations and initiatives in “Middleware” i.e. D4Ag infrastructure data and data systems,
3. Lack of relevant legislation and regulation of data ownership, rights, privacy, and security, and
4. Lack of scalable approaches.

The assignment

For this assignment, SNV is looking for an individual consultant or an assigned consultant from a firm to support the positioning of SNV in D4Ag, addressing specifically the structural challenges in the enabling environment that includes strategies, exchange learnings, and defining (potential) partnerships. If you believe that you as an individual consultant or as an assigned individual within a firm and have the required credentials as in the outlined Terms of Reference, SNV invites you to respond to the Instruction to Consultant.

The work is anticipated to commence on 15 August 2022.

Qualifications

• The minimum qualification is a master's level degree in Data Science and Society, Applied Economics (and management), with additional IT-related subjects or any other relevant field or combinations of fields.
• Solid knowledge of approaches of major development partners in D4Ag and more specifically the enabling environment of D4Ag.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience and track record in D4Ag and Digitalisation for Development (D4D) and the actual implementation of strategies and approaches with a specific focus on SSA.
• Experiences with the public sectors and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in digitalisation.
• Access to data/information/network outside SNV.
• Aware of/sensitive to social and cultural diversity – have an inclusive attitude.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills.
• Proficiency in oral and written English.
• Bilingual abilities in English and French would be an advantage and much appreciated.

Cover Letter, Curriculum Vitae, and References

Cover letters and CVs need to be well written and demonstrate the basis of the relevant qualifications, expertise, and skills of the individual to carry out the assignment. The Cover letter should highlight the most relevant experience in the context of the TOR. The CV of the consultant must show essential characteristics of the knowledge, relevant professional experience in similar works and skills. The references provide the contact details of 2 selected relevant and recent assignments. SNV may ask for copies of certifications, diplomas, contracts, or other documents described in the Cover letters and CV(s) of the shortlisted Consultants.

Level of efforts and conditions

• The total level of effort has a maximum of 25 consultancy days.
• The consultant listed must be available for the assignment between the middle of August to September 2022 (latest beginning of October).
• The application submitted must be valid for 3 months during which the consultants shall undertake to maintain, without change, and shall hold to both the proposed rates. 
• Association between consultants will not be accepted.
• The consultant may not subcontract any portion of the work.

Additional Information

CLICK HERE for the complete process selection refer to this attached document and specifically the part 2 Instructions to consultants and part 3 to Terms of Reference (TOR) for further explanation and information about this relevant assignment.

IMPORTANT - By clicking on the “I'm interested” button, you can apply to this consultancy service, uploading your CV and Cover Letter. Consultants can include additional information, files, links, proposals, offers or any other documentation related to this service on the platform. 

Questions Arising from Documents

Additional questions that may arise from this specific assignment which answers were not found on the PDF document linked above should be directed to SNV Global Contracting & Procurement Team, globalprocurement@snv.org, no later than the last day of submission of CV and Cover letter.

Deadline for submission of the Cover Letter and CV: 23:59 CET Sunday 24 July 2022

Data protection

The review and scoring are closed processes and are not open to the public. The data received shall be validated by SNV through remote and/or physical checks and processed following SNV’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) framework (which complies with the European Union’s GDPR 2018), the hardcopy and electronic data you provide will be kept secure and will only be processed by SNV for procurement and project execution purposes. The data will be kept for 7 years, after which they will be destroyed by SNV. By submitting your signed self-declaration and participating in the SNV process, you agree with this data use, storage, and processing of the data provided.