REOI: Individual Consultancy Services to Commission Regional Case Studies on Effective Partnerships for Innovation - Closing Feb 15 2024

                                                         

(INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT)

Consulting Services:	Consultancy Services: Commission Regional  Case Studies on Effective Partnerships for Innovation
Name of Project:	CAADP-XP4
Activity Ref No:	CAADP-XP4 Activity: 2.3.5
Procurement Ref:	FARA/CAADP-XP4/CS/IC/2024/01
Issue Date:	Thursday, February 01, 2024
Submission Deadline:	Thursday, February 15, 2024

 

1. The CAADP-XP4 program, involving organizations like AFAAS, ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF, and FARA, aims to enhance the development of African agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods. As part of this program, FARA seeks to strengthen its capacity and collaborate with stakeholders to support African countries in achieving CAADP and SDG results. Through effective partnerships and innovation, the program promotes food security, economic development, and climate resilience. Over the past two decades, FARA has championed the Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) approach, including the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) concept and Innovation Platforms (IP). The IAR4D/IP model has positively impacted livelihoods, research demand, and meeting end-user needs. As the agricultural sector changes, the CAADP-XP4 program introduces an activity to commission regional case studies on effective partnerships for innovation. In implementing this, FARA plans to collate knowledge on AIS, update continental synthesis studies, support SROs in institutionalizing IAR4D/IP, and document stakeholder experiences on Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs). Recognizing the evolving landscape, the TOR proposes a desk study to assess the continued relevance of the IAR4D-IP approach. This study includes synthesizing existing knowledge on AIS, reviewing the IAR4D-IP model with experts, collecting stakeholders' experiences on AIS, and producing a third white paper on the IAR4D/IP model. The goal is to ensure the model's adaptability to emerging issues in African agriculture, considering factors like food security, climate change, and evolving agricultural trends. The primary objective of this assignment is to engage a consultant to assess and document the effectiveness of the IAR4D/IP partnerships model for innovation to generate insights on the best model to ensure a collaborative effort for innovation in Africa.

2. This request for expression of interest aims to engage a consultant to carry out the following functions:

1. Desk study: a comprehensive desk review of existing literature, reports, studies, and documents on partnerships, innovation, multistakeholder arrangements for R&D, and other issues on agricultural innovation systems.
2. Surveys, Interviews, Key informant interviews, case studies, etc.
3. Online questionnaire to sampled stakeholders
4. Run a webinar with front-line experts, stakeholders and partners for validation exercise.

3. The Executive Director of FARA invites interested consultants to express interest in carrying out this assignment.

4. Consultants interested in this call must provide an Expression of Interest no longer than 10 pages, outlining proposed methodologies, references related to the execution of similar assignments, experience in similar areas, or evidence of knowledge and a proposed timeline. Brochures, CVs, and other supplementary materials submitted shall not be accounted for as part of the 10-page limit.

5. The anticipated period of performance for this consultancy is 30 man-days spread over three months (March 2024 to May 2024).

6. The individual consultant shall be selected based on procedures defined in the Procurement Guidelines of FARA.

7. Interested consultants may obtain further information from the Ag Director of Research and Innovation, Fatunbi Oluwole [ofatunbi@faraafrica.org], and copy the Procurement Expert, Mr. Callistus Achaab [cachaab@faraafrica.org], during the following hours: 9h00 to 16h00 GMT.

Please download the Terms of Reference below, for further information on this opportunity.

Click: https://faraafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TOR-Engagement-of-consultant-to-commisssion-Case-studies-on-Partnership-for-innovation.pdf

8. Expressions of Interest should be submitted electronically to [recruitment@faraafrica.org] and addressed to Dr. Aggrey Agumya, Executive Director of FARA, No 7 Flower Avenue, New Achimota, Mile 7, Accra, Ghana, no later than Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 16h00 GMT. Tel: +233 302 772823/744888.

9. FARA Affirmative Action Statement on Recruitment: there is no discrimination based on gender, race, religion, ethnic orientation, disability, or health status.

Executive Director of FARA

FARA Led S3A receives a boost as Uganda, 13 other countries to commit 1% of their budget for agricultural research

Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Mr Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, also the chairperson of the ASARECA Council of Patron Ministers signs the Communique in the presence of his counterparts from other countries. Together they committed to increase funding dedicated for agricultural research. 

In a move to address the glaring food insecurity several African countries are facing, Uganda and 13 other continental states have committed to increase funding for agricultural research in their respective countries.
In a communique, the ministers of agriculture from the 14 African countries, including Uganda, pledged on behalf of their respective nations to dedicate at least one percent (1%) of their total national resource envelop to agricultural research in line with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa's (FARA) Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A) agenda. 

For Uganda whose next budget (2019/2020) is estimated at Shs39.5trillion, the fund allocation for conducting agricultural research shouldn’t be less than Shs395billion. Should this happen, then it will be a record budget allocation and a statement of intent from the government.
Despite the capabilities and availability of human resource in this area, agricultural research in African countries has for decades been relegated to the periphery.

Most agricultural research in Africa are donor funded which according to the executive director of Forum forAgricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr Yemi Akinbamijo, has robbed of the conscious of continental scientists and researchers, urging continental government to take up research funding responsibilities.
And for that, the ministers of agriculture from the 14 countries in the continent, mostly drawn from Eastern, Central and Southern African, now want the casual manner in which agricultural research is treated in the continent to stop forthwith.

“Aware that in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, the challenge of feeding a growing population is projected to double by 2050 has to be met, that despite a degrading resource base coupled with global climatic and economic changes, where smallholder agriculture remains the centerpiece of our countries’ economies, that confronting this challenge while protecting the natural resource base involves finding innovative and sustainable ways to produce more food with less resources,” reads the communique signed by the Ministers responsible for Agricultural Research from 14 countries in Kampala, Uganda, on Friday last week.

Cognizant of the need to use the land resources in ways that will ensure its health and sustainable access to future generations, they committed to: “Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) practices, including practicing minimum tillage, maintaining permanent soil cover and mulches.

“This is in addition to the implementation of crop diversification practices (such as cereal legume intercropping and rotations), as tested through the sustainable intensification of maize-legume cropping systems in eastern and southern Africa (SIMLESA) program and similar multidisciplinary research efforts show promise in boosting and stabilizing productivity and safeguarding the resource base in the face of climate change.”
Importantly perhaps, they committed to mainstreaming Conservation agriculture, institutionalisation efforts that support scaling and networking, integration into agricultural research and extension systems and fostering value chains development.

Part of the communiqué committed to reducing drudgery especially for women farmers and laborers; as well as attracting youth talent into agriculture. Supporting agribusinesses willing to invest in rural innovation and market development was also highlighted.
Promoting collective institutions to enable farmer integration into markets, supporting the development of smallholder machinery value chains through, local-level training for entrepreneurs and supporting market innovations that enable low-cost farmer learning and experimentation was conspicuous in the communique. 

Time to walk the talk

Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Mr Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja who is also the chairperson of the ASARECA Council of Patron Ministers, after signing the communique said it is time research is promoted in Africa, saying their gesture (signing the joint communique) stress the call for research funding and promotion in all the continental states.

For scientists and researchers involved in the agricultural sector to fulfil their potential he said: “At least one percent of the total national budget of the country should be geared towards agricultural research because without that it will be difficult to overcome food insecurity threats that is already widespread across the continent,” said Mr Ssempijja.

As for Amb. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, the African Union commissioner for rural economy and agriculture, without research in agriculture, the continent should forget about agricultural transformation which helped propelled the economies of most European countries.
But before that the executive director of ASERECA, Prof Jean Jacques Mbonigaba Muhinda, said the role of research in agriculture has never been that crucial as it is today. He said the agricultural sector is evolving and without research it will be difficult to keep pace with the changes, most of which have far reaching effects on the livelihood.

And the head of Uganda’s delegation in the ASERECA Council of Patron Ministers Summit, the State Minister for Agriculture, Mr Christopher Kibanzanga, was of the view that African countries, including his own, Uganda, should invest where it reaps most and that is in agriculture. 

Governments that signed a joint communique in Kampala on May 03, 2019;

1. The Republic of Burundi: Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock
2. Republic of the Congo: Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovations
3. The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Minister of Scientific Research
4. The State of Eritrea: Minister of Agriculture
5. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources
6. The Republic of Kenya: Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation
7. The Republic of Madagascar: Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
8. The Republic of Malawi: Minister of Agriculture, Water and Irrigation Development
9. Republic of Mozambique: Minister of Agriculture
10. The Republic of Rwanda: Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources
11. The Republic of South Sudan: Minister of Agriculture and Forestry
12. The Republic of The Sudan: Minister of Science and Technology
13. The United Republic of Tanzania: Minister of Agriculture
14. The Republic Of Uganda: Minister Of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries
15. For The African Union: Commissioner, Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission
16. Observer: Dr. Martin Kropf, Director General, Cimmyt

Sourced from: https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda-13-other-countries-commit-1--budget-agricultural-research/688334-5104538-kj7xfj/index.html