Tender: Provision of assessment tools & training

This assignment concerns the provision of Assessment tools to assess Rikolto Agribusiness and Training of Rikolto staff in the use of the tools as certified assessors. Rikolto has chosen to follow an open procedure for this call for tenders.

Rikolto is an international NGO with more than 40 years’ experience in partnering with farmer organisations and food chain stakeholders across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Rikolto runs programmes in 16 countries worldwide through seven regional offices. We’re a close-knit network of accessible and knowledgeable colleagues, willing to share experience and eager to inspire others.

Rikolto globally works to transform food systems and ensure that food is produced with respect for people and planet. We build bridges of trust and trade between the food industry, governments, research institutions, financial institutions, and farmers’ organizations around one central question: ‘What will we eat tomorrow?’ The value chains which we mainly work in are cocoa, rice, coffee, and horticulture. Rikolto has been implementing a five-year development program from 2017 to 2021 aimed at, among other things, building capacities of farmer organisations as SMEs to grow and expand their businesses serving farmers, provide quality services to its members which are affordable and accessible.

For Rikolto, the entry point has been using assessment tools to diagnose the level of professionalism of agribusinesses, mainly farmer organisations. Rikolto uses assessment tools to provide insights into the strengths and weakness of agribusinesses related to market requirements. The outcomes of the assessments are used to design a capacity development plan and a business development service for the farmer organisations.

We are currently looking for bidders to provide assessment tools to assess the level of professionalism of the agribusinesses as well as train Rikolto staff in the use of these assessment tools.

Scope

The assessments will be carried in out in all Rikolto regions of operation namely:

• West Africa: Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Cote D´Ivoire
• East Africa: Tanzania, DRC, Uganda
• Latin America: Honduras, Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador
• Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Vietnam

Deliverables

1. Training of key Rikolto staff as assessors.
2. Provision of validated reports on assessed agribusinesses. These reports should contain recommended areas for capacity building.
3. In total, 94 assessments are to be carried out and a total of 42 Rikolto staff to be trained in all the above stated countries.

• Training of Rikolto staff on the use of the tool in August 2021.
• Assessments of the agribusiness will occur during the period of July 2021-December 2021.
• This assignment has a maximum budget of 45.000 EUR (incl. VAT).

Minimum criteria for the assessment tool:

• The assessment tool and training should be available in English, French and Spanish.
• The assessment tool must be part of the AMEA toolkit or at least considerations are being made to be part of the toolkit. The assessment tools must align well with the IWA 29 (Global Guideline on Farmer Professionalisation). Scores for the proposed assessment criteria should be easily matched with the 6 IWA domains.
• The assessment scores should be assigned using an objective benchmark, ensuring a congruent and comparable interpretation of the same criterion by two assessors in different geographical contexts.
• The tool should be financially sustainable: the assessed agribusiness should be able to auto-finance these assessments.
• The opportunity to benchmark assessment scores at sector and geographical level is a valued advantage.

Please include in your tender:

1. proposed methodology and implementation timeline (max. 5 pages);
2. relevant experience of the lead and local evaluators in relation to the described project;
3. estimated working days for each of the consultancy’s aspects,
4. cost of the assessment tools and trainings (incl. VAT)
5. the total amount of the offer (excl. VAT);
6. the amount of VAT;
7. the total amount of the offer (incl. VAT);
8. the capacity of the person or persons, as the case may be, signing the offer(s); and
9. the full registration number of the subscriber with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (for Belgian subscribers).

Proposals should be submitted before 20 July 2021, 00:00 am to

Josephine Ecklu

Inclusive Business coordinator

josephine.ecklu [at] rikolto.org