Agricultural Expert to conduct prefeasibility of Agricultural Development at Kalobeyei Settlement – VA-014-2017 153 views2 applications

Position Title: Agricultural Expert to conduct prefeasibility of Agricultural Development at Kalobeyei Settlement

Contract Type: Personal Services Agreement

Duty Station: Nairobi, Kenya with field missions to Turkana County

Organizational unit: FAO Representation Office in Kenya

Duration: 30 days when actually employed to 31 July 2017

Eligible candidates: Kenyan Nationals

Anticipated Start Date: May 2017

Background

About one third of officially registered refugees in Kenya are hosted in Turkana County, specifically in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Initially set up for 100,000 people, as of 2016, Kakuma hosts about 163,192 refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR, 30th Sep 2016), representing about 15% of the total population of Turkana County. Over 50 % of refugees in the camp are from South Sudan, but Kakuma Camp hosts refugees from 14 other nationalities, including Ethiopians, Rwandans, Burundians, Congolese, Eritreans, Somalis, and Sudanese.

To accommodate the increasing number of refugees in Kakuma, the County Government of Turkana allocated some 1,500 hectares of land in Kalobeyei for a new settlement on 19th June 2015. The Government of Kenya, the County government of Turkana and all key stakeholders agreed to use the land to develop a settlement that will promote the self-reliance of refugees and host communities by providing them with better livelihoods opportunities and integrated services. This approach forms the basis of the Kalobeyei Integrated Social and Economic Development Program (KISEDP): a 14 year-long plan and multi-agency collaboration to develop the local economy and service delivery at Kalobeyei, which is to be integrated in the County Integrated Development Plan.

The implementation of KISEDP foresees a phased Local Economic Development (LED) approach. KISEDP is led by UNHCR, the County government of Turkana, with support from the national government, other UN agencies and international partners including the World Bank. Key characteristics are sustainable urban and agricultural/livestock development for the host community and refugees, non-discriminatory services for both, avoidance of parallel service deliveries, and private sector involvement. Both refugees and host communities will benefit from: (a) investments in basic infrastructure and access to social services; and (b) increased opportunities for supporting income-generating activities.

The KISEDP includes features to promote community participation and ownership. Refugee and host communities will play an increased role in prioritizing needs, in identifying service delivery and livelihoods interventions, and in monitoring the implementation of projects. The increased community voice and role in budget decision-making and in the design and implementation of development interventions will support social accountability and will contribute to improved social cohesion between refugees and host communities. The site is being developed as an urban centre, using the same development and planning techniques used for cities. So far, a detailed spatial plan has been developed and construction work is ongoing.

Part of the spatial plan includes areas set aside for agricultural activities. These can be divided into 4 sub-components:

• Large scale agricultural area (400 ha)
• Green network area (77ha)
• Neighbourhood community gardens
• Backyard gardens

The large-scale agricultural area falls outside the actual area where the refugees have houses and covers an area of approximately 400 ha, which will be the focus of this consultancy. The Green network area offers space for agriculture as well as flood mitigation and water harvesting. The neighbourhood community gardens covers an area of 20m x 80m and serves 20 households. Finally, each household has a small backyard farming area where they can grow vegetables. Around the area set aside for the settlement are villages inhabited by host community households estimated to be around 20,000. Some of host community members have farms within the 400 ha agricultural land while others have farms that are outside the settlement area.

Justification for the Consultancy

In order to support host communities and refugees to be increasingly able to ensure their own food and nutrition security it is important that the technical, socio-economic and environmental viability of agricultural production of Kalobeyei and its environs be established. Hitherto no such detailed studies have been undertaken. FAO, WFP, County Government of Turkana and other partners therefore intend to carry out a consultancy to establish whether agricultural production is viable and determine what prerequisite interventions are required to implement the project and make it sustainable.

Objectives and Phases

The overall objective of the consultancy is to undertake a pre-feasibility consultancy to assess viability of agricultural production, which will inform subsequent studies such as feasibility and detailed design of the proposed development options, and later on preparation of tender documents and construction supervision (incl. M&E) during implementation. It will have the following 2 phases:

Inception- 10 days; and

Prefeasibility of agricultural production in and around Kalobeyei- 20 days.

During the inception phase, the consultant will conduct a review of existing documents, rapid field visits to come up with the inception report clearly describing, among others, the consultancy methodology and detailed consultancy schedule (incl. report delivery dates).

The prefeasibility phase will entail investigating the technical, social, economic and environmental aspects with a view to determining the potential and challenges of agricultural development in the area. The work will be done in close consultation with all the stakeholders. An analysis of the various prefeasibility level, development options for agricultural production shall be done and recommendations of the most optimal set of broad-based interventions provided. The outcome of this consultancy will assist partners to understand the scope of agricultural development that can be done in Kalobeyei and its surroundings, the best options available and how such developments can be phased.

The prefeasibility consultancy will inform a full feasibility consultancy of the proposed agricultural interventions. This means that the prefeasibility consultancy should be done with the view to identifying areas that need more in-depth assessment during a feasibility phase if it is established during the prefeasibility that there is reasonable scope of agricultural production. To ensure local ownership and long-term sustainability of any interventions proposed, the consultancy should be as consultative as possible without compromising its technical quality.

Reporting line and specific tasks

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Kenya, and the direct supervision of the project manager, the consultant will undertake the following specific tasks:

• Assess the viability of agricultural production and provide recommendations on the economics of production in the target site i.e. possibility of agricultural production in Kalobeyei (including land and soil suitability, agronomic and biophysical considerations [incl. project area characteristics/natural resources endowment/degradation and forestry, surface and groundwater availability, reliability and quality), possible agricultural production methods given different water availability scenarios, costs of production vis a vis the expected production, capacity of refugees and host communities to engage in agricultural production (provide social, cultural, knowhow and attitude profile of target beneficiaries), identify 10 crops most likely to do well in the area based on ecological suitability, communities preference and marketability, possible total production of preferred crops and possible local absorption of such commodities, alternative markets for locally produced produce, expected challenges and how to deal with these including conflict with pastoralists and land tenure issues).
• Review land tenure issues and develop an agreed method of managing land in the settlement and its surrounding areas.
• Agree on a management plan for agricultural production, which includes details of ownership/leasehold of agricultural land (technical support, social and political consultations).
• Perform preliminary assessment and conceptual designs of the potential for irrigated agriculture and the appropriateness (both in terms of developing and managing [incl. ensuring local level operation and maintenance {O&M}]) of different irrigation technologies including, and not limited to, flood/spate irrigation, drip irrigation; and the viability of the use of various water conveyance and application methods. Also, assess the appropriateness/suitability of the various rainwater harvesting technologies for use in crop production.
• Based on the preliminarily selected irrigation technology options, conduct prefeasibility level technical assessments including crop water requirements, topographic and soil profile surveys of appropriate scale and design a preliminary layout of agricultural land (field size, canals, drainage, and soil and water conservation) as part of the prefeasibility consultancy. The community and other stakeholders should review the prefeasibility level report.
• The prefeasibility consultancy should also recommend the agricultural services and supports (material and capacity building related) to be provided to the beneficiaries and the institutions supporting them, such as the Ministry of Agriculture staff. The required support may include capacity building (incl. training on good practices) related to crop and livestock production (i.e. agricultural extension), input/output market, irrigation water management, organization and management environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and NRM activities.
• The consultant will, in consultation with FAO and other stakeholders develop TOR for feasibility consultancy, which will include preparation of preliminary designs

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree in Civil or Agricultural Engineering or related fields.
• Ten years of relevant work experience on infrastructure projects, specifically for water resources infrastructure and irrigation projects.
• Working knowledge of English and Kiswahili
• Experience in carrying out pre-feasibility studies and design in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) with pastoralists is a requirement.
• Demonstrated experience and skills in conducting consultancies that have components of Agricultural Economics, Social cultural issues, Environmental management and land management and governance in a development context.
• Demonstrated working experience in Northern Kenya.
• Experience in participatory methodologies

Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building effective relationships
• Knowledge sharing and continuous Improvement

How to apply:

Candidates are requested to submit their application by email to [email protected] quoting the position title and vacancy announcement number.

A duly completed Personal Profile Form (PPF) generated from FAO’s iRecruitment portal as a PDF-file is to be submitted by email together with a cover letter. Please note that attached resumes or CV’s in place of the PPF will not be accepted.

In order to prepare a Personal Profile Form, you must first register on the FAO iRecruitment site by clicking on the following link to register: http://www.fao.org/employment/irecruitment-access/en/ In order for your application to be properly evaluated, please ensure that all sections of the on-line profile are completed.

Applications received after the closing date will not be given consideration. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

This vacancy is open to both male and female candidates. Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply. Persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.