The Millennium Water Alliance
The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) is a permanent global alliance of leading humanitarian and private organizations that convenes opportunities and partnerships, accelerates learning and effective models, and influences the WASH space by leveraging the expertise and reach of its members and partners to scale quality for sustained WASH services. Founded in the year 2002, MWA seeks to advance high standards for program quality, transparency and accountability and work with its members, governments, communities, private sector partners and other key stakeholders to bring to scale effective and sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene education solutions.
The Resilience Think and Do Tank Program
The Resilience Think and Do Tank is a hub that is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kenya and provides technical support to stimulate dialogue and coordinated action along selected value chains, fostering idea generation and engagement through diverse events. It aims to boost the private sector, particularly farmers and MSMEs, towards sustainable agrifood systems by offering evidence-based insights for investments in the sector and establishing brokerage platforms for linking supply and demand, and investors and financing. Additionally, the hub enhances coordination among development partners and the Kenyan government, builds county level capacities for analytics and adaptive management, and employs Social Accountability methodologies. The goal is to drive economic growth through increased private sector development, ending extreme poverty, and achieving sustainable development.
Rationale
Despite increased interest and investments by government, development partners, and the private sector, the ASALs still grapple with a lack of consolidated, verifiable, and reliable data and information for investment decisions. The African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) highlights that the lack of robust evidence proving commercial viability in ASALs is a significant barrier to attracting investment. The ASALs Policy 2012 also acknowledges that the lack of reliable data on resources and economic potential is a significant hurdle to ASALs’ development. Data is critical to investments decision as summarized below:
- Risk Assessment: Investors need reliable data to assess risks accurately. Without appropriate information, they cannot gauge the potential returns, or the risks involved, making them hesitant to invest.
- Resource Allocation: Insufficient data leads to poor resource allocation. Investors and policymakers cannot make informed decisions about where to allocate resources for maximum impact.
- Awareness and Expertise: A lack of information results in low awareness of opportunities and fails to attract expertise to the region who can address specific climate-related risks and enhance resilience.
- Resource Management: Effective management of natural resources, such as water and land, requires reliable data. In ASALs, the scarcity of data hampers efforts to sustainably manage these critical resources.
- Strategic Planning: Effective strategic planning – particularly by county governments – requires comprehensive data. Without it, developing and implementing effective adaptation and resilience strategies becomes challenging. For county and national governments, tracking progress towards sustainable development goals is also difficult without consistent and comprehensive data, making it hard to measure the impact of interventions and adjust strategies accordingly.
Making consolidated, verifiable, and reliable data and information available to the private sector, development partners, county and national governments, among other stakeholders will contribute immensely to resilience, stability, and sustainable developments in the ASALs.
This consultancy wants to consolidate information that would direct investors towards areas of the value chains with investment potentials. As a historically marginalised region and the need to build confidence among investors regarding the investment potential of the ASALs, there is need to produce investment opportunity profiles highlighting the region’s untapped potential, favourable investment environment, and the potential impact of social investments especially in the agrifood, water, and energy sectors. Synthesized information highlighting (i) areas of promising investments on the basis of past, current and future trends, (ii) production and marketing statistics, (iii) potential return on investments, (iv) successful case studies and business cases, (v) existing finance and business development services, (vi) pricing models, (vii) status of infrastructure, enabling policies, security, etc, among others are necessary.
The outputs of this consultancy will be central to the implementation of the Resilience Think and Do Tank activities on convening and connecting partnerships and investment opportunities. The aforementioned challenges justify the program’s approach to contribute to resilience, stability, and sustainable developments in the ASALs through research and making data and information on investment opportunities in agrifood, water, and energy available.
B. PURPOSE
The Resilience Think and Do Tank program aims at making quality data and analysis for decision-making available. The generated data and information will be foundational to implementation of all other activities planned in the program, i.e., development of investment opportunity profiles and supporting counties to promote investments through diverse forums. It is against this backdrop that a consultancy to develop investment opportunity profiles in the crop agriculture value chain is proposed for three counties of Taita Taveta, Narok, and Kajiado.
The investment profiles are expected to, among other things, provide potential private and public sector investors with county specific information to guide investment decisions. The consultancy will:
- Provide county specific information on priority areas and opportunities in the crop agriculture value chain.
- Develop investment opportunity profiles. These are documents that outline the potential benefits and risks associated with a particular investment and would help investors quickly understand the viability and potential returns of an investment, making it easier to make informed decisions. By presenting key information in a clear and concise manner, investment opportunity profiles serve as essential tools for attracting and securing investment.
- Collate relevant existing datasets and reports that can guide investments in the crop agriculture value chain by private and public sector actors in the program counties.
C. METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE OF WORK
We expect the consultant to predominantly analyse existing literature and datasets in the study. The literature and datasets will be complemented by few select Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to fill the data and information gaps. The consultant is nonetheless expected to combine a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods in the analysis. Bidders can also propose any additional methods they think are critical to achieving the scope of work and deliverables. The scope of work is specified below:
Literature Review:
- Review existing studies, reports, emerging issues and data on crop agriculture value chain and related investment opportunities in Taita Taveta, Narok, and Kajiado.
- Identify gaps and areas requiring further research.
County Value Chain Opportunities Profiling:
Conduct an assessment to answer the following questions:
- What are the trends in production and demand outlook for the crop agriculture value chain?
- What are the key institutional, social, economic, and environmental factors influencing the trends in production and demand outlook?
- How do production and market actors engage in the selected value chain?
- What are the vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities of key actors within the value chain?
- What are the key opportunity areas within the crop agriculture value chain with the highest potential for growth or for unlocking the economic potential of development in selected counties? What are the investment needs for these opportunities, and how best can the investments be made?
- What are the potential markets and competitive advantages?
Financial Flow Analysis
- What are the trends in financial flows (public and non-state) into the crop agriculture value chain in Taita Taveta, Narok, and Kajiado counties?
Field Visits:
- Conduct field visits in Taita Taveta, Narok, and Kajiado.
- Engage with local stakeholders including farmers, suppliers, buyers, traders, implementing partners, community organizations, and county government through KIIs and FGDs.
Data Collation:
- Gather relevant existing datasets and reports that can guide investments in crop agriculture by private and public sector actors in the program counties.
Validation and Reporting:
- Prepare a synthesis report detailing findings, analysis, and recommendations.
- Develop at least 6 investment opportunity profiles for the crop agriculture value chain (these may be contextualized to the counties).
- Present findings to stakeholders through a workshop.
D. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES
The successful bidder will be required to provide deliverables along the timelines specified in the table below within an overall timeframe of 4 months from contract signing.
Deliverables
Timelines
Inception Report elaborating the methods that will be used for the study. This should be submitted alongside the tools that will be used to collect data during the assessment.
2 weeks after the assessment kick-off meeting.
Draft Study Report – The consultant is expected to generate a study report that provides detailed findings including county-contextualized findings.
2 months after approval of inception report
Draft Investment Opportunity Profiles (IOPs)
Stakeholder Validation Workshop – A one-day workshop in each of the three counties with sector experts to review the findings of the report and IOPs and seek input from the stakeholders including county technical staff, researchers, NGOs, MSMEs. The workshop will focus only on the findings from the specific county.
2 weeks after the submission of the draft assessment report and IOPs
Workshop Report
1 week after final validation workshop
Final Investment Opportunity Profiles – The profiles should be graphically designed.
1 month after the validation workshop
Final Study Report – The report should be graphically designed.
Datasets and Documents – The consultant will submit all relevant datasets and documents collated in a zipped folder that are systematically arranged and named, together with a sheet summarizing the submitted documents and datasets.
E. CONSULTATION WITH MWA DURING THE RESEARCH PROCESS
MWA will collaborate with the Consultant to undertake the following roles:
- Provide the Consultant with available background documents, reports, and available secondary data for review. These documents are not an exhaustive list hence the consultant is expected to collate other documents from other sources.
- Organize county-level validation workshops for the presentation of preliminary findings sector stakeholders.
- Review and provide input on all Consultant’s deliverables.
- Ensure smooth flow of consultancy engagement processes including contractual obligations.
- Support the Consultant with available county level contacts that will facilitate easier identification of KII and FGD respondents.
The roles of the Consultant shall include the following:
- Conduct comprehensive literature review and data collation
- Develop an inception report, detailing the study design, methodologies for data collection and analysis, indicators, data-gathering tools, and work plan schedule to carry out the assignment, in consultation with MWA. A draft outline of the synthesis report and the Investment Opportunity Profiles should also be included in the inception report.
- Develop or refine data gathering tools in consultation with MWA.
- Budget for, plan and coordinate field visits.
- Draft a synthesis study report.
- Develop Investment Opportunity Profiles.
- Present preliminary findings and IOPs to program stakeholders for validation through county-specific workshops.
- Incorporate input from program stakeholders and develop and submit the final report and IOPs. The final report should be aesthetically professional.
- Collate and submit to MWA all datasets and relevant documents used in the assignment.
F. EXPERTISE REQUIRED FOR THE ASSIGNMENT
We expect the Consultant(s) to present a core team with the following qualifications/expertise:
- Team lead should have at least a master’s degree in a relevant field (Agricultural Economics, Water, Energy and/or Agrifood Systems related studies), with at least 10 years’ relevant experience.
- The consultant(s) must have previous experience conducting financial or investment analysis and/or market feasibility studies in the agrifood sectors.
- The consultant(s) must have experience engaging practitioners in crop agriculture sector in Kenya and understand institutional and governance models in the sector.
- Previous work experience and knowledge of the context of the ASALs is preferred.
- Excellent analytical and reporting skills to synthesize the information needed by investors for informed investment decision making.
- Experience in securing financing for water, energy, and agrifood sector actors is an added advantage. Experience in infrastructure financing is acceptable.
- Excellent communication skills are required.
- A proven track record of professional execution of similar consultancies/assignments and demonstratable capacity to deliver high quality outputs within a short timeframe.
- Consultants based in Kenya are preferred.
G. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The study is expected to be completed over a period of not more than four months.
H. EVALUATION CRITERIA
Proposals will be evaluated to ensure that they meet all mandatory requirements and are responsive. To
determine responsiveness, a proposal must include all documentation as listed in section I. Proposals
that fail to meet these requirements will receive no further consideration. Responsive proposals will be evaluated and ranked according to the criteria below.
Technical Qualification
- Education and technical experience of team
- Understanding of the scope and/or assignment
- Proposed methodology and approach.
- Demonstrated experience in conducting and coordinating similar studies.
Consultants with a minimum score of 70% will be considered technically qualified, their applications will proceed to the financial evaluation stage, and they will be invited for an oral interview.
Financial Proposal
Only the financial proposal of the technically qualified consultants will be evaluated. The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal. All other financial proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.
I. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
Each application must consist of:
- An application/cover letter. The letter should be no longer than two pages.
- Technical proposal for the evaluation not exceeding 10 pages. With the following as annexes:
- The CVs, of the team lead and key team members, in a similar format and not exceeding 4 pages per CV.
- One sample report produced for a similar assignment within the last three years.
- Contact details of three organizations that have contracted the firm to carry out a similar assignment within the last 3 years.
- A separate financial proposal. The fees proposed must be a total “fixed price” quotation indicating the overall total amount in Kenya Shillings inclusive of all taxes.
- The calculation of fees should indicate a detailed breakdown of costs calculation, specifying:
- Details of daily professional fees and time input.
- Detailed breakdown of reimbursables including logistics, travel, per diem, communication, and any other related costs.
- Payment terms.
- Statutory, administrative, and fiscal documents.
- For firms, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, certificate of incorporation, and company KRA PIN certificate.
- For individuals, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, KRA PIN certificate, and National Identification Card.
The interested individuals/firms should submit their applications by Monday 9th December 2024 at Noon EAT. All applications should be submitted electronically to the following email address: [email protected] The email subject should be clearly titled “Consultancy for Development of Crop Agriculture Investment Opportunity Profiles – Resilience Think and Do Tank”
