Voluntary Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) management Training STTA under Tac Maz

CONSULTANCY OPPORTUNITY

Title:	Voluntary Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) management Training STTA under Tac Maz
Locations:	Chiradzulu and Blantyre, Malawi
Expected Assignment Period:	20 days (Feb – Mar 2025)

 

1. CASA PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

CASA is an FCDO – International Climate Finance (ICF) funded programme driving global investment for inclusive climate-resilient agri-food systems that increase smallholder incomes. CASA makes the case to impact and return-oriented investors for increased investment in agribusinesses that work with smallholder supply chains. The programme achieves this goal by:

• Demonstrating the commercial viability and investment-readiness of small and medium-sized (SME) agribusinesses with significant smallholder supply chains;
• Helping investors to increase the impact of their investments through the provision of inclusive technical assistance;
• Strengthening the socio-legal empowerment of smallholders within value chains; and
• Tackling the information and evidence gaps holding back investment

For demonstrating the commercial and development potential of smallholder sourcing models, CASA focuses on catalytic interventions in the agriculture sectors of Ethiopia, Malawi, Nepal and Rwanda that support agri-SMEs prepare for and secure investment while connecting smallholders to commercial markets.

CASA’s work on research and communications is structured around identifying constraints, opportunities and addressing evidence gaps through research; shaping the debate on smallholder agriculture to influence actions of investors, governments and donors; and creating networking opportunities through events and stakeholder engagement.

2. ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

2.1 Partnership with Tac Maz

CASA has partnered with Tac Maz Sustainable Ventures based in Chiradzulu district, in the southern region of Malawi to facilitate inclusive growth of the company through investment. Through this partnership, CASA is providing technical support to Taz Mac towards implementation of the Leveraging the Niche Market for Indigenous and Dual-Purpose Chicken Growing Through Low-Cost Improved Feeding project. This project is designed to pilot and demonstrate the commercial viability of a business model which seeks to increase the production and supply of indigenous and dual-purpose chickens through increased participation of smallholders as out-growers. The business model is predicated on enhancing profitable involvement of smallholders through adoption of a cost minimisation production system using low-cost supplementary feed solution that is climate friendly and easily accessible. Towards this end, the project will support the Tac Mac to engage 1,200 smallholder outgrowers and introduce them to the conceived feeding regime for indigenous and dual-purpose breeds which is also capable of improving the quality of meat to attract premium prices and increase profitability to the company and involved smallholders.

To successfully deliver this tasks, CASA Malawi now intends to engage the services of a short-term VSLA expert to train outgrower groups under Tac Maz establish Voluntary savings and loan associations and start saving to increase their capacity to access chicks for commercial poultry production. This is aimed at building financial capacity to afford to invest in poultry production among the outgrowers and improve their collective productivity in poultry as a business.

2.2 Partner Brief Background

Tac Maz Sustainable Ventures (on LinkedIn and Facebook)  is an eco-inclusive enterprise, based in Malawi’s southern region district of Chiradzulu. The company was founded in 2018 with the aim of responding to food insecurity in the face of climate change. The focus of the company operations at the beginning was on horticultural products and piggery. In this regard, the enterprise started providing the surrounding communities with a variety of affordable and high-quality horticultural products and services for excellent health and sustainable living, including vegetables and pigs which are all produced at the farm. Tac Maz also makes organic fertiliser which is sold to smallholder farmers at an affordable price. Tac Maz has 15 permanent employees, of which seven are women.

The company formally registered as a sole proprietorship in 2020 and ventured into poultry production with a focus on hybrid broiler production. Due to an influx of broiler chickens from one of the dominant players in the market and a loss of 1,500 chicks batch deemed to have been of poor quality from the supplier, Tac Maz decided to change the type of poultry products. Through their internal market intelligence, the company established that there were institutional customers demanding indigenous and dual-purpose chicken breeds only because of the changing tastes and preferences of their downstream customers. This led Tac Maz to change its business model and venture into the production and supply of indigenous and dual-purpose breeds of chickens.

Meanwhile, the company supplies indigenous and dual-purpose chickens to these clients while continuing to support the economic empowerment needs of the surrounding communities. To this end, Tac Maz has a 3,300-egg incubator capacity and plans to procure a second one with an 1,800-egg capacity to meet the increasing demand for chicks. Tac Maz has its own breeding stock for egg production but also buys additional eggs to increase the volumes of chicks hatched per cycle. Currently Taz Maz supplies a minimum of 50 dressed chickens per week (200 per month) to institutional clients and over 300 live chickens weekly (1,200 per month) to local markets during the peak season spanning September through December.

The company has an identified and confirmed annual demand of 23,400 birds but only meets 3,600 of it. The targeted 1,200 smallholder outgrowers are expected to bridge the gap and allow Tac Maz to consistently meet its market requirements and continue benefiting from the premium prices currently offered for quality products, some of which would be passed on to the outgrowers.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of this assignment is to build capacity in the management of Tac Maz to be able to impart skills and knowledge to current and future smallholder groups under the Tac Maz registered outgrower scheme groups on VSLA methodologies and best practices in conducting themselves as they save, lend and share out proceeds at the end of the cycle through provision of VSLA management training and support with commencement group savings. This service will help group members consolidate funds for accessing inputs from Tac Maz for engaging in the poultry business. This will lay a foundation for Tac Maz to continue to capacitate outgrowers access to productive inputs from Tac Maz without much struggle through either borrowing from the group or own savings. The technical assistance is expected to cover topics such as introduction to VSLAs; governance for shares, savings and credits; record keeping; management of share purchase/savings meetings; and associations development, maturity and funds share out. The selected STTA will draw lessons from previous training reports and/or manuals developed under Cohort 2, where applicable. The training materials should be adapted and aligned to the needs of Tac Maz and their outgrowers.. The training content and VSLA by-laws developed should be simplified into a format that can easily be used by the producer groups and for further trainings by Tac Maz and to this end the STTA will conduct a training of trainers among selected Tac Maz staff and selected group leaders who will then jointly deliver training to the outgrower groups. Thus, through the intervention, CASA will support Tac Maz to build their own service provision in building financial capacity among Tac Maz outgrowers to continually invest in commercial poultry production and develop a strong outgrower structures for continued supply of chickens to Tac Maz as an offtaker.

The STTA is expected to mainstream elements of food and nutrition security; GESI and climate change adaptation during the trainings through allocation of slots for guest resource persons on these topics or incorporating the same in the training materials by getting input from CASA cross-cutting experts. The cross-cutting training sessions will be delivered through existing CASA engaged crosscut experts (or you from their input).

Specifically, the training is aimed at enabling Tac Maz to

1. Introduce the concept of VSLAs, governance (policies, rules and constitutions) and guide commencement of the associations operations
2. Provide guidance on decision making towards applicable monthly share values and interest rates according to members needs and capacity
3. Equip groups and leaders with skills on best practices in terms of record keeping, managing meeting, savings, lending, share outs, penalties, and adherence to rules

4. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall oversight of the CASA Market Manager for Poultry and working closely with Tac Maz management, the STTA will support Tac Maz to introduce a savings and credit culture among the outgrower groups through establishment of VSLAs and training on how to conduct themselves as VSLAs and be able to continue this as further groups are added into the model

The specific duties of the expert for the pilot phase include:

• Review existing VSLAs formation training materials and reports, align them to the needs of newly formed groups and produce training materials for Tac Maz outgrower groups. Share training materials with CASA crosscut advisors for incorporation of cross-cutting elements to train the farmers.
• Conduct a training for selected Tac Maz staff and group leaders who will then be responsible for training the outgrower groups with oversight by the STTA
• In liaison with Tac Maz, fully integrate Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) in the trainee identification process and in facilitating election of VSLA leaders, proactively incorporating women and youths that have requisite skills and competencies.
• Together with Tac Maz trainers conduct VSLAs management training, support establishment and/or strengthening of leadership structures
• Support the newly formed VSLAs to develop guiding by-laws/constitutions which clearly stipulate the rules of engagement, shares, loans, interest on loans, share outs and welfare among the membership.
• Ensure all activities are done in collaboration with at least one of Tac Maz’s staff for knowledge transfer and further technical training and backstopping for the outgrowers.

5. DELIVERABLES

The following are the required deliverables under this assignment:

• Submission of an inception report outlining the assignment delivery methodology and approach and detailing the delivery schedule for all tasks planned under the
• Delivery of the VSLAs management training manuals that include a simplified translated version (Chichewa) to ensure ease of cascading the knowledge and skills to other groups who may be formed later.
• Delivery of a training report, including sample by-laws developed, list of the trainers and outgrower members trained, and recommendations for Tac Maz staff to bear in mind for future trainings.
• Monthly timesheet after completion of every month, within 10 days of the following month.
• Other deliverables as per the needs of the project partners as determined by CASA Country Team.

The indicative delivery timelines are summarised in the table below. The final allocation of days will be agreed between the consultant and CASA team, in liaison with the client.

Deliverable Timelines

No	Deliverable	Timeline
1	Inception Report,	3 Feb 25
3	Submission of Training manuals	10 Feb 25
4	Delivery of VSLA management training	17-28 Feb 25
5	Draft report	5 Mar 25
6	Final report	12 Mar 25

6. DURATION

The assignment is expected to take 20 workdays in Feb – Mar 2025.

7. QUALITY ASSURANCE

CASA and Tac Maz management will be responsible for assuring the quality of the training materials to ensure that the information given is reliable and sufficient to guide technical backstopping to Tac Maz’s team and practical application of group management among small-scale producers, and that any potential limitations of information given is clearly highlighted. The CASA Country team and Tac Maz will discuss and agree the expected criteria for quality with the successful applicant and will oversee the quality of each deliverable.

8. REQUIREMENTS and EXPERTISE

• Demonstrated track-record in farmer engagement, training and guiding development of VSLAs.
• Experience in farmer organisation development, extension service provision, especially in agro-based businesses.
• Practical knowledge and ability to innovate and adapt production systems from purely subsistence to commercially oriented
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Adeptness and practical application of CASA’s crosscutting themes of gender equality and social inclusion; climate change and environment; and food and nutrition security in training sessions
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills in English, including excellent drafting and presentation skills
• Willingness to take on new assignments at short notice and to travel frequently to remote areas.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment within defined policies and practices.
• Readiness to travel to Chiradzulu, Blantyre and surrounding areas

9. MODE OF APPLICATION

Applicants should send an EOI comprising the following:

1. An EOI submission letter outlining your suitability for the role and stating your preferred daily rate in GBP (maximum two pages)
2. A proposed methodology for the assignment (Maximum 4 pages)
3. Up to date CV suitably tailored to the TORs concentrating only on relevant experience. Emphasis will be placed on consultancy experience in the last 10 years (Maximum 3 pages)

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis and we will settle for the first suitable candidate we get even before the deadline.

Applications should be received by 24^th November 2024. Send applications to RHCH@niras.com Indicate the position being applied for in the subject line.