Consultancy Service to Conduct Market Analysis and Value Chain Study

Consultancies

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Assignment title : CONSULTANCY SERVICE TO CONDUCT MARKET ANALYSIS AND VALUE CHAIN STUDY
Reference no.: 019/SAPP 11/BLS/FS_2/2024/25
Date of Issue : 3rd October 2024

1. Background
The Malawi Government has received financing from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) towards the cost of Sustainable Agriculture Production Programme Phase || (SAPP Il) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for the recruitment of consulting services provided by a firm.

The use of any IFAD financing shall be subject to IFAD’s approval, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the financing agreement, as well as IFAD’s rules, policies and procedures. IFAD and its officials, agents and employees shall be held harmless from and against all suits, proceedings, claims, demands, losses and liability of any kind or nature brought by any party in connection with Sustainable Agriculture Production Programme 11

The consulting services (“the services”) include conduct baseline Market Analysis and Value Chain Study

The attention of interested consultants is drawn to IFAD’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Policy and the Revised IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption its Activities and Operations. The latter sets forth IFAD’s provisions on prohibited practices. IFAD further strives to ensure a safe working environment free of harassment, including sexual harassment, and free of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in its activities and operations as detailed in its IFAD Policy to Preventing and Responding to Sexual Harassment, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Interested consultants shall not have any actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest. Consultants with an actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest shall be disqualified unless otherwise explicitly approved by the Fund. Consultants are considered to have a conflict of interest if they a) have a relationship that provides them with undue or undisclosed information about or influence over the selection process and the execution of the contract, or b) have a business or family relationship with a member of the client’s board of directors or its personnel, the Fund or its personnel, or any other individual that was, has been or might reasonably be directly or indirectly involved in any part of (i) the preparation of the REOl, (ii) the selection process for this procurement, or (iii) execution of the contract. Consultants have an ongoing obligation to disclose any situation of actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest during preparation of the EOl, the selection process or the contract execution. Failure to properly disclose any of said situations may lead to appropriate actions, including the disqualification of the consultant, the termination of the contract and any other as appropriate under the IFAD Policy on Preventing Fraud and Corruption in its Projects and Operations.

2.0 SCOPE OF ASSIGNMENT

2.1 Stage One: Detailed Market Analysis
It is considered not necessary to undertaken an extensive market opportunity study given that i) information on potential profitable value chains is available from studies/assessment made by other programmes in recent years ii) district priority value chains can be determined as part of the district focused planning process. Instead a desk review is recommended. Such an assessment would aim to fill in the gaps in terms of available information, identify areas that existing programs are not fully covering and package such available information into a format that would inform those involved in SAPP Il planning and implementation. The identification of potential value chains will be undertaken on the basis of review of secondary information available.

The market analysis studies are to provide an accurate assessment of existing and potential markets of the preliminary-selected and other commodities with a high potential for a pro-poor impact in the target areas. The analysis will provide detailed information on the commodity productivity, viability/profitability and marketability and thereby confirm the choice of commodities to focus on for each target area.

The specific tasks for the Consultant in the market analysis study shall include but not limited to the following:

i. Analysis of production and productivity levels

  1. Identify key enterprises (crop and livestock) produced for cash and food in each target areas
  2. Land allocation trends for both food and cash commodities in each of the target areas
  3. Productivity trends for the pre-selected and other enterprises in each target area
  4. Competitiveness and comparative advantages of the enterprises at the district and national level
  5. Estimate productivity effects from weather and other climate change effects
  6. Analyse the accessibility to and availability of the seed varieties and breeds required and related inputs (such as fertilizers, herbicides, feeds, vaccines etc.)
  7. Assess the skills and technologies available for the production of the enterprises

ii. Analysis of the product and market

  1. Analyse the current and potential local, national and international demand of the products and their final outputs and their various market destinations and type of contractual arrangement involved
  2. Characterize the position of each of the 4 districts on the national market in relation to the pre-targeted and other enterprises including their current varieties and breeds in terms of demand
  3. Describe the major existing national and international quality standards and specify whether enterprises and products from the target areas are meeting these specifications
  4. Describe the most important constraints in form of quality improvements to meet international standards.
  5. Describe and evaluate the feasibility of commercialization,
    market linkage requirements and potential for private sector investment for the proposed enterprises and their varieties and breeds

iii. Analysis of viability and profitability

  1. Examine and specify past price trends and price volatilities and present a future price outlook at the district, national and international markets (where applicable)
  2. Compare the ratio of farm gate prices in the target area to national prices with the prevailing ratio in other comparable districts.
  3. Analyze key transaction costs involved in marketing of the final products of the enterprises
  4. Estimate and project the profitability and income return of each enterprise for the project period with reference to the market prices being offered by the buyers and the transaction costs involved

iv. Recommendation of the key high value commodities to focused on for each target area based on commodity productivity (comparative advantage), commodity marketability, viability and profitability; and commodity compatibility

2.2 Stage 2: Value Chain Development Study

The commodities that will be subject to detailed value chain analysis will be determined under stage 1 above. After the validation of the market analysis report, the Consultant shall proceed to the next stage of value chain development study. This stage will provide information on the interventions for developing specific value chain and market linkage strategy for the recommended enterprises in the market analysis. The assignment shall include but not limited to the following tasks:

  1. Conducting a comprehensive review of existing value chain studies for the recommended commodities to produce a summary
    of outcomes of these studies and gap analysis to reveal the main areas of focus in this study
  2. Value chain mapping and function analysis
    1. Map and profile key value chain actors for each enterprise for both domestic and international markets and their core value chain activities and services
    2. Examine the structure, performance and conduct of the input and output market for each enterprise: market size, market shares, market segmentation and level of competitiveness
    3. Analyze the flow of the product, financial resources and information from seed to table and the agents, skills and
      technologies involved
    4. Assess in quantitative terms the creation and distribution of added value among the various actors of the chains
    5. Analyze the business development services for the chains, with suggestion of potential service providers that facilitate upgrading of the value chains or that would allow a larger share of gross margin to the producers
  3. Market Linkage Constraints Analysis
    Analysis of current and potential production and marketing constraints and suggest possible mitigation measures
  4. This element of the assessment will address planning information requirements for all P SAPII components and will cover all selected value chains. The assessments will identify market linkage constraints faced by value chains actors (farmers,
    farmer groups, traders, agro-processors) and thus determine investment opportunities and strategies for SAPP in these value chains. The activity will investigate the nature of existing market linkages between agribusiness companies and the producers of these commodities. This will involve, for each of the identified commodities, identifying factors constraining producers to link with existing markets as well as those faced by agribusiness institutions in dealing with farmers producing the respective commodity. The analysis will clearly outline available opportunities which if exploited will increase the profitability for farmers and/or agribusiness firms.
  5. Value chain governance analysis
    1. Analyze the value chain governance structures and the formal and informal rules governing the distribution of roles,
      responsibilities and benefits along the chains
    2. Analyze the degree of organization of value chain actors at each level of the chain (producers, traders, processors etc.) and its impact on the value chain development
    3. Analyze the market information sharing and price setting policies among value chain actors
    4. Analyze socio-economic and gender inclusiveness of the value chains such as access and control over productive
      resources, access to markets and market information; participation in high value segment of the value chains (i.e.,
      gender proportions between production and processing)
    5. Analyze the level of interaction and service conditions producers get from input suppliers, financial institutions,
      government, commercial producers and other value chain stakeholders
  6. Policy environment analysis
    1. Analyse government policy, structures and institutional arrangements affecting the development of the enterprise
      value chains
  7. Analysis of climate change implications on the value chains
    1. Highlighting potential areas of climate change impacts on the operations of the studied value chains and vice versa
    2. Assess the environmental responsiveness of the value chains such as green packaging, waste management
    3. Analyze adaptation and mitigation measures that would be recommended for the value chains

Value chain development and market linkage strategies and action plan

Propose and recommend strategies with specific interventions and develop action plans with timeframes specifying key agents/institutions for the development and improvement of the value chains and the ideal market linkage model. The study would indicate the intervention activities that could be supported by SAPP Il to address the identified constraints. The study will clearly outline the benefits and beneficiaries of the intervention activities. It will indicate the mode of implementation of the support activities and also make rough estimations of the cost of specific intervention activities. The activity will include formulation of cost-effective intervention activities that can address the constraints identified at various levels of the value chain and contribute to raise in net earnings of farmers. The intervention activities shall be presented and organised under the various SAPPII subcomponents as outlined in the Appraisal Report. On the basis of the findings of these assessments, terms of reference will be developed to guide service providers/implementing organizations for the various components.

Not all the activities identified can be expected to be accomplished in one plan period. The implementation of the proposed activities could be phased into two or more plan periods. This would represent an intervention plan for the value chain and focal areas. Such a plan will show:

  1. Activities to be implemented
  2. Annual phasing of such activities
  3. Indicative costs for the implementation of the intervention activities
  4. Number of beneficiaries to be covered by end of period and annually

3. CONSULTANTS QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

This call for application is open to national consulting firms with sound experience in the services outlined above.

The services being sought are for the following:

  1. Lead Consultant: One Senior Value Chain consultant experienced in value chain analyses and programme design;
  2. Four national consultants, one for each of the target districts, experienced in value chain analyses including the production and marketing of commonly produced and leading smallholder value chains

Team leader

The Lead Consultant will be a national consultant with the relevant experience for this task, which includes the setting-up and formulation of the methodology and process of the Study, and quality-assurance of the resultant report. The consultants must meet the following criteria:

  1. The Team Leader must have at least 10 years’ background in relevant sector analysis and in economics.
  2. At least a Master’s degree in Agribusiness Management or Agricultural Economics focusing on Agricultural Marketing/Trade
  3. Strong coordination/organization/networking skills and experience in coordinating expert teams
  4. At least 10 years of practical experience in the field of agricultural marketing and rural development, and development of enterprise support institutions.
  5. Experience with value chain analysis in Malawi; and has at least conducted three or more value chain analyses before as lead consultant/researcher.
  6. Proven record of international Programme/project development experience.
  7. Experience in, understanding of climate change in agriculture
  8. Knowledgeable of the project target districts and areas IX. Outstanding inter-cultural communication, networking and coordination skills.
  9. Excellent written and oral English.

Other local experts

  1. The national value chain analyst should have a minimum of a Batchelor’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. economics, development economics, agriculture economics, crop production, livestock production and at least five years of experience from working with commissioned assignments.
  2. The consultancy team should also have relevant competence in gender and environment will be considered an added advantage.
  3. Each of the value chain analysts must be conversant with production and market systems of value chain analysis commonly produced in Malawi. He/she must have a proven track record of analytical research work or similar assignments in the characterization of value chain systems.
  4. The local consultants should have the following minimum qualifications
  5. Bachelor’s degree in relevant fields: agribusiness management, agricultural economics/development economics (international Trade Policy), agronomy or Crop sciences, Livestock development, Statistics and data analysis
  6. At least 5 years of practical experience in the relevant field of expertise or enterprise development in the agricultural sector.
  7. Practical experience in conducting agricultural marketing and value chain analyses.
  8. The team should have strong connections to businesses in the studied areas which will be pivotal in establishing relevant partnerships during the consultancy
  9. Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  10. Excellent written and oral English.

4. ELIGIBILITY
The Malawi Government through the Ministry of Agriculture now invites eligible and qualified consulting firms (“consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services in the form of a curriculum vitae (CV) of the firm and the subject matter specialist

5. SELECTION METHOD
A consultant will be selected in accordance with the Consultant Qualification Selection (CQS) method set out in IFAD’ Project Procurement Handbook that can be accessed via the IFAD website at www.ifad.org/ project-procurement.

Any request for clarification on this REOl should be sent via e-mail to the address below sdimas@sapp.mw/rexbaluwa@sapp.mw. no later than 10th October 2024. The client will provide responses to all clarification requests by 11th October 2024

SUBMISSION
Expressions of interest in the form of Curriculum Vitae (CV) and certified copies of certificates / delivered in a written form must be submitted to the address below by 16th October 2024 at 10:00 am local time and clearly marked Expression of Interest for Consultancy to Conduct Market Analysis and Value Chain Study. For those wishing to submit electronically, the address is rexbaluwa@sapp.mw/sdimas@sapp.mw

The Chairperson
Internal Procurement and Disposal Committee
Ministry of Agriculture
Room Number 76
Capital Hill
Box 30134
LILONGWE 3

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