RFI-_696-16-000001_-_SFAN.pdf

January 22, 2016

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

Subject: Request for Information No.: RFI-696-16-000001 Comments Due Date: February 29, 2016; 4:00 pm, Kigali, Rwanda Time

Title: Feed the Future Rwanda Sustainable Food, Agriculture, and

Nutrition Activity

The United States Government, represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Rwanda, is hereby issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for interested organizations and individuals to provide comments, opinions, and recommendations on the approaches for the information in the attached document below, Attachment 1.

Note: This is a Request for Information. This is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) or Request for Applications (RFA) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S Government or USAID to issue any solicitation or Notice of Funding Opportunity, or ultimately award a contract or assistance agreement on the basis of this RFI or to pay for any information voluntarily submitted as a result of this request.

Please submit your comments to Geraldine Kyazze, Sr. Acquisition and Assistance Specialist at gkyazze@usaid.gov by Monday, February 29, 2016, at 4:00 pm, Kigali, Rwanda time.

Thank you for your interest in USAID’s activities.

Sincerely, Martin Fischer Contracting/Agreement Officer USAID/Rwanda mfischer@usaid.gov mailto:gkyazze@usaid.gov mailto:mfischer@usaid.gov

Request for Information USAID-Rwanda-RFI-696-16-000001

Sustainable Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Activity

Attachment 1

1. Problem Statement and Major Issues

Rwanda has made remarkable progress over the past 20 years; development efforts and results have been significant. Between 2000 and 2012, annual GDP growth averaged 8.1 percent per year and the country experienced a 14 percentage point decline in the poverty rate, from 59 percent in 2001 to 45 percent in 2011. Agriculture has been a key driver of the country’s poverty reduction, accounting for more than 45 percent of the total decrease. As the backbone of the economy, agriculture is crucial for Rwanda’s growth and reduction of poverty. The agriculture sector accounts for 39 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of employment, 63 percent of foreign exchange earnings, and 90 percent of the country’s food needs. (World Bank, Rwanda P4R PAD, 2014)

Despite this impressive performance, significant challenges remain. Malnutrition remains high with a 38 percent stunting rate.1 While stunting among children under five years of age in Rwanda has reduced remarkably from 51% in 2005 to 38% in 2015, the stunting rate remains high and is classified as a public health problem according to WHO (RDHS, 2015). Agriculture productivity is still low, mainly due to the lack of market incentives, degradation of soil and the natural resources base, low use of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer or improved seeds and low mechanization levels. This low productivity is being amplified by climate variability, which results in the increased prevalence of extreme events and increased unpredictability of weather patterns.

The proposed activity will link agriculture productivity with sustainable management of natural resources through integrated soil fertility and water management to improve the nutrition outcome of agriculture investments. The activity will be implemented through the integrated approach of climate smart agriculture (CSA) to improve the resilience of the national farming and food systems. Moreover, as the majority of the agricultural population is made of women, and women are among the most vulnerable groups, this activity is being designed with an emphasis on ensuring women have access to and control over agricultural resources and that proposed interventions take into considerations issues raised in the gender analysis.

Objective

The objective of this activity is to sustainably increase smallholder farmer incomes, improve the nutritional status of Rwandan women and children, and increase the resilience of the agriculture and food system to the changing climate.

1 According to the 2015 Demography and Health Survey

2. Relationship to the CDCS and current PAD

2.1. Link with CDCS

USAID/Rwanda’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) aims to accelerate Rwanda’s progress to middle income status and better quality of life through sustained growth and reduction of poverty, by achieving four development objectives (DOs).

USAID/Rwanda’s Development Objective (DO) 1 “Economic opportunities increased and sustained” focuses on expanding economic opportunities in rural areas by transforming the agriculture sector from its current subsistence nature to market-led, demand-driven agriculture. DO 1 also supports the role of agriculture in improving the nutritional status of the population and strengthening women’s leadership roles and decision-making. By aiming to increase smallholders’ incomes and improve nutrition, the Sustainable Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition (SFAN) activity will directly support Mission’s DO 1 and its associated Intermediate Result (IR) 1.1 “Increased Productivity and Nutrition outcomes of Agriculture”.

The combined focus on agriculture, nutrition, and climate change adaptation in one integrated activity, rather than three separate activities, further expands the ability of this activity to contribute to all three subsidiary intermediary results under IR1.1: sub-IR 1.1.1, Improved access to and utilization of nutrition-sensitive production and processing technologies; sub-IR 1.1.2, Improved capacity to manage natural resources and adapt to climate change; and sub-IR 3.2.3, Increased nutrition knowledge and adoption of appropriate nutrition practices.

2.2. Link with the current Feed the Future Project

The goal of the USAID/Rwanda Feed the Future (FTF) Project is to expand economic opportunities in rural areas, with a focus on improved food security through increased agricultural production and improved nutrition and health practices. The FTF project aims to achieve this goal through two purposes: (i) Strengthen local, regional, and international markets, and (ii) Increase agricultural productivity. The SFAN activity will help advance the Mission FTF project goal by increasing agricultural productivity and strengthening domestic markets for agricultural crops. The activity is also in line with the FTF strategy emphasis to integrate nutrition into agriculture and strive to improve nutritional status, especially of women and children.

2.3. Link with other USAID/Rwanda activities and other Donors

SFAN will build on past and current efforts by USAID Rwanda to improve agriculture productivity and the nutrition status in Rwanda both implemented by the Economic Growth office and the Health office.

In its CDCS, USAID/Rwanda hypothesizes that increased agriculture productivity (IR 1.1) in conjunction with enhanced private sector competitiveness (IR 1.2) will result in increased and sustained economic opportunities for Rwandans (DO 1). This two-pronged approach to achieve DO 1 is driven by two major activities: Private Sector Driven Agriculture Growth (PSDAG), , the flagship private sector development activity aimed at increasing smallholder incomes by promoting private sector investment, is specifically contributing to IR 1.2 “Enhanced Rwandan private sector competitiveness” while SFAN (along with other activities that are approaching their end dates) is being designed to further advance IR 1.1, “increased productivity and nutrition outcome of agriculture.

To successfully achieve DO 1, SFAN and PSDAG are designed to complement each other in many ways. SFAN’s efforts to increase farmers’ adoption of improved technologies (inputs and post-harvest handling techniques and equipment) will ultimately increase production of agricultural crops that will need to be off-taken by the market for increased production incentive and sustainable revenue generation for farmers. In general, market linkage interventions included in SFAN will be implemented in close collaboration with PSDAG.

SFAN will build on PSDAG achievements and will focus on areas where PSDAG is not involved, such as in nutrient-rich crops not supported by PSDAG. The cooperative management capacity building component of PSDAG will be supplemented by the provision of SFAN-sponsored extension services to members of those cooperatives.

Unlike PSDAG, SFAN has a clearly defined nutrition objective that will further advance achievement of the nutrition outcome of agriculture. Nutrition interventions will be in addition to those already identified under the Community Health and Improved Nutrition project (CHAIN PAD) managed by USAID/Rwanda’s Health Office, aimed at strengthening the capacity of households and communities to improve their health and nutritional status.

The Economic Growth Office will seek collaboration with the Health Office, other donors, and international NGOs actively involved in these areas for an opportunity to leverage resources in order to achieve greater results. Particularly, this activity will build upon Health Office efforts to strengthen the capacity of service providers and districts, to achieve improved nutrition outcomes and household level nutrition; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) behavior change improvements.

As scheduled, SFAN is expected to come on line to fill agricultural productivity related gaps still remaining after the end of current activities supporting IR 1.1 will end or will be ending by the start date of SFAN. Projects which are nearing the end are: the Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Project (RDCP II), aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Rwandan dairy products in regional markets to reduce poverty through expanded marketing of quality milk to generate income and employment, and improve nutrition of rural households; the

Integrated Improved Livelihoods Program (IILP), aimed to improve the livelihoods and food consumption of Rwanda’s very poor, particularly women; and the Land Husbandry Water Harvesting Hillsides Irrigation (LWH), aimed at increasing the productivity and commercialization of hillside agriculture in target areas by applying a modified watershed approach to introduce sustainable land husbandry measures for hillside agriculture. SFAN will build on achievements under the concluded activities and other ongoing activities such as HarvestPlus, Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato and the Marketplace for Nutritious Food activities, strengthening the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices wherever appropriate. Efforts will be made to select beneficiaries near the feeder roads improved under the Feeder Roads Development Program co-funded by USAID and the World Bank to further increase their market access.

Climate change integration will build on the recently started Climate Services for Agriculture activity that is focused on increasing access to climate information. SFAN is expected to extend the reach of the Climate Services for Agriculture activity by promoting the utilization of the services by a larger number of farmers and other users. Enhancing human and institutional capacity to generate, access, and use climate information services builds resilience and adaptation to climate change effects.

Altogether, all USAID/Rwanda Feed the Future activities, including SFAN and PSDAG, will be implemented in synergy without duplicating efforts to achieve the Mission’s Development Objective 1 and its Feed the Future’s overarching objectives.

3. Illustrative Interventions/Results:

Through SFAN, USAID/Rwanda will increase sustainable agricultural productivity for 300,000 smallholder farming households, 150,000 of whom will be pulled out of poverty2, and improve dietary diversity scores for at least 200,000 women and 300,000 children under five-years of age in Rwanda.

This activity will be implemented through the integrated approach of CSA and will substantially utilize, support, and strengthen the new extension system (Twigire Muhinzi) by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB). SFAN will focus on the current FtF value chains (maize and beans), but will also include other value chains that have a strong income generation potential, and others that offer opportunities to improve nutritional status and environmental benefits, such as a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The selection of nutritious crops will be determined in consultation with the Government of Rwanda (GOR) and

2 The applicable poverty line is $1.25 per person per day, converted into local currency at 2005 ”Purchasing Power Parity” (PPP) exchange rates then adjusted for cumulative inflation from 2005 to 2012 year of the population-based survey in Rwanda using the relevant consumer price index.

other key stakeholders at the national and district levels and will be based on regional agro-ecological characteristics and those crops that have the potential to be introduced into the Rwandan diet. Considering an integrated “whole farm” approach, this activity may also explore supporting small livestock and aquaculture in cases where clear gender, nutrition, climate change adaptation and/or risk considerations make them advisable albeit lesser targets.

USAID Rwanda sustainable agriculture assessment conducted in August 2015 as part of pre-design studies, has identified the northwest and eastern regions of Rwanda, based on agricultural, ecological, and physical characteristics, as the areas where SFAN’s activities will have more impacts and likely to be scaled elsewhere in Rwanda. These two selected zones have the highest concentration of maize and beans production areas; yield gap (difference between actual yield and target yield for maize) and soil acidity are among the highest in these zones. Furthermore, these two zones are also characterized by high stunting rates.

The SFAN activity will be composed of three main components, with gender and climate change resilience as cross-cutting themes. An intervention framework is shown in Annex 1.

3.1. Sustainable agriculture productivity

Rwanda’s agricultural productivity is affected by high population density on limited land resources, leading to land fragmentation and reduction of farm sizes. Intensive cultivation on land, with no fallow time to allow restoration of soil nutrients, and soil erosion are also factors that limit productivity of the Rwandan agriculture sector. Interventions under this component will support an integrated landscape approach to agriculture productivity that follows the principles of sustainable land and water use, and contributes to improving the resilience of farming systems through improving water management and preventing soil erosion, while maximizing the effectiveness of input use through integrated soil fertility, water management, gender and other socio-economic issues. This activity will build in resilience throughout its interventions using integrated crop management programs3 focused on diversification, adaptation technologies, and knowledge transfer.

3.2. Market access

Agricultural productivity will only be sustainable if farmers have an incentive to increase production. A plausible development hypothesis is that market-led value chain development integrated with improved nutrition-related behaviors will increase rural household incomes, and the nutritional status of women and children will improve. This will be possible if

3 Promote integrated crop management (ICM) which aims to manage crop production on the whole farm in a way that maintains and enhances the environmental flows, while at the same time producing economic yields of high quality crops.

agriculture productivity efforts also involve improving producers’ access to markets. Access to market will not only provide an incentive to increase productivity, but can also lead to improved nutrition status through the income pathway. In increasing market efforts, attention will be given to ensure that farmers are not selling all their produce, but will also consider their families’ nutritional needs.

Recognizing the importance of access to affordable financial services to boost smallholder farmers’ competitiveness, this activity will build on other USAID and donors’ efforts to facilitate farmers’ access to financial services. SFAN will also encourage input credit through linking smallholder farmers or group of farmer to input suppliers. Interventions related to access to financial services will take into account the economic viability of proposed services and the local context. Improved and sustained productivity, market access, and profitability will require considerations for environmental, weather, and climatic realities and therefore CSA practices will be critical. Focus will also be placed on increasing consumer demand for more varied and nutritious foods through nutrition messaging campaigns and demonstrations.

3.3. Nutrition

Interventions under this component will be nutrition-sensitive and will be implemented in collaboration with other USAID/Rwanda and GOR nutrition improvement efforts. Potential activities to collaborate with include the upcoming Rwanda Increased Protein for Dietary Diversity activity, the Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato for Income and Nutrition activity, and the recently awarded Integrated Nutrition and WASH activity (INWA). Where feasible, the nutrition interventions will be complemented by specific nutrition interventions supported by the USAID/Rwanda Health Office, other donors and GOR/MINAGRI nutrition programs.

The nutrition component is not intended to be a standalone intervention; it will heavily rely on the productivity and the market development components that will ensure the availability and accessibility of nutrient-rich food. Specific interventions under the nutrition component will mainly be geared toward improving knowledge on the importance of nutrition and preventing incidence of disease in the household, in order to preserve nutrition gains. This approach is consistent with findings from the nutrition assessment conducted by USAID Rwanda in April 2015 that revealed that “malnutrition in the community visited was due to:

a) lack of understanding of the proper composition and preparation of an age-appropriate, diversified diet and the importance of and ability to purchase and consume it throughout the year.”

4. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning:

The table below provides a list of proposed indicators in the DO 1 Performance Management Plan that will be reported on by this activity. Customized indicators, to more specifically measure adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and climate change adaptation measures, socioeconomic and gender shall be determined during the detailed design phase

Component Indicators

Sustainable agriculture productivity

4.5.2-5 Number of farmers and others who have applied new technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance

4.5.2-2 Number of hectares under improved technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance

4.8.2-26 Number of stakeholders with increased capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change as a result of USG assistance.

Market development 4.5-Z01 Value of incremental sales (collected at household level) attributed to FTF implementation

4.4-Z01 Number of beneficiaries with new market linkages as a result of USG assistance

Nutrition 4.5-Z02 Prevalence of women of reproductive age (15-49) consuming targeted nutrient-rich value chain crops or products

Custom: Prevalence of children 6-23 months consuming targeted nutrient-rich value chain crops or products (iron-fortified beans and milk)

3.1.9.1-1 Percentage of children 6-23 months receiving a minimum acceptable diet (MAD)

3.1.9.1-2 Women’s dietary diversity score: Mean number of food group consumed by women of reproductive age.

5. Stakeholder/Strategic Partner Ownership and Demand:

This activity will support the GOR’s Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture Phase III (PSTA 3) which identifies environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation as a key driver of agricultural-driven growth and poverty reduction. This activity will also support the National Climate Change and Green Growth strategy (2011), especially its program 1“- Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture”. It will also support Rwanda’s National Food and Nutrition policy and strategy (2014) and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Nutrition Action Plan (2013). The implementation of the activity will be guided by the GOR agriculture gender strategy to allow both men and women equally contribute to the agriculture growth.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Rwanda Agriculture Board are the main national institutions targeted for capacity-strengthening under this activity. The project will also work and build capacity at the district level and support RAB’s agricultural extension system.

Other key partners will include the Ministry of Local Government and the Rwanda Natural Resources Authority.

SFAN will have a strong focus on community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and farmer cooperatives that will be key to ensure farmer ownership and sustainability of the investment.

6. Implementing Mechanism:

It is expected that a Request for Proposals will be issued to compete the contract needed to implement this activity. It is contemplated that the solicitation will lead to the award of a cost-plus-fixed-fee completion type contract with an estimated price range of $33.5 to $35 million.

There will be a strong emphasis on involving and building the capacity of local organizations during implementation. The activity will include a robust capacity building component under which the prime will train and prepare the sub to take on such responsibilities.

7. Activity design and schedule

This activity is planned to start early 2017.

8. Staffing requirement / Key personnel:

The following are expected to be Key Personnel positions: (i) Chief of Party; (ii) Senior Agronomist who will also serve as the Deputy Chief of Party; (iii) Business, Market & Finance Development Specialist; and (iv) Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist.

Collectively, the proposed Key Personnel team’s combined skills and background shall include significant professional experience in implementing and managing climate-smart agriculture and nutrition programs, on and off the farm, at both community and household levels. Key staff will also need to demonstrate familiarity with and commitment to addressing (gender) inclusive development and systems thinking including gender expertise. Specific potential requirement are set forth.

i. Chief of Party (CoP):

Primary responsibilities are aimed at providing overall leadership management and general technical direction of the entire program, ensuring an integrated vision among different components and actors, and a focus on achieving the results defined in the contract. This individual will be expected to identify issues and risks related to program implementation in a timely manner, and suggest appropriate program adjustments. This individual shall act as the key liaison between USAID/Rwanda and all other counterparts, implementing partners and Government of Rwanda officials involved with the program. The position requires significant coordination skills, broad general and technical knowledge, experience in developing countries and skills to ensure coherence and consistency in spite of urgent deadlines. Experience in Africa strongly preferred.

Education Requirements: The expected qualifications for the COP candidate will include a Master’s degree in, agriculture, environment, natural resource management, rural development economics, or related field of study or equivalent work experience.

Experience Requirements: The expected experience requirements for the COP are:

• Ten (10) years of progressively responsible international work experience implementing multi-sector development programs with demonstrated strong management and coordinating skills.

• Five (5) years of management experience of projects of similar complexity with experience with direct supervision of professional, managing teams and support staff and assembling teams working on multi-faceted international development programs.

• Strong technical expertise in agriculture development, and/or natural resources management, climate change, nutrition and proven ability to facilitate and establish private sector partnerships.

• Demonstrated knowledge of USAID rules and regulations. Experience managing a USAID funded program highly preferred.

• Demonstrated, excellent writing and oral presentation skills in English are required.

• A familiarity with addressing gender equality and climate resilience in agriculture is preferred.

• Ability to resolve sensitive and complicated work issues with senior level country counterparts, donor representative and senior-level staff

ii. Senior Agronomist/Deputy Chief of Party (DCoP):

Education Requirements: The expected qualifications for the DCOP candidate will include a Master’s degree in international development, agriculture/agronomy, environment, or related field of study.

Experience Requirements: The expected experience requirements for the DCOP are:

• 7 years’ professional experience in developing countries, some of which should be in Africa, in food security and agronomy in managing or implementing development programs. Experience with East Africa or Rwanda agriculture sector is an asset

• Solid foundation in a broad range of agriculture subjects preferred, including areas such as agriculture economics, agriculture policy, agribusiness, agronomy, agriculture extension, and market development.

• Familiarity with nutrition sensitive and climate smart agriculture concepts highly desirable preferred.

• Experience in designing or managing sustainable agricultural production systems is preferred.

• Familiarity with agriculture research integration in project implementation, and experience working to improve private and public extension systems.

• Strong verbal and written skills in English are required. Knowledge of French and Kinyarwanda is an asset.

• Excellent communication and writing skills.

• The DCOP’s experiences should ideally complement and not perfectly overlap with that of the COP.

iii. Business, Market & Finance Development Specialist

Education Requirement: The expected education requirement for the Business, Market & Finance Development Specialist is a Master’s Degree or higher in business, economic, marketing, finance, or a closely related field.

Experience requirement: The expected experience requirement for the Business, Market & Finance Development Specialist are:

• Five (5) years of progressively more responsible international work experience in business development.

• Experience working directly to integrate the poor into market opportunities.

• Experience and understanding of market facilitation approaches to increase productivity for smallholder’s farmers.

iv. Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist:

This individual will lead Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) activities for the activity.

S/he will make operational decisions and manage the various components of the program dealing with M&E, will oversee data collection efforts and ensure both the M&E system and results reporting meet the requirements of the Feed the Future initiative. S/he will lead a system for continuous communication with the two established external evaluation partners, and demonstrate an ability to take critical inputs, feedback, and assessments from evaluation partners to inform changes in program approaches and scale-up. S/he shall ensure that these and other program components are results-oriented. This individual will have a major focus on achieving results in all areas assuring that the SFAN team members are poised to deliver services on schedule.

Education Requirements: The expected education requirement for the Senior M&E Specialist is a Master’s Degree or equivalent in business administration or related area of study or equivalent work experience (specialized training in M&E is required).

Experience Requirements: The expected experience requirements for the Senior M&E Specialist are:

• Seven (7) years of progressively responsible work experience in managing complex project of similar size.

• 5 years of monitoring and evaluation work at the supervisory level preferred

• Experience designing and overseeing M&E data collection and reporting for agriculture/food security projects. Feed the Future reporting experience in also preferred.

• Demonstrated research design and analytical skills with five (5) years of agriculture research or monitoring and evaluation experience in a development setting in Africa.

USAID or other international donor experience preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to implement, operationalize, and manage information collection and assessment systems.

• Demonstrated ability to create and manage information data bases using appropriate software applications.

• Ability to work in team environment and work with and train non-direct reports to implement programs.

• Strong writing, reporting, and presentational skills.

• Familiarity with gender issues in monitoring and evaluation and an understanding of the

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) would be a plus

Annex 1 – Sustainable Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Activity Intervention Framework

* Interventions by other mission activities

Promote aggregation, and storage

Nutrition education /behavior change communication

Build farmers resilience to climate change

Facilitate access to post harvest equipment and facilities

Strengthen kitchen gardens

Improve access to market and climate information

Nutrition counselling

Link farmers to market

Goal: Sustainably Reduce Poverty and Improve Nutrition Status

Build capacity of farmers groups

Promotion of good hygiene practices*

Improve access to credit and financial services

Cross-cutting theme 1: Gender consideration and female empowerment

Cross cutting theme 2: climate change and environment resilience

Outcome 2: Improved market access

Improved natural resources management practices (soil, water)

Outcome 3: Improved nutrition status

Outcome 1: Increased sustainable agriculture productivity

Facilitate access to inputs

Train farmers on good agriculture practices