REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Human Capital Youth and Skills Development Department

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

E-mail : [email protected] and [email protected]

RECRUITMENT OF CONSULTING FIRM TO UNDERTAKE A SKILLS SURVEY IN AGRIBUSINESS IN UGANDA, ZAMBIA AND SIERRA LEONE

  1. The Education and Skills Development Division (AHHD1) within the African Development Bank’s Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD) focuses on scaling-up of the Bank’s support to education, human capital and skills development. The Education and Skills Development Division, in partnership with other divisions in the Bank is planning to undertake a skills survey in the agribusiness sector in three countries (Uganda, Zambia and Sierra Leone) ;
  1. In the respective targeted countries, the survey seeks to provide skills distribution, gaps, shortages and projections in the agribusiness sector and, among others, create a better understanding (assessments) of :
  • The currently available skill sets, skills shortages as well as skill gaps in the agribusiness industry ;
  • The critical and essential skills required for the agribusiness industry ;
  • Skills development in the agribusiness including an assessment of the agribusiness training capacities (institutional and human) of training institutions- TVETs, colleges and universities; distribution and linkages of the training institutions curriculum with the industry demands ;
  • Biases in skills distributions based on gender and location etc. ;
  • Possible areas of investments for the Bank to support the countries.
  1. Consulting firms are hereby invited to express interest to undertake this planned survey. Some of the key expectations and deliverables from the Consultants, as outlined in the TORs, include the following :
  • Work closely with key stakeholders: government (in particular ministries and departments responsible for education and skills development and agriculture (agribusiness and agro-processing) as well as the national statistics bureau); in-country AfDB education and agriculture teams and other key stakeholders in the execution of the survey ;
  • Critically review the TORs and work with the Bank team to clearly define the scope of the work for the work including scope of the agribusiness and agro-processing and associated key value chains to be covered for each country ;
  • Provide an inception report which clearly and succinctly outlines the scope of the study and methodology (based on the TORs provided) ;
  • Undertake the survey, whose timelines and deliverables, as defined in the TORs, have been split into two sequential phases ;
  • Phase 1: Undertake a deep review and analysis of previous work, policy documents, secondary data, among others, and a develop a detailed report, of no more than 10 pages, that responds to the survey TORs/objectives/questions. The report will be deliverable exactly one month from the signing of the contract ;
  • Phase 2: Leveraging on the efforts and results in phase 1, develop data collection tools, undertake data collection from key informants, analyze the data and develop a report that combines both the results from phase 1 and phase 2 and adequately responds to the TORs.
  1. Interested consulting firms are hereby invited to express their interest to undertake this work, clearly outlining their qualifications and experience to under the above tasks. They should provide, among others, information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake the outlined tasks (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.). The required qualifications and expertise required are well defined in the TORs ;
  1. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure will be subject to the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for the Use of Consultants. Please note that an expression of interest by a consulting firm does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank for the firm to be included in the shortlist ;
  1. The duration of services is 5 months and the estimated starting date is November 1st, 2020 ;
  1. Interested consulting firms may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours (Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm GMT) ;
  1. Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than October 20th, 2020 at 11:59 PM GMT and specifically mentioning “Expression of Interest for the Skills Survey in Agribusiness’’.

For the attention of :

Mr. Fredrick Wamalwa and Ms. Keiko Takei.

Human Capital Youth and Skills Development Department African Development Bank

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan

Ivory Coast

E-mail : [email protected]  and [email protected]

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP

TERMS OF REFERENCE

SKILLS SURVEY IN THE AGRIBUSINESS SECTOR

Education and Skills Development Division (AHHD1)

Countries of Focus: Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zambia

September 2020

  1. Background and Rationale : Africa’s youth population is rapidly growing, expected to be over 830 million by 2050. It is estimated that 75 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 35, with a median age of just By 2050, the continent’s 18-35 demographic is projected to reach more than 800 million. Unfortunately, the youth bulge has not been met with a proportionate growth in gainful employment opportunities. This phenomenon has led to rising unemployment, increasing dependency on the existing working population and persistent poverty. It is estimated that over 10 million jobless youth are looking for work every year in Africa (Ighobor, 2017)1 though only 3.1 million jobs are created. A vast majority of the youth in Africa are under-employed while others are in the informal sector. Informality is quite pervasive in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where it affects close to 96% of employed youth (ILO, 2020).2 Because of skills’ mismatch and lack of enough gainful employment opportunities, a good proportion of highly skilled African youth end up working in relatively low-skilled and low-wage jobs and they consider themselves under-employed ;
  1. The Agricultural sector stands out as a major source of income, livelihoods and employment for Africa’s youth, but faces a number of challenges. The sector employs more than 80% of the labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa. For rural African inhabitants, agriculture remains the single largest source of employment and income. Agriculture plays an even more significant role in the lives of the poor, who remain primarily rural and either directly engaged in farming, or dependent on farming-related activities (World Bank, 2017).3 Despite this, the sector has not been performing well in the region. Average yields are low in Africa compared to other regions. Africa has more than half of the world’s fertile yet unused land and uses only two percent of its renewable water resources (World Bank, 2013).4 Yet about a quarter of the population experiences hunger in SSA. Out of an estimated 795 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment globally, 220 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa (Shimeles et al. 2018).5 
  1. Despite the challenges facing the sector, most countries in SSA want to transform into semi-industrialised economies through increasing agricultural productivity. One way of increasing agricultural productivity is strengthening its linkages with industry through agro-processing and providing value-addition to agricultural products, as well as improving post-harvest operations, storage, distribution and logistics (Yumkella et al. 2011)6. This requires moving away from viewing agriculture ‘as way of life for millions of low skilled rural people’ to ‘viewing it as a business’, also
  • Ighobor K., 2017 “Africa’s jobless youth cast a shadow over economic growth,” Africa Renewal, no. Special Edition on Youth ;
  • ILO, 2020. Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020, International Labour Organization, Geneva ;
  • World Bank. 2007. World Bank development report: Agriculture for development. World Bank 2007 ;
  • World Bank, 2013. Growing Africa Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness ;
  • Shimeles A., Verdier-Chouchane A., Boly A. (2018) Introduction: Understanding the Challenges of the Agricultural Sector in Sub -Saharan Africa. In: Shimeles A., Verdier-Chouchane A., Boly A. (eds) Building a Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham ;
  • Yumkella K., Kormawa P., Roepstorff T and Hawkins A,. 2011. Agribusiness for Africa’s prosperity. Vienna, Austria: United Nations Industrial Development Organization 2011 referred to as agribusiness. Such an agribusiness development path paves the way for economic growth, structural transformation and improved technical skills, which in turn can catalyse economic activities and connect major economic sectors on the African continent (Koira, 2014).7 Agribusiness is a profitable enterprise, constituting on-farm and off-farm activities as well as various value chain related opportunities such as packaging, handling, processing, warehousing, transport, marketing, distribution and financing. It is defined broadly to cover input suppliers, agro-processors, traders, exporters and retailers ;
  1. It is estimated that with its vast agricultural potential, Africa’s agribusiness sector is predicted to reach US$1 trillion by 2030 with a high potential to create jobs. Agribusiness is the largest employer on the continent – from farm to fork – representing complex interrelated operations and actors. In 2013, the sector was estimated at the US$313 billion, with a projection to increase by more than three-fold to about US$1 trillion by 2030 (World Bank, 2013).8 This offers the potential to create more jobs for the unemployed youth and create opportunities for Africa’s small-scale farmers to integrate and compete into global value chains. Agribusiness and agro-industries accounted for more than 30% of Africa’s national incomes in 2014 (UNECA, 2014).9 Scaling up agribusiness offers value addition through commodity-based industrialization that exploits forward and backward linkages with the rest of the economy (ibid). The need for agribusiness development in Africa is undeniable, especially for its largely young and rural population and should therefore be priority for governments and other stakeholders in thinking about the continent’s economic transformation ; 
  1. The African Development Bank (the Bank) has been supporting Regional Member Countries to implement a number of on-going initiatives that are geared towards attracting youth to agribusiness. In 2016, the Bank launched the ENABLE Youth (Empowering Novel Agri-Business Led Employment) program to help youth in Africa to incubate and scale-up their agri-business enterprises, through access to financing. Through the ENABLE program, the Bank is committed to investing about €12.75 billion in youth agri-business enterprises over the next 10 years, with the aim of creating 300,000 agribusinesses and 1.5 million jobs within five years in over 20 countries ; 
  1. The Bank also supports another agribusiness flagship program called the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ). The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, also known Agro-Industrial Parks, are agro-based spatial development initiatives aimed at concentrating agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural potential to spur productivity and integrate production, processing and marketing of selected commodities. By 2025, the Bank will have created SAPZs in 16 countries  including Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. These zones will be set aside and managed for agribusinesses :
  • Koira, A.K., 2014. Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa ;
  • World Bank, 2013. “Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness.” Working Paper No. 75663, World Bank, Washington, DC ;
  • UNECA, 2014. Agriculture is Africa’s next frontier, UNECA. United Nations, NY 10017-2513, USA and food manufacturing industries and other agro-allied industries. They will be enabled with the right policies and infrastructure such as roads, energy, irrigation, rail, ICT, waste management, and ports, to help reduce business transaction costs and could benefit from government subsidies. SAPZs can transform the rural areas into zones of economic prosperity ;
  1. To tap into the potential of agribusiness in Africa, there is need to create cadres of workers skilled in the full range of diverse operations in agribusiness. More agribusiness workers need skills and training to increase the value of products, develop businesses and build the capacity to adapt with change. Africa’s agribusiness industry, including Bank initiatives such as SAPZ and ENABLE, will require a full range of skills to effectively support the development of core agricultural value chains, from production through to processing, marketing and consumption. Youth entering the agribusiness industry and its value chain therefore require a full range of skills, from technical skills, workforce readiness skills, soft skills, and entrepreneurial skills (see Deloitte, 2018 for an in-depth discussion of these categories of skills). These skills can be best taught to the youth through different methods including formal training, coaching and mentorship, business exposure, job shadowing, among other methods ; 
  1. The use of technology to improve efficiency and profitability in the agribusiness value chain (disruptive AgriTech) underscores the importance of Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR related skills. Today, disruptive AgriTech innovations are in use across Africa and they include: precision agriculture, internet-of-things, drones, crop and soil sensing, weed sensing, disease sensing and fintech solutions (Krishnan, Banga and Mendez-Parra, 2020).10 There exist AgriTech related digital platforms/technologies across Africa, that are linking agricultural businesses to buyers, allowing them to get better prices and higher profit margins. The adoption and scale up of these digital and disruptive technologies in agriculture depends on 3Cs: cost – purchasing a specific AgriTech product or asset-specific investment necessary to use the product; complexity of the embedded information and knowledge of a specific AgriTech; and capabilities – the level of skill required by a user to learn how to use the technology (Krishnan, Banga and Mendez-Parra, 2020). Scaling-up the impact of these digital and disruptive technologies, across Africa, requires systematic investment in the relevant skills and knowledge, innovation and incubation ecosystem ; 
  1. The youth in Africa are already moving from formal jobs into high-value agribusiness including in ‘disruptive AgriTech’. There are encouraging signs of an ‘agripreneurship revolution’ taking shape within Africa (FAO, 2012)11 with youth moving into spice, fruit and vegetable, fodder, dairy, poultry, cassava, potato, insect and aquaculture value chains across the continent. Others are developing technological applications to support farmers in these core value chains in supply of inputs and ancillary services in market linkages, crop spraying, mechanization, soil testing, storage, irrigation, agricultural insurance, aggregation, microcredit, e-extension, e-payments, drone-generated data, equipment hire and dairy management. Youth are finding the most valuable nodes (spaces) in value :
  • Krishnan, A., Banga, K. and Mendez-Parra, M., 2020. Disruptive technologies in agricultural value chains ;
  • FAO 1997 as cited in Yumkella, K. K. et al. eds. 2011. Agribusiness for Africa’s Prosperity. Austria: UNIDOchains and setting up operations to solve problems or extract optimum value from these nodes which include input supply node, production node, distribution node and retail node (Mitchell and Coles, 2009). These shifts are worth noting for governments, educational institutions, and other actors, who should move in tandem.
  1. Despite these strides, lack of skills is one of the majors constrains facing commercial agriculture and agro-allied industries in Africa. Agribusiness features as an investment area in most of national youth strategies and policies across SSA with skills shortages identified as constraining the development of a thriving agribusiness industry in the respective countries. A number of learning institutions (Universities12 and TVETs) and other actors such as non-profits are involved in providing dynamic agribusiness curricula and creating a pool of skilled youth (see more details in Mabaya et al. 2010).13 However, the curricula in most of these institutions are not comprehensive, with agribusiness only taken as a unit within another specialized area of study. These institutions are generally theory oriented and poorly linked with the labour market and remain unprepared to teach the skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A review by Mabaya et al. (2010) 14 recommends an overhaul of these agribusiness related skills training institutions to focus on key skills that are necessary for spurring the industry. In a rapidly changing environment, skills and attributes required may evolve and/or vary in their relative importance.

Objectives of the Survey :

  1. Responding to such skills challenges facing the agribusiness industry in Africa requires robust data which is generally lacking. Skills surveys in Africa, including in crucial sectors such as agribusiness are infrequently collected and updated. In response, the Education and Skills Development Division (AHHD1), which focuses on scaling-up of Bank’s support to education, human capital and employment, is planning to undertake a skills survey in the agribusiness sector in Uganda, Zambia and Sierra Leone. The survey is planned to be undertaken in partnership with relevant divisions in the Bank including Jobs for Youth and Agriculture divisions as well as in-country Bank teams. It will also be implemented in partnership with government (in particular with the ministry responsible for education and skills development) in the targeted countries ; 
  1. The survey seeks to provide skills distribution, gaps, shortages and projections in the agribusiness sector and, among others, create a better understanding (assessments) of :
  • Examples of higher learning institutions offering courses in agribusiness include: Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya, University of Kwazulu Natal in South Africa, Makerere University in Uganda, Strathmore Business School in Kenya, Egerton University in Kenya, and Soko ine University in Tanzania ;
  • Mabaya et al. 2010. The Current State of Agribusiness Education and Training in Africa Mitchell, J., Keane, J., and Coles, C. (2009). Trading Up: How a Value Chain Approach Can Benefit the Rural Poor. London: Overseas Development Institute ;
  • Mabaya et al. 2010. The Current State of Agribusiness Education and Training in Africa Mitchell, J., Keane, J., and Coles, C. (2009). Trading Up: How a Value Chain Approach Can Benefit the Rural Poor. London: Overseas Development Institute ;
  • The currently available skill sets, skills shortages as well as skill gaps in the agribusiness industry (against potential demand) ;
  • The critical and essential skills required for the agribusiness industry in the country ;
  • Skills development in the agribusiness including an assessment of the agribusiness training capacities (institutional and human) of training institutions- TVETs, colleges and universities; distribution and linkages of the training institutions curriculum with the industry demands ;
  • Biases in skills distributions based on gender and location etc.;
  • Possible areas of investments for the Bank.
  1. The results from this survey will inform several initiatives being implemented in the Bank as well as Bank-led agribusiness related programs. This analytical work will go a long way to inform the Country Strategy Papers in the targeted countries. The results are also bound to inform the current tool that is being developed to guide the integration of skills development in the Bank’s lending and non-lending operations, as part of the ADF15 policy commitment. In addition, the outcome will also inform the Skills Development for Employability Strategy 2021-2025, that is currently being developed by the Bank’s Education and Skills Development Unit. This diagnostic survey has the potential to improve the programming of Bank related agribusiness programs such as Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment (ENABLE) and the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones and guide the development of new lending operations in skills development and employability, especially in the agribusiness sector. This work can also form the basis for Bank investments in new operations related to skills development.

Defining Agribusiness and Agro-processing :

  1. For a better understanding of the skills needs in agribusiness sector, the survey will define the scope of the agribusiness sector from a system view (see Yumkella, 2011). Here, agribusiness is comprised of not only farming, but all the other industries and services that connect farmers to consumers. It involves all the interconnected activities, from primary agricultural production to financing, handling, processing, storage, transportation, marketing and distribution of agro-industry products. It broadly includes inputs suppliers, agro-processors, traders, exporters and retailers. It can be further broken down into four main groups : 
  • Agricultural input industry for increasing agricultural productivity, such as agricultural machinery, equipment and tools, fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, irrigation systems and related equipment ;
  • Agro-industry: Food and beverages, confectioneries, tobacco products, leather and leather products, textile, footwear and garment, wood and wood products, rubber products, as well as construction industry products based on agricultural materials ;
  • Equipment for processing agricultural raw materials, including machinery, tools, storage facilities, cooling technology and spare parts ;
  • Various services, financing, marketing and distribution firms, including storage, transport, ICTs, packaging materials and design for better marketing and distribution ;
  1. A focus on the agribusiness 4th industrial revolution skills requirements. The systems view, described above, will in particular pay special reference to skills distribution, gaps, shortages and projections with respect to the 4th industrial revolution requirements – use of drones for several agriculture- related activities/services – mapping, spraying, disease pest and detection, precision agriculture, etc. Before the work commences, and leveraging on the understanding of the Consultant, the two parties (the Bank and the Consultant) will clearly refine and develop a clear scope of the definition of ‘Agribusiness’ for this study.

Methods/Approaches :

  1. The Consultant is expected to come up with the appropriate approaches for undertaking the survey. Nevertheless, data will generally be collected through different approaches including desk review, structured interviews (quantitative means) and focus group discussions (qualitative means) :
  • Literature review: The literature will form part of the deliverable for phase 1 of the work. Here, the Consultant will undertake a deep review and analysis of previous work, policy documents, secondary data, among others, and prepare a report, responding to the survey objectives, to be submitted as one of the key deliverables. The literature review might also help clarify some of the study issues such as the scope of the study including the key agribusiness and agro-processing value chains to focus on in the respective countries; methods to be used and corresponding respondents  ;
  • Data collection: This will be collected through a number of strategies including interviews, questionnaire and focus-group discussion, among others. The Consultant will be required to clearly outline data collection approaches (as well as the key respondents), that will generate sufficient data to answer the envisaged objectives of this skills survey. The approaches identified should also account for the challenges that COVID-19 might pose to the whole process of data collection including limitations related to travels ;
  • Data Analysis and report writing: Data gathered using various methods and tools will to be collated, analysed and interpreted systematically. Quantitative data will be analysed using a statistical package, in particular STATA or other statistical data analysis programs available that can help generate the required information. Qualitative data will be analysed for key themes and used to supplement quantitative data organized into themes. Only data that responds to the envisaged survey objectives should be collected and analysed.

Timelines :

  1. The timelines and deliverables for this work will be split into two phases : 
  • Phase 1: This phase will involve responding to the survey objectives based on a literature The Consultant will undertake a deep review and analysis of previous work, policy documents, secondary data, among others, and a develop a detailed report, of no more than 5 pages, emanating from the literature review (that responds to the survey objectives). The report will be deliverable exactly one month from the signing of the contract- most preferably end of November 2020. This report will need to be delivered on time so as to inform the Skills for Employability and Entrepreneurship Strategy 2021-2025 that is currently under development ;
  • Phase 2: This phase will involve responding to the survey objectives based on data collected from the key informants, leveraging on the efforts and resorts in phase 1. The report, from phase, which combined together with the report from phase 1, will be deliverable exactly four months from the signing of the contract.

Key Expectations and Deliverables from the Consultant :

  • Work closely with key stakeholders: government (in particular ministries and departments responsible for education and skills development and agriculture (agribusiness and agro-processing) as well as the national statistics bureau); in-country AfDB education and agriculture teams and other key stakeholders in the execution of the survey ;
  • Scope of the study– leveraging on the Consultant’s knowledge of the Agribusiness and agro-processing sector, based on the desk review and working with the Bank team, revisit section C of these TORs to clearly define the scope of the work, in particular, (i) agree on the scope of the agribusiness and agro-processing and associated key value chains to be covered for each country and (ii), the various stakeholders and participants (potential respondents) across the value chains ;
  • Inception report– provide an inception report which clearly and succinctly outlines the scope of the study and methodology including the main research methods, selection criteria of the respondents, the sampling framework, proposed sources of data as well as procedures for data collection and analysis ;
  • Data collection tools (instruments)- provide the research or data collection tools to be discussed and approved by the Bank team, before data collection commences;
  • First Draft Report (for phase 1)- provide first draft report (for phase 1), after incorporating suggestions and recommendations from the wider survey team including the Bank team ;
  • First Draft Report (for phase 2)- provide first draft report (for phase s), after incorporating suggestions and recommendations from the wider survey team including the Bank team ;
  • Final report- provide the fine report (for phase 1 and 2), in one electronic copy in PDF and word format ;
  • Power point presentation of the key results – which the Consultant will present to the different stakeholders including government officials ;
  • Qualitative and quantitative data collected during the survey.

Administrative Arrangement :

The consultant will be under the general supervision of the Manager, Education and Skills Development (AHHD.1) in the Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department, who may delegate the responsibility to another person.

Duration of the Assignment and countries of focus :

  • The duration of the assignment will be 60 days including travel days. This excluded number of off days ; 
  • The survey is planned to take place in Uganda, Sierra Leonne and Zambia.

Qualifications and Expertise Required :

For consultant bidding this work, the following qualifications are essential (for key members of the survey team) :

  • At least a master’s degree (with PhD as an added advantage) in education, economics, and other related discipline ;
  • Minimum of 10 years relevant professional experience in research and labor market studies ;
  • Strong background and experience in data collection and analysis ;
  • Technical expertise in assessing issues of labor market demand and supply in Africa, and the ability to draw strong and valid conclusions ;
  • Excellent in data management including use of statistical packages such as STATA ;
  • Ability to work within tight timelines ;
  • Excellent written communication skills in English with a working understanding of French; ability to write clear and concise reports.