TERMS OF REFERENCE – EVIDENCE BASED ADVOCACY TRAINING
Terms of Reference to conduct the training on “Evidence Based Advocacy training for the District Farmers Networks (DFN) members”.
Assignment type : Training
Period of Assignment : end of October 2018
Budget : Consultancy bids will be analyzed to assess the best offer based on their methodology and on consultants’ fees.
Project title : ‘Ijwi ry’Abahinzi n’Aborozi i.e. Farmers Voice Project (FVP) in Rwanda.
Specific objective : To strengthen the voice of farmers’ organizations in agricultural policy making formulation, planning, implementation, budgeting and monitoring and evaluation in seven target districts.
Project Location : 7 Rwandan Districts (Ruhango, Burera, Rulindo, Rubavu, Rutsiro, Kayonza and Gatsibo).
1. Introduction :
Imbaraga is an independent, Non-governmental National Farmers Organization. Imbaraga works with farmers to improve the socio-economic conditions of an estimated 27,400 members located in 25 out of 30 districts throughout the country. Imbaraga is structured from the village to the national level and governed by the vision of making its member “A professional farmer and a change maker” through “lobby and advocacy” ; “increase in productivity and competitiveness” and “environmental protection”. For more details ; visit www.imbaraga.org
International Alert is an independent, Non-Governmental Peacebuilding Organization. It works with people who are directly affected by violent conflict to improve their prospects of peace. Alert seeks to influence the policies and ways of working of governments, international organizations like the UN and multinational companies, to reduce conflict risk and increase the prospects of peace. More details can be found in the website : www.international-alert.org.
Imbaraga and International Alert are co-implementing a three year project (2018-2020) entitled “Ijwi ry’Abahinzi n’Aborozi i.e. Farmers Voice Project (FVP)” in seven mentioned districts located in four provinces of Rwanda.
Food insecurity is widely recognized by the Government of Rwanda and its development partners as one of the biggest challenges that Rwanda is facing in taking forward the impressive gains made so far in its economic development. The Government of Rwanda is committed to tackling this issue and has set itself a number of ambitious targets through policies and strategies such as its Vision 2020 strategic framework, the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (EDPRS 2013-2018), the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Compact (CAADP) through the National Agriculture Policy (NAP) and PSTA4 as it has been implementing for the last 10 years. While these quantitative targets are an effective measurement of progress, they impose top-down pressure on government bodies at national and district levels, the private sector and ultimately farmers to address this issue. They fail to accommodate learning and expertise from the bottom-up which can be capitalized on to support a more effective response and represent a missed opportunity to tackle food insecurity in an integrated – and therefore more sustainable – way.
The success of a more consultative and multi-stakeholder approach is predicated on the ability of farmers themselves to clearly articulate and voice their concerns and recommendations in a constructive way. Civil society has a critical role to play in this process, bridging the gap between farmers and farming communities, national level policy makers and district level government offices and monitoring the quality and responsiveness of policy implementation to farmer and community needs. Increasing numbers of civil society organizations (CSOs) are opting to work on issues of food security. However, these organizations have so far failed to take full advantage of fora that exist for debate and feedback with government. Research reports produced by CSOs on the topic are on the whole unconvincing due to the poor use of evidence to back up assertions. Moreover, the extent to which CSOs themselves are representative and inclusive of farmers in their activities and advocacy campaigns is patchy ; many farmers claim they are not consulted as part of research and advocacy processes and therefore do not view CSOs as a strong conduit for their grievances and feedback.
The “Ijwi ry’Abahinzi n’Aborozi” (Farmers’ Voice) Project aims to tackle this head on by strengthening the participatory research and advocacy capacities of existing civil society bodies working on food security (including farmer cooperatives, value chain associations and research organizations) and creating mutually compatible District Farmers Network (DFN) that offer a space for farmers to voice their concerns and recommendations.
The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and strengthened food security by promoting farmer centred policies through enhanced civil society and farmers’ organizations engagement in Rwanda. Specifically the action will strengthen the voice of farmers’ organizations in agricultural policy making, planning, budgeting and monitoring and evaluation in seven target districts.
The project has three main results as follows :
ER1 : Agricultural oriented CSOs are better equipped to engage farmers and advocate for their rights in targeted regions.
ER2 : Capacities of the District Farmers’ Network in representing farmers’ interests, rights and needs are strengthened.
ER3 : Improved collaboration and coordination among agricultural oriented CSOs at national level for improved level of influence over policies and decision making.
2. The purpose of the training
As this training is part of the above ER2 related to strengthening the capacities of the District Farmers’ Networks (DFN) in representing farmers’ interests, rights and needs, Imbaraga Farmers Organization and International Alert would like to hire a consultant to facilitate the above mentioned training.
The purpose of this consultancy is to facilitate the training of 30 members of DFN including youth and women representatives from the District Farmers Networks steering committees. The training should help participants to :
a. Know what Evidence Based Advocacy is all about ;
b. How to collect and analyze data in order to build evidence- base ;
c. From evidences to advocacy : How to do advocacy ? What are steps to follow ?
d. How to communicate evidences to feed (inform) and influence policies at District level ?
e. Etc.
3. Scope of work and key tasks
The desired consultant is expected to conduct a 3-days training session with a special focus on agricultural food security policies.
The training will be divided into two following parts :
The first part will be held in the first two days and will be covering topics including :
1. How to analyse agriculture policies and research reports and identify key recommendations for food security ;
2. How to structure and develop key recommendations for food security (i.e. leveraging existing policies, advocacy movements and research recommendations) ;
3. Communication techniques for advocacy for food security (i.e. appropriate targets within different ministries, key stakeholders involved and how to engage them effectively) ;
4. Developing, using and monitoring advocacy and community action plans for food security (i.e. based on a stakeholder mapping at community level and leveraging existing structures and bodies working on this at community level) ;
5. Resources and skills required (including specific technical skills which may be lacking and opportunities to overcome these technical skill gaps through partnerships, for example).
The second part will be done on the third day of the training and will be focusing on :
a. A “Training of Trainers” in which DFN steering committee members will be equipped with strategies and tools for replicating the training to other members of the DFN.
b. Practice of acquired knowledge to be able to get more practical guidance in order to step down the results of the training.
Particularly, the consultant will :
a. Prior to the training, prepare the training materials and share them with Imbaraga for their validation ;
b. Prepare an end-of-training report indicating the content of the training and what has been achieved.
4. Methodology :
The consultant is expected to develop his/her own methodology for this training, based on the purpose of the training. Hence, the consultant is free to propose his/her own methodology. However, the methodology proposed by the consultant will be discussed and validated with the Imbaraga Farmers Organization and partners.
5. Timeline and Deliverables
Timeframe : Five (5) working days including 3 days of the training and 2 days of preparations in October 2018. He/she will submit a work plan and specific dates will be agreed upon at the beginning of the consultancy. The consultant will work closely with the Farmers Voice Project managers.
6. Specific outputs of the consultancy are :
a. Inception report and workplan ;
b. Draft of the trainings modules (the content to be agreed during inception phase) ;
c. Final training materials after incorporating the feedback received ;
d. All raw materials should be submitted to Imbaraga after the training along with the end of training report.
e. Prepare the strategies and tools by which the ToTs will be able to use to replicate the training to other DFN members.
7. Support from the contracting agency
Imbaraga Farmers Organization will provide preparatory assistance to the consultant and these include :
a. Background materials (Project Proposal/TOR, M&E framework, etc.) ;
b. Preparation meeting with Imbaraga and key project personnel ;
The main point of contact and supervisor for this training will be the Ijwi ry’Abahinzi n’Aborozi Project Manager. Support will also be provided by Imbaraga senior managers and partners.
8. Consultant Competencies, Experience and Skills requirements :
The consultant must have :
a. A Post Graduate degree in Rural Development, Social Sciences, or Agronomy sciences and other related fields ;
b. Experience in agriculture policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation approaches ;
c. Proven knowledge and experience in Evidence Based Advocacy (EBA) trainings and participatory approaches ;
d. Solid methodological and research skills ;
e. Excellent ability to write clearly and concisely in English ;
f. Fluency in the local language (Kinyarwanda) ;
g. Ability to engage people in conversation and record answers clearly and accurately ;
h. Organizational and team management skills ;
i. Excellent facilitation skills.
j. Experience in working with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Farmers Organizations, local authorities and media.
9. How to apply :
While submitting his/her application files for this consultancy, the Applicant shall, in particular, ensure to attach the following :
1. A profile of the consultant explaining why he/she is the most suitable for the work demonstrating their relevant experience ;
2. A technical proposal including a detailed methodology and a workplan ;
3. Recent CVs, publications, research reports of the consultant ;
4. The financial proposal specifying the total costs and including a detailed breakdown of costs of the working days.
The interested Consultants are invited to submit their proposals via email to Imbaraga Farmers Organization at the following email address : [email protected] with copies to [email protected] and [email protected] not later than Thursday 27th September 2018 at 12:00 a.m.
Done at Kigali, September 11, 2018
MUNYAKAZI Jean Paul
Legal Representative of IMBARAGA
