Consultant for Baseline study

Oxfam in Nepal

Oxfam has been working in Nepal since the early 1980s undertaking various development initiatives addressing the poverty and injustice faced by women and other socially and economically excluded groups. The level of Oxfam's engagement increased substantially after restoration of democracy in 1990 as it became easier for civil society to work in the new political environment. Over the years, Oxfam has worked in partnership with local civil society organisations and the government to promote rural livelihoods, and vulnerable communities' resilience to climatic shocks and disasters. It has also significantly contributed to empowering community people, especially women, to; negotiate with people in power, influence decision making processes, claim rights and essential services to which they are entitled, demand accountability on the part of duty bearers and engage larger masses in advocacy efforts. Oxfam also worked closely with UNHCR in providing assistance to Bhutanese refugees during the 1990s. Oxfam and its long term programme partners believe that the underlying structural causes and drivers of poverty must be addressed if improvements in peoples's lives are to be broad and lasting. Poverty is not one-dimensional; nor is it purely local in its causes and solutions. Therefore, Oxfam's work addresses not only material and technical change, but also the related economic, social, institutional and policy changes which are necessary to end poverty and achieve development and wellbeing. The Oxfam Nepal Vision is: The people of Nepal are empowered and work together to attain a life of dignity with justice and equal rights for all. The Overall Nepal Programme Goal is: to improve the well being of vulnerable people through strengthening their participation in development and governance processes and reducing poverty and suffering.

Details / requirements:

Terms of Reference (ToR) for "Baseline study: Rice Enterprise Development Project"

 

 Background:

 Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) (www.oxfam.org.uk/edp) supports small rural enterprises around the world. The Programme aiming to improve the lives of small holder farmers , through investing in and building the capacity of their enterprises; working with them and others to raise opportunities for women; and leveraging increased support to rural Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It works with private and cooperative sector globally; however, business model for enterprise development in Nepal, till now, has adopted working with Agriculture Cooperatives and Bank.

 

Project Description:

 Enterprise description:

 Oxfam in Nepal, as part of a global EDP programme, has started to support rice enterprise established by the Federation of Small Farmers’ Cooperative Limited (SFCL) in Nawalparasi district. The project focuses on quality milling and marketing of rice operated by the federation and supports for quality paddy production at farmers level through 3 Small Farmers Cooperative Limited (FSCL). At present, 3 SFCL of Jehada, Kumarwarti and Tilakpur VDCs will be involved in the production and farmers’ capacity building activities by operating ‘one window shop’ which serves the farmer members of the cooperatives for agriculture input and extension services. The intervention on both mill and SFCLs is expected to link the upstream and downstream actors of value chain of rice from production and collection of paddy to processing and marketing of rice. By doing this the farmers will get fair price and share of profit from the business and participation and decision making opportunities in entire rice-value chain. Similarly, the project emphasises women economic leadership and favourable policy environment to foster women-led rice value chain.

Therefore, the support will capacitate smallholder farmers for quality paddy production; strengthen their cooperatives as business development service providers; and promote a cooperatives owned mill for value addition and marketing of “Sana Kisan” (small farmer)ricebrand.

 Expected Impact:

 Improved income, food security and livelihoods of small holder farmers, especially women

Expected outcomes:

·         Promoted Women Economic Leadership (WEL) by developing women entrepreneurs in rice value chain

·         Increased women’s socio-political empowerment

·         Improved smallholder cooperatives’ capacity to deliver effective business development services

·         Improved policy environment to foster women’s paddy enterprise

 

 Objectives of the baseline study

 ·         To develop Impact, outcome and output indicators and establish a benchmark on indicators as per the project logic model.

·         To collect the baseline data by applying appropriate methodology so that the Impact, outcomes and output mentioned in project logic model can be measured at the time of final evaluation.

Scope of Work  

  •  The Consultant(s) will take overall responsibility of development of indicators for outputs, outcomes and impact mentioned in the logic model of the project and collection of data from field to establish benchmark on each of the indicators. For this, the consultant will have to work closely with OXFAM project team and SFCL cooperatives while developing indicators and designing survey methodology. Similarly, during data collection at the field the consultant will have to work closely with the same team.

The data collection covers approximately 500 Household from treatment and control groups.

  • The enterprise development program has its own already developed sets of questionnaire for gathering data from field (Household level). However, the consultant will have to review each and every questions and checklists and modify wherever necessary based on the indicators developed and local context of the project area. The consultant will also review the previous baseline and final evaluation reports of the other EDP carried out by OXFAM in Nepal.
  •  The consultant will have to develop additional value chain indicators and set of questionnaires and gather information by consulting the market and different actors involved in the rice –value chain in the project area.

 The consultant will have to answer and clarify the queries and concerns raised by EDP regional and Headquarter teams about the survey design and methodology used in the baseline study.

  • At the end, prepare a standard baseline report for the project.

 

Output:

 

The Consultant(s) will submit a report after incorporating comments and feedback from EDP team.

 

The report will contain:

  • Baseline data to measure the outcomes and impacts mentioned in the project logic model and objectives.
  • Indicators and questions used for data collection including value-chain baseline data of the project.

 

Proposal from consultant (s)

 

The consultant(s) will submit a brief technical and financial proposal to Oxfam. The technical proposal should include detailed methodology, work and process plan and an updated CV of the proposed Consultant(s). The assignment is expected to involve two weeks of fieldwork.

 

The technical proposal will be scrutinised based on the following criteria:

§  Adequate grasp of concepts and issues related to the project

§  Soundness of methodology

§  Past experience from similar field/tasks

 

Process

The following processes will be applied while conducting the study:

§  Oxfam will select the Consultant(s) on the basis of the received technical and financial proposals.

§  The selected Consultant(s) will be invited for discussion on the way forward after s/he is finally short-listed and preparation of base line study work plan.

§  Oxfam and the Consultant(s) will sign a contract for carrying out the assignment.

§  The Consultant(s) together with other team members will carry out the assignment as per the agreed base line survey work plan and contract.

§  The Consultant(s) will produce a draft report and submit it to Oxfam.

§  The Consultant(s) will consider the initial comments from Oxfam, include comments from them and submit the final report to Oxfam.

 

Qualification/skills required

  • Sound knowledge of enterprise development, cooperatives and rice-value chain of Nepal
  • Proven experience of leading baseline study and high quality report writing
  • Good understanding of gender & women empowerment issues
  • Good facilitation skills at the community level
  • Consultant(s) must have VAT registration certificate

Time

The duration of the consultancy will be three weeks including an estimated two weeks of field works. Field works tentatively started from 2nd week of August. And a final Report by 1st week of September.

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Proposal for above assignment can be sent by 7 August 2014 via mail to recruitment_nepal@oxfam.org.uk or G.P.O. Box 2500, Kathmandu. Only Short listed candidates will be informed for written test and interview.

Overview

Category Development and Project
Openings 1
Experience Please check vacancy details.
Education Please check vacancy details
Posted Date 29 Jul, 2014
Apply Before 07 Aug, 2014
City Kathmandu