Request for proposal- Short Term Agriculture Training

FEED THE FUTURE NEPAL KNOWLEDGE-BASED INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN NEPAL (KISAN) II PROJECT

Request for Proposal (RFP) to Conduct Short-term Agricultural Trainings to Migrant Returnees and Other Populations Heavily Affected by COVID-19 for Increased Employment in Selected Agricultural Sector

Project Background

KISAN II is operating in twenty-five Hill and Terai districts of Bagmati, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces. The project’s overall goal is to increase resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability of income growth through agriculture development. KISAN II works with the private sector such as lead firms, input suppliers, wholesalers and traders, and millers to catalyze agricultural productivity, create competitive market systems, ensure a stronger enabling business environment, and promote business and literacy skills.

KISAN II follows a market systems development approach to strengthen and improve agriculture markets, improve value chain efficiency and manage unexpected shocks. To ensure this, it is necessary to identify and understand the demand, opportunities, and constraints within the concerned value chain (rice, lentil, maize, vegetables, and goat). To this end, KISAN II is working with key value chain actors to design and implement the best alternatives/interventions for the efficient functioning of the market system benefitting all value chain actors.

Statement of Purpose

The consequences of COVID-19 have negatively impacted almost all sectors of Nepali economy, leaving many people jobless. In addition to these impacts, the economy is also absorbing the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers into both urban and rural communities. Hence, KISAN II plan to provide short-term agricultural trainings to selected migrant returnees and other populations heavily affected by COVID-19 to increase their involvement in agricultural sector and make them more resilient; and to contribute to the development of KISAN II targeted value chains. The training programs will be implemented in selected districts: Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke, Surkhet, Dang, Kapilbastu and Palpa.

KISAN II is seeking the service of a Nepali firm with core competency in conducting short-term agricultural training. The objective of this RFP is to train a total of 150 migrant returnees and other populations heavily affected by COVID-19 on potential agricultural trainings for their increased employment in agricultural sector.

Scope of Work

Identification of employment opportunities

To ensure adequate employment opportunities for selected training participants, the selected Sub-contractor will conduct a quick survey to assess the demand/potential of the skills that will be disseminated to them. Sub-contractor will explore the possibilities and ensure benefitting such people by providing training on required skills. The Sub-contractor, in consultation with KISAN II district-based staff, is also required to consult with GON and other stakeholders so that the resources planned for migrant returnees and other COVID-19 heavily affected populations by these organizations can be leveraged in their interest. 

KSAN II has preliminary collected information on migrant returnees and areas with COVID-19 affected populationsand various stakeholders’ programs planned for them. KISAN II will provide this information to selected sub-contractor. The selected sub-contractor is required to review this information, explore more, and establish effective and fruitful collaboration with these programs and organizations. 

Identification of training participants 

The selected participants should either be one of the following:

• Migrant returnees (both from in-country and abroad)
• Households with at least one person who has or has had COVID-19 positive case
• Member of the household that lost their job or business due to COVID-19

In the meantime, the selected sub-contractor should prioritize women, youth, households with disability; as well as Dalit, Madhesi, Muslim or Janajati. Sub-contractor should prioritize participants having, at a minimum, a smart phone so that they can further learn about and use various agriculture related applications. The sub-contractor should focus to select those participants who do not intend to re-migrate. The Sub-contract must consult KISAN II district team while finalizing training participants.

Conduct trainings 

The maximum number of training days should be 7. Considering continuous threat of COVID-19 and scattered location of participants as well as business potential, the sub-contractor should plan to conduct trainings in approximately 10 small groups1  (up to 15 participants). Prior to training, sub-contractor is responsible to insure each participant against accident.

Sub-contractor may plan to conduct trainings in the following (but not limited to) areas:

• Shallow tube-well installation, repair, and maintenance
• Pesticides or fertilizer applicator
• Pesticides retailing
• Seed retailing
• Artificial inseminator 
• Nursery entrepreneur (vegetable, fodder tree, forage, fruit)
• Seeds producer (cereal, forage)
• Silage and hay producer
• Vermicompost and goat manure producer
• Feeder (including silage/hay rack) manufacturer
• UMMB (Urea Molasses Mineral Block) producer
• Rice and feed mill mechanics
• Combine harvester operator2

In addition to dissemination of these technical skills, the selected sub-contractor is required to orient participants on financial literacy and use of ICT. KISAN II’s Access to Financial Services team will orient trainers of sub-contractor on financial literacy so that they can disseminate that information during trainings. Sub-contractor is also required to bring the personnel of financial institution to orient financial package of these institutions during the training so that more and more participants are encouraged and able to access financial services to establish and/or expand their agricultural enterprises.  

The sub-contractor is also required to monitor all training events, prepare all required forms, and enter required information into KISAN II’s online database.

Counseling and linkage with GON and other stakeholders

Selected sub-contractor should counsel training participants during the training and immediately after the training (two weeks) on how to tap available GON and other financial or technical resources. For example: sub-contractor help support or guide training graduates to register their existing or new entrepreneur in required GON office. 

Deliverables

Sub-contractor should provide the following deliverables. 

• Inception report (within 15 days of contract signed). 
• Training completion report3 , including KISAN II’s Personal Enrollment Form (PEF) and Activity/Training Form; Participant Attendance Sheet (ATF/PAS). Sub-contractor should submit this report within one month of completion of all training events. Training completion report should include brief plan (half page) of each training graduate.

Selection Criteria

The criteria presented below have been tailored to the requirements of this RFP. A total of 100 points are possible. The weightage of technical application will be 70% and financial will be 30%. 

In evaluating the applications, Winrock will examine overall merit and feasibility, as well as specific criteria relevant to each component as elaborated below. One or more award will be made to the overall highest scorer/s. Applicants should note that these criteria: (1) serve as the standard against which all applications will be evaluated, and (2) serve to identify the significant matters which applicants should address in their applications.

1 Trainings must be held in groups no bigger than 15 participants with measures in place to address required social distancing and hygiene norms. This will be monitored.

2 The duration of this training could be more than 7 days. 

3. Format and schedule for report submission will be shared with Sub-contractor after contract signing.

Evaluation of Technical Application: 

Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by an evaluation panel using the merit review criteria indicated above. However, Winrock reserves the right to select or reject any applicant(s).

It is anticipated that award will be made within two months of the submission deadline. Final negotiations and award will be managed by Winrock.

Instruction to Applicants

Technical Application

Applicants will develop their applications based on their understanding of the program’s needs, their prior institutional experience and their determination of the approaches that would be feasible and successful. In all cases, applicants shall clearly explain the rationale for the proposed approaches chosen.

Submissions must clearly state the implementation plan (approach/strategy) of proposed training and expected results with a proposed time frame and budget. 

Monitoring and reporting of the funded activities will be the responsibility of the applicant. 

The technical proposal should contain the following. 

1. Organizational Background:

2. Organizational Capacity

4. Background (Please provide a brief and necessary background information on the issues and the problems that the proposed grant will address.)

5. Goals and Objectives (Please state the goal and its corresponding objectives to address the problems identified above.)

6. Summary(Please provide a summary of the proposed grant including objectives and outcomes.)

7. Technical Approach/Strategy

8. Activities (Please provide a detailed description of all the activities to achieve each objective. Explain the logical connection between the proposed activities and the fulfillment of objectives.)

9. Expected Outcomes and Targets/Deliverables Narrative (What are the expected results that the project will bring about? Please describe how data will be gathered and analyzed, and how performance will be monitored, measured, and reported.)

10. Targeted Households (Please describe the type and number of beneficiary households.)

11. Project Work-Plan and Timeline (Please provide a summary narrative of the work-plan and timeline in addition to attaching a copy of the proposed work-plan table. Include a description of how the project will be managed and operated administratively; for example, which staff will perform certain tasks.)

12. Team composition and assigned task including CVs of proposed personnel (Please include a table in the proposal with names of proposed team members, area of expertise, position assigned, and task assigned.  Should be of Nepali Citizen. Please annex CV)

13. Attachments: Include any necessary attachments in support of your application.

Technical proposal should not exceed 12 pages (excluding annexes), using Gill Sans MT font size12, single-spaced.

Cost Application

Cost applications shall be submitted separately from the technical application. Applicants shall submit a summary and detailed budget in Microsoft Excel with budget notes identifying how the applicant would allocate funds received during the term of the potential agreement. The budget narrative should explain and justify the need for the costs proposed in the budget. The narrative should help the reviewer understand why an item of cost is necessary and how it will be used to support the activity for which it will be incurred. The budget narrative should demonstrate the relationship between the proposed activities and the budget. Just as the technical application should reflect the applicant’s understanding of the objectives and the proposed approach to achieve those objectives, the budget and the accompanying narrative should be realistic and show a similar understanding of the financial requirements of the proposed activities.

Please click here to download the cost application for short term agriculture training or by following the link below;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h5GiV6SrW-B5m5dhSonMqKoKsF2BP3hI/view?usp=sharing

Please click here to see the queries for short-term Agricultural trainings or by following the link below;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pjlbNFb0qb7qmsjwVDzT5cdT7_IKObSN/view?usp=sharing