TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR FACILITATING TO DEVELOP AGRICULTURAL STRATEGY OF THE SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED BY VCDP

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR FACILITATING TO DEVELOP AGRICULTURAL STRATEGY OF THE SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED BY VCDP

1. Background and objectives 

Value Chain Development of Fruit and Vegetables Project (VCDP) is the joint initiative of Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) with the support from Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). VCDP aims to increase income of 10,000 smallholder farmers of 37 rural/municipalities aside BP highway and Prithvi highway extending to Syangja and Hetauda - Dumkibas section of the East-West highway. The project has three major outcome areas (i) improve agricultural productivity through increased capacity of government agencies and better access to production technologies by farmers, (ii) reduce postharvest losses of selected fruit and vegetables by postharvest technology development, and (iii) better market linkages at local level. 

Under the federal system in Nepal, agricultural service is provisioned under the jurisdiction of local government by the Constitution (Schedule 8, functions 15 and 18). Based on the Constitutional mandate, the local government is responsible to design policies, formulate strategy/plans and programme, allocate financial resources, manage and mobilize human resources for agricultural service delivery and monitoring and regulating agricultural services as delineated under Local Government Operation Act- LGOA, Chapter 11, part 1 (functions 15 and 18). However, majority of the local governments lack local level agricultural policies particularly overall Local Agricultural Development strategy resulting inconsistencies in annual agricultural development plans, different annual priorities, unplanned investment in agricultural sector resulting poor outputs and outcome. 

Moreover, lack of strategic plan resulted difficulties in identifying priorities, resource allocation and support and partnership seeking with provincial and federal governments together with other development partners. Due to absence of strategic plan, agricultural sector at the local level has been receiving low financial resource allocation, higher conditionality of the sectoral intergovernmental transfer from federal and province level and often underutilization of the limited allocated resources (Bishwakarma et al, 2021 & 2022). Such situation has inconsistencies and challenges in resource allocation by the federal government to local government based on local priorities and plan. 

Though, must of the local governments (mostly Rural Municipalities and Municipalities) have put agriculture sector as top priority, have been unable to allocated enough financial resources, identify annual activities and their effective implementation due to lack of concrete sectoral strategy. Moreover, most of the local government lack sufficient capable human resources and expertise for formulating sectoral strategy and related policies in agriculture. In this context, with the request from local governments from the VCDP working area, VCDP planned to provide technical support through mobilizing consultants to selected local governments in formulating local level agriculture sector strategy of five Palika namely, Gandaki Gaupalika, Gajuri Gaupalika, Dhunibesi Nagarpalika, Namoboudha Nagarpalika and Kamalamai Nagarpalika that will create opportunities to integrate VCDP approaches and learning for local agriculture development.

2. Scope of the technical support

• Facilitate to organize inception workshop at Palika under the leadership of Palika Mayor/Chair to build consensus about the strategy development process, roles of each concerned stakeholders and develop concrete action plan,
• Prepare detail methodologies and process for the strategy formulation,
• Facilitate selected Palika in collecting agricultural related information of the Palika mobilizing local enumerators under the leadership of elected ward chairs,
• Compile/collate and analyze information, and use the analysis in developing Palika Agricultural Development Strategy,
• Assist in drafting Palika Agricultural Development Strategy with clear concrete Vision, Mission, Goal with expected Outcomes, Outputs and Major activities with required financial, human and institutional resources,
• Share the draft strategy among the concerned stakeholders and collect inputs, comments, and suggestions,
• Revisit and finalize the Draft Local Agricultural Development Strategy incorporating inputs and suggestions,
• Facilitate to organize workshop under the leadership of Palika, present the major aspect of strategy and facilitate the endorsement process by local government,
• Prepare a brief report including key process adapted of the Local Agricultural Development Strategy formulation and submit to VCDP within the stipulated time frame.

3. Methodology and location of the technical support

The consultants should follow the extensive consultation methods to facilitate Palika in formulating the local Agricultural Development Strategy formulation process. The Palika leadership (Mayor/Chair, Deputy Mayor/ Vice Chair), ward chairs, Members of plan formulation committee, Chief Administrative Officer, sectoral staff, sectoral committee Coordinators and members should be on board and well acquainted throughout the process from beginning to end of the strategy development. Furthermore, the consultants should facilitate local government to reflect the farmer’s voice, agro-entrepreneurs, public/private agricultural service providers and relevant institutions at different levels. Such wider consultation has been expected to create wider ownership of the strategy where each concerned stakeholder can contribute for its effective implementation and achieve the planned results. 

4. Duration 

The duration of the assignment is spread over four months February to May 2023. Final report of this assignment is to be submitted no later than 30 May 2023. Considering the time limitation, two- three team can be proposed to accomplish the task in time. The proposed tasks to be accomplished and estimated person/days has been given as below:

Estimated breakdown of the technical support to Palika person/days

5. Deliverables and milestone

The firm/ consultant will submit final deliverable of the assignment. It will be the final summary report and the Local Agricultural Development Strategy of the assigned Palika. The Strategy should be in Nepali and the summary report should be in English.

6. Required professional competences and qualification of the consultants or firm

The firm or the technical support team should have composition of agriculture extension expert, economist and Expert of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion with respective roles and technical inputs to the local government. The lead consultant should have the following competences and qualification.

• The lead consultant should have at least Master’s degree in agricultural sciences, extension, economics, development studies, governance, or related fields with basic degree (B.Sc.) in agriculture,
• Sound knowledge of federalization of the agriculture sector e.g., existing institutions and policies at three tiers of the government related to agriculture, sectoral roles, and responsibility of each tier of the government and current sectoral IGR practices in Nepalese context.
• Extensive working experiences with local governments in agricultural sector planning, formulating sectoral policies, developing institutional mechanism, capacity development of sectoral staff and agricultural service delivery under federal system,
• Have experience in different approaches of agricultural service delivery, agricultural value chain development and knowledge and experience on pluralistic agricultural service provisions,
• Have excellent analytical skill,
• Have excellent facilitation skill
• Excellent report writing skill
• Very good command on both English and Nepali language in speaking and writing, 
• Experiences of carrying out similar kinds of studies independently,
• Priority will be given to women, Dalit, Janajati and ethnic communities.

7. Institutional arrangements and reporting

The firm/lead consultant will report to the VCDP National Project Manager for day-to-day activities and every deadline via email on the progress of the work, any challenges being encountered, or risks foreseen, proposed, or taken mitigation measures, and where project support may be required. The firm/consultant will hand over all primary data and the report provided to project at the end of the service.

8. Budget and payment schedule

The firm should propose all costs covering consultants’ fees, local enumerators cost, DSA (for food and accommodation during field work), transportation expenses, and other recurrent expenses occur during the assignment. Project will organize sharing meeting on its own expense. All applicable taxes will be deducted at source. It will be the Firm’s responsibility to ensure consultant/enumerators’ full insurance coverage during the assignment period. Upon submission of inception report and approved work plan, 40% of the fund will be paid and remaining 60% will be paid after completion of the assignment and acceptance of final report by the project.

How to apply

Interested and eligible Firms/consultant are requested to submit a brief profile of the firm (copy of registration certificate, VAT/Tax clearance certificate so far as applicable, a summary of the relevant experience, CVs of the consultants highlighting the relevant competency and experience along with technical and financial proposal, and an application letter mentioning the total financial quote of the assignment. Incomplete applications will not be considered. The application can be submitted via email to info@vcdp.org.np no later than 25th January 2023.