Consultant for Organic Certification of Farm Organizations at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture

Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), an international development organization, specializes in designing sustainable, market-led agricultural initiatives. We build strong local and global partnerships, incorporate innovative approaches into our programs, and foster inclusive development to offer enhanced opportunities to under-served groups. Since 1985, CNFA has managed more than $600 million in donor-funded agriculture development programs and has worked in 46 countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant for Organic Certification of Farm Organizations

RFP Number: #03-001/2022
Location: Ilorin, Kwara
Employment Type: Contract
Funded By: USDA FCC-641-2019/006-00
Implemented By: CNFA
Date of Issue of Request: February 2, 2022
Deadline for Question February 15, 2022
Deadline for Offers: February 28, 2022
Expected Period of Performance: March 1, 2022 – March 30, 2024
Description: To provide technical assistance to farmers and farmer-based organizations in organic production and fair-trade certification management
For: West Africa PRO-Cashew Project

Introduction

• PRO-Cashew is a USDA program implemented by CNFA in West Africa. The goal of the project is to boost the competitiveness of West African producers by improving efficiency and quality in production and trade and by working to develop more coherent regional trade and investment policies.
• PRO-Cashew seeks the services of a consultant or a consulting firm to provide technical assistance to farmers and farmers-based organizations in organic production and fair-trade certification management in one or more of the PRO-Cashew project selected countries [Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria].
• The Consultant or the consulting firm will develop the process to support and coach the farmers and farmer-based organizations to reach to the level of organic production standards and fair trade certification. It is expected that following this technical assistance, a certified organic and fair-trade body would come to audit the farmers and farmer-based organizations and deliver the organic and/or fair-trade certificates.
• Offerors are responsible for ensuring that CNFA receives their offers in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFP. Failure to adhere to instructions described in this RFP may disqualify an offer from consideration.

About PRO-Cashew Project

• PRO-Cashew is a five-year USDA-funded Food for Progress (FFPr) program supporting the development of the West African cashew sector. The program, implemented by CNFA, started in 2020 and is working in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria.
• It aims to increase farmers' productivity and efficiency and boost cashew trade by improving harvest and post-harvest techniques and supporting supply chain linkages between farmers and agri-food companies in the five intervention countries.

Scope of Work

• The PRO-Cashew works with private sector agro-foods companies, raw cashew nuts exporters, or cashew processing factories developing their supply chain with the farmers and farmer-based organizations. PRO-Cashew partners will provide the list of farmers that require/need organic certification. The Consultant or Firm is expected to provide technical assistance to the farmers and farmers based on obtaining organic and fair-trade certification for the nuts harvested on their farms.
• The overall objective of the organic certification program is to guarantee the quality and the origin of the raw cashew nuts at the different stages of marketing.
• The PRO-Cashew support aims at assisting farmers and farmer-based organizations linked to processing factories and exporters sourcing organic and traceable raw cashew nuts. PRO-Cashew is committed to helping farmers improve the value of their cashew nuts and will support them in obtaining organic and fair-trade certification for the nuts harvested on their farms.
• To this end, a consultant or firm will be recruited to accompany the farmers and farmer-based organizations to receive a certificate of conformity to the organic production method on-farm certification.
• More specifically, the certification program aims to support farmers and farmer-based organizations in understanding and applying the best organic and fair-trade practices in the orchard management field in harvest and post-harvest requirements of raw cashew nuts to provide higher Kernel Out-turn Ratio (KOR) and quality organic nuts to their buyers. It involves:
  • Diagnosing of the farmers and farmer-based organizations farming systems;
  • Organize and conduct a workshop to validate the proposed organic certification strategy and identify opportunities for organic-fair trade certification of cashew nuts in the Country with the main private sector partners of PRO-Cashew.
  • Training of the farmers and farmer-based organizations in complying and obtaining organic and fair-trade certification;
  • Technical assistance to farmers and farmer-based organizations in the process of setting up an efficient organic cashew nut production, through the setup of an Internal Control System, part of the partner system of organic management;
  • Provide technical support (review audit report, organic certification application form, verify and validate the labeling and reference to organic agriculture, etc.) to the farmers and farmer-based organizations in the application process to obtain organic and fair-trade certifications and management.

Methodologies

• The preparatory phase of farmer Organic Production &Fair Trade Certification Management should be participatory; relevant stakeholders within the cashew sector should be involved. Interviews of stakeholders should be conducted where necessary to create the needed awareness and gain the acceptance of farmers and interested actors of the value chain, such as agro-processing factories and cashew nut consumers around the world. The need assessment and the evaluation of identified farmers' bases organizations will lead the assistance of selected farmers groups to participate in the organic and fair-trade certification and management program to receive a certificate of compliance to the organic production method.
• The Consultant or consulting firm must propose the intervention methodology, analyze all appropriate information, propose the relevant strategy, the milestones to the ultimate outcome required to the relevant stakeholders in the value chain, and more specifically to the project beneficiaries to achieve this assignment.
• This assignment will provide a framework for exchange between cashew value chain actors on the opportunities of organic and fair-trade certification of cashew nuts in the selected Country. This assignment requires field trips to selected intervention regions in the Country. The regions and farmers will be selected by the PRO-Cashew partners, mostly cashew processing factories and exporters.
• If the Consultant or the Consulting firm recruited is based outside the targeted Country, he/she is expected to develop a monthly travel plan for each intervention depending on the required time scheduled following the inception meeting report (See Annex 4 – Cost proposal budget).PRO-Cashew request that the Consultant or Consulting Firm provides a technical proposal (Annex 3) and budget proposals (Annex 4) based on one of the two scenarios:
  • Scenario 1: Support the organic certification of PRO-Cashew partners: 500 farmers in Year 1, and 1,000 farmers in Year 2 (per country);
  • Scenario 2: Support the organic of PRO-Cashew partners: 750 farmers in Year 1, and 1,500 farmers in Year 2 (per country);

Expected Outcome:
At the end of the Consultant or Consulting Firm's mission, the following results are expected:

• A diagnosis and then a training package and other field activities are implemented and monitored.
• An Internal Control System is established, with forms and database consolidations for easier use.
• The farmers and their farmer-based organizations are accompanied to receiving a certificate of conformity to the organic production method on-farm certification;
• A sustainable partnership is established between farmers, exporters or the cashew processing factories, and the Organic and Fair-Trade certification bodies.

Tasks

• The Consultant or Consulting firm' will work and collaborate with the PRO-Cashew country representatives, project partners, and beneficiaries, such as the farmers and farmers-based organizations, the PRO-Cashew grantee's other project partners beneficiaries.
• The Organic Cashew Production Program would like to address the issue concerning the farmers' adoption of organic production methods to address the growing need of the consumer's niche market through the West Africans established agro-processing factories. Thus, under the responsibility of and in collaboration with the PRO-Cashew team, the Consultant or the consulting firm will be expected to provide short-term technical assistance to develop the capacity of farmers' cooperatives in organic production and fair-trade management in the selected Country through:
  • Diagnose and identify activities that can contribute to the achievement certification effective management of the farmer-based organizations;
  • Contribute to the training of the Internal Control System that will accompany the producers in the certification process;
  • Facilitate the elaboration and review of the documents developed for the organic and fair-trade certification process;
  • Contribute to the choice and training of tools and software to be used by the ICS;
  • Support the ICS and the producers to obtain the organic certificates;
  • Prepare and submit reports on certification audits.

Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: Farmers and Farmer-Based Diagnosis Report: The Consultant or Consulting firm must make a diagnosis of the farmers and farmer-based organizations and prepare a short report on the findings.
• Deliverable 2: Year 1 Work plan to secure organic certification: The Consultant or Consulting firm must prepare a work plan outlining the activities and timeline of each of the activities based on the information obtained from the diagnosis. 
• Deliverable 3: Organic Certification Workshop: The Consultant or Consulting firm must organize a workshop to validate the proposed organic certification strategy with the PRO-Cashew's private-sector partner and its farmers representatives that are identified by the partner to be certified.
• Deliverable 4: Technical Report on Organic Certification: The Consultant or Consulting firm must prepare a report on the procedures and process of obtaining organic certification and demonstrate the technical assistance and training required to comply to organic production and obtain organic certification.
• Deliverable 5: Training, training Report and list of Farmers and farmers-based organizations: The Consultant or Consulting firm must prepare farmers and farmers-based organizations for organic and possibly fair-trade certifications. The list of farmers should also be joined by the PRO-Cashew Kobo farmers forms filled, as part of the MEL system required by USDA.
• Deliverable 6: Year 2 Work plan to secure organic certification: The Consultant or Consulting firm must prepare a work plan outlining the activities and timeline of each of the activities, to secure the organic certificate of the first batch of farmers, and to initiate the certification of the additional ones of Year 2.
• Deliverable 7: Training, training report and list of Farmers and farmers-based organizations: The Consultant or Consulting firm must prepare farmers and farmers-based organizations with organic and possibly fair-trade certifications. The list of farmers should also be joined by the PRO-Cashew Kobo farmers forms filled, as part of the MEL system required by USDA.
• Deliverable 8: Review Certification Documents: The Consultant or Consulting firm must thoroughly review the documents required to submit to the certification authority.The Consultant must prepare the farmers and farmer-based organizations to be eligible for organic and fair-trade certifications and management.

Deliverables Schedule
The successful offeror shall submit the deliverables described above in accordance with a realistic deliverables schedule, as defined by the offeror, and outlined below:

*Deliverable numbers and names refer to those fully described in Section 1.5 above. The offeror must provide the dates of the deliverables, only estimated here.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates or firm should send their Applications / Offers to: [email protected] using "Capacity Development in Organic Production & Fair Trade Certification Management in (specify your Country of intervention)" as the subject of the mail.
 

Instructions to Offerors

• Offer Deadline and Protocol: Offers must be received no later than 5:00pm, GMT, on the deadline.
• Applications received after the specified time and date will be considered late.
• The cover page of this Solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process.
• Please reference the RFP number in any response to this RFP.
• Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA.
• The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process.
• Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines to be considered for award.

Questions:

• Questions regarding the technical or administrative requirements of this RFP may be submitted no later than 5:00pmGMT on February 15, 2022 by email to [email protected]. Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted. Questions and requests for clarification-and the responses thereto-that CNFA believes may be of interest to other offerors will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding.
• Only the written answers issued by CNFA will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation.
• Any verbal information received from employees of CNFA or any other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.

Evaluation and Award:
The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and is determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on the application of the below evaluation criteria. Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals, i.e., the best approach and anticipated results combined with a reasonable cost. Proposed costs must reflect and match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach. The number of points below indicates the relative importance of each criterion:

Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that the award will be made solely based on these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:

• CNFA may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award;
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this Solicitation, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the PRO-Cashew Project;
• CNFA may cancel this Solicitation at any time;
• CNFA may contact a shortlist of offerors for additional screening interviews following a review of initial offers received.
• Please note that if there are deficiencies regarding responsiveness to this Solicitation requirements, an offer may be deemed "non-responsive" and thereby disqualified from consideration. CNFA reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Cost Proposal:
Pricing must be presented in local currency. Offerors are required to submit proposed payment terms and proposed payment schedule if applicable. Failure to submit proposed payment terms may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration. Offers must remain valid for not less than sixty day (60 days) calendar days after the offer deadline. Offerors are requested to provide offers on official letterhead in accordance with the format provided in Annex 4.

Proposal Format Instructions:
All proposals must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

• English or French language only
• Include the individual/agency/organization name, date, RFP number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
• The Technical Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 3.
• The Cost Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 4.

A full proposal will include the following documents:

• A proposal offer checklist (Annex 1).
• A cover letter on company letterhead, signed by an authorized representative of the offeror (Annex 2).
• A complete Technical Proposal in response to the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3 and in the format provided in Annex 3.
• A complete Cost Proposal in response to the terms of Section 2.4, the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3, and in the format provided in Annex 4.
• A copy of the offeror's business license, or, if an individual, a copy of his/her identification card.
• Three contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work.
• t least two recent reports published or contributions from the Consultant or consulting firm justifying experience of conducting similar assignment, that is, Capacity Development of farmers and famer-based organizations, Organic Production; Fair Trade Certification and Management etc.;   for development cashew production projects or government agencies.

Application Deadline 28th February, 2022 (5:00PM, WAT).