CONSULTANTS TO TRAIN COFFEE COOPERATIVES BOARDS OF MANAGEMENT MEMBERS

TERMS OF REFERENCE: CONSULTANTS TO TRAIN COFFEE COOPERATIVES BOARDS OF MANAGEMENT MEMBERS ON FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, RESOURCE MOBILIZATION, GOOD GOVERNANCE, MARKETING SKILLS AND LEADERSHIP AS WELL AS JOINTLY DEVELOP INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTS IN KENYA.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Solidaridad Network is an international solution-oriented civil society organization working through eight regional expertise centres to transform markets to make them more sustainable and inclusive. Our eight regional expertise centres include Asia, Eastern and Central Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, Southern Africa, South America, West Africa and our global Secretariat in the Netherlands.

Solidaridad Eastern and Central Africa, one of the regional centres, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya with country offices and programmes in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. We bring together supply chain players and engage them with innovative solutions to improve production, ensuring the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy that maximizes the benefit for all. We facilitate strengthening of local capacity in developing countries, support the creation of enabling environments for economies to thrive, and improve market access.

Solidaridad, in partnership with Nestlé, Coffee Research Institute (CRI), C. Dorman Limited, Coffee Management Services Ltd, Ecom Agro-industrial Corp. Ltd and, Sustainable Management Services Ltd, Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union, Sidama Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union and Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union are implementing the Food Security Program for Ethiopia and Kenya (FOSEK), financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The program’s main objective is to improve food and nutrition security in East Africa by increasing local agricultural production and the income of small scale coffee farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia. The program demonstrates improved farmer resilience based upon combining coffee as a cash crop with the production of a considered selection of food crops, intercropped or side cropped with coffee, for farmers’ own consumption and also for sale to the local markets. This will generate a more stable income for coffee farmers throughout the year; contribute to access to improved and nutritious food and availability of food for the local markets. It will also include a dairy enterprise for increased revenues and improved nutrition.

Through DANIDA support, Solidaridad and African Coffee Roasters (ACR) have initiated the Traceable Organic Coffee from Kenya project (TRACE Kenya Project) that seeks to contribute to economic growth and promote environmental and social standards of 15,000 smallholder coffee farmers (30% women and 10% youth) in Kericho, Nandi and Bungoma counties. This will be accomplished by growing Kenya’s first organic coffee for export to consumer markets in Europe and the USA by 2023. The commercial objective of the project is to develop market access for Kenyan organic coffee in Europe and USA. This translates to premium coffee to global consumers, market expansion for ACR and enhanced market for the farmers guaranteeing better incomes and livelihoods. The project innovation is in the delivery of the first organic certified Kenyan coffee to global consumers. Adoption of organic agricultural practices will spur development of organic inputs supply chains and innovations as well as lead to improved coffee volumes thereby creating new job opportunities. Since youth are more receptive to new trends, they will be equipped with the right skills to enable them to pursue economic opportunities on and off the farm.

2.0 Context

Institutional instability is a major problem derailing sustainable production, governance and management of rural cooperatives and their ultimate profitability. Based on the FOSEK and TRACE Kenya baseline study findings as well as the FOSEK mid-term evaluation, most smallholder coffee cooperatives lack institutional management documents while those that have are outdated. Besides, the respective boards of management lack the requisite skills for their development thus hindering institutionalizing and adoption of good governance practices interventions by the projects. Ten cooperatives under TRACE Kenya project have not benefited from financial management, Entrepreneurship, Resource mobilization, Good governance, Marketing skills and Leadership capacity enhancement training.

3.0 Objective

The overall objective of the assignment is to enhance the capacity of smallholder coffee cooperatives board members through training on financial management, Entrepreneurship, Resource mobilization, Good governance, Marketing skills and Leadership. Further, the consultant jointly with respective board members will develop institutional management documents (Strategic plans, Business plans, Human Resource Policy, quality management/control policy and Anti-child abuse policy) geared towards cementing institutional stability. Solidaridad seeks to recruit a qualified firm/ consultant to facilitate the training of respective boards of management and jointly development of institutional management documents. The target is to train and develop institutional management documents for 51 benefiting cooperatives spread in 10 Counties (Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Murang’a, Kiambu, Machakos, Nandi, Kericho and Bungoma) for the two projects (FOSEK and TRACE Kenya).

4.0 Expected outputs & Deliverables

The Consultant shall deliver on the following outputs:

a) Design a curriculum as well as develop training aids to build capacity of coffee cooperative societies/ farmer organizations on financial management, entrepreneurship, resource mobilization, governance, marketing skills, Responsible Business Conduct(RBC) and leadership for effective adoption and ownership

b) Develop pre and post training evaluation questionnaires to be used in each training session towards the assessment of the delivery and understanding of the trainees

c) Design a training program using performance objectives provided as well as additional material contributed by the consultant out of their previous experience in handling similar assignments.

d) Deliver trainings to 127 Boards of Management members on financial management, Entrepreneurship, Resource mobilization, Good governance, Marketing skills and Leadership

e) Jointly with cooperative board of management members develop institutional documents (Strategic plans, Business plans, Human Resource Policy, quality management/control policy and Anti-child abuse policy) for 51 benefiting cooperatives

f) Develop and avail a tailored Monitoring and Evaluation System to assess training delivery and participants understanding as well as assessing and/or tracking adoption of these practices geared towards achievement of program objectives.

g) Develop and share training reports and documents thus developed after every session

h) The consultant will present the manuscript flow for discussions during the inception meeting

5.0 Coordination and cooperation

• The Consultant undertaking the assignment will work under the coordination of Solidaridad (SECAEC)

6.0 Inputs

a) Solidaridad shall provide the consultant with background information on the Food Security program and the TRACE Kenya Project.

b) Solidaridad shall introduce the consultant to the relevant Program teams for preparatory planning. It will be the responsibility of the consultant to make contact with any external relevant organization while keeping Solidaridad in correspondence

c) The consultant shall refer and adhere to statutory regulations of Cooperatives Act in Kenya

d) Solidaridad in consultation with program partners undertakes to mobilize and avail trainees for the particular exercise as per the schedule shared by the consultant and agreed with SECAEC.

7.0 Experts/Consultant’s;

Develop a comprehensive expression of interest (E.O.I) outlining:

• A profile of the firm/consultant

• Firm/Consultants statement on the interpretation of the TOR

• Curriculum Vitae’s of consultant/firm outlining qualifications and demonstrable experience in training and developing institutional management documents (Strategic plans, Business plans, Human Resource Policy and quality management policy )on spanning not less than three years. Demonstrated expertise on agricultural cooperatives will be an added advantage

• A description of the methodology

• At least 3 references of similar assignments undertaken in the last 3 years

• Sample of some of the works delivered including but not limited to: reports, presentations, training modules and samples of developed documents.

• A detailed financial proposal (inclusive of relevant taxes) and a work plan for carrying out the assignment

8.0 Duration

This assignment is expected to be carried out for a period not more than 60 days. The final report will be submitted within 60 days from the date of assignment engagement.