Terms of Reference (TOR) Baseline Study for Passport to Coffee Export (PACE) Project, Tanzania

PACE Project Consortium

Tanzania Coffee Research Institute: A government research body with a mandate to initiate, implement, promote and carry out research on coffee production, processing, quality, farming systems and husbandry of other crops associated with coffee. TaCRI has implemented three European Commission programmes in the past and currently works with Solidaridad ECA to implement her Coffee Resilience Program in Northern Tanzania.

Envirocare: A non-profit organization working in Tanzania, primarily focused on conserving the environment and improving livelihoods in local communities with gender, human rights and community based organisation integration through a participatory approach.

Solidaridad Tanzania Country Office: Will carry out Country level implementation roles for the PACE Project. The organization has been implementing programs in coffee, horticulture, sugarcane, cotton, dairy, gold and landscape management in Tanzania. We have a rich experience in promoting best practises and sustainable production, trade and market development for producers. Our programs in Tanzania focus on value chain development, food security, gender inclusivity, ICT, climate innovations, investment in viable businesses for impact creation while working together with governments, multilateral agencies, private companies as well as commodity producers.

Solidaridad Europe, Established in 1969 in the Netherlands. Developed Max Havelaar label for sustainable supply chains in 1988, and have garnered over 50 years’ experience on sustainable supply chains throughout the globe.

Project Background

In Tanzania, more than 450,000 families and 110 estates derive their livelihoods from growing coffee with excess of 2,000,000 people employed directly or indirectly in the coffee industry. The challenges facing the sector include: i) extremely low productivity due to aging trees and producers, as well as inadequate access to inputs (such as, improved-variety planting material); ii) poor adoption of good agricultural and climate-smart practices, lack of on-farm and community level processing and value addition; iii) low profits and profitability for coffee farmers; iv) lack of competitive marketing channels due to auctions system and export licensing requirements; v) limited sector integration and shared-value business models between large exporters and farmers; vi) high prevalence of cross-border coffee smuggling (20% of total production), especially for Robusta coffee; and vii) high producer taxation.

The sector is also plagued by social and cultural barriers, such as gender exclusion (youth and women) and food and nutrition insecurity.

Project Objectives

PACE’s overall objective is to promote a sustainable and inclusive sector development through a robust export oriented coffee value chain by 2023. To achieve this, the action has set four specific objectives: i) improving export oriented coffee sector; ii) increasing incomes through job creation; iii) enhancing food and nutrition security of smallholder coffee farmers; and iv) enhancing sectoral value addition and marketing.

Project Expected Results

The key results expected included but not limited to:

• Improved productivity and enhanced food and nutrition security of smallholder coffee farmers

• Increased incomes for coffee farmers through diversification and job creation

• Improved export oriented coffee sector in Tanzania

• Enhanced sectorial value addition and marketing

Justification for the Baseline Study

PACE has clearly defined its targets and indicators in its log frame but baseline of several of the projected targets are currently unavailable. Therefore, in order to create the benchmarks, a baseline survey is necessary to come up with baseline indicators for each of the target set. These baseline indicators will be the guiding pillars to measure project’s achievements and outputs towards the end. This will also help devise appropriate monitoring tool for M&E of project interventions to reach the stated outputs & achievements. Furthermore, the baseline survey will generate and develop an information base comprising of the detailed relevant information of the general and targeted beneficiaries of the project’s working areas. This information will guide us to plan effectively and coherently in materializing the project goal in a systemic way.

Objectives of the Baseline Study

The main objective of the baseline study is to prepare a pre‐project / baseline information of the target beneficiaries as per the indicators of project objectives, specific objectives and expected results specified in the project document and the project log‐frame.

The specific objectives of the baseline study are the following:

a) To collect and analyze the verifiable indicators from the project log frame.

b) To collect and analyze the relevant information of existing situation of project’s targeted beneficiaries (including coffee farmers, Cooperatives, and marketing boards among others), service providers, and/or related stakeholders.

c) To collect and analyze relevant information in terms of sources and level of income, coffee productivity levels et cetera.

The study will utilize a wide range of appropriate tools and methodologies to measure the status of social, economic/financial, physical, natural and human assets of targeted communities/coffee households (HHs), market actors and market system components within the framework of PACE and as spelled out in the project document. Solidaridad and its implementing partners will use the study findings in comparing pre and post project status of the market systems and coffee communities with whom it works.

The relevant project stakeholders and donors will also use the baseline information.

Suggested Approaches and Methodologies

The study will be based on data and information gathered from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources would comprise relevant project documents, coffee sector reports, and Government reports. Primary data will be collected from a sampled beneficiaries and market actors in each of the project districts/unions. The detailed methodology and field work schedule will be worked out in consultation with Solidaridad, partner organizations and the consultants.

However, the consultants will ensure the following steps:

a) Visit PACE Project Management Office in Tanzania, and hold interactions with Country Manager, Program Manager, M&E & Communication Unit and PACE core team to be acquainted with project, its activities and the proposed work.

b) Prepare a detailed methodology including questionnaires for household survey and checklist for group discussion, focus group discussion and key informant interview as per the project document and project log‐frame.

c) Pre‐test draft questionnaire and checklists and incorporate the inputs in final questionnaire and checklist.

d) Share and circulate final version of baseline questionnaires and checklist and incorporate comments (if any).

e) Prepare a detailed plan of action/schedule covering orientation to enumerators, field work, data collection, analysis, interpretation, draft and final report preparation with concerned project staff.

f) Share draft report and obtain comments/inputs and incorporate the same into final report.

g) Prepare final report and submit (hard copy and electronic version in word format) to Solidaridad Tanzania Office.

Responsibilities of Consultants/Scope of Work

The composition of the study team is left up to the consultant/ organization based on their internal system, ideas and logic. However, Solidaridad recommends that the team comprise one Team Leader (TL) to coordinate/conduct the overall study and liaise with Solidaridad. To collect information from the field, adequate number of Field Enumerators (FEs) will be deployed in facilitation of Solidaridad’s Project Officers at the Districts/Unions. Supervision of the field work and quality (reliability and validity) of the data/information collected from the field is the primary responsibility of the TL. The TL will work closely with Solidaridad M&E Officers and Project Team. In each step and process, consultation with PACE Program Manager are M&E Officer are vital.

The consultancy / consultant team will be primarily responsible to:

a) Develop/design baseline study including questionnaire for HH survey and checklist and tools for group interaction including FGD with target beneficiaries at District/Union/Village levels.

b) Share study design including process, methods and questionnaires/checklist with project team, collect feedback and finalize the study design.

c) Pre‐test questionnaires and other tools in one of the project sites.

d) Submit inception report.

e) Debrief/discuss with project team about effectiveness of questionnaire, checklists and other tools used in pre‐test, collect feedback and finalize them.

f) Orient, train and supervise the enumerators.

g) Carryout field work together with enumerators. h) Ensure the quality of information collected from fields, cross check with the validity of information collected and verify/revise where needed.

i) Update progress of the study on weekly basis to M&E Officer.

j) Analyze data and prepare quality report.

k) Give presentation of draft report to Solidaridad, and

l) Submit final report (a compiled version of the report ‐ both hard copy and electronic

version in word format) to the project after incorporating the feedbacks and suggestions

from Solidaridad.

Deliverables

The following deliverables are envisioned under this ToR:

a) Hard copy of the final Baseline report.

b) An e‐copy of raw data and final version of the report

Eligibility Criteria

The consultancy / consultant team should have experience on qualitative and quantitative research; clear understanding on research methodology and experiences on using different social research tools and techniques. Work experiences in the coffee sector in East Africa region will be an advantage. TL should have advance university degree in agriculture or rural development or social sciences with experiences of having conducted evaluations in agricultural value chains.