OXFAM CONSULTANCY FOR BASELINE STUDY ON URBAN FOOD HIVES PROJECT IN JOS CITY, PLATEAU STATE (NATIONALS ONLY) At Oxfam

1. Urban Food Hives Initiative in Nigeria

The Food Hives to Nourish Cities initiative is rethinking the future of food. In six cities around the world (Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia, Philippines, Colombia and India), Food Hives will be prototyping an approach that designs and develops entire ecosystems that will support regenerative, equitable, and nourishing food systems of the future. The food hives will be models of how communities, businesses and governments can come together to build regenerative, more nourishing and equitable food systems in urban and peri-urban geographies. We believe this will lead to a food future that meets the needs of all people, while considering planetary boundaries. The first phase of this initiative will run between 3 to 5 years and developing entrepreneurial ecosystems that support marginalized communities, particularly women and youth, play a larger role in their local food economies.

The vision of the Food Hives in Nigeria is to have an inclusive food system where everyone has access to nourishing foods in value chains that offer enterprise opportunities for women and young people. Our expectation is to create food system hubs that will serve as one-stop-shops for the promotion of efficient, profitable, and functional food systems environment. The project will be piloted in peri-urban and urban locations of Plateau State, north-central Nigeria. Overall, a more inclusive and dynamic ecosystem will not only benefit food focused entrepreneurs but entrepreneurs across the region as more resources and supports become available and accessible for local communities. To build this ecosystem, our work will focus on and influence five key pillars outlined thus:

1. ENTREPRENEUR SUPPORT: Cultivating agripreneurs of the future and facilitating more conducive agribusiness environment.
2. CULTURE, NARRATIVE, & COMMUNICATIONS: Creating a powerful, shared vision, improved messaging about food systems, nutrition and safety towards attitudinal change of the people.
3. CAPITAL: Unlocking resources for new ideas, start-ups, and innovators, and streamlining capital flow to the marginalized for an expanded ag-MSME environment.
4. WORKFORCE: Partnering with relevant institutions and agencies to improve knowledge and skills regime in becoming more futuristic and contemporary to drive future economic growth.
5. POLICY: Building capacity of policymakers to break down structural barriers and biases and in developing needed frameworks for urban food system, urban agricultural production and planning and food safety and hygiene.

The specific result areas of the Urban Food Hives in Nigeria are:

a) Adoption of improved end-to-end regenerative practices[1] by food systems actors.

b) Improved agribusiness environment providing better opportunities and enterprise-promoting services for women and young people.

c) Enhanced capacity of food system actors to demand and supply nourishing food products driven by a culture of awareness about food safety and hygiene.

d) Improved urban food policy environment supporting production planning, food safety regulations, and agribusiness environment.

During a preliminary consultation with stakeholders in Plateau State, it was established that the State has leverages and comparative advantage in the production of many crops and livestock products. However, there was a convergence of opinion that the entry point of the Urban Food Hive’s intervention should be the fresh produce (fruits and vegetables) section of food production. This is largely because of the peculiarities of these crops in the promotion of healthy diets, their easily perishable nature, and the extensive nature of their supply chains from Plateau State to other parts of Nigeria and beyond.

Target Groups (direct beneficiaries)

The target groups of this intervention are the following (exact numbers and sub-categories will be determined and defined after the baseline study):

· Producer groups in peri-urban and urban LGAs/locations within close proximity to Jos City. This will comprise about 60% women and 40% men in which young people (between the age of 18 – 35 years) will constitute 50% of the total population.

· Association of actors providing direct and indirect supporting functions to the food system, such as transporters, aggregators (operating warehouse facilities, cold storage etc.), agro-input dealers, relevant financial institutions, vocational training institutions, and technology incubating centres.

· Processors, market associations (wholesale, retail).

· Relevant government ministries, departments and agencies especially those working in agriculture, health, planning, and investment promotion.

· Civil society organizations with focus on food systems, health and nutrition, food safety and hygiene etc.

· Urban consumers and the general public.

2. Purpose of the Baseline Study

Determining the current situations in qualitative and quantitative manner relating to the main elements of this proposed project is the main purpose of this baseline study. The extent to which the five pillars of the Urban Food Hive in Nigeria is currently available, accessible, and being utilized in promoting regenerative, equitable, and nourishing food system environment in Plateau State will be the key premises of the study. The study will help to understand critical pathway and entry points that will achieve efficient and effective application of resources in a phased manner.

The survey will establish the baseline for the project´s key indicators (please see methodology section for more information), and constitute the basis to measure the project performance. Even though the baseline study is intended primarily to facilitate project monitoring and evaluation, it will also be used as an evidence-based lobbying and advocacy tool (with the possibility of publishing a summary of the findings). The following objectives are relevant to this study:

i. To describe current end-to-end situations of the food systems in Plateau State using fresh produce segment as the entry point;

ii. To identify existing practices, supporting functions and available intervention promoting improvement and enhancement of the food system;

iii. Identify constraints and challenges to the promotion of regenerative, equitable, and nourishing food system in Plateau State;

iv. Provide demographic description of food system actors and geographies within peri-urban and urban LGAs of Plateau State.

v. Identify innovations and technological opportunities and actors available within the system for further engagement and improvement.

vi. Make recommendations on the best entry points for phased project interventions.

3. Methodology and Scope of Work

The study design and methodology will be discussed and agreed with the project team especially to have common understanding about the feasibility of the methodologies to be used by the baseline study team in delivering expected results in line with the objectives of this study outlined above. Also, the project team will discuss the possibility of deploying a Delta Digital Tool recently developed by SecondMuse for data collection on some variables.

The baseline study consultant will be expected to use different data collecting methods suitable to deliver the study objectives and to establish a baseline for the project’s key indicators, These includes a combination of:

· desk review

· direct observation,

· quantitative survey

· interviews

· and focus group discussions,

The indicators have been internally developed by the project team after consultation with local food systems stakeholders in Plateau State comprising representatives of the target beneficiaries in a participatory manner. These indicators and their baseline findings will be presented again for validation to these stakeholders before project implementation commences. The indicators for this project are localized and mapped across relevant themes within the five domains of food systems indicators developed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition[2]. The localization relates to the specific pillars of Urban Food Hives initiatives for ease of reference and performance management.

[1] https://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/CB6018EN/

[2] https://www.fao.org/3/i7846e/i7846e.pdf