Consultancy – Provision Of A Platform To Digitize Training Modules For African Leafy Vegetables (Alvs) Production For Ray Project At Practical Action

PRACTICAL ACTION
ABOUT US
We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.
We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:
• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living.
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.

PRACTICAL ACTION IN KENYA
In Kenya, Practical Action has a long history of addressing systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms their lives, helping communities and government make cities healthier and safer, making agriculture and markets work better for small holder farmers and supporting communities and government to become more resilient.
We use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims.

ABOUT THE ROLE
Background and Purpose of the assignment:
Practical Action is implementing a five-year project, the Resilient Agriculture for Youth (RAY) in nine (9) counties of Kisumu, Homabay, Siaya, Migori, Nyamira, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga. The project aims to make agriculture an attractive and resilient employer for young people by promoting agricultural livelihoods for the youth underpinned by Agroecological principles and practices. The project is targeting four (4) main value chains namely African Leafy Vegetables, African leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and oil crops (groundnuts and soybeans). Over the next 5 years, we aim to increase income, and job opportunities for 100,000 (age 18-35) young people in the nine counties through effecting systems change within the agriculture sector to make this an attractive work sector that offers dignified work. Additionally, the project will contribute towards poverty reduction within target counties as youth start earning or improve their income levels through skills development, and enhanced access to markets and finance. The main approaches being used by the project include:
• A Mentorship model to increase youth engagement in the agriculture sector.
• Regenerative agriculture to improve productivity, increase income and restore natural capital.
• Market Systems Development to stimulate long-term sustainable change so that markets operate more effectively for young men and women.
Over the longer term, the project intends to impact 100,000 young people by demonstrating the viability of agri-business as a viable career option.

Objective of assignment
The main purpose of this assignment is to provide a digital platform that will be used by
Project participants to access training content on African Leafy Vegetables ( farming either through
video and/or other content including technical knowledge on best production practices. The
platform will also support the program’s mentors to deliver skills training to scale.

Platform Functionalities

• User experience: The platform should be easy to use and navigate, with an intuitive design that makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for.

• The platform should be easily accessible to PA and project participants through either USSD, or internet-enabled gadgets (web and mobile-based apps).

• Collaboration features: The system should be able to integrate with online learning platforms like Zoom and Meet. This allows for real-time learning. It also allows trainers and other relevant parties to upload relevant learning material through the web portal. The end user should access the same information through the web, mobile app, or SMS alerts. The platform should have collaboration tools such as forums, chat rooms, and group projects.

• Ability to facilitate uninterrupted and pre-planned LIVE training sessions through the platform to the registered user. The proposed training platform should have a robust multi-media content management system with support of video, audio, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, animations, etc. The platform’s ability to have visual content is paramount. It should have an on-demand video streaming capability for conducting live sessions with a provision for two-way real-time audio and video chat support. The content capture and delivery will include: Word document, PDF, XML, PowerPoint presentations , Video streaming to pure audio transcript Quizzes, Surveys , Completion certificates, etc.

• The platform/system should allow the support team to identify and create accounts for input providers, this includes Business service hubs and Business Services Centers.

• Design the architecture of the training platform with flexibility, scalability, extendibility, and multitenancy of the system for future expansion.

• It should be possible to update the course content and the modules regularly up to and beyond the project period as per the market need.

• It should have a dynamic content management system with support for content upload, tagging, searching and download features. Content hit/view/review/download count to be captured, recorded and presented in a dashboard and printable report. Reports should be customized to bring out elements by county, by course, by period etc

• A user-level permission should be set to control who can upload, publish, and download content.

• The training platform should have dynamic options to manage/set/create course plans, upload course materials, set and take up quizzes, set up timers for courses, display course progress while giving certifications offer certifications and linkages to web links of potential employers, Business Development Services, credit facilities, etc.

• After enrollment into a course, one has to go with the necessary tests to complete the course and upon completing an auto-generated certificate is given either via the provided email address and/or directly from the platform.

• There shall be a provision to integrate payment gateway integration in the system in the form of member subscriptions, payment for courses and other services.

• The platform shall have digital marketing capabilities with tools that utilize technology to support various online marketing functions including brand campaign optimizations, brand communications and display, performance measurement, customer retention, etc.

• The platform can be accessed anytime so that the participant (even with limited internet connectivity) can access it at his/her convenient time. It should be easily accessible on desktop or mobile, 24/7

• There should be provisions for submission of feedback by the participants.

• Mobile responsiveness: The platform should be optimized for use on mobile devices.

• Data security: The platform should have robust security features to protect user data

• Performance: The platform should be fast and responsive, with efficient code that can handle large volumes of users and data.
• Hosting: The platform should be hosted on a reliable and secure server with sufficient storage capacity and bandwidth to support user traffic.

• Offline functionality: The platform should have offline functionality, allowing users to access course materials and complete assignments even without an internet connection.

•The platform should provide for the auto generation and auto emailing of reports (daily, weekly, or monthly), and a dashboard for the various user levels The comprehensive analysis and reporting solution should:
o Offer insights on the performance of the learners and ultimately the effectiveness of courses on offer.
o Support background monitoring for specific user levels
o Gauging the learning trends of users and tracking compliance of the learners.

Inception phase:
• The assignment will start with an inception phase. This phase will undertake the development of a detailed work plan, System architecture and design document.

Implementation Phase:
• Develop a training/user manual for the training platform which will be available on the web & app that is relevant for young men and women in the African Leafy Vegetables value chain to support seamless digitization.
• Orient Practical Action staff and participants on the use of the platform.
• Conduct pilot testing with a small group of participants to test the approach, including rolling out training and supporting the participants acquaint to the platform including developing learning around successes and challenges for further roll-out.
• Based on successful piloting, further roll out the digital product/service to a larger selection of project participants while supporting the troubleshooting of existing users on an ongoing basis.
• Provide technical support, back-stopping and maintenance service up to and beyond the RAY project’s completion period.
• Monthly progressive briefings and reports.
• Monitor utilization of the platform by project participants and report on the progress of the achievements.

Deliverables
Inception report (1st Month): An inception report incorporating desk reviews, details of the work plan, and time schedules. This will also include system architecture and design documents.
Interim reports (2nd-4th month): Reports highlighting key progress on:
• Developed training content needed to support African Leafy Vegetables producers enhance their production practices by the second month.
• Progress on the Design and deployment of the training content into an on-line training platform with clear audio and visual material by the third month.
• Delivery of the final version of the system with all pretests done along with all the required licenses by the fourth month.
Final report (5th Month):
•Project completion report including highlights on key recommendations for future improvements of the platform of the platform based on findings.
•Develop a structure for the platform commercialization to enhance learning including partnership approaches with other institutions for sustainability..

Skills Required:
The service provider/firm shall have the following competencies:
• Have an existing digital platform that should ideally be flexible to accommodate design changes and should be suitable to accommodate RAY models and approaches.
• Experience in Kenya, and more specifically Western Kenya with an understanding of environment and challenging context of rural and remote locations.
• Demonstrate experience and understanding of the youth and their capacity development needs.
• Proficiency in relevant programming languages and frameworks for web and (android) app development, graphic/infographics designing; audio-visual and multi-media content development. Demonstrable experience in e-learning and similar types of work.
• Experience in designing and managing databases to store and retrieve training data efficiently.
• Skills in designing user interfaces and experiences that enhance learning and usability.
• Understanding community dynamics and strategies to foster engagement within an online learning environment.
• Awareness of relevant regulations and standards, particularly if the training involves sensitive information or certification requirements.
• Demonstrate capacity (website link, brochures and other documents) describing similar assignments, experience, availability of appropriate professional staff and experience among applicant’s staff, resources to carry out the assignment.

Guidelines for submission of expression of interest
A service provider that meets the above should submit the following:
• Proposal highlighting the firm’s understanding of the assignment and proposed methodology.
• Technical proposals should indicate at least two similar projects undertaken in the past 2 years and contacts of the relevant people who can be contacted for reference, as well as names and qualifications of the lead team members.
• Detailed financial proposal in Kenyan Shillings for the assignment
• Annexed to the proposal should be a CV of the project lead for the assignment.
Award criteria
The evaluation of the quotations will be based on the best value for money, weighing up technical quality (the methodology and the CV of the consultant) and price of the quotation.

A detailed Terms of Refence can be accessed here- https://practicalaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/TOR-Provision-of-Platform-to-Digitize-Training-Modules-for-Leafy-Vegetable-Production.pdf