Request for Proposal for Baseline evaluation for Farmers in Kirinyaga County-Kenya At Aga Khan Foundation

Securing Early Market Entry into East Africa by Deploying Technology (SEED) Project

Baseline Evaluation for Farmers in Kirinyaga

Aga Khan Foundation

For 50 years, the Aga Khan Foundation has been partnering with communities, governments, and the private sector to harness the best from people from all backgrounds to improve the quality of life. The Foundation’s work is rooted in core values of self-reliance, pluralism, and respect for human dignity. AKF is a member of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the world’s leading poverty solutions networks. AKDN makes long-term investments, builds permanent institutions, and cultivates an active civil society, impacting tens of millions of people annually in 30 countries. Alongside its sister AKDN agencies, the Foundation implements innovative, community-driven solutions that are based on decades of experience, learning, and evaluation. The AKF has been operating in Kenya since 1974.

Background to the Project

The agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers in Kenya remains constrained by unsustainable agricultural practices, socio-cultural factors including gender norms, and insufficient knowledge of climate-resilient practices, coupled with scarce availability of extension services. Additionally, women are more vulnerable to these challenges given their low access, control, and decision making on productive agricultural assets. Further, environmental degradation, exacerbated by climate change has led to unpredictable weather patterns, frequent droughts and floods, and an increased prevalence of pests and diseases. These farmers rely almost exclusively on rain-fed agriculture and are increasingly experiencing longer and frequent droughts and higher average temperatures against a background of poor agricultural practices, resulting in low agricultural productivity. In addition, soil fertility has been declining over the years, resulting in a significant drop in crop productivity and diversity, threatening the livelihood of thousands of smallholder farmers and disrupting food systems and essential value chains. Meanwhile, smallholder farmers in Kenya have not demonstrated any significant adoption of climate resilience strategies in their agricultural practices. This is mainly because farmers lack quality information and clear demonstration of the efficiency of climate resilience strategies, which is mainly attributed to limited or non-existent extension services for smallholder farmers in Kenya. Therefore, strengthening smallholder farmers’ adaptive capacity is crucial to enhancing the sustainability of their farming operations, and eventually food systems. Additionally, there is a need for both gender-responsive climate-adaptive training, technology, and inputs, as well as cross-cutting behavior change among smallholder farmers.

About the SEED Project

With funding from the Lightsmith Group and technical support from Waycool and Censanext technology partners, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is implementing an 18 months (September 2024 to February 2026) project whose overall goal is to enhance the climate resilience and food security of 18,000+ smallholder farmers (60% female) in Kirinyaga county, Kenya. Through the **“Securing Early Market Entry into East Africa by Deploying Technology” (**SEED) project, this overall goal will be achieved by strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers to adopt tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming. In this project, AKF and partners will focus on enhancing the capacity of smallholder farmers and Farmer Collective Organisations (FCOs) to become more climate resilient by deploying technologies, both hardware and software that will provide farm-level data and analytics for farmers with a focus on some key crops: maize, sorghum, potatoes, cabbage, and banana. Overall, this approach will bolster food security in Kenya through pre-harvest interventions for crops that have been impacted by effects of climate change and are vital to food security in the region. Additionally, the intervention will contribute to addressing gender inequalities in by implementing specific gender integration activities. For instance, some of the target crops in this project include potatoes, cabbage, and banana, that are largely more under the control of women, as opposed to maize and cash crops like coffee and tea that are more under the control of men.

Overall goal, objective, and strategies.

The overall goal of this project is to increase food security and climate resilience through tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming for smallholder farmers in Kirinyaga county, Kenya. This overall goal will be achieved through strengthening the capacity for adoption of tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming for smallholder farmers in Kirinyaga county, Kenya through two key interventions.

1. supporting Green Champions (GCs) who serve as community based agricultural extensionists and Farmer Collective Organisations (FCOs) to deliver tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming for the target smallholder farmers.
2. supporting 18,000 farmers (60% women) with innovative technologies and solutions enhancing their capacity for mitigating and adapting to climate change risks and vulnerabilities.

In the first strategy, AKF will engage Green Champions and Officials of Farmer Collective Organisations and train them on (a) deployment and use of mobile weather stations that will be deployed in select lead farmers to gather localized weather parameters, (b) capturing and validating images of pest and diseases for key priority crops that will be used for modeling the advisory services using IA digital technologies, and (c) digital agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming practices. In the second strategy, AKF through the Green Champions and FCO staff will (a) mobilise target smallholder farmers through existing farmer and community structures, (b) train target farmers on the use of the digital agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming practices, (c ) provide on-farm support for target farmers on use of the agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming practices, (d) conduct regular monitoring of farmers adoption of promoted practices and expected results. Meanwhile, AKF will work collaboratively with the County Government of Kirinyaga to ensure the interventions are well aligned with the County Government development priorities.

Geographic scope

The project is being implemented in Kirinyaga County in Kenya

Target groups

The project will primarily target smallholder farmers with a target of reaching 18,000 farmers (60% women). Additionally, the project will target to reach 10 Farmers Collective Organizations and their officials. Meanwhile, the project will work with 55 Green Champions

Objective of the baseline evaluation

The objective of this baseline evaluation is to:

1. provide baseline values for the outcome indicators, that will be used for assessment of achievement of the expected results at the end of the 18 months projects. Specifically, the baseline evaluation will focus on determining the baseline values for the following seven outcome indicators.
2. determine the extent of participation of small holder women in agricultural activities, their access to and control of productive assets, and decision making in the context of agricultural production.

For objective (a) above, the outcome indicators are:

1. Indicator #1: % increase in annual income of target smallholder farmers.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which target smallholder farmers have increased their household income that can be attributed to the support through this project. The average household income from farming activities at the end of the project will be compared with that at the baseline, and the difference (numerator) will be established and divided by the average household income at baseline (Denominator), expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #2: % increase in crop yields of the key priority crops for the supported farmers.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which target smallholder farmers have increased their crop yields for the key priority crops arising from the support through this project. The average crop yields from the key priority crops per hectare at the end of the project will be compared with that at the baseline, and the difference (numerator) will be established and divided by the average crop yields at baseline (Denominator) and expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #3: % reduction in costs of farming input for supported farmers.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which target smallholder farmers have reduced their costs of farming inputs, which can be attributed to the support through this project. The average costs of farming inputs at the end of the project will be compared with that at the baseline, and the difference (numerator) will be established and divided by the average cost farming inputs at baseline (Denominator) and expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #4: % increase in ability of FCOs and agricultural supply chain stakeholders to secure the food supply chain and reduce food waste.

• Description: This indicator will assess the efficiency of the food chain supply and reduction of food wastage, attributed to the support through this project. The On-Time Delivery (OTD) Rate of farm produce will be used as the metric for this indicator.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #5: % of supported farmers who adopt promoted tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming practices.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which target smallholder farmers have adopted the promoted tech-enabled agricultural advisory services and regenerative farming practices through this project. The number of smallholder farmers who have adopted at least one of the promoted practices that can be attributed to the project will be established (numerator) and divided by the total number of smallholder farmers in the survey sample (Denominator) and expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #7: % reduction in irrigation water use compared to current practices.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which target smallholder farmers have reduced their use of water for irrigation at the end of the project from the current practice which can be attributed to the agricultural advisory support services through this project. The amount of water used per hectare and crop at baseline (denominator) and endline will be established and the difference (numerator) will be expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

1. Indicator #8: % of farmers reporting increased knowledge of climate-resilient farming practices.

• Description: This indicator will assess the extent to which farmers supported through this project have acquired necessary knowledge on climate resilient farming practices. The number of smallholder farmers who demonstrate knowledge acquired that can be attributed to the project will be established (numerator) and divided by the total number of smallholder farmers in the survey sample (Denominator) and expressed as a percentage.
• Disaggregation: Gender and Crop.

Methodology

• Sampling: The consultant is expected to propose an appropriate sampling procedure for target groups in Kirinyaga county.
• Tools: The final tools and specific methodological approach will be discussed and agreed upon between AKF and the consultant. It is expected that the consultant will adopt appropriate online technologies for data collection from the target groups.
• Field data collection: AKF will provide the consultant a team of field data collectors to be trained by the consultant for data collection. Further, AKF will cater for the operational costs (travel, etc) of the field data collectors. The consultant will include in travel and accommodation costs during the field work in their financial proposal.
• Reference documents: AKF will provide the identified consultant with the relevant documents for reference in delivering this assignment.

Expected Deliverables

AKF seeks to engage the services of a consultant to conduct a high-quality baseline evaluation of the key outcome indicators. The key deliverables expected from the consultant are:

1. Inception Report: detailing the methodology including sampling, proposed tools, data collection procedures and analysis, an outline of final report format including dummy tables or graphs as applicable. Specific to the sampling process, AKF will support in mapping the study site and target groups.
2. Study protocol: The consultant will develop a study protocol that will be used in securing authorisation for the study in the target county from the respective government authorities. While the AKF will support in seeking the authorisation for the study with relevant government authorities, the consultant will develop the protocol.
3. Online data collection: The consultant will be expected to adopt an online data collection strategy using online technologies.
4. Initial draft report: The consultant will make a presentation of the draft report either physically or through online platforms (e.g., Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc) and submit a draft report in Microsoft Word version for inputs by AKF and partners.
5. Final Report: The consultant will submit a final report in Microsoft Word version having incorporated the inputs of AKF and partners. The report should include a brief synthesis (maximum 3 Word pages or PPT slides).
6. Final Raw Dataset: Electronic copy of all raw datasets (in Microsoft Excel Format)

Competencies and qualifications of the consultancy firm

The consultant will meet the following minimum requirements:

1. Demonstrate a track record of conducting online surveys in Kenya.
2. A minimum of five (5) years of experience in using quantitative and qualitative methodologies
3. Extensive experience in conducting surveys with smallholder farmers and household surveys.
4. Strong understanding of gender issues and safeguarding in the context of study site and beneficiaries.
5. Demonstrate value for money in delivery of the consultancy.

   AKF Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct

AKF have a Code of Conduct that aims to ensure that no individuals associated with our organization in any capacity (staff, volunteers, governance bodies, consultants / external service providers, beneficiaries, or community members) are subjected to any practices that infringe upon human dignity and that activities are conducted in accordance with the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and professionalism. The purpose of the AKF Code of Conduct is to define the values which must underlie the activities of every individual associated with AKF, irrespective of their status or position. The key areas of focus in the Code of Conduct include:

1. Professional relationships
2. Compliance with laws and regulations
3. Compliance with customs and traditions
4. Speak up policy and procedure
5. Disciplinary procedures and actions

The code establishes a reporting and protection mechanism to ensure the strict application of the described principles. Although the code applies mainly to conduct in the professional sphere, it must be recognised that misconduct beyond AKF in the private domain may also need to be addressed where this comes to light. Criminal or unethical acts committed outside AKF could result in disciplinary action. The successful applicant will be expected to sign a commitment statement for adherence to the AKF Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct. The AKF is committed to Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children and Vulnerable Adults and Expects all Staff and Partners to Share this Commitment.

Duration of the consultancy

The consultancy will be for a duration of 25 days spread across November and December 2024 with a final report is expected on or before 31st December 2024.

Criteria for evaluation of the consultant

The following criteria will be used to evaluate the bids submitted by consultants.

Criteria Score

Design and methodology 20 points

Technical capacity (qualifications, experience) 40 points

Budget 20 points

Workplan 20 points

Total 100 points