Consultant firm on Capacity Needs Assessments for Food Systems Transformation

Recruitment of a Firm to Undertake Capacity Needs Assessments

Food Systems Transformation under the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan 2026–2035 in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

1. Background and Objective

The CAADP Strategy and Action Plan 2026–2035 and the Kampala CAADP Declaration mark a transition from a predominantly agriculture-led growth agenda to a broader agrifood systems transformation agenda. Delivering this agenda requires coordinated capacities across agricultural production, markets and trade, processing, nutrition, food safety, climate resilience, finance, inclusion, governance, data, monitoring, accountability, learning, and communication. Countries therefore need more than institutions on paper: they need capable people, functional organizations, adequate resources, clear mandates, effective relationships, and enabling policies and incentives.

IFPRI, under the Capacity Sharing Accelerator (CapSha), intends to recruit a qualified firm to undertake rapid, evidence-based capacity needs assessments in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The assignment will establish a comparable diagnostic baseline while reflecting each country’s institutional and food-systems context.

The overall objective is to identify and assess existing capacity assets, binding gaps, and readiness for domestication and implementation of CAADP 2026–2035. Specifically, the assessment will determine who needs to be able to do what, at which level, and with which skills, systems, resources, relationships, and incentives; separately assess the existence, quantity, quality, accessibility, functionality, sustainability, and CAADP readiness of priority capacities; and provide country profiles and a cross-country synthesis to guide a subsequent phase of validation, prioritization, costing, and capacity-development planning.

2. Overall Approach

The firm will apply a harmonized, participatory, mixed-methods approach that combines document review, institutional and stakeholder mapping, targeted consultations, institutional self-assessment, evidence verification, and capacity scoring. The work will be guided by the CAADP Capacity Needs Framework for Food Systems Transformation and the accompanying Excel-based assessment tools, refined during inception in consultation with the CapSha team.

· Systems-oriented: cover the agrifood system from inputs and primary production through processing, markets, consumption, nutrition, food safety, resilience, governance, finance, data, and accountability.

· Multi-level: assess individual competencies, organizational capabilities, and the wider enabling environment at national, subnational, and local levels.

· Multi-stakeholder: engage relevant public institutions, research and education bodies, private firms and associations, finance actors, producer organizations, women and youth groups, civil society, and development partners.

· Evidence-based and comparable: apply common definitions and a harmonized 0–5 maturity scale, document the evidence behind every score, and keep quantity and quality as separate dimensions.

· Country-sensitive: maintain a common analytical core while adapting respondent coverage and tools to institutional arrangements, language, fragility, federal/decentralized structures, and data availability.

· Operationally feasible: deploy parallel country teams under a central technical lead, use in-person, virtual, or hybrid consultations as appropriate, and maintain common quality-assurance and data-management protocols.

The assignment is diagnostic. It does not include full national validation workshops, detailed intervention design, costing, simulation, or implementation planning. These activities may follow in a subsequent phase.

3. Specific Tasks

· Inception and methodology refinement. Hold a kickoff meeting; review and operationalize the framework and templates; confirm country deployment arrangements, respondent categories, minimum coverage, data-protection measures, quality controls, and reporting formats; and submit a detailed workplan.

· Rapid desk review and evidence compilation. Review relevant CAADP and national agrifood strategies, NAIPs or equivalents, Biennial and Joint Sector Review materials, development and investment plans, institutional mandates, capacity-development initiatives, and relevant sectoral evidence. Prepare a structured evidence inventory and country desk-review matrix.

· Stakeholder and institutional mapping. Map institutions and stakeholder groups, formal mandates and practical roles, implementation levels, relationships to CAADP objectives and food-system components, and functions in planning, budgeting, implementation, regulation, financing, service delivery, data, coordination, accountability, and learning. Identify overlaps, mandate gaps, and coordination bottlenecks.

· Key informant interviews and institutional consultations. Conduct targeted consultations with public, private, civic, producer, research, finance, and partner actors. Document capacity assets and gaps relating to staffing, skills, systems, tools, financing, coordination, inclusion, evidence use, and CAADP implementation readiness. Maintain structured and anonymized notes where required.

· Institutional self-assessment and capacity scoring. Administer the approved self-assessment tools and apply the harmonized 0–5 maturity scale. Score existence, quantity, quality, accessibility and distribution, functionality, sustainability, and CAADP readiness separately; record sources and justification; reconcile inconsistent evidence; and populate the assessment workbook.

· Country capacity profiles. Prepare a concise, decision-oriented profile for each country describing the institutional landscape, capacity assets, maturity patterns, binding gaps, distributional or subnational disparities, and implications for CAADP domestication and implementation.

· Cross-country synthesis and communication. Compare common and country-specific constraints, identify transferable capacity assets and areas for regional or cross-country support, and prepare an executive summary and presentation for decision-makers.

· Project management and quality assurance. Mobilize and supervise parallel country teams; coordinate access and scheduling with country counterparts; conduct routine technical reviews; ensure methodological consistency, ethical handling of information, version control, timely delivery, and incorporation of consolidated comments.

4. Timeframe and Duration of Work

The assignment will be completed within fourteen (14) calendar weeks from the contract start date. Given the five-country coverage, bidders should propose parallel country deployment supported by a central technical and quality-assurance team. The expanded schedule allows adequate time for country mobilization, consultations, evidence verification, comparative analysis, review, and revision. Minor adjustments may be agreed during inception without extending the final deadline.

5. Deliverables

All deliverables must be submitted electronically in English and in editable formats (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), together with PDF versions of narrative reports. Country-facing tools or consultation materials should be provided in relevant working languages where necessary. IFPRI will review each submission and may request reasonable revisions before acceptance. Underlying data, notes, instruments, and outputs produced under the assignment will be handed over to IFPRI in an organized and documented structure, subject to agreed confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

6. Selection Criteria

Proposals will first be reviewed for administrative completeness and compliance with the submission requirements. Technically responsive proposals will then be evaluated on quality and cost. IFPRI may invite shortlisted firms to provide clarifications or make a brief presentation. A suggested evaluation framework is provided below and may be adjusted in the final solicitation.

6.1 Required Qualifications

· A legally registered consulting firm, research organization, consortium, or other eligible entity with demonstrated capacity to contract and operate in the countries covered. For a consortium, the lead entity and division of responsibilities must be clearly identified.

· At least seven years of relevant institutional experience in capacity needs assessment, institutional diagnostics, organizational development, public-sector reform, agriculture or agrifood systems, or closely related fields.

· Documented completion of at least three comparable multi-stakeholder or multi-country assignments, preferably in Africa, including experience with surveys, qualitative consultations, institutional scoring, and synthesis reporting.

· Demonstrated knowledge of CAADP, the Kampala Declaration and Strategy and Action Plan 2026–2035, NAIP/food-systems planning, mutual accountability, or related African agricultural and food-systems policy processes.

· Proven operational experience, partnerships, or country presence sufficient to undertake work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and DRC, including access to relevant language skills and country networks.

· Ability to mobilize parallel country teams and a central technical lead within the proposed 14-week period, supported by robust project management, quality assurance, data security, and document-control arrangements.

· The proposed Team Leader should hold an advanced university degree in agricultural economics, development economics, public policy, institutional development, food systems, organizational development, or a related discipline; possess at least ten years of relevant professional experience; and have led at least two comparable complex or multi-country assignments.

· Country leads and technical specialists should normally hold a postgraduate degree and at least five years of relevant experience, with demonstrated knowledge of the assigned country’s agrifood sector and institutional context.

6.2 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)

· Knowledge: CAADP and African agrifood policy architecture; food-systems transformation; capacity-development theory and practice; institutional and political-economy analysis; gender, youth and social inclusion; decentralized delivery systems; monitoring, evaluation, learning and mutual accountability.

· Assessment skills: mixed-methods research design; desk review; institutional and stakeholder mapping; survey and interview tool development; key informant interviews and facilitation; competency and maturity assessment; quantitative and qualitative evidence triangulation.

· Analytical skills: ability to distinguish capacity existence, quantity and quality; develop defensible 0–5 scores; identify functional and systemic bottlenecks; analyze country variation; translate findings into concise, decision-relevant messages.

· Management abilities: coordinate parallel teams across five countries; manage schedules, access risks, budgets, quality reviews, version control and stakeholder relationships; deliver consistently under a compressed timeline.

· Communication abilities: excellent professional writing, presentation, interpersonal and facilitation skills; ability to build trust with government institutions, communities, private actors and development partners; fluency in English, with French capacity for DRC and other relevant national/local languages strongly preferred.

· Digital and data abilities: advanced use of Excel and structured databases; secure collection and management of consultation and scoring data; production of clear tables, dashboards or visual summaries; reproducible documentation and audit trails.

· Professional conduct: independence, cultural sensitivity, inclusion, discretion, research ethics, confidentiality, responsiveness to feedback, and avoidance or disclosure of conflicts of interest.

6.3 Technical Proposal

The technical proposal should be concise and demonstrate how the bidder will deliver credible and comparable results within fourteen weeks. It should include:

· A brief firm profile, legal status, contact details, and—where applicable—consortium or subcontracting arrangements.

· An interpretation of the assignment, key methodological challenges, and the bidder’s proposed response.

· A detailed methodology covering document review, stakeholder mapping, sampling/respondent selection, consultations, self-assessment, scoring, evidence verification, inclusion, data management, quality assurance, and cross-country synthesis.

· A country-by-country deployment strategy, level of effort, mobilization schedule, and a realistic 14-week workplan linked to tasks and deliverables.

· Team structure and organogram; named Team Leader, country leads and technical specialists; role and estimated person-days of each individual; confirmation of availability.

· Risk matrix and mitigation measures, including access, scheduling, language, data gaps, respondent fatigue, political or security constraints, and consistency across country teams.

· Quality-assurance, ethics, confidentiality, safeguarding, and secure data-management arrangements.

· Evidence of relevant experience: up to five assignments, with client, dates, countries, scope, contract value where permissible, results, and verifiable references.

· Any comments on the Terms of Reference and a clear statement of assumptions or support expected from IFPRI.

6.4 Financial Proposal

The financial proposal must be submitted separately from the technical proposal and presented in the currency specified in the solicitation. It should be fixed-price, inclusive of all professional fees and costs necessary to complete the assignment, and valid for the period stated in the request for proposals. At minimum, it should provide:

· A summary price by deliverable and a detailed budget by personnel, person-days and daily rate.

· Travel, accommodation, subsistence, communication, translation/interpretation, data collection, software, administrative and other reimbursable or direct costs, with unit assumptions.

· Applicable taxes and duties shown separately, together with the bidder’s tax status and any exemptions claimed.

· A proposed deliverable-linked payment schedule.

· A statement confirming that no unlisted fees or costs will be charged without prior written approval.

Proposals that are materially incomplete, internally inconsistent, or conditional on unidentified additional funding may be considered non-responsive. The lowest price will not necessarily be selected; value for money will be assessed in relation to technical quality, level of effort, deployment feasibility, and risk.

6.5 CVs of Authorized Individuals Involved in the Consultancy

The proposal must include signed or otherwise authorized CVs for all key individuals proposed for the assignment, including the Team Leader, country leads, capacity-assessment/institutional specialist, food-systems/CAADP specialist, data and scoring lead, and quality-assurance lead. Each CV should be concise and include:

· Full name, proposed position, nationality/current location, contact information, and language proficiency.

· Academic and professional qualifications, including institution and year.

· Relevant employment history and country experience.

· Comparable assignments, clearly identifying the individual’s role, dates, client, countries and outputs.

· Relevant methodological, sectoral, digital and management competencies.

· Availability during the assignment and a declaration that the information is accurate and that the individual has authorized inclusion of the CV.

· Name, title, signature and date of the individual; and confirmation by the bidder’s authorized representative.

Substitution of key personnel after proposal submission or contract award will require prior written approval and may be accepted only where the replacement has equal or superior qualifications and availability.

7. Application Process and Submission Requirements

Interested firms should submit their proposals electronically through the IFPRI website by August 5^th. Requests for clarification should be submitted by July 30^th to j.ulimwengu@cgiar.org. The proposal must remain valid for 60 days from the submission deadline.

· A technical proposal, including the documents listed in Section 6.3.

· A separate financial proposal, including the information listed in Section 6.4.

· CVs and availability confirmations for all proposed key personnel.

· Legal registration, tax documentation, authorized signatory details, and any required declarations on eligibility, conflicts of interest, sanctions, or prior misconduct.

· At least three verifiable client references for comparable assignments.

Late submissions and proposals that do not follow the required separation of technical and financial information may be rejected. IFPRI reserves the right to request clarifications, negotiate elements of the preferred proposal, cancel the procurement process, or make no award, in accordance with its applicable procurement procedures.