1.Summary
BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania (BMT) seeks an experienced consulting firm to provide digital
platform for market information and weather conditions to coffee farmers in Southern Highlands of
Tanzania based on identified needs and market gaps for sustainable and impactful business. This
activity will complement the Smallhoder Coffee Development Project (CODE -P).
The Service Provider is expected to provide details relating to the Service, maintenance,
information and processes to be adhered to in the course of implementing the Smallholder Coffee
Development Project.
1.1 Background of the project
BRAC is implementing a four years (2020-2024) project titled “Smallholder Coffee Development
Project (CODE-P)” in a consortium of 5 organizations who are the Vi Agroforestry as the lead
implementer, others are TaCRI, ANSAF and Cafe Africa. The project is part of the implementation
of AGRI-CONNECT PROGRAM under the funding from European Union at eighty 80% through
the National Authorising Officer of the European Development Fund (EDF), at the Ministry of
Finance and Planning, on behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. Another
part of the funding for the CODE – P of Twenty per cent (20%) is from Sida through Vi
Agroforestry. The main objective of CODE-P is to contribute towards inclusive and sustainable
development of the coffee value chain for enhanced incomes and improved nutrition status of
smallholder farmers in six (6) districts of three regions namely Ruvuma (Mbinga and Nyasa),
Mbeya (Mbeya and Rungwe) and Songwe (Ileje and Mbozi). Specifically, the project
seeks to achieve the following objectives:
i. Increased climate resilience, production, and productivity of quality coffee.
ii. Increased incomes from improved postharvest, processing capacities and linkages to market and
financial services.
iii. Enhanced competitiveness of coffee value chain with a supportive policy and regulatory
framework.
BRAC contribute towards objective ii with mainly focus on facilitating access to inclusive financial
service and Business development.
Furthermore, the project envisages benefiting 24,000 smallholder farmers, comprising of 12,000
farmers aged above 35 years (20% women, 30% men) and 12,000 farmers aged between 18-35
years (25% young women, 25% young men).
2.About the organization
BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania is part of a leading development organization, BRAC which is
founded in Bangladesh with almost 50 years of existence in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. BRAC
has been ranked as the number one NGO among 500 NGOs worldwide by NGO advisor based in
Switzerland for five years in a row. BMT has been supporting women from all spheres of life.
BMT started its operations in Tanzania since 2006 when operations began and have been focussing
on the thematic areas of Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihood implementing WE SOLVE and
CODE -P projects, in Health BMT execute a Water and Sanitation project, in Education, BMT
implement Early Childhood Development and Alternative Learning Pathway, while in Youth and
Women Empowerment it is implementing three projects including GOAL, ELA and Skills for the
Future. Our primary goal is to reduce poverty and empower marginalized people to realise their
potential.
Our Vision
To see a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the
opportunity to realise their potential.
Our Mission
To empower people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease and social
injustice. Our interventions aim to achieve large-scale, positive changes through economic and
social programmes that enable women and men to realise their potential.
Our Values
Innovation, Integrity, Inclusiveness, Effectiveness
3.About the project
In line with BMT’s mission to serve women in rural areas as well as to develop appropriate
messages for market and weather information for target segments along the coffee value
chain.
BRAC is seeking a firm to provide digital services for smallholder coffee farmers to access market
and weather information and provide a client-centric digital platform for farmers.
In 2020, BMT has partnered with Vi Agroforestry, Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI),
Agricultural -Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF), BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania (BMT) and Cafe
Africa to implement the Smallholder Coffee Development Project (CODE P) with the overall
objective “To contribute to inclusive and sustainable development of the coffee value chain for
enhanced incomes and improved nutrition status of smallholder farmers in Ruvuma, Mbeya and
Songwe regions of Tanzania”.
As part of this project, the Bureau of Agricultural Consultancy and Advisory Services of Sokoine
University of Agriculture, Morogoro, has conducted a Baseline Survey and Stakeholders Mapping
to inform project implementation interventions. The baseline study highlights coffee production
practices, potentials.challenges, and current market actors. The baseline study identified a few
market players providing financing to coffee farmers.
Given this background, the consultancy opportunity has the following goal:
i. To provide training to BRAC’s staff for facilitation of service delivery in line with the standards
put in place on digital messaging.
ii. To provide a two Way SMS- Short code and a Long Number for BRAC farmers to be sending
their farm queries for advisory/best practices
iii. Setup Account for BRAC.
iv. Provide SMS to be used by BRAC and make sure that all SMS reach to the intended numbers
without bouncing.
v. To make regular visiting and enhance capacity building to BRAC Staff for provision of better
services to her customers.
vi. To conduct monitoring and evaluation of the overall business.
4.Scope
4.1 Area to be covered:
The digital services will established following Human Centred Design to support farmers in Mbozi
& Ileje Districts of Songwe region, Mbeya & Rungwe Districts of Mbeya region, Mbinga & Nyasa
Districts of Ruvuma region for coffee smallholder farmers.
4.2 Methodology:
The design will be conducted by the selected consultant(s) who will work under the supervision
and support of the CODE P project team where needed. The consultant is expected to come up with a detailed methodology for conducting the services, taking into consideration the local context of the project area and farmers’ capacity. The consultant will develop appropriate platform to support the targeted 24,000 farmers who will receive the market and weather information in a cost-effective way. The farmers should be able to forward their querries to the CODE – P responsible Officer under the technical support of the Service Provider. The Digital platform and the methodology will be discussed and approved by BMT management before the provision of the services.
4.3 The expected outputs/Deliverables:
Deliverable #1: To establish a Digital platform (completed 1 week after hiring Consultant) Design
and establish a digital platform for sharing market and weather information with smallholder coffee
farmers.
Deliverable #2: Staff Capacity building (within 2 weeks after approval of 1″ deliverable) To
provide training to BRAC’s staff on the established digital platform so as to facilitate service
delivery in line with the standards put in place
a)Training plan.
b)Training Report.
Deliverable #3: Provision of two way SMS (completed after 2 weeks from 24 deliverable) To
provide a two Way SMS Short code and a long number for BRAC farmers to be sending their farm.
market information and weather queries for advisory/best practices based on current crop prices
and market opportunities.
i) Pretesting the current digital service among sampled coffee farmers to support them in field
including the Lead Farmers.
ii) Setup Account for BRAC.
Deliverable # 4: SMS Provision on market and weather information (completed after 3 weeks
from 3rd deliverable)
Provide SMS to be used by BRAC and make sure that all SMSs reach to the intended numbers
without bouncing.
i. Assess the appropriateness of the services and delivery channels.
ii. Consider the level of the country’s infrastructure around connectivity, Mobile Network
Operators (MNOs) etc.
iii. To conduct monitoring and evaluation of the overall business.
iv. To make regular visiting and enhance capacity building to BRAC staff for provision of better
services to its customers.
Deliverable #5: Remaintenance of the digital platfom design (Completed after each quarter of
project implementation i.e within 2 weeks of the first month of a new quarter).
a. With BMT management to track whether performance indicators are reached. Change
request might be done as per identified needs for maintenance of the service centre and
service levels.
Each deliverable must be reviewed and approved by BMT management, before proceeding to the
next one.
4.4 Duration of the Consultancy & Reporting
This is a time-sensitive initiative and the probable start date for the digital platform development
exercise is expected to commence within the month of February 2023, and renewable after each 3
months of project implementation. The consultant should design the digital platform to deliver the
assignment in the shortest time possible without compromising the quality of information and
delivery channels. The consultant will provide an online and offline service that will be accessible
by BMT authority for monitoring the progress.
- Qualification of Consultant(s) / firm
· The consultant(s)/Firm should have the following qualifications/expertise:
· Postgraduate degree in Agriculture, Economics, Agribusiness, IT and Digital Technology or others as may be relevant.
· At least 5 years’ experience of carrying out digital information sharing platforms designs/ development for smallholder farmers.
· Experience in working with non-governmental organizations and government in areas of agriculture, IT, digital platforms designing.
- Qualification of Consultant(s) / firm
The consultant(s)/Firm should have the following qualifications/expertise:
Postgraduate degree in Agriculture, Economics, Agribusiness, IT and Digital Technology or
others as may be relevant.
At least 5 years’ experience of carrying out digital information sharing platforms designs/
development for smallholder farmers.
Experience in working with non-governmental organizations and government in areas of
agriculture, IT, digital platforms designing. Previous experience in similar work in
Tanzania is preferred but not required.
Deep understanding of issues around smallholder farmers’ access to information on market
and weather, especially that of female farmers and young farmers, as well as broader issues
that specifically affect women and youth living in poverty and rural areas in the country.
Preferably have experience in human-centred design (HCD) approach (or other clientcentric methodologies) to understand the needs, behaviours, and motivations of the target
client. and to iteratively design digital platforms across the complete client’s journey and
experience of delivery channel.
Knowledge of digital services/digital solutions and the supporting infrastructure in target
markets.
The digital platform design be conducted in the local language (Kiswahili). - Consultancy fees and modalities of remuneration
The consultant and BMT will agree on the remuneration. As part of this negotiation process, the consultant should propose the fees s/he wishes to charge as the payment will be done based on satisfactory performance of each deliverable (in installments) before proceeding to the next deliverable. - . How To Apply The offer should contain: · A letter of interest addressed to the Country Director for BMT. · A Technical offer showing the interpretation of the ToR and indicating a detailed proposed methodology. The technical proposal should be no more than six pages (excluding budget and CVs). · CV(s) of the consultant(s) or consultancy firm showing previous relevant experience · A detailed financial offer indicating the cost required for the undertaking of the work required (this should include consultancy fee and reimbursable costs).
Submissions should include: ‘Expression of Interest to Facilitate Market linkages, the use of digital
platforms for market and weather information to coffee farmers for BMT’ in the subject box.
Send proposals to “[email protected] and should be received no later than 30th January 2023 Any questions can be submitted to [email protected] prior to the submission
deadline.
Sida
Part of the funding has been obtained from Swedish development cooperation
