Call for Expert Consultancy – Beekeeping training for HereWeGrow JCP Agronomy staff

Background and Context

TechnoServe (TNS) is a non-profit international development organization founded in 1968. Our mission is to help entrepreneurial men and women break the cycle of poverty by building businesses that create jobs, income, and economic opportunities for their families, their communities, and their countries. TechnoServe Ethiopia is currently implementing a project titled HereWeGrow Jimma Coffee Program –aiming to support the coffee farmers in Jimma zone on the productivity and processor level – quality and business viability. In this project, TechnoServe aims to support the coffee communities to address productivity and coffee quality challenges in the Gera and Gumay woredas as well as develop and enhance additional income-generating activities to improve community livelihoods.

As part of the project, TechnoServe has a plan to address the challenges of fragmented honey supply chain in the project area, largely dominated by traditional, inefficient production practices, short-term, transactional behavior of traders, poor and inconsistent honey quality in the supply chain and lack of incentives for quality, as well as lack of market actors’ experience with readily accessible systems for honey production. This is aimed at providing a holistic approach that focuses on increasing incomes for men and women smallholder beekeepers in Gera and Gumay district.

Beekeeping is highly favored because of the value attached to its products, low upfront costs, low maintenance, environmental conservation, high ecological benefits and does not compete for space with cultivation of crops.  However, Beekeeping in Gera and Gumay District is under- developed with the majority beekeepers still using traditional systems of beekeeping. They also lack basic skills on bee management, honey harvesting, processing, and handling. Majority of the beekeepers have no access to extension services and marketing of products and have no training on effective preservation, processing, transportation, management and marketing of bee products. With this background, TechnoServe therefore seeks to engage an experienced registered consulting or training firm to train the project staff on beekeeping best practices. In the end the staff will transfer this knowledge to farmers to put them in a trajectory for improved income opportunities as well as create employment for women and men farmers.

Objectives of the Consultancy

The general objective of the consultancy to develop and submit a proposal for developing or sharing a holistic Beekeeping training package for TechnoServe staff who in the end will train smallholder beekeepers in Oromia region, Jimma zone, Gera and Gumay districts. Once developed, submitted and accepted by TechnoServe, these training materials will be owned by TechnoServe, and should enable our teams to effectively train farmers using them.

The consultant must have strong experience in beekeeping activities in the Ethiopian Forests and backyard beekeeping techniques, and will be especially responsible for providing technical support on beekeeping techniques. The consultant’s activities will also focus on conducting theoretical and practical workshops on beekeeping techniques.

Scope of Work

The local consultant will be responsible for developing training modules and conducting training in beekeeping to HereWeGrow JCP staff. Specifically, the consultant will cover the following modules amongst others;

1)      Introduction to beekeeping and its importance

2)      Bee products & uses

3)      Types of beehives (pros and cons), beehive tools

4)      Bee forage and environmental conservation

5)      Apiary sitting and site selection

6)      Life cycle of bees, colonization, and baiting

7)      Management of beehives, hive inspection, safety & hygiene

8)      Honey harvesting (& other bee products) and storage

9)      Pests & diseases and their control

Work Plan

The consultant is expected to spend a maximum of Twelve (12) days including preparation of training materials, travel days, training (5 days) and report writing as follows:

·         Consultant will develop training materials, in consultation with TechnoServe staff and key stakeholders. Training materials will be developed in English at this stage and TechnoServe may follow-up to review consultant’s work in progress: 25 – 27 April, 2022 (up to 3 days):

·         TechnoServe will review and provide feedback/request edits from consultant: 28-29 April, 2022.

·         Consultant makes edits and adjustments based on feedback received from TNS and resubmits for approval: 30^th April,2022 (One day LOE)

·         consultant provides training to TechnoServe staff on technical content at the appropriate selected training site: 2-6 May, 2022 (5 days)

Deliverables

§  Submit an inception report detailing training content and methodology for the training

§  Share detailed training modules and curriculum outline

§  Delivery of beekeeping training to 8 or more project staff.

§  Coaching the project staff on deploying training materials for smallholder beekeepers

§  Once training materials are complete, the Consultant must conduct a 5 days training for TechnoServe staff with the objective to ensure their ability to train project beneficiaries using the beekeeping training package developed by the Consultant. Feedback from TechnoServe staff must be incorporated into the final training package and manual.

§  A training report detailing the modules covered and an assessment of levels of comprehension of the topics

§  A full final report at the end of the training containing: content covered, photos and evaluation method used to measure the success of the activities and recommendations for future training activities or project improvement recommendations.

Evaluation Criteria and Process

TechnoServe will evaluate applications based on the criteria and corresponding weights, indicated below. As needed, shortlisted candidates may be requested to sit for an interview as part of the competition for the award.

Note: Minimum passing mark for technical proposal is 70% (or 49/70). Candidates who do not fulfill this minimum result would not be eligible to be considered for this consultancy.

Required qualifications and experience

§  A consulting firm/consultants with experience working with NGOs and/or private sector in Ethiopia and elsewhere in training development, specifically for beekeeping and honey production.

§  MSc or above in Agriculture studies, with topics related to apiculture and/or honey production a plus

§  Minimum of 5 years of experience in apiculture and/or honey production in Ethiopia

§  Proven skills and experience in designing trainings, preparing training materials and delivering similar or highly related trainings

§  Very high command of English language and ability to train in Amharic language. Afan Oromo language will be a plus

§  Exposure and/or experience working with smallholder beekeepers, cooperatives and relevant government stakeholders in Ethiopia

§  Very good understanding of backward and forward linkages and market systems in the honey industry in Ethiopia

§  Expertise in designing and using participatory and adult learning approaches in delivering trainings

§  Demonstrable capacity to analyse and incorporate gender equality and specifically women involvement issues into training materials.