Consultancy: to Document the Results, Outcomes, and Best Practices of Regenerative Agriculture Interventions _at Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), Ethiopia

Invitation

The Sasakawa Africa Association-Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), invites qualified and experienced individual consultants or consultancy firms to assess and document the results, outcomes, best practices, lessons learned, and case studies arising from its Regenerative Agriculture interventions.

The assignment will generate credible evidence on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of the interventions and provide practical recommendations for their sustainability and scaling.

Background

Ethiopia’s natural resource base is under growing pressure from unsustainable agricultural practices, population growth, land-use change, deforestation, overgrazing, and climate change. These interconnected challenges are accelerating the degradation of soils, forests, water resources, and biodiversity, while increasing the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, drought, and other extreme weather events.

Addressing these pressures requires agricultural approaches that restore soil health, conserve water, enhance biodiversity, increase productivity, and strengthen rural resilience. Regenerative Agriculture offers an integrated pathway for restoring degraded natural resources while sustaining production and improving livelihoods.

SAA has promoted Regenerative Agriculture since 2021. Building on this experience, SAA, in collaboration with the Food and Land Use Coalition, scaled up its interventions during 2024–2025 through a landscape-level approach known as Farmer Learning and Production Clusters (FLPCs). Implemented in Negele Arsi and Ana Sora woredas of the Oromia Region, the interventions aim to improve soil health, strengthen sustainable land and water management, enhance climate resilience, enhance RA-based commercialization, and increase the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

As the interventions mature, there is a need to systematically document their results, outcomes, lessons learned, and best practices. The consultancy will generate credible evidence on what has changed, how change occurred, which approaches proved most effective, and the conditions required to sustain and scale successful practices.

The study should document changes in soil health and fertility, agrobiodiversity, productivity, household income, and resilience, while demonstrating the economic, social, and environmental benefits of Regenerative Agriculture. The findings will support organizational learning, program improvement, knowledge sharing, policy dialogue, partnership development, and the wider adoption of proven practices.

Objective:

To assess and document results, outcomes, best practices, lessons learned, and case studies arising from SAA-FOLU’s Regenerative Agriculture interventions, and to generate evidence that supports organizational learning, knowledge dissemination, policy engagement, and scaling.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will serve as a technical advisor and co‑facilitator, working hand‑in‑hand with SAA Ethiopia’s M&E and RA staff, and management. Rather than operating independently, the consultant will integrate into a joint study team to ensure ownership, capacity building, and sustainability of the process. The role will include:

• Work closely with SAA M&E and RA staff to establish a study team of experts.
• Define clear roles and responsibilities between internal staff and the consultant to ensure smooth coordination.
• Provide technical backstopping while empowering SAA staff to lead the process.
• Review relevant program documents, studies, evaluation reports, monitoring data, and literature on Regenerative Agriculture in Ethiopia.
• Co‑develop the study design with the team, ensuring alignment with project objectives and donor requirements.
• Co-Develop an appropriate methodology, sampling framework, data-collection tools, and analysis plan.
• Collaboratively draft the inception, draft, and final reports with SAA staff, ensuring clarity, rigor, and stakeholder relevance.
• Participate in field missions alongside SAA staff in Ana‑Sora and Negele‑Arsi woredas.
• Assess changes in knowledge and practices,  soil health and fertility, crop/varietal diversity, productivity, household income, commercialization, climate resilience, and natural-resource management.
• Document practices related to reduced tillage, soil- fertility management, organic amendments, crop and varietal diversification, permagardening, integrated pest management (IPM), vermiwash, water management, forage production, crop–livestock integration (Forage production), etc.).
• Capture the perspectives of farmers, extension agents, woreda experts, research centers, implementing partners, and other stakeholders.
• Identify successful approaches, implementation challenges, enabling conditions, and lessons for sustainability and scaling.
• Produce well-structured case studies and success stories supported by credible qualitative and quantitative evidence.
• Compile photographs, short testimonies, and other visual materials with the informed consent of participants.
• Develop practical recommendations for strengthening and scaling Regenerative Agriculture interventions within Ethiopia’s extension system and across relevant agroecological contexts.

Deliverables:

The consultant will submit the following:

Inception Report:

A detailed methodology, sampling framework, data collection tools, work plan, analytical framework, and proposed structure of the final report.

Field Evidence Package

Cleaned quantitative and qualitative data, interview records, field notes, photographs, testimonies, and supporting documentation

Draft Report

A comprehensive draft presenting the methodology, findings, results, outcomes,  best practices, case studies, lessons learned, challenges, and preliminary recommendations

Final Report

A revised report incorporating feedback from SAA Ethiopia and including:

• Executive summary;
• Methodology and limitations;
• Findings on economic, social, and environmental outcomes;
• Best practice compendium
• Case studies and success stories
• Lessons learned and enabling conditions;
• Recommendations for sustaining and scaling Regenerative Agriculture interventions; and
• Relevant data, tools, and supporting materials as annexes.

Knowledge Products

Subject to agreement, the consultant may also prepare policy or technical briefs, visual summaries, presentation slides and other dissemination materials.

Duration:

The consultancy will be completed within 8 weeks from the date of contract signing.

•          Weeks 1-2: Inception, document review, methodology, and tool development;

•          Weeks 3–4: Fieldwork, stakeholder consultations

•          Weeks 5-6: Data analysis and report writing

• Week 7: Submission and presentation of the draft report; and

•          Week 8: Revision and submission of the final report.

The final report will be submitted within five working days of receiving consolidated comments from SAA Ethiopia.

Reporting and Coordination:

The consultant will report to the Sasakawa Africa Association Ethiopia Office and work closely with the designated technical team. All deliverables will be reviewed and approved by SAA and FOLU team

Budget Source

The consultancy will be financed through the collaboration between SAA Ethiopia and the Food and Land Use Coalition.

The consultant should have:

• A PhD, in agriculture, agroecology, soil science, agricultural extension, natural-resource management, agricultural economics, or a related field.
• Knowledge of and demonstrated expertise in assessing Regenerative Agriculture, agroecological, or climate-smart agriculture interventions in Ethiopia or East Africa.
• Experience applying qualitative and quantitative methods to assess biophysical, economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of soil health, agrobiodiversity, sustainable land and water management, agricultural commercialization, and climate resilience.
• Experience in participatory assessment, adult learning, case-study development, and knowledge-product preparation.
• A sound understanding of Ethiopia’s agricultural extension system, gender and social-inclusion issues, and rural development context.
• Excellent analytical, report-writing, communication, facilitation, and teamwork skills.