Consultants

Job Description

Consultants

REF: C/AGRA/08/2025

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seeks to recruit a consultant who can provide supports to AGRA Ethiopia based on the below terms of references of the assignments.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) founded in 2006, is an African-led African-based organization that seeks to catalyze Agriculture Transformation in Africa. AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. As the sector that employs the majority of Africa’s people, nearly all of them small-scale farmers, AGRA recognizes that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.

AGRA is rolling out a new 5-year strategy to catalyze and sustain an Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa to increase incomes and improve food security for 30 million farmers. Under this strategy, AGRA will deliver through an approach that simultaneously catalyzes change at farmer level, strengthens input and output market systems and puts government at the center to enable and champion private-sector-led agricultural growth at national level.

ASSIGNMENT/PROJECT NAME: Consultancy to Design a National Sorghum Flagship Program for Ethiopia – Social Anthropologist

1) GENERAL BACKGROUND

Sorghum is the third most important cereal in Ethiopia valued for its resilience to dry conditions and ability to grow in diverse agro-ecological zones, including drought prone regions.  Despite these significant gains and merits, sorghum production, marketing and processing have not yet reached their potential to benefit farmers, consumers, and the economy at large. A multitude of biotic, abiotic and socioeconomic factors constrained sorghum production and productivity. Sorghum production and productivity face significant challenges including a lack of farmer preferred varieties and poor adoption/commercialization of hybrid varieties, weak seed systems, poor extension support, lack of irrigation and mechanization, lack of storage and post-harvest processing technologies. Undeveloped and inefficient marketing, value addition and lack of financial support add to the problem of developing competitive sorghum value chain.

Acknowledging its social, cultural, and economic significance and the challenges it faces, the Ethiopian government has recently designated sorghum as a national flagship program alongside wheat, rice and oil crops. This decision follows extensive stakeholder consultations, highlighting sorghum’s local socio-cultural significance and the vital role it plays in strengthening food security and fostering economic growth in the country.

2) OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of this consultancy is to:

1. inform the design of a national sorghum flagship program through documenting the socio-cultural significance of, and the social and household organization of labour, in diverse aspects of the sorghum production-consumption continuum; and
2. provide pointers for an appreciation of the socio-cultural significance of sorghum in the design of the National Sorghum Flagship Program (NSFP) for Ethiopia.

3) SCOPE OF WORK

This consultancy is expected to be undertaken by a professional anthropologist who would be expected to recruit an assistant who would support data collection and provide local insights. Moreover, the consultant is expected to work closely with the different technical teams established to advance the design of the NSFP.

Against the above background, the consultant is expected to:

1. Undertake a sociocultural analysis of the sorghum value chain based on internationally accepted practices and methodologies. This includes, but not limited to, the following:
   1. Examine the role of sorghum in local economies, with particular focus on ethnicity, religion, age, women and youth in the sorghum value chain.
   2. Examine the gendered aspects of sorghum production, processing, and its sociocultural significance.
   3. Review the state of access to resources (mainly land and water) in the production of sorghum and explore how these are reflected in the social organisation of communities.
   4. Review power and influence distributions within communities and how these impact agricultural practices in the sorghum value chain.
   5. Analyse the symbolic meanings, beliefs, rituals, folklore and arts associated with sorghum cultivation, harvesting, processing, and consumption.
   6. Identify and describe the diverse ways in which sorghum is integrated into the cultural practices, traditions, and social events of selected communities.
2. Based on the sociocultural analysis, outline possible interventions that need to be considered in the design of the NSFP.
3. Present the key findings of the study to the national task force (NTF) members to help advance knowledge of the experts constituting the NTFs on the socio-cultural significance of sorghum in the diverse settings where this commodity is produced.
4. Incorporate a synthesis of the findings of the study into the appropriate sections of the NSFP document.

4) METHODOLOGY

The development of this flagship program will be undertaken under the overall guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture. A National Steering Committee (NSC) and a National Technical Committee (NTC) have been put together by the Government of Ethiopia to provide guidance, technical information and data including the identification of the relevant stakeholders and documents as may be needed. Specific working groups (called Task Forces) have also been formed to draft specific thematic areas of the NSFP.

5) KEY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSULTANT

The selected consultant will have the following key responsibilities:

1. Develop an inception report that provides interpretation of the Term of Reference for the assignment, the approach/methodology, work-plan, timelines and deliverables.
2. Organize consultations with a broad range of stakeholders, including relevant government departments at sub-national levels, community institutional leaders and individuals recognized as repositories of local knowledge.
3. Prepare a report on the sociocultural analysis of the sorghum value chain, the required interventions to enhance the understanding of the sociocultural significance of the crop amongst task force members and integrate the findings into appropriate sections of the overall program document.

6) DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT, DUTY STATION AND EXPECTED PLACES OF TRAVEL

• Duration: The duration of the consultancy is 30 days.
• Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Expected places of travel: The consultancy entails travel to at least three sorghum production zones for field information collection.

7) PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

Timeframe       Deliverables  and  Description of the deliverable/Activities

3 Days               Deliverable 1: Inception report.

A detailed understanding of the Terms of Reference for the assignment, the methodology to be employed, work-plan, timelines and deliverables.

20 Days             Deliverable 2: First draft report on sociocultural analysis of sorghum.

Sociocultural significance of sorghum and the diverse ways in which sorghum is integrated into the cultural practices, traditions, folklore, and social events of                               the communities where sorghum is widely cultivated.

3 Days               Deliverable 3:  Final report on socio-cultural analysis of sorghum.

A revised version of the sociocultural analytics report that incorporates comments and input given by task forces and other relevant stakeholders.

4 Days               Deliverable 4:

1. Final program document – sociocultural analysis.
2. A summary report.
3. A brief PPT.
4. A section discussing the socio-cultural significance of sorghum in the flagship program document (extracted from Deliverable 3 above).
5. A summary report for inclusion as annex in the programme document (based on ‘Deliverable 3’ above).

A PPT deck summarizing the contents of the document (based on ‘Deliverable 3’ above.

8) REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION

The Consultant will report to the AGRA Ethiopia Country Director.

9) DEGREE OF EXPERTISE AND QUALIFICATIONS 

Education:

• A PhD in social anthropology or a closely related field.
• Excellent report writing ability in English.
• Strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Knowledge of peoples’ culture in the agricultural production system in the Sorghum Belt.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in the analysis of the social organisation of labour in diverse production systems of Ethiopia, including in areas where sorghum is widely cultivated.
• Experience working with government agencies, NGOs, and development partners in an advisory capacity on social/cultural issues of development significance.

Language Requirements:

• Proven track record of writings and publications in English.
• Proficiency in one of the Ethiopian languages

Terms of appointment:  The duration of the assignment is 30 days.

 

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. Consultants should submit 3 pagers of technical and one page of financial proposals together with CVs of the lead consultant and associate experts.

The position and reference number: REF: C/AGRA/08/2025 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ before 29 May 2025.

AGRA/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).

To find more about AGRA, visit our Website at www.agra.org.

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at https://www.ilri.org/

Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.