THE COFFEE RESILIENCE PROGRAM IN EAST AFRICA
The coffee program in Solidaridad has over the years been supported by various development partners. The current program 2018-2020 dubbed The Coffee Resilience Program is a multi-country (Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania) program on 2 main result areas as per Solidaridad Strategic vision: Good practices and Robust Infrastructure. The program targets organized farmers in cooperatives and farmer groups who will be supported to maximize on their productivity and increase efficiency at all levels. The program aspires to build effective and responsive management teams across all the targeted cooperatives and farmer groups. This is on the conviction that strong and reliable management practices are attractive to local lenders as well as impact investors.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES
Increase productivity to 4 kg of cherry per tree (baseline is 2 kg per tree) for smallholder coffee farmers and 6 kg of cherry per tree (baseline is 3 kg per tree) for medium scale farmers as result of GP by 2021.
Increase quality by 25% (premium grades reaching 70% from 45%) as result of GP Package by 2021.
20% increase in income for farmers as result of increased coffee productivity & diversification.
10% women membership and direct access to knowledge and income from coffee by 2021.
Economic and farming performance data available to farmers, cooperatives and financial institutions through ICT solutions.
Farmers access finance to invest in good practices and/or new technologies. 2 August 2018
1M Euro of blended finance secured from financial institutions or investors to implement in good practices and robust infrastructure by 2021.
Improved governance, efficiency and accountability in coffee cooperatives involved in the project
SCOPE OF WORK
Practice for change is carrying-out a data collection exercise through ODK/KoBo tool kits to Profile farmers on areas of Farmer Bio Data, Farm data, Production data, which also incorporates Geo analytics adopting polygons, all this is in efforts to develope an intelligent Agri-data management system (ADMS) that will rely on the most recent developments in ICT for gathering agribusiness data and managing farmers databases to provide a decision-making support to different corridor participants. Once implemented this system will allow regional and national stakeholders identify program impediments, better target interventions to address them and measure the impacts of these interventions. It will also benefit external stakeholders – donors, partners, service providers, by providing a framework and incentives to improve their performance through the open data access.
The ADMS will utilize a combination of data from computerized sources (such as ODK/Kobo aggregate server, Solidaridad in-house suits, CSV, and other data files) and manual reports from various data providers.
The ADMS will be designed and developed as a modular and flexible system that can easily evolve and adapt to the changes in sources and forms of monitoring data over and beyond the life of the project.
Solidaridad is requesting for an Expression of Interest (EoI) as per the activities outlined below,
ACTIVITIES
Develop a comprehensive data model and design methodology
Carry out consultation with data users (Program stakeholders). To the extent possible, all the comments received during the consultations should be incorporated in the refined methodologies.
Develop a Database Management system running on a secure RDBS server
Deploy a Web-based platform (incorporating Mobile version) to synthesis data collected and generate reports and dashboards.
System to have a three-tiered security protocol
Design a time conscious Project charter and project plan that will govern the development and deployment of this software in a timely manner
Design a comprehensive Project budget plan to cover the development and deployment of the solutions
Identify and employ appropriate methodologies and approaches to guide the deployment and ensure prompt and credible results at the end of this assignment
Adhere to the organization’s policies and procedures in project implementation
Design a comprehensive training module for the software and provide training to the users
ASSIGNMENT DELIVERABLES
The ADMS will be designed and implemented with the objective of systematically collecting data for analysis and reporting:
System to manage data analysis and reporting,
System to Monitoring and evaluation capacity by field operators and PMEL team
System to have dashboard functionalities with map interactive capabilities
System to allow for real-time data analysis
System to be web based with possibilities for a Mobile integration
System to allow for upgrade and integration with other digital solutions
For the purposes of the project, the system design should comply with technical standards of Digital Solidaridad Sustainable Solution (D3S) methodologies. This process should be coordinated closely with PFC team, as the intended owner of the ADMS, and/or its successor (PMEL) to avoid duplication and ensure relevance of the monitoring data. However, the design needs to accommodate the future extension of the ADMS to other Programs within the region.
Solidaridad will provide relevant documentation from PfC baseline as may be necessary.
EXPECTED OUTPUTS
An expression of interest (EOI), deployment methodology
Detailed Project Plan in the implementation of the solution
Detailed Budget of the activities in an excel sheet
Inception meeting to present methodology and thereafter minutes of the meeting,
Weekly progress reports (narrative and financial) and to present/validate progress/reports,
Monthly final report and proceeding minutes of validation workshops.
SUPERVISION
Directly report to Solidaridad Easter and Central Africa ICT manager.
PROPOSAL PROFILE
Submit a resume, for the key staff members to be engaged in this project
Company introductory letter
Work plan on the deployment of the Software
A detailed budget plan of the activities and Software fees
A recommendation letter for a past successfully development of similar solution and endorsers
Company Registration and PIN certificates
NOTE (This can be part of the deliverables)
Develop a comprehensive proposal detailing; understanding of the term of reference, the methodology to be used, capability statement, CVs detailing the relevant experience and qualifications of team. **
