Terms Of Reference: Consultancy For Coffee Quality Management, Value Addition And Market Access Training at Solidaridad Eastern & Central Africa Expertise Centre (SECAEC)

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, dubbed The Coffee Resilience Program (2018-2020) is a multi-country (Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania) program. In Kenya, the program is implemented in Nyeri, Machakos, Embu, Kirinyaga and Meru Counties. The program targets organized farmers in cooperatives and farmer groups who are supported to maximize on their productivity, coffee quality and incomes. The program aspires to support farmers secure specialty coffee markets and consequently fetch better prices for their coffees. The attainment of this goal is largely dependent on the adoption of best farm practises, quality management and the ability to build and maintain relationships with market facing coffee actors along the value chain. The program operates a service provision model that equips youth farmers with relevant skills on various subjects who in return deliver services for a fee to the coffee communities.

KEY PILLARS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COFFEE RESILIENCE PROGRAM

• Increase coffee 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 adoption of good practises by 2021.
• Increase coffee quality by 25% (premium grades reaching 70% from 45%) as result of adoption of good manufacturing practises by 2021.
• Increase incomes for coffee farmers as result of increased coffee productivity & diversification activities by 2021
• Women and youth membership in farmer organizations increase by 10% and direct access to knowledge and income from coffee related activities by 2021.
• Economic and farming performance data is available to farmers, cooperatives and financial institutions through ICT solutions.
• Farmers have access finance to invest in good practices and/or new technologies.
• 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 program.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY SERVICE

The objective of this consultancy is to offer a short integrated course on coffee quality management from the farm to the cup linked to value addition and market access for specialty coffees. 200 youth farmers from Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu and Machakos counties are targeted for this course. This training is informed by the gaps identified along the value chain which include; a.) Farmer organizations lack the capacity to manage their coffee quality effectively during processing, b.) Farmers do not have the requisite skills to assess their coffee quality before releasing coffee to their millers and marketers c.) Farmers have limited market access skills especially for the specialty coffee d.) A majority of the youth from the coffee communities are unemployed. At the end of this course, farmers and their organizations should be able to access these services from a pool of trained youth farmers for a fee. The youth should also have the capacity to gain an income from coffee value addition activities.

The consultant is expected to tailor the training to the local context with the focus of building the youth capacity on coffee quality management, value addition and market access within the framework of small holder and medium estates set ups. The consultant will also produce a coffee evaluation manual which should be practical in design, easy to follow that can be implemented by the trainees without much additional assistance from external parties.

SPECIFIC TASKS TO BE DONE BY THE CONSULTANT

• Develop training materials and a user friendly coffee evaluation manual on coffee evaluation.
• Deliver 8 training sessions each of 25 participants on the following subject areas;
  • Coffee agronomy and its impact on coffee quality.
  • Primary processing its impact on Coffee quality
  • Coffee quality evaluation techniques
  • Coffee Quality assurance systems
  • Coffee economics
  • Food Safety and Health in Coffee
  • The Coffee Trade
  • Final Coffee Processing and Coffee consumption
  • Basic Barista skills
  • Positioning in the Coffee market
  • Product/ Brand development
  • Coffee marketing- Locally and Internationally
• Produce a well written and comprehensive training report which should include post training assessment and impact assessment.

FINAL DELIVERABLES

• All presentations and support material copied on a CD or memory stick and hard copies for distribution to participants on the first day of the workshop
• A one hour (open notes) exam to be administered at the end of the training
• A simple and concise user manual to guide participants in future coffee evaluations
• A copy of the training certificate awarded to the trainees who qualify.
• A comprehensive training report

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

• The lead consultant should possess a post-graduate or equivalent qualification/ degree in Agribusiness, Business Management, Development Studies, Humanities or any other relevant discipline. Other team members should also possess similar qualifications.
• Relevant certification by the Coffee Quality Institute
• At least 5-7 years of prior work experience in the field of training on Coffee Agronomy, Quality management systems and Product development.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in adult learning and developing training modules/curriculum, training materials etc.
• Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in English.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

While submitting the Technical Proposal, the Applicant attach the following:

• Profile of the consultant’s firm (max 1 page) explaining why they are the most suitable for the work.
• Relevant Experience (max 2 pages).
• Detailed methodology and conceptual framework with expected deliverables and timelines, man days required (3-5 pages).
• Recent CV’s for the Consultant’s team
• Company Registration and PIN certificates