Company Information: About HarvestPlus and GAC Innovative Finance

HarvestPlus works with partners to tackle hidden hunger on a global scale by breeding vitamins and minerals into everyday staple crops. These crops, called biofortified crops, are conventionally bred, nutritious, high yielding, and climate tolerant.

Deficiency of one or more micronutrients, particularly iron, vitamin A, zinc, and iodine, remains an intractable global health problem called “hidden hunger.” Micronutrient deficiencies occur when the quantity or quality of food is chronically insufficient to meet a person’s needs. Biofortification is a process whereby crops are conventionally bred to enhance their micronutrient content and to optimize their yield. Dietary studies have shown that children. Since biofortified crops are derived from staple foods, which are already consumed regularly, biofortified foods are cost-effective for low income households and as effective as fortified products in helping to meet daily nutritional requirements.

Globally, HarvestPlus has reached over 42 million people, and is positioned to reach 1 billion consumers globally by 2030. In reaching a broad base of consumers, HarvestPlus works with a strong focus on commercialization, including partnering with agribusinesses, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises in food value chains. However, to grow their businesses, agri-MSMEs need access to finance.

Separately, in a study conducted by CFI and SCOPEinsight in the year 202, in collaboration with AGR, over 90 lenders and industry actors participated to understand the driving factors behind the significant financing gap. The study revealed that the information requested by lenders and the ability of agri-SMEs to provide information to lenders as some of the most important obstacles to assessing the creditworthiness of agri-SMEs.

Other studies have shown that agri-SMEs have capacity gaps, including:

• Poor records keeping;
• Inadequacies on financial literacy;
• Low access to credit facilities hindering growth;
• Poor cash flow management;
• Lack of entrepreneurship and business management; and
• Lack of business and strategic plans.

Details of this Request for Proposals: Statement of Purpose and Scope of Work

In an effort to address some of these identified gaps, HarvestPlus has been developing a capacity building program to make MSMEs more investment-ready. The training components include:

• Financial literacy,
• Book keeping, and
• Business plan development and biofortification.

We seek to train approximately 500 SMEs in Zambia. Each training for a single cohort of 25-30 participants should be conducted over a period ranging between 3-4 days for the 3 modules. We would like to invite a qualified consultant (firm or individual) to finalize the content and undertake the training.

The main objective of this training is to build the capacity of agri-SMEs to enable business growth, access to finance, and increase volumes and value, especially for biofortified products. Essentially, this intervention will help address the inability to access, read, and interpret market trends and position accordingly.

We are seeking a partner with expertise in capacity building, training, and support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to deliver key training on financial literacy, book keeping, and business planning. The training should be three days total, with one day for each aforementioned topic. The partner may incorporate relevant case studies to enhance training modules. We aim for the training to prepare SMEs to engage with financial institutions in Zambia. The training should take place in the third week of November.

Responsibilities of the partner would include:

• Refine existent MSME content initially developed by HarvestPlus to fit Zambia context
• Undertake the training covering the three key topics identified above
• Evaluate the training at the end to gather feedback and draft a short summary report

Requirements for the partner:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in agriculture economics, business administration, finance, development studies, or a relevant discipline
• Experience working with SMEs operating in the rice value chains
• Proven familiarity and practical experience with delivery of training programs in rural and agribusiness setting
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Competence in spoken English
• Creative thinking, drive for results, and strong commitment

Timeline of the Project:

How to Apply

Responses to this RFP shall include:

• Technical Proposal
  • Background of the organization
  • Capability statement and profiles of trainers, highlighting experience in agribusiness and rural MSME training
  • Training model and format, including how the training will be made engaging and relevant for adult learners, class size, mode of delivery, and curriculum considerations, if any
  • Expected results of training
• Financial Proposal
  • Budget in USD with person/days breakdown
  • Proposed workplan

Please send RFP responses no later than 5pm EST on Friday, November 12 on the IFPRI website to be considered. In the event of any questions, please contact k.foley@cgiar.org.

Terms and Conditions of this Request for Proposals

Upon selection of a partner, a detailed contract will be agreed on by both parties. HarvestPlus retains the right not to pursue this project if enough proposals are not submitted or funding for the project is no longer available.

Notice of Non-Binding Solicitation

HarvestPlus reserves the right to reject any and all bids received in response to this solicitation and is in no way bound to accept any proposal. HarvestPlus additionally reserves the right to negotiate the substance of the successful applicants’ proposals, as well as the option of accepting partial components of a proposal if deemed appropriate.

Confidentiality

All information provided as part of this solicitation is considered confidential. In the event that any information is inappropriately released, HarvestPlus will seek appropriate remedies as allowed. Proposals, discussions, and all information received in response to this solicitation will be held as strictly confidential.

Right to Final Negotiations on the Proposal

HarvestPlus reserves the right to negotiate on final costs, and the final scope of work of the proposal. HarvestPlus reserves the right to limit or include third parties at HarvestPlus’s sole and full discretion in such negotiations.

Intellectual Property

Subject to the terms of the contract to be concluded between HarvestPlus and the applicant, the ownership of the intellectual property related to the scope of work of the contract, including technical information, know-how, processes, copyrights, models, drawings, source code, and specifications developed by the applicant in performance of the contract shall vest entirely with HarvestPlus.

To apply for this job please visit phf.tbe.taleo.net.