Agro-climate Information Services (CIS)– Scaling Needs Assessment Consultant

TERMS OF REFERENCE Title: Agro-climate information services (CIS)– scaling needs assessment consultant Project: Climate Services Menu for Southeast Asia (CliSM) Location: Home-based Duration: 23 working days during January 2019 – March 2020 Reporting to: CARE Denmark Asia Regional Advisor CARE is an international development and humanitarian aid organisation fighting global poverty and injustice, with a special focus on working with women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities. CARE International in Vietnam is a dynamic organisation working with Vietnamese partner organisations for 30 years on 300+ projects. CVN recognises that the key to achieving equitable development outcomes lies in shifting deeply rooted, structural underlying causes of poverty and social and gender injustice which contribute to exclusion and vulnerability of particular groups in society. CVN’s long term programme goals are Remote Ethnic Minority Women and Socially Marginalised People equitably benefit from development, are resilient to changing circumstances and have a legitimate voice. Project information: Climate Services Menu for Southeast Asia (CliSM 2019-2021) aims at tackling scaling with a diversity of end users in the climate services value chains (CS-VCs). The project is implemented by a consortium made up by Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and CARE International in Vietnam. CARE, ICRAF and CIAT have implemented different approaches for gender responsive CS across diverse rural livelihoods contexts providing a learning platform for understanding CS scaling opportunities in Vietnam and elsewhere (Africa, Asia and Latin America). By combining the consortium’s experiences with CS-VCs and assessing the experiences of other practitioners in and beyond Vietnam, CliSM will identify successful pathways of local-to-national CS-VCs that will inform the development of a framework to assess and design CS-VCs and a guide to CS-VC business models. In developing the research outputs (scaling assessment framework and business model guide), the Consortium will draw on evidence from existing projects. Drawing on our experiences from CCAFS Phase 1 (2015-2018) in Southeast Asia, some tentative bottlenecks and gaps have been identified in the CS-VC of relevance for scaling. Gaps in the VC, relate particularly to capacity and infrastructure gaps that given the governance structures, calls for concrete guidance for policy makers and implementers on understanding information needs, having a portfolio of example designs and approaches that help link local-level needs for agricultural advisories with data producers. By better understanding the effects of rural livelihoods heterogeneity (the end-users) and different field-tested approaches, the project aims at designing and implementing scalable CS-VCs. To do this, this the project will develop an analysis framework to characterize scaling pathways and approaches for CS-VCs. The CS-scaling framework and lessons learned from the engagement and validation process across local-level implementation sites will result in (1) a methodology to assess and implement scaling pathways for CS-VC for decision-making institutions and practitioners of CS development, and (2) guideline for policy makers and implementors. Rationale and purpose: Global practitioner needs assessment: Together, the Consortium will conduct needs assessment of development practitioners for designing climate service at scale. The needs assessment will be led by CARE on behalf of the Consortium. To support with this task, CARE is going to recruit an international consultant to conduct a number of interviews with development practitioners to assess their needs and lessons learnt from past experience with CIS scaling. Together with the consultant, CARE and partners will use our global network of staffs and partners to identify interviewees. Key objective: To provide guidance on designing and implementing scalable approaches for CS delivery, this consultancy aims to document the lessons learned and identify the needs of practitioners from scaling CS-VCs based on the past and ongoing experiences with CS implementation experiences across the the world. The practitioners’ needs assessment will include the following activities:

Development of methodology and instruments for key informant interviews with CS practitioners
Preparation of a long list of past and/or ongoing CS initiatives across regions
Identification of practitioners and experts with leading, coordination and/or field-level experience in delivering CS based on the long list
Determining the major types of climate information services initiatives, programs and projects
Provide recommendations for CS scaling pathways, type of tools, approaches, information and or type of guidance practitioners should have to be able to apply or reach more farmers and to have more sustainable and improved CS network of partners

Scope of work:

Conduct a desk review of documents provided by CARE and other materials related to topics of scaling and climate information services, among others
Review of up to 70 projects (online) against the selection criteria developed by CARE
Prepare a list of interview candidates based on 35 shortlisted projects approved in writing by CARE
Conduct 35 online key informant interviews of approximately one hour per interview, following the 52-questions Key Informant Interview Guide (see Attachment)

Consultant is expected to have online meeting with CARE to discuss findings from the key information interview process and for CARE to seek clarifications pertaining to the 35 interview questionnaires submitted by the Consultant.

Documentation and data analysis: The Consultant will analyse the interview data and will provide a qualitative and, wherever possible quantitative, synthesis of results along the three steps of the climate services value chain
Step 1: Generation of climate forecast and/or weather information
Step 2: Translation of data into actionable advice.
Step 3: Transfer to advisory to provide access to next-and end users)

The consultant will also submit a minimum 2-page reflection on trends emerging from the interviews, relevant to understanding the enabling/disabling factors that contribute to the successful scaling of climate services. The report include actionable recommendations of what type of tools, approaches, information and or type of guidance practitioners should have to be able to apply or reach more farmers and to have more sustainable and improved CS network of partners. Deliverables: The consultant will work with CARE climate change team and reports directly to CARE Denmark Asia Regional Advisor to deliver the following:

Deliverable 1: A list of 35 projects submitted to CARE
Deliverable 2: The Consultant will electronically submit to CARE results of 35 suggested interview candidates. The list must include the following information for each suggested interview: Full name / project, organisation / position, contact details, interviewed and analysed information.
Deliverable 3: A qualitative and, wherever possible quantitative, high quality synthesis report of results along the three steps of the climate services value chain as well as a minimum 2-page reflection on trends emerging from the interviews.

Proposed action and timeframe

No	Activity	Time frame	No. of day(s)
1	Desk review of background documents	10 -20 Jan 2020	2
2	Interview short listing	21-24 Jan 2020	2
3	Conduct interviews (online, web-based, telephone)	28 Jan – 14 Feb 2020	7
4	Data analysis and documentation	17 – 28 Feb 2020	7
5	Feedback and finalisation of reports	02 – 06 Mar 2020	5
	Total		23

The total number of days for this consultancy contract is 23 days spread over two months (between 10th January and 6th March 2019). Selection criteria

Master’s degree in a relevant subject
Strong and demonstrable experience with climate services value chains, whether from research or practice
Excellent analytical and synthesis skills
Strong understanding of women in agriculture considered an asset.
Good communication, interviewing and presentation skills
Excellent writing skills in English

Application procedure Interested candidates should submit the following documents in English, clearly stating the title of the Terms of Reference to email: procurement@care.org.vn before 9 am on 6 Janauray 2020. Application include:

Proposal of methodology and plan
Examples of similar works
Suggestion on timeline (if different from the TOR’s proposed timeframe)
Brief description or CVs of individuals to be interviewed
Rates of consultancy

CARE is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce. Women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. “Thanks for your interest in CARE! We are committed to each other and to the protection of the people we serve. We do not tolerate sexual misconduct within or external to our organisation and imbed child protection in all we do. Protection from sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse and child protection are fundamental to our relationships, including employment, and our recruitment practices are designed to ensure we only recruit people who are suitable to work with other staff and the people we serve. As well as pre-employment checks, we will use the recruitment and reference process to ensure potential new staff understand and are aligned with these expectations. To find out more, please contact the Human Resources Manager.”

Tags: CARE International