Dairy Product Value chain Specialist to Develop a Commercial Dairy Manual

Concern is launching a project to strengthen the capacity of dairy value chain in Akkar with the funding of BMZ, Tent Foundation and ARC. Concern livelihoods program is focused on promoting socio-economic integration of refugees into host communities by promoting social integration and employment. Based on experience and socio-demographic facts reported by various UN agencies and discussed here too, the project at hand proposes to employ Syrian refugee women in dairy cooperatives by introducing skill trainings for women, improving employment capacity of Lebanese dairy cooperatives and creating employment for skilled women in targeted dairy cooperative after paid apprenticeships. Project focuses on women employment since one refugee in every 5 is a woman and as of UNHCR report published at the end of 2016 which states that 71% households of 251,299 Syrian refugees living in Akkar and Northern Governorates, are living below the poverty line. Proposed project intends to support dairy products value chain in Akkar because the dairy sector in Akkar provide 60% of the area economy income and 2000 families in Akkar benefit from the dairy sector as their principal and only income. The number of dairy cattle as of the data obtained from Ministry of Agriculture office in Akkar is 15000 which is 30% of total national dairy farmers. Besides cows, 10% of the national breeders of sheep and goats are spread in Akkar. About 70% of small-scale farmers in this area are poor and very poor according to studies prepared by experts in the FARES Foundation. In 2015, according to the Lebanese official statistics the rate of the export of dairy products was 11.5% of the total exported food products which equals to 63 million dollar. Conventionally, local dairy cooperatives operate as a link between dairy farmers and big dairy companies like CANDIA, TAENAYEL operating in the region.

Work Scope:

This assignment is aimed for a highly specialized individual with minimum 10 years of work experience in private dairy production sector, supporting cooperatives and 5 years of experience in manual writing and conducting trainings.

• Consultant must finalize list of items/equipment needed to conduct practical trainings for women apprentices and dairy cooperatives in line with the training outline.
• All trainings will be organized by Concern Worldwide.
• Consultant is required to hold a weekly meeting with Concern Program Manager to debrief on the progress.

Deliverable I: (All cost incurred will be covered by Consultant)

Provision of a manual for the capacity building of dairy cooperatives, Training of Trainers and Training for cooperative

Theoretical Training Organization and Management: 10 hours

Theoretical Training Technical: 18 hours (Annex – I)

Practical Training: 20 hours (Annex – I)

Recipes of key commercial dairy products: 10

Follow-up mentoring: 10 hours

Audience: Decision makers and workers

Objectives of Manual:

• Capacity Building of the Cooperative/small dairy business: This manual will build capacity of the dairy cooperative in organization and management of business, scaling up, diversification of dairy products, safety and health standards, human resource management and apprenticeship management. Along with women, dairy cooperative will also receive trainings to diversify their products by processing milk in various kind of products.
• Capacity Building of the Apprentices in the Cooperative: This manual will build capacity of women apprentices in professional conduct, commercial milk base food production etc.
• Dairy food product recipes: Minimum 10 recipes of milk products with commercial value must be included in the manual.
• Provision of Assessment Test and Procurement List: Consultant will provide a list of items/equipment needed to conduct trainings and milk based food processing along with post training assessment tests.

Key Tasks to Develop Manual:

• Consultant will be expected to conduct 10 Key Informative Interviews and 05 Focus Group Discussions to assess the needs of dairy sector in Akkar. Based on assessments and the training outline provided, consultant will develop a manual and a training of trainer’s manual to implement the trainings. The consultant must organize transportation for the field visits.

• Consultant must liaise with the cooperatives present in the geographical area to make sure that the content of training manual is closely related to the needs of market.
• Consultant, in collaboration with the cooperatives, must provide a finalised and appropriate methodology of assessment to qualify women for apprenticeship in the cooperatives.
• Manual should be delivered with appropriate designing and formatting. A consultant will provide a list of items that must be purchased to conduct trainings.

Deliverable II

Conducting Training of Trainers workshop: Consultant will be responsible to conduct Training of Trainer (ToT) workshop for minimum 20 personnel on the manual. Training of Trainer’s workshop will be 10 days long with practical training on food processing.

Key Tasks:

• Consultant in the collaboration with Concern Programme Officer and Capacity Building Specialist of Concern Worldwide must develop a user manual to use training manuals and must finalize presentations, ice breakers and handouts for trainers, trainees and facilitators.
• Consultant will provide the list of all training equipment for practical trainings. Concern will be responsible to purchase all the equipment.

 Deliverable III

Conducting trainings for Beneficiaries: In collaboration with Concern’s Food Processing Specialist, consultant will conduct a training workshop for the cooperative and its apprentices.

Overall Responsibilities:

1. Conflict management and adherence to the Guidelines:

• Individual under service contract is bound to respect Concern’s Programme Participant Protection Policy, Code of Conduct and communication guidelines during and after the tenure of the contract.
• All the materials produced will be property of Concern and any part of it must not be replicated, transferred or used without the written permission of Concern Worldwide.

1. Administrative responsibilities:

• Timely Submission of Deliverables: Specialist is responsible for providing timely reports to the field focal point. Unless all means of verifications are completed and verified, payments will not be processed.
• Payment request: The specialist is responsible for preparing their own payment request including payment request form, invoices and writing NTF if any time line has been missed due to unseen circumstances.
• Procurement demand list: If any material is needed by specialist he/she must submit a procurement demand list on prescribed template minimum 15 days in advance with correct specification, quantities and units to proceed with the request.

1. Coordination with Concern Worldwide

• Dairy product specialist must respect Concern communication tree and guidelines. All reports must be returned to the focal point on weekly and monthly basis.
• Dairy product specialist must inform 2 days in advance about any change, modification concerning the activities; absenteeism, reschedule of the session.
• In case of emergency; death, accident, or sudden illness please immediately contact Concern focal point to inform of circumstances.

Payment Terms and Expectations:

• All the manuals will be reviewed technically by the Livelihoods Program Manager, Business Development Team and Capacity Building Specialist. Payments against services will not be made without written approval of Concern staff. Poor quality of work or unsatisfactory performance will lead to immediate termination of the contract.
• Consultants must be dedicated to the assignment over the period of assessment and readily available for meetings and briefing at Halba or Qalamoun office of the Concern Worldwide.

5.  Instructions for submissions and Evaluation Criteria:

What to submit for administrative Screening for pre-qualification;

Please arrange document in the following order. All documents must be signed and/or stamped. All documents must be submitted for technical and financial evaluation.

• Letter of Intent addressed to, “Livelihoods Program, Concern Worldwide, Lebanon.” Dated, signed and/or stamped written by owner of company or lead applicant out of two trainers.
• Annex I – Technical proposal, which should have;

• Session and Training content Plan; Objectives of each session, Key learning outcomes, and materials required for each session (English only)
• Any one complete session from the topics annexed (Arabic)
• One complete manual as an example of previous work.
• Proposed list of items/materials that can be purchased to conduct practical dairy food processing trainings.

If service provider has been using any standard sessions on hygiene, and food safety in line with the national or international standards it can be suggested along with the clear session plan.

• Annex II – Profile/CV of individual applicant with Tax ID and bank details.
• Annex III – Similar training experience from last three years with reference details of last two clients
• Annex IV - Financial proposal  (templates available, please see below)

Technical Evaluation; Total score = 60

• Previous Experience of similar work and value of contract (15)
•  Technical proposal (10)
• Qualification of Trainer (15)

Financial Evaluation; Total score = 30

• Lowest prices offered (30)

Interview; Total score = 10 (top 2 candidates only)

6. Time Frame:

Contract will be awarded for the period of 3 months starting tentatively from March 26, 2018 to June 26, 2017. Service provider (s) must respect the work plan included in the Financial proposal.

7. Key Deliverables:

Deliverable one: Manual on the capacity building of dairy cooperatives and apprentices in line with the work scope and key learning areas.

Deliverable two: Training of trainers workshop as per work scope and agreed agenda specified by program officer, Capacity Building Specialists and agro-food specialist.

Deliverable three: Training of one cooperative and 50 apprentices in collaboration with Concern personnel including five follow-ups.