Terms of Reference for hiring external experts under MedBEESinessHubs project

The project entitled “Mediterranean Bee Hubs in support for sustainable economic prosperity in deprived rural areas” (MedBEESinessHubs), is co-funded by the EU under the ENI CBC MED Programme with a total budget of €1,110,609.71 and a co-financing of €999,548.74 (90%).  The MedBEESinessHubs project team is led by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Cyprus), while it consists of five more partners: A.M. Filagrotiki Consultants (Cyprus), Confederation of Egyptian-European Business Associations (Egypt), Arab-Italian Cooperation Chamber (Italy), Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture Zahle & Bekaa (Lebanon), and Palestinian Businesswomen’s Association ASALA (Palestine).

Objective of this document

This document provides the Terms of Reference in relation to the External Experts to be hired under WP3 and WP6 Activities of the project MedBEESinessHubs funded by EU under ENI CBCMED and implemented by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Zahle and Bekaa. 

It is highly suggested that the same expert(s) carry out all Activities below to ensure a continuity and coherence in the delivery of their work/reports/training, instead of hiring different expert(s) carrying out the Activities independently.

Below is a brief description of the work required for each activity:

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A3.1.2 Regional studies on the economic value of networking around the honeybee products

It involves primary research using a questionnaire and secondary research from databases, reports etc, in order to provide a detailed analysis of the bee sector in your region/ country. Experts should provide statistical facts on the bee sector, a SWOT analysis, a needs assessment and an evaluation of the economic value of the sector with regard to the local economy.

To be delivered by 15/04/2022

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A3.1.3  Mapping the honeybee producers and policy frameworks at cross border level

This is sub-divided in two sections:

1. Mapping the honeybee producers: This deliverable shall have a multipurpose approach, noted below:

1. To identify potential MSMEs who will be interested to participate in the actions of the project and benefit from the services to be provided
2. To create a data bank for promoting local MSMEs through the online portal
3. To identify good practices in partner regions that can be transferable
4. To record the diversity of activities which can be included in the bee-economy concept for rural development

The main task is to map producers of honeybee products based on the following categorization:

• Beekeepers and honey processors
• Candle makers from bee wax
• Wax based artisan cosmetics
• Royal jelly producers
• Honey comb and alike products processors
• Bee keepers with tourism services
• Honeybee courses and trainers

Partners may add categories if they cannot fit an MSME into one of the categories noted above.

To be delivered by 15/05/2022

1. Mapping of policies in favour of beekeepers and processors

The work requires research into secondary sources for identifying and recording key policy instruments at national or regional level that affect directly or indirectly (a) the bees as a species to protect; (b) the beekeeping activity; (c) the bee processing and marketing activity. The report should be organised in the following order:

• Name of policy instrument
• Type (national/ regional)
• Description
• Funding budget (annually or as defined)
• Funding source

To be delivered by 15/06/2022

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A3.2.2 Training workshops in participatory democracy for honeybee cluster formation in all partner regions

• A 2-day train-the-trainers course will be provided by PP1 FILAGRO in Cyprus, in English.
• Hired Experts are expected to attend this 2-day course in Cyprus (their travel costs and accommodation expenses are included in their fee and shall be stated separately in the offer) in order to be trained in the specific technique of coaching in participatory democratic dialogue.
• Hired experts, after being trained, are expected to carry out one workshop of structured democratic dialogue themselves, gathering the different Value Chain actors, in order to create the foundations for a regional cluster in the honeybee concept.

(i) 2-day Train-the-Trainers course to be delivered by 10/05/2022

(ii) workshop carried out by hired experts to be delivered by 31/07/2022

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A6.1.1 The MedBee economy concept in mainstream policies for rural development through the CAP

This Activity shall focus on the preparation of reports on possible policy implications at regional and national level, based on the experiences gained by the current project. Hired Experts in each partner region are expected to prepare a report on policy (reform) suggestions based on: (a) the particular policy framework of the region/ nation; (b) the CAP framework on apiculture support framework; (c) the reports from the ongoing evaluation and (d) interviews on experiences and suggestions by the target groups, the partners and the end beneficiaries.

To be delivered by 31/05/2023

External Expertise required:

The hired expert/ team of experts should possess the following minimum criteria:

• Excellent knowledge of both written and spoken English, in addition to the arabic language;
• Previous experience in the delivery of training workshops/seminars;
• Previous experience in conducting primary and secondary research on Apiculture or other Agri-food products;
• Previous experience in writing articles, academic/scientific papers, books on Apiculture / Gastronomy / Agri-food related markets / Local strategies on Agri-food development;

• University degree in one of the following subjects:
  • Agri-food sector, Apiculture, Horticulture, Agronomy;

or

• • Business, Management, Economics, Entrepreneurship

Financial Offer

The Expert has to provide a financial offer including:

1- the fees to perform the tasks mentionned above.

2- The travel and accommodation costs.

3- As well as any other expenses incurred. 

Deadline for hiring expert(s)

The expert/team of experts has to be hired not later than 15/01/2022.