Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptive (CLA) Consultant - ARE Activity

Chemonics International Inc.

Professional Terms of Reference

Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment Activity

Contract No. 72026820C00001

Project Name:                    Lebanon Agricultural Rural Empowerment Activity

Consultancy Title:             Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptive (CLA) Consultant

Consultancy eligibility:  Local/Lebanon or International consultants are encouraged to apply to this consultancy

Reporting to:                       MEL Director

Ceiling LOE:                         up to 25 days

Budget line:                          STTA     (STTA or Grants)

Period of performance:  2 months

Project Background

USAID’s $57 million (ARE) activity (2020-2025) supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities with obtaining technical and financial resources to increase productivity, sales, and exports, improve business income, and ensure sustainable livelihoods, all while improving food security for vulnerable populations. ARE’s objectives are twofold:

1. Increased domestic and export sales
2. Improved and inclusive livelihoods, particularly in rural areas and for women

Based on market systems development theory, ARE adopts a facilitative approach to incentivize priority value chain and sub-sector stakeholders to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities and increase potential sales growth, both internationally and domestically. To this end, ARE identifies and partners with “Champion Firms,” which serve as anchors with whom ARE can work to leverage opportunities or address challenges within supported value chains. In collaboration with Champion Firms, ARE co-created a Partnership Framework Agreement (PFA) that guides the implementation of joint interventions that support actors throughout the entire value chain to unlock opportunities and create the underpinnings for new growth at the farm, firm, value chain, and sub-sector levels.

ARE targets several value chains, including fresh and processed produce, dairy and fodder, stone fruits, and table grapes. In particular, ARE promotes partnerships with Champion Firms that have the potential to address food insecurity and support livelihoods. The partnerships aim to promote import substitution, reduce production and processing costs, and ensure job creation or retention to increased or maintain household incomes.

Beyond the support to Champion Firms and priority value chains, ARE also responds to urgent needs(eg. food security) and opportunities to generate an impact at the broader sectoral level. Strategic interventions include hybrid vegetable seed and seedling distributions, greenhouse upgrades, nursery upgrades, promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency for agriculture and food production. Other interventions include support to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to ensure their resilience and sustainable operations and issuing grants to promote innovation, upgrade technology, and support start-up ecosystems.

Summary of Position

Collaboration, learning, and adaptive (CLA) management principles serve as the cornerstone of ARE’s approach to MEL, enabling the activity to do more than measure outputs. ARE has a CLA strategy that helps promote information sharing, prioritize continuous learning, and synthesize knowledge in systems, decision processes, and institutional memories.

ARE’s CLA strategy includes a general learning agenda that was developed during the early stages of activity design. This learning agenda includes general learning questions that guide the MEL team and technical teams to program and learn about the various components and value chains supported by ARE. Through this STTA, ARE plans to take the CLA strategy one step further in terms of providing an evidence base for future ARE programming and supporting technical teams in assessing the results from their current interventions, adapting activities, and sharing this information with the broader development and donor community, among other relevant stakeholders, through strategic and predetermined channels. ARE has built in additional funding to the data collection and research to support with the implementation of the learning agenda.

Events and conferences will also have a separate budget and may include the potential for additional STTA if needed. Part of this consultancy will be to assist in developing the overall budget for implementation of the learning agenda.

The STTA, under this scope, is responsible for the following:

• Develop a methodology for prioritizing thematic research in select value chains or agricultural programs: Based on ARE’s results framework, collaboration, learning, and adaptive management (CLA) strategy, and existing assessments and interventions, the STTA is expected to develop thematic research and learning approach that identifies and prioritizes research and learning themes within ARE’s technical programming to guide the learning agenda. (5 working days)
• Develop a learning agenda based on the prioritization: Using the aforementioned methodology for prioritizing learning questions and research topics, the STTA will develop a learning agenda that will serve as evidence base and results assessment for existing interventions and will help inform future ARE programming. (15 working days)

The learning agenda will include:

• Prioritization methodology
• Research hypothesis in prioritized themes/value chains
• Learning/Research questions and tools in prioritized themes/value chains
• Research methodology for each selected theme/value chain to answer the research hypotheses
• Time frame to complete each research activity
• Technical, logistical, and human resources needed, including any additional qualitative and quantitative data collection needs.
• Defined outputs for each research theme

• Develop a dissemination plan: the dissemination plan will ensure strategic sharing of information with relevant stakeholders. Stakeholders can include USAID, other donors, farmers, entrepreneurs, among others. The dissemination plan can include learning events, conferences, exchange visits between various stakeholders, among other data dissemination channels. (5 days)

Deliverables and Timeline

Ref

Deliverables

Timeline

1

Develop a methodology for prioritizing thematic research in select value chains or agricultural programs

5 working days

2

Develop a learning agenda based on the prioritization

15 working days

3

Develop a dissemination plan

5 working days

6

Other deliverables as assigned by the MEL director in coordination with technical advisors, COP, and DCOP

Place of Assignment

The STTA can work remotely from Lebanon or outside Lebanon, however, is welcome to work from ARE’s program office space in Beirut as long as it creates no additional cost to the consultancy.

Reporting

The STTA will report directly to the ARE MEL Director

Qualifications

• Bachelor or Master’s degree in one or several of the following areas:  Social sciences, development, agriculture, or any other related field.    
• At least 10 years of relevant experience, especially focused on program design and management, strategic planning, designing and implementing monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) plans.
• Extensive experience in designing learning agendas, managing collaboration, learning, and adaptive management strategies, and evaluation of multisectoral programs, specifically agriculture and economic growth programs.
• Candidate must have report writing skills, good analytical skills, and good interpersonal/communication skills.
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.