Kiribati Climate Smart Agriculture: Food, Health & Nutrition Consultant

Based in Seoul, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is an intergovernmental organization founded to support and promote a model of economic growth known as "green growth", which targets key aspects of economic performance such as poverty reduction, job creation, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. GGGI works with countries around the world, building their capacity and working collaboratively on green growth policies that can impact the lives of millions. The organization partners with countries, multilateral institutions, government bodies, and private sector to help build economies that grow strongly and are more efficient and sustainable in the use of natural resources, less carbon intensive, and more resilient to climate change.

In Kiribati, GGGI supports stakeholders through complementary and integrated work streams – Green Growth Planning & Implementation and Investment and Policy Solutions – that deliver comprehensive products designed to assist in developing, financing, and mainstreaming green growth in national economic development plans. Kiribati has been a member of GGGI since 2012.  The focal Ministry is the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development (MELAD).  GGGI is committed to working in Kiribati in ways that boosts gender equality and social inclusion across the agriculture value chains in Kiribati, with a focus on women, youth, smallholder farmers and privately led businesses.

In December 2020, GGGI signed a funding agreement with Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) for the development and delivery of the Climate Smart Agriculture for Kiribati (KCSA) Project. KCSA will implement activities in the Agricultural sector. GGGI is also implementing other inter-related projects in Kiribati that includes Pacific Green Entrepreneurs Network (PGEN), Kiribati Agriculture Strategy Action Plan (KAS) and Low Emission Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) funded by the Qatar Fund For Development and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) respectively. Wherever it adds value, GGGI supports collaboration and alignment, and these projects, along with programs and projects funded from other sources will be considered during implementation of the KCSA Project in Kiribati.

Consisting of 33 widely dispersed islands, Kiribati is an island republic located in the central Pacific Ocean. Like many of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Kiribati is highly vulnerable to climate change and affected by its impacts including rising sea levels, increasingly frequent and severe storms, permanent erosion of the shoreline, seawater inundation on freshwater resources, and reduced food security. The country also faces many economic challenges given its remoteness, land scarcity, small market size, and limited institutional capacity. To address some of these challenges, GGGI has been implementing the Climate Smart Agriculture for Kiribati (KCSA) program with funding from Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD).

The project will support Kiribati to achieve its national development targets and international commitment by helping to develop a climate resilient, income generating agriculture sector that is backstopped by green technology solutions and which is accessible and inclusive to all i-Kiribati, through:

• Development of awareness raising and training materials to increase agricultural productivity in English and i-Kiribati for target groups.
• Introduction of agriculture and health awareness raising as part of school and extra-curricular activities.
• Support training on agriculture and business skills development for women and youth.
• Support Small and Medium Enterprise (SME’s) on climate smart agriculture practices and green entrepreneurship training and mentoring. 
• Support training of SME’s on climate-smart agriculture technologies, its operations and maintenance.

The overall objective of this assignment is to conduct needs assessment on importance of food and nutrition related topics and it can be incorporated into mainstream agriculture training programs that will be offered by KCSA project in Tarawa, Kiribati. The assessment will guide the development of training manual focusing on nutritional topics for trainers and target audience (school, youth, women and privately led businesses) that will be used over the course of the project.

The specific objectives of the assessment are:

• Assess training needs on food, health and nutrition knowledge for school, communities (youth and women) and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME’s);
• Identify existing and previous projects, knowledge and skills relating to health and nutrition in Kiribati and document experiences and lessons learnt from previous capacity building initiatives;
• Recommend health and nutrition topics / areas to be incorporated into the training program for different target groups.
• Support GGGI’s Senior Climate Smart Agriculture Project Officer to develop the training materials.

This assignment consists of the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Submission of an Inception Report. Upon signing of the contract, the selected Consultant will develop an Inception Report, including individual work plan for the assignment, in consultation with GGGI and MELAD, in preparation for the assignment. The individual work plan should be accompanied by a report format for the final report. Both the work plan and report format must be approved by GGGI and MELAD before commencement of the assignment. It is anticipated this should take no longer than 5 working days to complete, prior to commencement of the assignment.

Deliverable 2: Conduct training needs assessment on health and nutrition. The consult will be required to conduct a sector assessment to gather market intelligence on the significance of health and nutrition aspects in the agriculture sector that will guide the development and delivery of training manual. To accomplish this, the consultant will be required to meet with relevant stakeholders, schools, communities (youth, women and farmers) and agri-businesses (exporters, importers, retailers, agri-processors, nursery operators, middlemen and market vendors) to gather market intelligence on the following:

• The current understanding of the local population on the importance of healthy living and consuming nutritious food.
• What are the common fruits and vegetables available and consumed on Tarawa.
•  Current food and nutrition related training materials available.
• What are some food preservation and processing techniques suitable for the local population.
• Identify existing and previous projects, knowledge and skills (training materials) relating to food and nutrition activities in agriculture and document experiences and lessons learnt from previous capacity building initiatives.
• Consult with the stakeholders to generate ideas and topic which could be incorporated into the agriculture training program for various target groups i.e., schools, communities and SME’s.

The above should act as a guide for the Consultant to understand the knowledge gap in the sector and training needs specifically to incorporate health and nutrition segment in the agriculture sector. A comprehensive list of stakeholders consulted must be developed that will be instrumental to implement training program in Year 2 and 3 of the KCSA project. Furthermore, the consultant will need to develop a learning outcome that will create the foundation to develop the training materials for the target groups (schools, communities and agri-businesses).

Deliverable 3: Support development of training materials. With reference to the market intelligence gathered and the approved learning outcome, the consultant will support the GGGI’s Senior Climate Smart Agriculture Project Officer to develop training manual (with three modules) in consultation with MELAD and other relevant government stakeholders such as Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Women, Youth, Sports and Social Affairs (MWYSA), Ministry of Commerce, Industries and Cooperatives (MCIC) and Ministry of Health & Medical Services (MHMS). The consultant will contribute towards the food, health and nutrition topics for the following training modules:

1. Schools – the training material will target towards increasing knowledge and skills on agriculture (low-cost climate smart agriculture technologies) and health awareness of secondary school students;
2. Communities (youth and women) – training material will target towards improving the capacity and skills of women and youths to support their livelihood and/or employment prospect. The training content will consider traditional knowledge and modern techniques suitable for Kiribati. Where possible, the training will incorporate post-management and traditional food processing techniques; and
3. SME’s (agri-businesses) – this training and mentoring program will aim to improve the skills and capacity of micro-businesses to increase agricultural productivity and expand their business.

With reference to the above training modules, the consultant will be required to develop the following:

a)       Basic nutrition technical information;

b)       Balance meal plan suitable for students and communities that will address malnutrition and

c)       Key messages for each nutrition topic, including how to integrate nutrition into above modules;

d)       Guidelines to communicate these nutritional related messages to stakeholders, communities and participants;

e)       Simple participatory activities that trainers can conduct in their training programs (outlined step by step)

The training manual referred above may include but not limited to training program outline, instructor guide or manuals, training notes, workbook or worksheets, training video, pamphlets, and handouts specific to Kiribati. There may be existing materials available from the past projects. The consultant may refer to these training materials for reference to improve or develop suitable content.

As part of the KCSA project, GGGI will also engage an Agriculture Consultant and Agri-business Development Consultant who will contribute on selected content of the above training modules. GGGI’s Senior Climate Smart Agriculture Project Officer will coordinate and oversee the work of these consultants. Where possible, the consult should focus on gender inclusivity such as incorporating female friendly techniques (processing, producing, etc.) that will help reduce workload, encourage more female participation, create income earning opportunity.

Deliverable 4: Submission of completion report. The consultant should submit a completion report that must summarize the key findings, sector analysis, constraints, opportunities and recommendations, in consultation with GGGI and MELAD. The report should be presented in a format agreed by GGGI and MELAD for example MS PowerPoint.

Throughout delivery of these services the consultant will, to the best of their ability to identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration with other initiatives or programs, particularly GGGI´s current Kiribati Agriculture Strategy Action Plan (KAS) and Pacific Green Entrepreneurs Network (PGEN). The consultant may be required to review PGEN’s incubator training modules and refer to GGGI’s Guide to Green Entrepreneurship for Kiribati during this assignment.

Other outputs and Products to be delivered.  The consultant may be requested to participate in a variety of digital forms, including online meetings, and other digital events throughout the consultancy.  This assignment requires particular emphasis on being able to deliver results with limited supervision whilst maintaining a high degree of participation and engagement with counterparts and stakeholders in Kiribati.

The consultant will provide e-copies of the deliverables 1-4 above in files of commonly used Microsoft suite applications.  The Work Plan will be submitted within 5 working days of accepting the consultancy and will be a stand-alone document.  Deliverables 2, 3 and 4 will be presented in separate documents. Deliverable 3 will have one training module targeting three different target groups.

The deliverables are to be produced in English using clear and plain language. GGGI will allocate additional resources to translate the training materials into Gilbertese language.

Reporting

The Consultant will report to the GGGI’s Senior Climate Smart Agriculture Project Officer currently based in Fiji. The consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs per the timeline and payment schedule in the table below:

All reports and materials must be in English, prepared in accordance with GGGI’s publication and formatting requirements, and submitted in electronic formats along with complete sets of any raw data, research materials, interview notes, meeting minutes and any other related information gathered during the assignment.  The sector analysis, findings from training needs assessment and the content for the training programs will be presented by the consultant to GGGI and MELAD whilst in draft form.  MELAD and GGGI will provide comments and the products will be finalised considering any feedback received.

The successful consultant will possess the following, recently demonstrated, expertise:

• Master’s degree, or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience in Nutrition, Agriculture, Social sciences or related field.
• At least 5 - 8 years' experience carrying out research and development related work in the field of nutrition, preferably in a research organization or an NGO.
• Skills and experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.
• Experience in participatory engagement of communities and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience in technical report writing.
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with colleagues and counterparts from varied professional backgrounds.
• Good communication skills both verbal and written, and ability to facilitate workshops.
• Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively in English, verbally and in writing.
• Practical understanding and experience of working in Kiribati

Documents to be submitted (Online application)

• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• Writing sample on “Significance of agriculture sector’s contribution toward health and nutrition security in Kiribati and how to increase awareness amongst communities” (approximately 250 - 350 words)
• Successfully candidate must be present in Kiribati to undertake the assignment.

In addition to the expertise required above, submissions are requested to include in the cover letter: 

• A short, no more than 1/2-page, history of any recent work undertaken in the Republic of Kiribati or other Pacific Island Country. The summary may reference agriculture related work, be in dot points and added as an attachment to the cover letter.
• An indication of the consultant’s availability to undertake this work, constructive solutions for engaging with counterparts and a very high-level work plan, setting out in broad terms how the consultant suggests spreading their inputs across the consultancy is also requested.

Total contract value will be up to USD 4,000 dependent on candidate's credential. 

Date to close is 31st October 2021(KST), Kiribati local time with an anticipated start date of the consultant in October. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Application, cover letter, and CV must be sent in English.  A consortium, or a firm, may not be engaged for this individual consultant assignment.

Child protection – GGGI is committed to child protection, irrespective of whether any specific area of work involves direct contact with children. GGGI’s Child Protection Policy is written in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.