Kiribati Consultant : Agri-business Trainer

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, 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 of 20 schools as part of extra-curricular activities.
• Support training on agriculture and business skills development for 100 women and youth.
• Support 55 SME’s on climate smart agriculture practices and green entrepreneurship training and mentoring. 
• Support training of 55 SME’s on climate-smart agriculture technologies, its operations and maintenance.

The overall object of this assignment is to provide technical advisory support to GGGI’s Climate Smart Agriculture team to design and deliver training and mentoring programs to selected agribusinesses and may require to contribute to training of communities and schools.

The specific objective of the assignment includes but not limited to:

• Provide expert technical advice on the design of the agribusiness training program;
• Support the facilitation of the agribusiness training and mentoring program, including liaising with local partners, organizing mentors and guest speakers for the program;
• Organize and co-host workshop as required by the program; and
• Provide feedback on effectiveness on the implementation of the training program.

The Consultant will work closely with GGGI under the leadership and guidance of the GGGI Senior CSA Program Management Officer to ensure that the outputs delivered are in line with project KPIs.

While a project workplan is in place, it has to be noted that due to the effects and restrictions of COVID-19 in Kiribati, there may be un-expected delays to deliver the training programs. As such, the selected consultant should be flexible and deliver the training program within agreed timeline.

The Consultant will be responsible for the delivery of the following specific activities that will form crucial bases for successful execution of the Climate Smart Agriculture training program. The specific tasks that are expected to be delivered as part of the assignment shall include the following:

Deliverable 1: Submission of an Inception Report. (3 days) Upon signing of the contract, the selected Consultant will submit an inception report (approx. 3 pages) that should include Individual Workplan (assignment budget), Gender Equality & Social Inclusion Plan and Risk Management Plan. The consultant should also highlight their understanding of the assignment, list of resources expected to be used, any initial suggestions/comments on the training modules, delivery methods and training schedules. The consultant would also need to participate in a kick-off meeting with GGGI and other partners as appropriate. This is intended to allow the trainer to get briefed and align themselves with the objectives of this project and its workplan. It is anticipated this should take no longer than 3 working days to complete, prior to commencement of the assignment.

Deliverable 2: Coordinate and manage CSA training program for target groups. (3 days) The consultant should assist GGGI’s in-country team to prepare to train agribusiness participants and develop training schedule with budgets, plan and arrange all travel and logistics for the participants to attend the trainings, including seeking required approvals, notifications and all arrangements with ministries, local government, and communities, prior to the training program.

Deliverable 3: Delivery of training and mentoring program to the target groups. (Delivery - Average of 1 days per week, 24 days total; Mentoring - Average of 0.5 days per week, 12 days total) The consultant / trainer should conduct training of selected agribusinesses (and provide limited support to train communities and schools), ensuring to have successfully and satisfactorily train a minimum of 25-30 agribusinesses in Year 2. The project will implement similar training program in Year 3 to train another 25 – 30 agribusinesses on the principles of green entrepreneurship and Climate Smart Agriculture in their day to day running of their business, while meeting all other specified and applicable KPIs and criterion of the project.

The breakdown of the training and delivery of the program is as follows:

1. Agribusinesses - provides training specific to business management relating to climate smart agriculture practices to a minimum of 25 – 30 potential entrepreneurs. The consultant/trainer will support agri-food micro-enterprises on the business management techniques such as financial management, human resource, marketing and other business processes specific to Kiribati. The duration of the training program will be 12 – 16 weeks with 1 – 2 days per week of contact with the participants (including training and mentoring). The trainer will deliver 50% of training program focusing on business management while the other 50% of the program will be delivered by Agriculture trainer on agriculture technical content.

While providing limited support toward training of:

1. Communities – a total of 2 cohorts/intakes of women and youth will be trained in 2022. Each cohort/intake will aim to target at least 25 participants, of which a minimum of 50% should be female. The training duration for each cohort/intake is expected to be 8 – 12 weeks with 2 – 3 days of training scheduled per week. The Agribusiness consultant will work closely with Agriculture consultant and GGGI team to provide training on basic agribusiness concepts to schools with a maximum of 3 days in total.
2. Schools – support coordination and delivery of training program to 10 schools on South Tarawa. The consultant / trainer will work closely with the Agriculture consultant, school administrators and GGGI team to provide training on basic agribusiness concept such as record keeping of produce from gardens and basic financial management system. It is anticipated the training program will be 40 – 60 minutes per week as part of extra-curricular activity and the consultant / trainer will dedicate maximum of 3 days in total.

The consultant / trainer will be responsible to engage suitable mentors for the agribusiness training session, encourage participant and mentor attendance, troubleshoot issues, monitor and review submission of work and business plans, attending training and other local support.

Note that not all modules are meant for all target groups, hence the consultant / trainer must work closely with the KCSA team and MELAD to determine the suitability of the content for each target group and ensure that the participants are well informed of the time, dates and venues for training session to allow ample time for the participants to prepare themselves. The consultant/trainer must work as a team and follow instructions from the GGGI and MELAD to ensure all training and related activities go as per plan without any disruptions, and to ensure that the participants have the maximum comfort and benefit from the trainings.

Deliverable 4: Feedback on challenges, lesson learnt and recommendations. (Average 2 days per batch, 4 days total) Submit a post training report, highlighting the target groups training experiences and capturing all feedback, success stories, pictures and videos as well as analysis and results from the training evaluation. This includes but is not limited to: the total number of people trained in each category of training program, classified by gender and individual target groups of this project and any other data required by the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and projects team.

Submitted an exit report, highlighting his/her experience through the consultancy as well as providing recommendations on how such consultancies can be improved for future work by GGGI and its partners.

Deliverable 5: Design and co-facilitate project related workshops. (Average 0.5 days per workshop, 4 days total) The target is to have one kick-off workshop at the beginning of each training batch and one closing workshop to wrap-up the batch and present the participants with certificates and awards. These workshops will have a larger set of audience, partners, stakeholders, etc. Note that these workshops are intended to be held physically in Kiribati, however, if the COVID-19 restrictions do not allow for this gathering, the trainer will be required to join in virtually and present/engage remotely for the duration of the workshop. The trainer will be required to send a video recording of their presentation prior to the workshop, incase poor internet connectivity prevents live presentations.

All of the consultant’s work products developed and used for this project will be transferred to and become the property of the Global Green Growth Institute.

Due to the nature of the consultancy, the individual consultants shall provide, at his/her own cost, the equipment and supplies necessary to satisfactorily complete all the deliverables. This includes, but is not limited to Laptops, PCs, keyboards, mouse, external monitors, etc. GGGI will not be responsible for providing such equipment and supplies at any point during the consultancy.

Other outputs and Products to be delivered. The consultant may be requested to participate in a variety of digital forums, 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.

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 (Microsoft suite applications) along with complete sets of any raw data, research materials, interview notes, meeting minutes and any other related information gathered during the assignment.

The consultant shall be paid the consultancy fee upon completion of the above milestones. Please note that the contract currency and payments will be made from GGGI HQ in Seoul, Korea in US Dollars into the consultant’s bank account. As such, the actual amount received in local currency will be subject to the exchange rates and any fees applied by the local bank, which is beyond GGGI’s control.

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

• Master’s degree or equivalent in agriculture economics, business administration, finance, development studies or relevant discipline;
• At least 3 - 5 years of previous experience with development of training materials for agri-businesses, training, facilitation and education preferably with recent experience in the Republic of Kiribati and/or the Pacific Islands. 
• Demonstrated experience in addressing Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in agriculture, or related fields, is required.
• Experience in the areas of climate smart agriculture, food security, green growth, climate change vulnerability and health are an advantage.
• Strong analytical and planning skills, as well as an ability to convey information concisely and plainly, is a requirement.
• Ability to use modern online platform (e.g., MS Team, Zoom, etc.)
• Excellent command of Word, Excel and PowerPoint; familiarity with Adobe applications would be an advantage.
• Workshop logistics and project management experience
• Fluency in written and spoken English and i-Kiribati is essential.

Documents to be submitted (Online application)

• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• Writing sample on “Discuss significance of agribusiness training and what are key topics that should be included in the training program” (approximately 250 - 350 words)
• The successful 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 related work to this assignment undertaken in the Republic of Kiribati or other Pacific Island Country.
• An indication of the consultant’s availability to undertake this work.

Date to close is 5^th June 2022(KST), Kiribati local time with an anticipated start date of the consultant in June 2022. 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.