About C-SUCSeS Project

South Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions in terms of climate change impacts. The region is still a predominantly agrarian society, with much of the population dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, but the sector is at high risk from climate change. Agricultural production is severely constrained by extreme climate events whose frequency has increased in the past few decades. Climate change has thus emerged as a major challenge to farming systems’ ability to respond to the increasing demand for food in a sustainable way. Consequently, sustainable intensification of agriculture and climate change adaptation have become inextricably linked agendas.

To integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies with the overarching goal of ensuring food, nutrition, and livelihood security in South Asia, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and SAARC Development Fund (SDF) have collaborated to establish the Consortium for Scaling-up Climate Smart Agriculture in South Asia (C-SUCSeS). The project will focus on promoting sustainable and resilient agricultural intensification in South Asia through enhanced capacity and evidence-based strategies to scale up climate-smart technologies. This will include accelerating the identification and scaling-up of viable Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) interventions, and setting up efficient mechanisms for knowledge-sharing, policy dialogue, and cooperation in research and development programs on these technologies among SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Member Countries.

The project has four following components: 1. Scaling-up of technically viable and gender-sensitive CSA technologies for smallholders in selected farming systems; 2. Policy analysis/advocacy and institutional development; 3 Knowledge management and capacity building; 4: Project management. IFPRI is the sub-recipient of the project and is responsible to implement activities based on the project documents in close collaboration with the Member States and Project Coordination Unit (PCU), SAC.

Objective of the consultancy

Develop and test culturally relevant training materials focused on scaling up of CSA technologies in the South Asia region. The expectation is that these training materials will be used in the current C-SuCses project and also on future projects in the region.

Scope of Work

The Consultant will work closely with the project team in the IFPRI-SAO (South Asia Regional Office) in New Delhi and the Member States’ point of contacts (PoCs) to accomplish the tasks. The responsibilities will include but not be limited to, the following:

·Engage in close collaboration with the national and regional training centers in developing such training materials. Reach out to PoCs for existing material and literature on CSA and technologies in various countries and collating them to undertake a review to understand what knowledge gaps exist, how can the materials be improved/updated, what mediums work best, and what new modules can be developed.

·Development of 6 training modules on promoting and scaling up CSA, especially for smallholders and women farmers in SAR. The training modules & associated practitioner tool kits will need to focus on different aspects of promoting CSA technologies and practices and will be used to train various stakeholders such as farmers, researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, etc.

·After reviewing relevant available materials, the consultant and the project team will work together to define the specific type and quantity of materials to develop and formulate learning objectives; plans, and design along with suggestions on implementation methods and the assessment and evaluation criteria to gauge training effectiveness;

·Develop the curricula, course outlines, instructional methods, training aids, manuals, and other materials and products for the training, keeping in mind the target audience (TA)’s ease of access and understanding of the mediums and training materials.

·Develop a technical proposal for the methodology of development and pretesting of these training materials. The proposal must be discussed and approved by the project team.

·Pre-test all materials through focus groups to be facilitated by the project team

·As the materials will be targeted beyond India, also coordinate with member state PoCs and/or local translators to get the materials translated into respective languages.

·Present the materials at the training program organized by SAC and generate discussions to invite feedback to refine the training materials. Help facilitate the program which will be aimed at building the capacities of professionals from the SAR, who will further go on to train the TA.

·Finalize the modules for final training implementation and house them at SAC’s project microsite.

·The consultant should provide a written recommendation for the suggested use of each training materials developed. The recommendation should include printing specifications or other technical details.

·Support with post-implementation edits to the modules (if any).

·Fulfill any other duties, as assigned by the supervisor.

Deliverables

The key deliverables of this assignment are as follows:

·Technical proposal of methodology for developing and pretesting materials

·Six training modules with the practitioner tool kits and all relevant devices/vehicles/methodologies to implement and assess the results.

·High-resolution files of all materials developed on DVD (2 copies of each DVD)

·Organize a review and feedback session on the materials at the SAC training program before finalizing the materials for final implementation.

·A report detailing the results of pre-tests and recommendations for the suggested use of each material developed.

·Design a monitoring and evaluation as well as an assessment method like a survey, feedback mechanism for this activity.

·Coordinate with the SAC team to house the repository of training materials in the project microsite.

Institutional Arrangement

·The Consultant will report to, and be directly supervised by the Research Coordinator, IFPRI-SAR, under the overall supervision of the IFPRI-South Asia Director;

·The Consultant will be given access to relevant information about the project for the execution of the tasks under this assignment;

·The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own workstation and must have access to a reliable internet connection;

·The Consultant will engage regularly with the supervisor by email, virtual meetings, or any other means of communication on a weekly and/or as-needed basis;

·The Consultant shall submit to the supervisor a monthly progress report on the status of the implementation of tasks;

·Payment will be made partially based on the progress of the tasks and complete payment will be released upon acceptance and confirmation by the supervisor on the outputs delivered by the end of the project/whenever the work shall be deemed completed by the supervisor.

Required Skills and Qualifications

·Bachelor’s degree in instructional design or related field preferred. Relevant qualifications related to social and behavioral change communication will also be considered.

·Demonstrated experience in training content development; storyboarding and developing good quality physical and/or e-learning modules and multimedia content (published work samples to be submitted)

·Creative use of language, graphics, interactions, print, audio and visual media preferred.

·Ability to undertake independent desk research and strong writing skills on topics relevant to climate-smart agriculture.

·Sound understanding of climate-smart agriculture technologies and agriculture systems in South Asia;

·Familiarity with MS Office, Google+ related apps and virtual meeting platforms like Zoom; proficiency in Adobe Creative suite would be desirable.

·Proficiency in English with advanced command of speaking and writing, with knowledge of Hindi and/or any other South Asian languages.

Documents to be submitted and duration of the assignment

·Applicants must submit an application confirming the interest and availability of an individual for the assignment and/or CV including education/qualification, professional certification, and employment records/ experience and links to previous work samples;

·Sample of previous communications material developed (electronic or hard copy is okay-both are not necessary)

·The duration of the assignment is from April 2023 – September 2023.

·Submit your application via the IFPRI careers page together with your CV and other required documents;

The deadline for submission of applications is 20 April 2022, at 11:59 PM IST.

Selection Criteria

The award of the contract will be made to one individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as being:

A.Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

B. Achieving the highest combined score (technical and financial).

·The technical criteria i.e. education, experience, and language will be based on a maximum 70 points (70% weightage), and the rest 30 points will be financial.

·Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 50 points from the review of education, experience, and language will be considered technically compliant.

·IFPRI reserves the right not to make a selection if the applicants are not competent to deliver the tasks.