UNDP Jobs - 17109- Organic Business Expert

Organic Business Expert

Location :

The operational base of the Assignment is Sanliurfa; however the consultans are expected to work also at their place of residence and/or work to provide their inputs, TURKEY

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jul-2010

Application Deadline :

15-Jun-10 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

120 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

120 days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and its wide range of partners. UNDP’s global focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of: (a) Democratic Governance; (b) Poverty Reduction; (c) Crisis Prevention and Recovery; (d) Environment and Energy and (e) HIV/AIDS. UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all its activities, UNDP encourages the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

Within the aforementioned global context, UNDP Turkey works for Democratic Governance and Growth without Poverty. For more than 50 years the UNDP has worked in close partnership with the Turkish Government and numerous national and international institutions, including NGOs, academics and the business community.

UNDP Turkey aims to find practical solutions to Turkey's development challenges and manages projects together with the Turkish Government and other partners to address them. Since 1986 it has implemented over 80 programs across the country. In addition, the UNDP has played a major role in response to crises and disasters in Turkey and the surrounding region.

UNDP's strategy for 2006-2010, formulated with and agreed by the Turkish Government, highlights three core areas, through which UNDP will support the implementation of Turkey's development agenda through project implementation and policy advice. These are: 1) capacity building for democratic governance; 2) action and advocacy for poverty reduction; and 3) environment and sustainable development. In addition to these core areas, UNDP Turkey is emphasizing the role of women, private sector, capacity development and information and communication technology in its policies and programmes.

UNDP and GAP Regional Development Administration have recently launched two projects: a) Organic Agriculture Cluster in Southeast Anatolia and b) Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources and Increasing Energy Efficiency in Southeast Anatolia (Phase 1), the first of which is planned to be completed by the end of 2012, whereas the latter is planned to be completed by the end of 2010.

The overall objective of Organic Agriculture Cluster in Southeast Anatolia project, towards which the Project will contribute, is to improve the competitiveness of the Southeast Anatolia Region in a sustainable and socially equitable manner. This overall objective reflects the vision of the Competitiveness Agenda for Southeast Anatolia Region, and serves as a reference point for all initiatives (i.e. projects and programmes) to be implemented within the scope of the Agenda.

The purpose of the Project is to increase the competitiveness of the organic agriculture sector in the Region (especially in Sanliurfa) through activating the regional organic agriculture cluster and improving the local business environment by establishing an innovation and information centre, establishing best practices (pilot and demonstrative actions), and building local capacities and by promoting the region nationally and internationally.

The project duration is 4 years and will be implemented between 2009 and 2012 in the nine provinces of GAP Region. The target groups of the project are farmers, textile and food entrepreneurs, related official bodies and NGOs, universities and research institutions.

The project owner is GAP RDA and implemented by UNDP by means of a technical assistance.

The expected economic benefits are the increase in organic food and beverage, textile and confection export, employment in production industry and service sector. The expected social benefits are environmental sensitive production, low carbon emission, low negative affect to soil and water resources, less negative affect to human health.

Cluster action plan, demonstrations and pilot projects, branding and visibility actions, information and innovation center and development of institutional capacity building are the major expected results of the project.

The project has five components and these components cover the key activities to achieve the results mentioned above.The components are:

Organic Farming Cluster Development Activities
Pilot Implementations and Demonstrations in the field of Organic Farming
Branding, Promoting and Visibility
Organic Farming Innovation and Information Center
Institutional Capacity Building

Objective and Scope

The objective of the Assignment is to increase the competitiveness of the Southeast Anatolia Region. The Assignment is expected to contribute to this objective by “development of a cluster development roadmap and action plan”.

The geographical scope of the Assignment covers all the 9 (nine) provinces in the Southeast Anatolia Region. In addition to the specific geographical focus on the 9 (nine) provinces in the Southeast Anatolia Region, the regions, with which inter-regional working relations can be established, also fall into the scope of the Assignment.

The sectoral scope covers both agricultural, as well as agriculture-based industrial sectors, namely textiles, apparel and food.

Definitions

The following is a list of terms and acronyms that have been used frequently:

Assignment: Unless otherwise specifically noted, the Assignment refers to the totality of these Terms of Reference, and the sets of activities to be fulfilled by the Assignment Team.
Assignment Team: The team that will carry out the Assignment (defined in Section F)
SEAR or the Region: Southeast Anatolia Region.
SEAR Provinces: The 9 (nine) Provinces in the Southeast Anatolia Region.
Project Team: The technical assistance team of the Development of Organic Agriculture Cluster Project, and the GAP RDA staff assigned by the GAP RDA
GAP RDA: GAP Regional Development Administration
UNDP: United Nations Development Programme.
CASAR: Competitiveness Agenda for the Southeast Anatolia Region.
MARA: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
DA: Development Agency. There are three development agencies in the Southeast Anatolia Region.
Organic Sector: The term “organic sector” has been used for simplifying the flow of the Terms of Reference, and it refers to the organic agriculture and the industrial sectors (chiefly, food and textiles) that use organic inputs.

Activities

This section provides information on the activities that collectively form the Assignment, which is composed of two complementary sets of activities: (a) analysis; and (b) roadmap development.

Kick-off and Inception Phase

At this stage the Assignment Team will meet with the Project Team in Sanliurfa and hold a kick-off meeting. The objective of the kick-off meeting is to ensure that the Assignment Team possesses a full understanding of the Terms of Reference and the expected results of the Assignment.

Kick-off meeting will mark the launch of the Inception Phase, which will include preliminary meetings primarily in Sanliurfa, but also in other provinces and regions. The team will collect all available information, and identify additional information (statistical data) that needs to be collected by the Project Team.

During the Inception Phase the Assignment Team will also review all the relevant reports that have been produced previously by different organizations. Chief among these are the Competitiveness Agenda for the Southeast Anatolia Region (CASAR), Organic Farming Cluster in Sanliurfa, GAP Action Plan, Plans of the Development Agencies in the SEAR, publications commissioned and/or issued by the MARA, and the Inception Report of the Organic Agriculture Cluster Project.

The output of the inception phase is the Assignment Inception Report, which will be presented to the GAP RDA, no later than 1 month after the kick-off meeting. The Inception report will summarize the findings to be made by the Assignment Team during the inception phase, and present a detailed work schedule. It is critical that the Inception Report identifies the activities that need to be fulfilled in order to achieve the expected results of the Assignment, but have not been considered during the elaboration of these Terms of Reference.

The Assignment Inception Report (AIR) will be presented to the GAP RDA at a meeting in Sanliurfa. GAP RDA will comment on the AIR and provide feedback. Based on the feedback to be received, the Assignment Team will revise and/improve the AIR, and submit to the Project Team for further processing and final approval.

Analyses Phase

The Analyses Phase is one of the most critical stages of the Assignment. All the analyses to be carried out during the analysis phase will be based on a Value Chain Approach (VCA). Thus the final output of the analyses phase will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the regional organic value chains. The analyses will be market-oriented and will make a special effort towards defining an inclusive value chain.

The followings are the minimum set of considerations that should be taken into account while conducting the value chain analyses:

The value chain analyses should be market-oriented, paying due consideration to global and national trends in organic sector
The value chain analyses should be inclusive, hence pay due attention to social matters and aspects such as inclusion of poorer parts of the society into the value chains and women,
The analyses should be comparative, benchmarking the regional value chain to other regional value chains, including at least one in Turkey, one in Europe and one elsewhere
The value chain governance should be analyzed by taking into account the national, regional and local administrative structures and the social capital of the SEAR,
A two-pronged outcome is expected one encompassing the food- and the other textile-related value chains.
The institutional capacities, as well as skills and capabilities of the enterprises and farmers should be taken into account.
The analyses are to be based on primary and secondary research techniques,

In due course the followings are the specific activities to be carried out by the Assignment Team:

At least 75 interviews with the relevant stakeholders in the SEAR, in different provinces,
At least 50 interviews with the relevant stakeholders in other regions of Turkey, including interviews with major buyers of raw, semi-processed and processed organic products,
At least 30 interviews with the relevant international players, chiefly in Europe or North America,
At least four regional workshops and/or focus group meetings,
Secondary research (statistical analyses), supported by the findings of primary research
Benchmark analyses, comparing the regional organic value chain (quantitatively and qualitatively) against the other organic value chains,
Institutional capacity assessment, which should demonstrate the gaps not only in institutional skills and capabilities but also in overall governance mechanisms, such assessments should be comparative as well.

The ultimate outcome of the Analyses Phase is the Value Chain Analysis Report, a draft scope of which summarized above. Annex I provides an indicative table of contents, demonstrating the minimum requirements. The value chain analysis is to be complemented with a cluster map.

The Value Chain Analysis Report (VCAR) shall be completed within four months upon approval of the Assignment Inception Report. The VCAR will be presented to the GAP RDA at a meeting in Sanliurfa. GAP RDA will comment on the VCAR and provide feedback. Based on the feedback to be received, the Assignment Team will revise and/improve the VCAR, and submit the Report to the Project Team for further processing and final approval.

Finally, the VCAR will be presented to the key stakeholders for validation purposes.

Roadmap Development Phase

Previous experience in similar efforts (i.e. efforts towards cluster formation) demonstrates that the stakeholders of the cluster initiative should be actively engaged in the roadmap development stage. However in underdeveloped regions, a critical element of the process is to secure early commitment of the local opinion leaders. The design of the third phase of the Assignment has been developed based on the lessons learned from previous experiences.

Preparatory Capacity Building Activities

Before the activities towards development of the roadmap are launched, preparatory capacity building activities will be organized in the form of national and international study tours. All the organizational aspects of the study tours will be handled by the Assignment Team, whereas all logistical aspects and costs involved in the delivery of the study tours will be covered by the Project.

The Assignment Team will

Identify at least one national and one international best practice;
Develop detailed agendas for the national and international study tours;
Identify the organizations and people to be met during the study tours and secure commitment of such organizations and people;
Accompany the delegations (10 to 15 participants) during the study tours;
Develop mission reports upon completion of the study tours

As noted above, all technical and organizational matters regarding the study tours will be handled by the Assignment Team, whereas all logistical arrangements and logistical costs will be covered by the Project. The costs to be covered by the Project includes the followings:

Travel and accommodation costs of the delegation members, including those of the Assignment Team,
Host organization fees;
Translation and interpretation costs.

The final outputs of the national and international study tours are the mission reports that summarize, among others, the observed impact of the study tours on the target groups.

Roadmap Development Activities

At this stage the Assignment Team will develop the Cluster Roadmap, through a participatory process that would involve at least two regional workshops, at least 4 focus group meetings, and supplementary and complementary interviews and stakeholder consultations.

The cluster roadmap is expected to cover at least the following elements:

The shared vision of the cluster;
The overall strategy, to be deployed for progressing towards the shared vision;
The key success factors, required for fulfillment of the overall strategy;
The requisite skills and capabilities, required for achievement of the key success factors;
The action plan, for establishing, building and/or improving requisite skills and capabilities.

The following considerations should be taken into account during elaboration of the roadmap;

Governance: Cluster governance is of particular importance, as such a governance mechanism that take into account the national, regional and local administrative structures should be designed. This calls for early engagement of critical players such as Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Development Agencies, Agricultural Unions and Cooperatives into the process.
Functional Strategies: Although an overall strategy that will demonstrate how the means through which the cluster will progress towards its vision, this overall strategy will need to be supplemented and complemented by functional strategies, such as branding, promotion, internationalization, partnerships etc.
Actionable: Neither the analysis phase nor the roadmap development process is intended to result in an outcome that would remain as a “theoretical” effort. The roadmap should be ambitious yet achievable, and should be designed so as to allow immediate deployment.
Human Development: The roadmap will be the pathway towards a more competitive regional cluster; however it should pay due consideration and attention for human development aspects. As such, the roadmap should be designed in such a fashion that the growth of the regional organic agriculture cluster be inclusive and creates opportunities for all parts of the society, including especially the most vulnerable groups such as the poorer segments of the society, women and youth.

As indicated above, the cluster roadmap will be developed through a participatory process. The final version of the cluster roadmap will initially be submitted and presented to the GAP RDA for their review and feedback.

Based on the feedback to be received, the Assignment Team will revise and/improve the Cluster Development Roadmap, and submit the report to the Project Team for further processing and final approval.

Duties and Responsibilities

Composition of the Team

The Assignment Team will be composed of consultants with international and local experience. The technical members of the team will be responsible for provision of technical inputs in their respective fields of specialization. The work of the technical members of the team will be facilitated by the support team.(A detailed composition of the team can be found at: https://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=2535.)

Assignment Cluster Leader (ACL)
Value Chain Analysis Expert (VCA)
Organic Business Expert (OBE)
Organic Agriculture Expert (OAE)
Organic Food Expert (OFE)
Organic Textile Expert (OTE)
Sociological Analysis Expert (SAE)
Assignment Team Associates (ATA)
Additional Expert

Team Members’ Roles and Functions

The following complements Section D (Activities) and demonstrates the main roles and functions of the Assignment Team members. The functions and roles depicted hereunder shall in no way be interpreted as an exhaustive list of tasks and duties.

Team: OBE
Inception Phase: Seccondary responsibility for delivery of the inception report, including provision of inputs on global organic business trends, best practice clusters etc.

Analyses Phase:

Identification of international best practices,
Provision of technical inputs for cluster analysis and mapping to the ACL,
Provision of technical inputs to the VCA for value chain analysis, with specific emphasis on identification of value drivers in organic businesses,
Provision of specific inputs on global organic business trends.

Roadmap Development:

Identification of possible destinations for international study tours,
Organization of the international study tours,
Provision of technical inputs during the roadmap development process,
Provision of technical inputs for development of the roadmap,
Identification of key sucess factors that will influence integration into global value chains, including identification of strategic entry points,
Identification of requisite skills and capabilities that will influence integration into global value chains.

(A detailed roles and responsibilites of other team members can be fount at: https://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=2535.

As indicated above, the assignment team may be expanded based on the emergent needs to be observed during the execution of the Assignment.

The functions and roles, highlighted above provides a generic description of the expectations from the consultants, a more specific description of the roles and duties will be developed by the ACL in consultation with the experts during the Inception Phase.

Deliverables, against timeframes

As indicated earlier the assignment is expected to generate the following deliverables:

The Assignment Inception Report: The Assignment Inception Report is to be delivered upon 1 month after the kick-off meeting.
The Value Chain Analysis Report: The Value Chain Analysis Report is to be delivered upon 4 months after delivery of the inception report by the Assignment Team.
The Cluster Development Roadmap: The Cluster Development Report is to be delivered upon 2 months after delivery of the Value Chain Analysis Report.

All the reports should be bilingual, English and Turkish.

Timing and Duration

Provisionally the Assignment is expected to start in July 2010 and be completed at the latest by February 2011.

Number of days to be invested for OBE is: 120 days

(A detailed version of timing and duration of the other team members can be found at: https://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=2535.) The percentages in the table intend to provide an indication of the amount of time that will need to be invested per consultant during the corresponding month of the Assignment. “Number of days to be invested” per consultant have been provided for indicative purposes only.

ACL, VCA and OBE will need to deliver approximately 50% of their inputs in Sanliurfa and in other regions of Turkey. All other experts will need to approximately 75% of their in Sanliurfa and in other SEAR provinces

Place of Work and Logistics

The operational base of the Assignment is Sanliurfa; however the consultants are expected to work also at their place of residence and/or work to provide their inputs. All direct logistical costs (travel and accommodation) will be covered from the Project.

Services and Facilities to be provided by UNDP and/or GAP RDA

UNDP and GAP RDA will also take an active role in provision of technical inputs and guidance to the Assignment Team.
The Assignment Team will be provided with appropriate means of logical support for their missions within the SEAR.

Payments

Payments (fees) will be against the approval of main deliverables by the GAP RDA and UNDP. The payment schedule is as follows:

Payment No: 1
Payment Condition: Submission of the Assignment Inception Report by the Assignment Team and approval of the GAP RDA and UNDP
Amount: 10% of the Contract Value

Payment No: 2
Payment Condition: Submission of the Value Chain Analysis Report by the Assignment Team and approval of the GAP RDA and UNDP
Amount: 60% of the Contract Value

Payment No: 3
Payment Condition: Submission of the Cluster Development Roadmap by the Assignment Team and approval of the GAP RDA and UNDP
Amount: 30% of the Contract Value

No advance payment will be made. UNDP will reserve the right for adding a 20% contingency reserve to the individual contracts for delivery of services that are not mentioned in these Terms of Reference, and/or to cover additional needs.

The logistical costs of the Assignment Team will covered by the Project and will be paid against the delivery of the corresponding documentation (e.g. travel authorization and claim forms).

Application and Evaluation Procedures

Application as a team: Interested individuals may apply also as a team. If and when applied as a team, the application should conform to one of the team models. (A detailed table can be found at: https://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=2535.)

The applications will be reviewed by a short-listing committee and the short-listed candidates will be asked to submit price proposals. The final evaluation will be based on cost (30%) and technical qualifications (70%).

Annexes

Annexes of ToR can be found at: https://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=2535.

Competencies

Fluency in English
Excellent computer skills

Required Skills and Experience

General Qualifications:

University degree in a relevant field, advanced degree in an asset,

General Professional Experience

At least 15 years of professional experience,
At least 5 years of international experience,

Specific Professional Experience/Qualifications

At least 10 years experience in organic sector and/or business at international level,
Asset: knowledge of the European Organic Markets,
Asset: experience in clustering.