Position / Level: Junior Consultant; Irrigation technology
Location: Nairobi
Duration; April-July 2017 (approximately 4 months)
About SNV
SNV Netherlands Development Organizations is an international development organization supporting communities to achieve economic development through agriculture, development of renewable energy and improved water sanitation systems. SNV’s Kenya’s agriculture program focuses on enhancing market systems of agriculture products through stimulating commercialization of smallholder farming that is market informed, employs good agriculture practices, observes climate smart and environmental friendly practices. Projects in the agriculture program aim to improve access to market through improved products quality, increase yield and enhanced food security. The global objective is to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods through innovative solutions that address food & nutrition security, sustainable markets, climate smart agriculture, and equality of opportunity for women and youth in employment and business.
Project Background:
The Kenya Smart Water for Agriculture (SWA) is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nairobi as part of its food security and private sector development agenda. SWA wishes to improve food security through optimized water availability and efficiency by small and medium farmers and businesses. SWA is implemented by a Consortium of partners consisting SNV (lead), MetaMeta, The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Practica and Aqua for All.
The project goal is to contribute to increased water productivity in agriculture and increased income and food security through the development of a dynamic and sustainable ‘Smart Water Solutions’ (SWS) sector in Kenya, adequately serving small and medium-sized entrepreneurial (SME) farmers. The overall objective is to increase water productivity by 20% for 20,000 SME farmers, ensuring secured water access for production and resilience to climate change. Consequently, farmer-led, market-based and women-empowering are inherent principles for promoting smart water for agriculture in selected value chains.
To achieve large scale adoption of SWS based on private sector growth and innovation, farmers will need to be able to invest in SWS, if required with loans or other forms of credit from financial institutions. Therefore the program will primarily focus on SME farmers in sectors such as horticulture and dairy where continuous financial liquidity is indicative of economic opportunities. Exploring such opportunities is unlikely for resource poor farmers or for farmers ‘who do not see farming as a business’. Regardless, it is anticipated that these resource and market disengaged farmers will benefit from SWS in the long term.
Private sector actors, whether the suppliers of SWS, agro-businesses or finance suppliers are also targeted by the project based on the strong assumption that private sector will bring innovation, investments and a business drive to upscale and reach out to larger number of SME-farmers. The Dutch private sector, whether supplying technology, skills or knowledge is expected to be able to contribute to the further strengthening and growth of SWS in Kenya.
Project target groups
Program Outcomes
Five outcomes are identified to be essential to achieve the intended results:
i. Functioning Irrigation Acceleration Platforms in the targeted geographical areas
ii. Improved use and access to smart water products and services, including an increased range of SWS
iii. Improved access to finance is a requirement for adoption of SWS,
iv. Increased access to SWS-related knowledge and demand created.
v. Business linkages created and companies (Dutch/Kenyan) investing into improved SW-services and products.
Expected Key results of the program
The Assignment: Facilitate and support achievement of improved use and access to smart water products and services
Objective: To support and facilitate the activities and objectives of outcome 2 of the project as stated above.
Scope of Work:
The assignment will be based on stakeholder needs identified by various studies, surveys and assessments carried out during the inception period of the project in the seven selected counties in Kenya: Machakos, Laikipia, Meru, Nyeri, Uasin Gishu, Bomet/Narok, Kajiado South and Nakuru.
The successful applicant will be required to fully understand the information about the target clusters in the different counties and understand continuous assessments in order to be able to support outcome two activities and targets. A key deliverable of this assignment is to continuously scanning county-specific and country-level environment (farmers, suppliers and produce buyers) to identify potential Smart Water Technologies suitable for selected clusters and farmers. An additional deliverable for this assignment is to develop and implement strategies to enhance farmer knowledge, supplier linkage and adoption of SWS in the selected counties. Within the first two weeks of the assignment, the consultant will present a blueprint to the SWA technical team of plans, approaches and methods and targets to reach in fostering Smart Water Technologies. Finally, a key deliverable for this assignment will be an action plan to establish, develop or strengthen supply chains for the delivery of SWS to farmers in the selected clusters.
Assignment duration
This consultant is expected to be on board for a period of no more than 90 days.
Qualifications, skills and experience required:
An individual professional with the following qualifications and skills;
How to apply
Interested applicants to submit their CV indicating three referees and copies of their certificates by 31st March 2017 to hmugane@snvworld.org by clicking on the APPLY tab on this page. Kindly have “Consultant: Irrigation Technology” as the subject.
