Background
The West African countries spend over US$ 3.5 billion on the importation of rice from Asian countries. This does not only put pressure on the scarce foreign exchange reserves of the countries, but it also makes them vulnerable to shocks that might arise from market variabilities in terms of supply shortages or global price fluctuations of the rice commodity. The region has a good agro-ecological landscape that is suitable for rice cultivation and there have been several efforts by the governments and development partners to develop the sector. While there has been improvement in rice sector, yet the importation of rice has continued. Mass urbanization, the gap between the rice yield growth rate and population growth that has persisted, and the changing consumer preferences have all contributed to the situation. With a regional average of 60% rice self- sufficiency, some countries like Nigeria and Sierra Leone have made significant strides in the rice sectors ranking above the average at 72% and 76% respectively, most of the other countries are below the average.
In recognition of the rice situation in its Member States, and to foster alignment and regional cooperation, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission adopted the ECOWAS Rice Offensive in 2014, a strategic framework to engender a sustainable and sustained revival of rice cultivation in West Africa and to provide support for the National Rice Development Strategies of Member States towards achieving rice self-sufficiency by 2025. To accelerate the implementation of the Rice Offensive, the stakeholders agreed through surveys, engagements, and consultations to develop the Regional Action Plan (2020 – 2025) in 2020 to ensure that the region meets the goal.
Rationale for the Assignment
Several organizations have taken their reference from the ECOWAS Rice Agenda and are contributing to the development of the rice sector in the region. Albeit, in resolving the complexities in West Africa’s rice sector, synergy and effective coordination are required to achieve the desired result in the region. There is no doubt that the rice sector is growing, gaining partnerships and funding, and there is a need for ECOWAS to assume responsibility by championing a concentrated operation in the rice sector, therefore establishing an observatory to x-ray the entire value chain for better decision-making.
The fact that ERO on its own can’t run both regional and national segments independently means there is an essence to create synergy with national actors and stakeholders to coordinate activities at the countries level, and this necessitated the establishment of national chapters, with the full responsibilities to corporate the investments and policies of both public and private sectors at the national level as a bottom-up player to the regional coordination.
The idea is to support member countries to develop and implement National Rice Development Strategies (NRDS) by attaining self-sufficiency in rice and meet the goal of food security and nutrition, promoting modernization and development of the rice value chain to support economic development, employment creation, especially among women and youth, poverty reduction, and reducing rice import dependence and associated drain on foreign exchange as an asset for member states to become rice exporters instead. To overcome some of the outcomes suffered from uncoordinated government, private, and donor investment in the region as a result of disjointed and un-harmonized policies and low access to finance across the RVC, the observatory will be providing a road map to resolve these identified challenges; that is, the national chapter will be helping coordinate to produce a better market-driven solution, harmonized policy, and better access to finance not independently but complementarily to ERO.
Therefore, the ERO partners and board members (FCDO/AGRA, FSRP-World Bank and GIZ- CARI-MOVE projects have committed to support the establishment of the national chapter in Senegal that will offer voice and space for national stakeholders to scale local impact in terms of sustainability and competitiveness in the rice sector. Pursuant to the highlighted brief above, AGRA-FCDO seeks to engage a qualified individual consultant to support with the rice sector and stakeholders’ mapping and draft strategic workplan in Senegal.
The national chapter will be developing a common vision with the following mandates to:
a. Serve as official national chapter representative at country level.
b. Draft national guidelines to guide the chapter.
c. Focal point of sustainable rice knowledge, expertise and networks.
d. Drive rice sector transformation, facilitating new alliances and creating shared value.
Objectives
The main objective of the assignment is to prepare a roadmap in establishing a national chapter in Senegal.
More specifically, the assignment will request the consultant:
i. To prepare roadmap to achieve the national chapter formation based on the analysis and exploration of the inherent processes in Senegal to establish a national chapter. This will be in consultation with the focal persons and ERO secretariat.
ii. To engage key rice sector stakeholders (particularly the ministry of Food and Agriculture) in order to assess their interest.
iii. To prepare a sector stakeholders’ map of national rice sector actors that can be potential members of the national chapter.
iv. To identify potential host organizations and assess commitment of organization.
v. To prepare work strategy on how to convene national working group.
vi. To identify potential challenges to chapter establishment and draft recommendations.
Duration
The assignment will be for two months.
Qualifications and Experience
Minimum Qualification and Experience
The Individual Consultant is expected to meet the following minimum requirements:
Deadline: July 25, 2025
