ICCO: External Evaluator for SMARTseeds Project (Indonesia) & GreenCoffee project (Vietnam)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

External Evaluation of SMARTseeds Project (Indonesia) & GreenCoffee project (Vietnam)

Assignment summary

The assignment is to conduct a combined external evaluation of 2 projects: SMARTseeds in Indonesia and GreenCoffee in Vietnam. Both projects are part of the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) program funded by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO). Both projects need to be evaluated based on relevance (are the projects responding to beneficiaries needs), external coherence (are the projects complementary to other interventions/information services in the project areas) and sustainability (the likelihood that project benefits will continue). Reason for combining both evaluations and the primary focus of the evaluation needs to be on learning about the approaches and concepts taken in both projects. They are built around the concept that farmers can experience increased productivity and/or reduced farming cost when making use of geodata based and financially sustainable information services. The evaluation will need to validate the aforementioned concept before further scaling or replicating the approach in other projects. 

Deliverables

1.  Preparation of work plan, desk review, approach, methodology, and tools for end project evaluation process and analysis, including structured interview  (5 working days)

2.      Documentation and analysis of the field visit result (the execution of field visit is subject to change depends on the COVID-19 situation), e.g focus group discussion, key informant interview, interview with project beneficiaries in SMARTSeeds and GreenCoffee project sites. Documentation should include photos, videos, and any documentation that can help illustrate the results of the SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee project  (10 working days)

3.      Provide 1 external evaluation report (max 25 pages, excluding annexes) with:

A.    Per project an evaluation of the relevance, external coherence and sustainability of the projects  (5 working days)

B.    For the 2 projects combined: an evaluation of the concept of the projects with a focus on learning and recommendations: what works, what does not work, and concrete recommendations on how to improve the aforementioned concept before further scaling or replicating it in other projects (5 working days)

4.     Revision of the external evaluation report (3 working days)

5.       Presentation ( 2 working days/hours)

You are expected to facilitate an (online) learning and feedback meeting based on the draft the evaluation report and before finalizing the final evaluation report.

SMARTseeds Project Profile

The SMARTseeds project in Indonesia is part of the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) program funded by NSO, which aims to provide a financially sustainable information service that supports 100.000 vegetable farmers to increase their production, income, food security and reduce the inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides. in developing countries by using satellite data and making this information available to farmers via mobile applications. SMARTseeds is a Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project involving 6 public and private partners from Indonesia and the Netherlands: ICCO Cooperation, East-West Seed Indonesia (EWINDO), Nelen & Schuurmans, University of Twente (ITC), Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) and Akvo. The project was launched in October 2016 by several consortium partners and will end in September 2020.

In recent years, vegetable farmers in Indonesia have been highly affected by changes in climate, weather patterns and availability of water. While farmers used to rely on radio and television, general information is nowadays insufficient for good crop planning. The same is true for information on soil nutrients, the estimated price of commodities, and new technologies on fertilizer and seeds. Many vegetable farmers lack market access and information, as well as technical support services. These factors have resulted in the inconsistent quality of vegetables produced, such as chilli, tomato and cucumbers.

The Indonesian consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables is still below the recommended level set by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. However, for the past years, we have observed an increasing trend of the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, especially in urban areas in Indonesia. Thus, the government attempts to achieve food self-sufficiency through improved farming techniques, which increase their production and income. This opens opportunities for a local project which fits in the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW), using satellite data to improve food security in developing countries. Farmers receive information via mobile phone applications on sustainable farming techniques, reducing the number of pests and diseases, and also on daily market prices.

Within the G4AW projects, SMARTseeds stands out as a service providing advice based on location-specific data. While there are currently over 30+ mobile apps on the market providing agriculture advice, none provide services based on a specific farm location. SMARTseeds is able to do this through the use of geodata and soil information collected from the field. It provides the following information services:

Vegetable Seed Company PT East West Seed Indonesia (EWINDO) and SMARTseeds together introduced the mobile application ‘Sipindo’, which includes features such as weather forecasts with a spatial resolution of up to 5 km. It also contains recommendations for soil nutrient content based on lab test results, fertilizer recommendations and a guide for farmers which enables them to select the crops that are most suitable for their soil conditions. What makes these features more unique is that the information is location-based (location-specific data).

Currently, SMARTseeds entered in the last phase of the project and reach 38,710 total downloaders of SPINDO powered by SMARTseeds spread in five (5) province in Indonesia, namely Lampung, East Java, Central Java, West Java, and DKI Jakarta. At the end of SMARTseeds the project, SIPINDO powered by SMARTseeds have 4 (four) main features, i.e 1) soil nutrients and fertilizer recommendation, 2) climate/seasonal forecast, 3) daily/short-term weather forecast and 4) pest and diseases advice.

The partners involved in the project are ICCO who is responsible for project management and business development, EWINDO who is responsible for user engagement, N&S who is responsible for service provision, ITC who is responsible as the knowledge expert in the use of satellite data, IPB who is responsible as the knowledge expert in making soil maps, and Akvo who is responsible for data collection and visualization.

GreenCoffee project profile

The GreenCoffee project in Vietnam is also part of the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) program funded by NSO (Netherlands Space Office). It is a Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) project involving the following partners: ERIPT; Ipsard; NIAPP; UTZ/RA; N&S; WWP; E-leaf; AKVO and ICCO as lead partner. The project started on October 1, 2016. It was planned to end on September 30, 2019. It was extended for 1 year. Thus, the new ending date will be September 30, 2020. The project targets a financially sustainable information service that supports 100.000 coffee farmers in Central Highland of Vietnam (provinces: Daklak, Daknong, Lam Dong, Gia Lai). It aims to increase the income of the coffee farmers through increasing coffee quality, quantity and access to market, while also decreasing inputs for coffee such as watering, fertilizer and pesticide. Information services that the project provides to coffee farmers as end-users includes weather info, GAP advice, coffee price, climate change info, crop dictionary, and Q&A feature. These are transferred to the farmers through SMS, App, and Web. Besides, the project also provides information services for companies as B2B clients through Lizard portal. These include: suitability; farmer profile, sustainability and map layers.

Both projects are built around the concept that farmers experience livelihood benefits when making use of geodata based on financially sustainable information services.

Planning and scope of work

The consultant is expected to work a maximum of 30 working days within July until September 2020. The target start date is 15 July 2020 and the end date is 15 September 2020 (subject to change due to COVID-19 situation). The consultant is expected to conduct an evaluation in the targeted sites of SMARTSeeds and GreenCoffee. Determination of the plan for the field visit on the project site should be coordinated with ICCO and must be approved by ICCO. The consultant reports to the Project Managers of SMARTseeds and Green Coffee.  The main task of the consultant is conducting an evaluation of the SMARTSeeds project and of the GreenCoffee project with a focus on relevance, external coherence and sustainability of each project and to provide a combined evaluation of the concept used in the projects with a focus on learning and recommendations. A more specific tasks description of the consultant is provided below.

1.     Review the current project documentation.

2. Conduct focus group discussions and/or interviews with the consortium members and project beneficiaries to validate the concept of SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee. For the GreenCoffee project, field data collection will need to be done by a local consultant, the evaluator needs to coordinate with the local consultant in Vietnam. The information of the consortium members can be gathered by the consultant him/herself.

3.   Conduct the assessment of the SMARTSeeds and GreenCoffee projects relevant to the objectives and ToCs of these projects, with a focus on relevance, external coherence and sustainability of each project.

4. Identify the lessons learned of the SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee projects combined and provide recommendations to improve the used project concept for further scaling or replicating it in other projects. 

Qualifications needed

1.  The consultant should have at least 5 years’ experience in Monitoring and Evaluation and Program Management

2.     Experience with conducting evaluations of development projects with a focus on learning, especially on Public-Private Partnership/PPP construction

3.  Vast and proven knowledge about agricultural sectors, poverty, sustainable livelihood, technology information services and social enterprises

4.  Excellent understanding of agricultural  value chains in Indonesia and Vietnam, particularly on vegetable and coffee

5.     Familiarity and relevant experience in lead or manage focus group discussion and field survey

6.      Strong commitment to delivering a timely and high-quality result

7.       Professional English writing

8.       Professional English and Bahasa communication skills.   

Remuneration

Deliverable/Output	Expected Due Date
1st tranche (30%) Upon submission and acceptance of:  Approved of the work plan, desk review, approach, methodology, and tools for end project evaluation process and analysis, including a structured interview	1 August 2020
2nd tranche (30%) 1.     Completion of a field visit to the SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee sites (including focus group discussion and interview with related stakeholders and project beneficiaries). 2.      Upon submission of the initial report of the external evaluation of SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee, which include: -        Documentation and finding of the field visit -    Per project an evaluation of the relevance, external coherence and sustainability of the projects -    For the 2 projects combined: an evaluation of the concept of the projects with a focus on learning and recommendations: what works, what does not work, and concrete recommendations on how to improve the aforementioned concept before further scaling or replicating it in other projects.	25 August 2020
3rd tranche (40%) Upon submission and acceptance of: Approved final report of the external evaluation of SMARTseeds and GreenCoffee.	15 September 2020

Application

If you want to apply as external evaluator for the assignment you are asked to submit by email to n.aeni@icco.nl and cc to d.putranto@icco.nl before July 14th, 2020 with following document:

-          An up to date CV

-          A letter of interest

-          A description of your suggested approach to the evaluation (max. 3 pages)

-          A description of your experience with these kinds of learning evaluations (max. 1 page)

-          Financial proposal, that includes all costs and should present a breakdown of costs in IDR and EUR currency.

-          A copy of a previous evaluation report with a focus on learning

More information about these terms of reference can be sent to n.aeni@icco.nl and cc to s.dewi@icco.nl