Consultant to Design and implement the 2025 (Financial Year 2025) Edition of AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria at a Reputable Non Governmental Organization

We are a global non-profit organization on a mission to end hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. Since 1944, through our work in 21 countries (in Africa, Asia, and the Americas), we have supported more than 39 million people around the world to end hunger and poverty in a sustainable way, and millions more now on a pathway to living incomes. Working with rural communities across Africa for 48 years, we support farmers and local food producers to strengthen local economies and build secure livelihoods that provide a living income. Our foundation was built on the belief that ending hunger begins with giving people the means to feed themselves, generate income and achieve sustainable livelihoods for their households. 

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant to Design and Implement the 2025 (Financial Year 2025) Edition of AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria

Location: Nigeria
Employment Type: Contract

Background
AYuTe (Agriculture Youth and Technology) Africa Challenge Nigeria:

• There is a transformation going on in the agricultural sector in Africa, Nigeria inclusive, and youth and technology have been at the heart of these transformations, causing a radical change in the sector. Our recent survey on The Future of Africa’s Agriculture; An Assessment of the Role of Youth and Technology reveals that youth-led agricultural technology innovations are emerging, capable of transforming the productivity and competitiveness of agriculture in Nigeria. However, poor access to finance and technical assistance is one of the major constraints making it difficult to get them to the scale that would bring about these transformational impacts.
• The AYuTe (Agriculture Youth and Technology) Africa Challenge serves as a springboard for identifying outstanding young agritech innovators in various countries, as well as assisting in the formation of strong partnerships. As a result, the competition will increase visibility for growth and improve smallholder farmers' productivity.
• Through a regional competition, we award over a million dollars each year to leading agritech innovators across Africa. National competitions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda also award around $50,000 in each country.
• Like the Regional Champions competition, the AYuTe National Champions competition offers prize money and mentorship, helping translate the energy and ideas of young Nigerian agritech innovators into meaningful impact for smallholder farmers across the country, and supporting winners to grow their businesses and profile.
• The AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria is an opportunity to identify young, creative entrepreneurs who have launched promising new tech solutions to transform African agriculture for smallholder farmers.
• Following the successful execution of three previous editions of AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria, we seek the services of a consultant to design and implement FY2025 edition of AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria.

Description of Expected Professional Services
Purpose

• The purpose is to identify a consultant to design and implement the 2025 (Financial Year 2025) edition of AYuTe Africa Challenge Nigeria.

Objectives
This assignment is designed to enable us:

• Develop and design the project implementation strategy
• Develop and fully implement a work plan for the competition
• Design and implement a communications strategy for the project
• Generate data and reports to inform decision-making

Deliverables:
The expected deliverables of this project are as follows:

Strategic Counsel and Coordination:

• Provide technical support and strategic planning around goals and objectives.
• Provide updates around key upcoming activities, events, tactics, and outreach.
• Provide in-depth stakeholder map that is critical to audience segmentation for the our Country team

Media Strategy and Coverage to Raise Awareness:

• Provide top-tier Media list
• Develop and disseminate press kit to major press houses
• Arrange media interviews for Country Director (pre and post competition)
• Create a minimum of three (3) press releases (preferably announcing the start of the competition, announcing the top 5 and announcing winners at the end)
• Ensure coverage of competition both on Radio, TV, Print and Online
• Top-tier news bulletin on at least 20 electronic and print media platforms for all 3 press releases
• At least (20) publications one online/digital news media outlets for all 3 press releases
• Comprehensive media engagement report

Op-Ed:

• Review and research background information for at least two Op-eds
• Draft the piece, finalize, pitch and ensure publishing.

Social Media / Digital:

• Paid social media adverts promoting op-eds, national competition and increased followership of country team social accounts (minimum of 4 sponsored ads including on Twitter)
• Creation of new, refreshing and engaging copy and visual content, including stories that profile the champions, show impact and generate engagement i.e. video documentary of winners, competition process, graphics etc (minimum of 2 videos, 10 graphics per month)
• Provision of winners’ bio, pictures and details to be used on the regional AYuTe website page
• Build asset library of images, videos of winners and our necessary key stakeholders
• Recruit at least 4 online influencers or influencer accounts to promote competition
• Banner ads on websites with high affinity with the target audience
• Curate monthly engagement reports covering the different country social pages

Stakeholder Engagement / Events:

• Coordinate and implement at least one (1) webinar to promote the competition headlined by an agritech influencer
• Facilitate a minimum of three (3) speaking opportunities at high-level agricultural/development sector conferences or summits for our Nigeria team
• Conduct sensitization on the project in at least 3 higher institutions/hubs across the country
• Organize high-level project launch and grand finale/winners’ prize award events, curating a digital-savvy immersive agritech experience for not less than 100 invitees.

Reporting:

• For every physical or virtual activity, send a detailed report which will include pictures, an attendance sheet, and other appendixes in line with agreed reporting templates
• Send through a thorough and in-depth post-competition/engagement report that details activities, impact, reach, expectations, and key learnings. The narrative report is to be accompanied by a financial report

Duration:
The implementation period for the AYuTe Africa Nigeria Challenge FY25 is from December 2024 to June 2025:

Our Expected Roles:

• Finalize and sign the contract with the consultant.
• Participate in project inception meeting with consultant
• Participate in weekly progress meetings with consultant
• Provide technical guidance and support
• Review and validate all resources that will be proposed by the consultant before deployment
• Ensure that all payments are done as stated in the contract

Expertise:

• We are looking for either an individual consultant or a consulting firm with key technical staff who have substantial experience in the implementation of youth development programs. More specifically, the consultant or lead consultant should have a proven track record in the implementation of innovative youth-focused tech programs. The consultant should have expertise in analytical skills and report writing skills in English.

Academic Qualifications

• At least a Master’s Degree in a relevant field in Project Management, Sociology, Agroecology, Crop Science, Horticulture Science, Agricultural Economics, or any other equivalent qualifications from a recognized university.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience with a proven professional record in organizing similar competitions
• The consultant should have a relevant background in journalism/or communication /or marketing/PR and an ability to work with a diverse range of stakeholders
• Excellent spoken and written English with a working knowledge of the other local languages

Experience:

• Experience building positioning strategies for organizations/events, engaging youth, expert and donor audiences
• Fast, accurate, creative and versatile writing skills, including for digital media
• Strong ability to see newsworthy stories quickly and easily
• Experience in creating and engaging social media assets and image editing.
• Good understanding of the issues relating to Youth Innovation and agriculture
• Ability to analyze information quickly and simply for audiences.
• Strong national and regional media contacts and demonstrable experience getting stories picked up by print and broadcast.
• Proven record delivering highly visible competitions/events, securing local, national and regional coverage.
• Evidence of having undertaken similar assignments; and
• Ability to work efficiently and deliver committed outputs under the assignment within agreed timelines and deadlines.
• Eligible to work in Nigeria

Application Closing Date
7th October, 2024.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates or consulting firms will submit their organization's profile with the following information:

Technical Proposal (not to exceed 10 pages)

• General information (not to exceed 2 pages):
  • Organization or highly experienced individuals overview highlighting related assignments completed with client name, contact person and mobile number
  • Capacity statement
  • Legal registration to work in Nigeria
• Technical Approach (not exceeding 8 pages):
  • A detailed methodology on how the assignment will be conducted, including implementation strategy, media and visibility plan, project participants selection procedures, quality control strategies, etc.
  • List and briefly describe the team and its proposed personnel, indicating what role each proposed individual will have; CVs of team members to be provided in an attachment. Maximum of 3-page CV for the Lead Consultant (who will lead the assignment) highlighting related assignments completed, role in the completed assignment. 2 paragraph short CV for other team members (who will be involved in the assignment) highlighting related assignments completed and roles
  • A clear and comprehensive work plan (draft), outlining the major activities, people responsible and time schedule.
  • Organizational or individual capacity statement, including past experiences and activities related to the theme of the study. Reference information must include the location, award numbers, and brief description of work performed.
  • At least three references of other clients for which similar assignments were undertaken with contact information for each.
• Financial Proposal (in Naira):
  • Itemized budget
  • Narrative explanations of line items
• Annexes:
  • Documents in favor of previous relevant projects
  • Organization’s/Firm’s Certificate, PIN and VAT registration
  • A summary of previous similar assignments undertaken within the last 3 years.

Note

• Interested individuals or firms legally eligible to implement this assignment in Nigeria are requested to submit a proposal. Please include the name of the person in your organization who will be involved in negotiating the contract as well as your telephone and email contact information. Submissions must be in English and typed single-spaced using Times New Roman font size 12, with a complete set of appendices/attachments as applicable. All pages must be numbered and include the SOW reference number in the cover page, and name of the organization at the bottom of each page.

The successful consulting firm will be required to produce the following documents before entering into Independent Contractor Agreement (ICA) with us:

• Certificate of Incorporation or Business Registration Certificate.
• A Partnership Deed if you are running a partnership business.
• Audited financial statements for the last 3 years.
• Tax Compliance Certificate.
• Physical location including town, building, room number and postal address.
• Directors’ / Partners’ personal guarantee.
• Trade reference and clientele list including their respective contacts.

The technical and financial proposals should be submitted to: [email protected] using “AYUTE AFRICA CHALLENGE NIGERIA FY25” as the subject of the mail.

• We retain the right to terminate this RFP or modify the requirements upon notification to the Offers.

Selection Criteria

• Submitted proposals must clearly demonstrate alignment with the scope of work outlined above and with the appropriate level of detail. Our goal is to ultimately sign on with the Offeror whose proposal best follows the instructions in this RFP, includes the strong evaluation team, and is most cost-effective. Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• The selection committee will evaluate the technical proposal based upon the criteria listed above and they will evaluate the financial proposal based on cost reasonableness and cost-effectiveness in the budget.

Validity of Proposals:

• Proposals submitted shall remain open for acceptance for 14 days from the last date specified for receipt of the proposal. This includes but is not limited to, pricing, terms and conditions, service levels, and all other information. If your organization is selected, all information in this document and the negotiation process are contractually binding.

Award Process and Contract Mechanism:

• We will issue a fixed award agreement based on the submission and our acceptance of deliverables. Once an award is issued, it will include the payment schedule with the deliverables specified above.

Limitations:

• This Request for Proposal does not represent a commitment to award a contract, to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a response to this RFP, or to procure or contract for services or supplies. We reserve the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted and reserves the right to accept or reject in its entirety and absolute discretion any proposal received in response to the RFP.

Intellectual Property:
Ownership Generally:

• Any intellectual property (including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, service marks, and patents), intellectual property rights, deliverables, manuals, works, ideas, discoveries, inventions, products, writings, photographs, videos, drawings, lists, data, strategies, materials, processes, procedures, systems, programs, devices, operations, or information developed in whole or in part by or on behalf of Contractor or its employees or agents in connection with the Services and/or Goods (collectively, the “Work Product”) shall be our exclusive property. Upon request, the Contractor shall sign all documents and take any and all actions necessary to confirm or perfect our exclusive ownership of the Work Product.

Prior-Owned Intellectual Property:

• Any intellectual property owned by a Party prior to the Effective Date (“Prior-Owned IP”) shall remain that Party’s sole and exclusive property. Regarding any of Contractor’s Prior-Owned IP included in the Work Product, the Contractor shall retain ownership, and hereby grants us a permanent, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable right and license to use, copy, reproduce, publicly display, edit, revise, perform, and distribute said intellectual property, in any format or any medium, as part of the Work Product.