National Expert on Agri Business & Entrepreneurship Development

Organizational Setting

The Global Agricultural Food Security Program (GAFSP) has awarded a Producer-Organisation (PO)-led project to the Addu Meddu Cooperative Society (AMCS), Maldives with FAO as the designated Supervising Entity (SE). The GAFSP is a global financing instrument dedicated to fighting hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in its target countries. Its main objective is to support smallholder farmers and their families by strengthening sustainable and resilient food and agriculture systems. Since 2010, the GAFSP has provided USD 1.6 billion in financial and technical resources to projects that are delivered through partnerships with regional and multilateral development agencies and private sector actors.

Conceptualized along the lines of the successful Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) of Bangladesh, this project aims to scale up the model and learnings from the Bangladesh project within the context of a Small Island Developing State (SIDS). The challenges of diseconomies of scale in crop production, inefficient supply chains for food crops, and inefficient farming systems can be addressed through an integrated enterprise development approach of POs. This will create an ecosystem of vibrant POs that efficiently service smallholder producers, especially women, to increase their incomes, through access to finance, markets, and technology.

The Project Development Objective of this GAFSP-approved project is - To develop economically viable Producer Organisations in the Maldives, making them empowered and strong actors in the agriculture value chains of the country. This will contribute to a resilient and robust food system, overcoming the severe challenges faced due to climate change, and help to ‘build back better’, from the impacts of the current pandemic.

Reporting Lines

The National Consultants will conduct the following tasks under the overall supervision of the FAOR for Sri Lanka & Maldives, technical guidance of the LTO and direct supervision of the International Consultant.

Technical Focus

The objective of the assignment is to design and develop the approved project concept note (CN) into a detailed project report incorporating the comments received from the Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC), adhering to FAO GCP procedures in this regard, in collaboration the with the lead PO, other identified POs, other stakeholders including financial institutions, associated government departments of Government of Maldives and FAO. In addition, the assignment includes preparation of the 1st Year Project Implementation Plan in consultation with the lead PO and under guidance of the International Consultant.

To achieve the objectives the National Consultant (NC) will form a team with the identified International Consultant (IC) recruited for the project and work under her / his direct supervision.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Study and be familiar with all available materials on the proposal (the approved CN, technical comments from GAFSP TAC best practices from the Bangladesh MMI project and all the background resource material used in preparation of the original concept note).
• Review all the information required to fulfil standard FAO GCP design requirements.
• Acquire a detailed understanding of the implementation arrangements for the project’s financial management and accounting arrangements as well as the flow of funds and use of Letter of Agreements (LOA) in project implementation arrangement.
• Prepare, in consultation with the IC, a preliminary capacity and needs assessment analytical profile of the apex PO and all other identified POs, including their institutional strengths and weaknesses and specifically governance and administrative capacity, financial health, entrepreneurial skills and capacity, human resources, etc.
• Prepare, in consultation with the IC, a report on constraints associated with credit access for the identified POs and examine viable solutions to overcome the identified constraints.
• Conduct and facilitate meetings with the stakeholders including the government, the apex PO, subordinate POs, to discuss the proposed design, including planned outcomes, outputs and activities and roles & responsibilities.
• Assist the IC in identification and collection of all the information needed to finalise a detailed project proposal.
• Organise meetings with all relevant stakeholders for effective interaction with the IC in her / his visit(s) to Maldives.
• Assist in reaching an agreement amongst directly concerned stakeholders on the details of the project design features – to be shared with the IC.
• Assist the IC in preparation of the detailed project document as per FAO’s GCP procedures.
• Assist the IC in preparation of the 1st year Project Implementation Plan
• Perform any other responsibilities assigned by the FAOR.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Economics / Sociology / Anthropology / Business Administration and Master’s degree in similar area of studies is preferred
• At least 5 years of relevant experience of working with farmers, producer organisations and experience of working on agriculture value chains and agri-businesses
• Working knowledge of English and Divehi
• Nationality of Maldives or resident in the country with a regular work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement