Terms of Reference
SUCHANA - Consultancy | Role and Efficacy of Market Systems Interventions in Nutrition Program Study

1            Organization Background

iDE is an international NGO with over 38 years of experience in designing and delivering market-based anti-poverty programs in 11 countries. We are a world leader in making markets work for the poor as well as the longest established market development specialist NGO in Bangladesh. iDE believes that markets can be a powerful force for improving smallholder prosperity by creating income and livelihood opportunities for poor rural households.  iDE Bangladesh currently has eight projects in agricultural markets, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and access to finance with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and climate-smart technologies.

2              Project Background

The Suchana program is a six-year initiative that aims to prevent chronic malnutrition in children in the first 1,000 days of their lives. The program adopts an integrated approach to nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and aims to develop a sustainable and replicable model that can be scaled. Suchana is funded by the UK Department for International Development and the European Union and is implemented in Bangladesh by a consortium of partners, including Save the Children, iDE, WorldFish, Helen Keller International, and implementing agencies Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS), RDRS, and Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB). icddr,b will carry out the impact monitoring of the project.

Suchana works on a Multi-Sectoral Approach to recognizing that improving food and nutrition security involves such as Food Production; Food Consumption; Food Access; Water /Sanitation / Hygiene; Education; Social/Cultural Practices and Gender. Simultaneously facilitates agricultural, Income Generation Activities, nutrition, and WASH interventions to households to increase income and improve food and nutrition security. This is further guided by key initiatives such as the Home Food Production (HFP) and the Income Generating Activities (IGAs) that provide overarching strategic direction to development initiatives.
Suchana also works with a market-based approach to stimulate and improve local market systems to deliver agricultural, nutrition, and WASH products and services to smallholder households. Interventions identify and train last-mile delivery actors to improve smallholder households' access to products and services. iDE works through a facilitation approach - limited direct implementation instead works with private and public sector partners to deliver activities.

3              About the Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to develop a study to highlight the role and efficacy of Market Systems interventions in nutrition programs. 

iDE Suchana has been implementing a Nutrition-Sensitive Market System Developed approach and focused on improving market access for smallholder producers as a pathway to increase agricultural productivity and income for households. The Suchana market systems strategy deploys five key interventions at micro, meso, and macro levels in the market system which are Business Groups (Micro Level) and Local Business Advisor (Last mile actor) development, establish Collection Points, Local service provider engagement (Meso level) and lead firm engagement (Macro level). This overarching strategy is integrated into each of the five main projects/ sectors: horticulture, livestock, poultry, aquaculture, and off-farm sub-sector. Categorically most of the local service providers are seed and feed retailers, fish fingerling hawkers, para-vets, vaccinators, and fish nursery owners. Suchana also focused on improving access to clean water and sanitation products and services through strengthening markets for existing sanitation service providers.

iDE is seeking a firm/organization/consultant for a Market Systems Development (MSD) evaluation expert to assist in the development of an end-of-project learning document to be titled (Draft) - “Role and efficacy of MSD interventions in Nutrition programs.” This study will draw data, analysis, and conclusions from the Suchana project with the objective of highlighting the rationale of including MSD interventions in the project, categorizing the interventions, drawing conclusions on the efficacy of these interventions against the intended result areas including the use of AAER matrix and finally synthesizing the learning from iDE’s experience that would be applicable to other similar programs or projects.

In particular, the consultant/firm/organization should focus on the following criteria in order to develop the study:

• Relevance: How appropriate have the activities been  to the contextual needs of the target groups in improving nutrition and in remaining pertinent to the program major areas of focus including establishing market linkages.
• Effectiveness: How far have the targeted immediate needs been met by MSD interventions, and identify both the successes and the challenges faced by the consortium partners in ensuring effective and efficient delivery to those in need.
• Impact: In parallel with what the project has been doing so far in the core market system and the enabling environment spheres, whether the MSD activities have been able to actively play a role in generating the desired impact across the beneficiary groups, and how much of that impact can be attributed to the project.
• Sustainability: To what extent whether these changes have been adopted at the beneficiary/ market actor level and will be organically carried out going forward.

And following the criteria develop the study with the following Outline :

• Summary of the Project / Programme: Title; country/region; dates; budget; donors; implementing partners; key stakeholders; direct beneficiaries and reach number
• Context and Problem Statement: Who are the target beneficiaries? What are the economic and social contexts (including others as contexts) in which the target group lives? How and why were the market system mechanisms failing to be inclusive of the target beneficiaries/ what is the root cause?
• Systems and Intervention Areas: What is the core (principal) market system that your programme seeks to catalyse systemic change in? What other supporting functions and rules were identified and prioritised as essential to catalyse this systemic change?  What is the ToC of the programme? How does the TOC articulate the future vision of the market system i.e., to ensure sustainability, large scale reach and long-lasting impact? How does the programme ensure inclusivity, particularly of women and girls and those most impacted by inequality and discrimination? How did the programme ensure co-designing with the target group, market actors and key stakeholders?
• Partners, Roles and Responsibilities: Who are the market actors (lead firms/adopters) selected to partner your programme to pilot the market system idea? What are their roles and responsibilities in the programme (include actors at the core, the supporting functions, and in the formal and informal rules as applicable)? Why were these actors chosen over others, what criteria was used to select partners? What were the key challenges faced in the process of partner selection (e.g., time constraints, lack of existing pool of actors etc.)?
• Incentives and Contractual Arrangements: What types of incentives did the programme use with market actors? (e.g., to mitigate against perceived risks and capacity limitations, etc.) What were the notable/ innovative contractual terms (contributions and form of contributions, cost share etc.) between the programme and the different types of partners?
• MRM - Outcome and Impact Results: Which indicators are measured at the: (i) impact level (ii) outcomes level and, (iii) systemic change level? How are partners involved in MRM activities / what were their roles and responsibilities? How is the MRM data applied in adaptive management? To what extent are (i) impact (ii) outcome and (iii) system level objectives being achieved?
• MRM: Systems Change Results: What types of scaling-up activities does the programme facilitate to crowd-in (expand and respond) other market actors and stakeholders (and replication to other geographical-locations)? What kind of behaviour and practice changes are tracked? To what extent are they being realised at the: (i) beneficiary level (ii) market actors’ level and (iii) key stakeholder/players level? To what extent are these behaviours and practices showing permanency and resiliency among market actors and the core market system as a whole?
• Reflections, Key Lessons Learnt and Recommendations: What are the main underlying factors which lead to the success (and/or limited results) for the programme? What key lessons have you learnt from MSD programming, include both positive and ‘what not to do’ observations? Which recommendations are emerging as important and hold potential to an inclusive and sustainable market systems programming in a similar context?

4        Major deliverables of the Consultant/ Firm/ Organization
The firm/organization/consultant is expected to deliver the following listed deliverables:

5              Major responsibilities of the  Firm/ Organization/ Consultant

The consultant/firm/organization will work with the SUCHANA project team in a collaborative manner to develop strategies and complete the assignment. The major responsibilities of the consultant are:

• Collect relevant program documents from SUCHANA Team clarify ToR, and prepare a work plan with a timeline;
• Understand the objective of the assignment through desk review and discussion with the SUCHANA program team and develop the work plan for the assignment;
• Develop questionnaire along with research methodology required to develop the learning documents;
• Develop a schedule for the field assessment, and
• Submit the preliminary draft reports for discussion with the  SUCHANA Technical Team;
• Incorporate valid suggestions and comments from the team to prepare the final high-quality reports;
• Present the final presentation and reports for the sign -off;
• Submit final reports to iDE- Bangladesh.

6              Major responsibilities of iDE

The SUCHANA Program Team will provide the firm/ organization/ consultant with the necessary support to undertake and implement the assignment and execute the objective of this ToR. Such responsibilities include the following:

• Provide relevant program documents as requested by the firm/ organization/consultant;
• Approve proposed work plan and assessment schedule;
• Provide feedback and approval for the questionnaire and methodology in a timely manner;
• Communicate with lead firms and stakeholders to coordinate their participation in assessments;
• Review the draft report and provide feedback to finalize the report and wrap up the assignment.
• Monitor regularly, and provide feedback and ensure the effectiveness of the contract;
• Provide relevant feedback to the consultants on assessment design and quality as well as draft and final reports, and,
• Disburse payment as per the agreed schedule.

7.             Tentative Work Schedule

8.              Proprietary Rights

Any document, information, or data entrusted to or produced by iDE in connection with this assignment shall be strictly confidential and cannot be used by the contract employee for any other purpose without the written consent of iDE. This provision shall remain valid even after the completion of this assignment. iDE-B reserves the right to terminate this agreement at any time with the consultation of contracted individuals.

9.        Deliverables and Schedule of Payment

The financial proposal should include the firm/organization/ consultant’s daily consulting fee rate (including VAT and TAX). The firm/consultant is responsible for all accommodation, travel costs as well as per diems and it should be included in the daily rates. The consulting fees payment will be made in three installments as follows:

Note: Government VAT and tax regulation will be applied, and these costs must be included in the financial proposal.

The following terms and conditions will apply:

• The payment will be made through account payee cheque/wire transfer (account name, number, type, bank name, and branch name is required for wire transfer);
• As per Government of Bangladesh VAT and tax regulation; International consultants are taxed at 15% VAT (on contract amount) and 20% tax (on contract amount +VAT); National consultants are taxed at 15% VAT and 10% tax;
• Government VAT and tax regulation will be applied and iDE Bangladesh will deduct all relevant VAT and Tax at source as per GoB rule;
• VAT Registration Certificate, TIN, and Trade License (if applicable) must be submitted before the agreement is signed;
• The contract amount decided by both parties is final and will not be subject to change based on any circumstances;
• In case of failure to deliver the final product in due time, iDE Bangladesh will deduct .05% of the total agreement amount for each day of delay in submitting the report beyond the closing date of the agreement;
• The selected consultant will abide by other terms and conditions of iDE Bangladesh.

10.             Eligibility Criteria

General experience and expertise required for the firm/organization/consultant for this study are:

• Minimum 8-10 years of experience in conducting surveys and assessments of donor-funded projects applying both qualitative and quantitative methodologies;
• Demonstrated experience with market system research/study/survey/impact assessment, especially focusing  on Nutrition and MSD approach;
• Experience working with  ‘EU and/or UK Aid’ donor experience a plus;
• Prior experience working in the Asia region and familiarity with the context of Bangladesh and the country’s social landscape is strongly preferred;

 11.            Bid Submission

All proposals should include the following to be considered complete submissions:

• Cover letter (maximum one page);
• Technical Proposal (maximum 7 pages) which should include:
• Understanding of the assignment as outlined above in Section 3
• Survey methodology including sampling plan, data collection, and data quality controlling mechanism tool development and execution process
• Survey Timeline (breakdown of each step of the assignment)
• Table of content of the report which includes sections, sub-sections as well as data analysis output table and findings presentation technique under the respective section (this can later be adjusted as needed)
• Evidence of relevant survey experience of the consultancy firm;
• Profiles/ resumes of the personnel/experts (including all personnel for data collection, data entry, database management, and data analysis) to be involved in the assignment must be included in the annex;
• The evidence of appropriate legal affiliation/entity.
• Financial Proposal (maximum one page): breakdown of cost estimates for services rendered. This should include, but not be limited to: daily consultancy fees, enumerator fees, accommodation, transport cost, stationery, tax, and supplies needed for the assessment.

Interested and qualified consultants are asked to submit the estimates for Technical and Financial Proposals to bangladesh.procurement@ideglobal.org. Please write “SUCHANA MSD Consultancy” in the subject line. The proposals should be submitted by 5 pm BST on April 12th, 2022. We are only able to consider electronic submissions. Only shortlisted consultants will be contacted and invited for a technical discussion.

Deadline: April 12th,  2022 COB (5 pm BST)