Consultant - Developing Agro-skills Training Booklet at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization with 60 years of experience in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the shelter, education, emergency food security, legal assistance, and water,sanitation and hygiene sectors.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Developing Agro-skills Training Booklet

Location: Borno

Background
Prior to the insurgency, the north eastern states of Nigeria lagged in terms of social development investment in comparison to other regions. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of access to education and youth unemployment indicated alarming needs and gaps with over half of the children and adolescents between 6-15 years old not attending school. 66 per cent of the overall population never having been to school. More than half of the population are under the age of 30 and the youth unemployment rate sits at 25 per cent. In the North East, youth unemployment was already higher than the rest of the country prior to the conflict.

Since May 2018, NRC in partnership with Unicef is implementing a Skill for Work and Life project targeting 1,552 IDPs and vulnerable host community out-of-school youth, aged 14-25, in Borno State with vocational skills. The project aims at providing opportunities for youth to express themselves, be involved in decisions that affect them and become active participants rather than passive beneficiaries in programmes targeting their communities.

The transfer of practical vocational skills will eventually help to address unemployment challenges and open opportunities for self-employment for the youth. NRC distributed 696 agro skills training packs and numeracy booklets to students and facilitators. The project is funded by the UNICEF.

Overall Objective of the Assignment

• The overall objective of the assignment is to develop an agro skills training booklet with pictorial illustrations to be used in facilitating training for youths who have little or had no access to formal education before.

Specific Tasks for the Service Provider
Working closely with the Livelihoods and Food Security and Education team the consultant is expected to:

• Review and simplify the existing NRC agro-skills training materials.
• Develop a training booklet including include pictorial illustrations in the revised booklet.

The narrative and pictorial illustration content of the agro-skills training booklet shall include topics on:

• Types of vegetables and their nutritional value:
  • List of/varieties of vegetables
  • Health benefits and nutritional value of different types of vegetables
• Establishment of vegetable garden:
  • Soil requirement for vegetable production
  • Nursery bed establishment
  • Land preparation, manure application, and transplanting/ sowing of seedling
  • Weed and pest management,
  • Mulching and watering/irrigating the plants
• Harvesting and post-harvest handling of the vegetables:
  • Methods of preservation and storage of vegetables
  • Value addition and marketing
• Safety in handling fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides:
• The Do’s and Don’ts in chemical handling for vegetables production
• Record keeping:
  • Types of farm and business records
  • Importance of record keeping

Expected Output /Deliverables

• A hard and soft copy draft of Agro skills training booklet for review by NRC Education and Livelihoods and food security team
• Upon approval by NRC Education and Livelihoods and Food security team, the consultant to deliver a spiral bound copies (3) and a soft copy of the Agro skills training booklet.

Required Qualifications and Experience of the Service Provider
The service provider will be required to have the following:

• Evidence of and proven experience developing training manual/guides
• Having Agriculture related academic qualification at Diploma level and above
• Experience of working on a similar project
• Extensive experience of working with humanitarian organizations or agricultural institutions on the same role
• Local knowledge of the humanitarian context in north east Nigeria

Duration of the Assignment:

• The assignment is expected to take 20 working days from the date of signing the contract.

Intellectual Property:

• All information pertaining to this project belonging to the client, which the service provider may come into contact with in the performance of his/her, duties under this consultancy shall remain the property of NRC who shall have exclusive rights over their use
• Except for purposes of this assignment, the information shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever form without written permission of NRC.

Contractual Arrangements and Supervision:

• The service will be hired under NRC terms of contract and supervised by NRC’s solely for the purpose of delivering the above outputs, within the agreed time frame.
• NRC as the client shall provide necessary support to the service provider in order to execute the assignment

Equipment for the Assignment:

• No equipment will be purchased or provided by NRC. Any equipment needed to complete this assignment will be provided by the service provider.

Timeline:

• Draft 15-February -2019
• Feedback on the draft 21 February- 2019
• Review of second draft / feedback 24-25 February-2019
• Final booklet submission 1-March-2019

Remuneration

• The service provider’s payment shall be based on the financial proposal developed for this consultancy.
• Payment shall be made in two installments of:
  • 50% down payment upon submission of a second draft
  • 50% final payment upon submission of the final outputs, incorporating suggestions and recommendations from NRC.

Application Closing Date
16h00, 7th February, 2019.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates are required to submit the following documents below to: procurement@nrc.no with the subject line: "NRC Skill for Work & Life Programme".

Applicants are required to submit the following:

• A Technical Proposal: Letter of Interest, stating why you consider your service suitable for the assignment and a brief methodology on the approach and implementation of the assignment;
• Personal CV of technical personnel proposed for this project highlighting qualifications and experience in similar projects;
• Work references - contact details (e-mail addresses) of referees (firms/ institutions/ organizations for whom you’ve produced similar assignments).