Individual consultant – Strategic Plan Development for Central Region Milk Producers Association

Central Region Milk Producers Association (CREMPA)

Call for applications-Local Individual consultant

Assignment Title:    Strategic plan development for Central region Milk Producers Association

Location:            Central region, Malawi
Duration (LOE):    
Up to a maximum of 20 days

Assignment dates:   February – March 2023

Scope of Work

1.   Background Information

Central Region Milk Producers Association

Central Region Milk Producers Association (CREMPA) is an umbrella body of dairy farmers in Malawi’s central region that was established in 1985 and registered in 2005 as a Trustee (RG20754/IM/5.2005) under the Trustee Incorporation Act. The goal of CREMPA is to advance the interest of dairy farmers and promote increased milk production and collective milk marketing for improved income for dairy farmers and nutrition of dairy farming households and Malawian milk consumers in rural and urban areas. CREMPA has a membership of 11,000 (3945 Men, 4920 Women and 2135 youth) dairy farmers who are organized into 60 Milk Bulking Groups (MBGs).

CREMPA is working in partnership with Land O’ Lakes Venture 37, which is implementing a five-year USAID funded Cooperative for Development Activity Project 4 (CD4) of which one of its objectives aims at strengthening Apex organizations’ institutional capacities.

2.   Objective of the consultancy

With support from the Land O Lakes venture 37 CD4 project, CREMPA aims to produce a 5-year strategic plan that will guide their Organizational structure, Operations/Service delivery and Implementation/action plan. All this is aimed at ensuring CREMPA’s sustainability and growth in their quest to strengthen the dairy sector through improved service delivery to its members and, achieve financial sustainability. Therefore, the specific objectives of the consultancy assignment is to support CREMPA, through but not limited to:

  • Produce a stakeholder map and identify relevant strategies to engage them to advance CREMPA’s stated objectives, stakeholder and management approaches.
  • Clearly define CREMPA’s situational context using relevant analysis.
  • Review the institutional capacity, organizational set-up, financial and administrative systems against the CREMPA mandate and the identified strategic objectives and key result areas and make recommendations, if any;
  • Finalize the Strategic plan and submit it to Land O’ Lakes Venture37 and CREMPA, the drafts and the final version;
  • Propose a strategy for achieving the strategic objectives and key results;
  • Develop a Results and Resources Framework for the plan period;
  • Develop a costing of the plan.
  • Handover the validated (By Crempa) strategic plan to CREMPA together with the entire original quantitative and qualitative data documentation collected for the consultancy (memos, minutes, eventual interview recordings, documents, etc.), with a copy to Land O Lakes. Payment shall be finalized upon the acceptance of the strategic document.
  1. Key Tasks to be accomplished, expected deliverables and Timeframe

The consultant will carry out the following tasks:

No.  Deliverable  Deliverable description  Estimated LOE (Days)
1 Preliminary meeting with CREMPA, Land O’Lakes and other stakeholders –       Meet with Land O’Lakes and CREMPA to get an orientation of the assignment. 0.5
2 Desk review of useful documents regarding CREMPA Collect and review available information (desk research) on CREMPA including its business model and operations, organizational management system and personnel, the existing legislature, policies, programs, etc. regarding associations and cooperatives.  

3

3 Development of an inception plan Draft a road map of activities based on the provided input that will be finalized in an inception meeting with CREMPA’s core employees and Land O lakes staff. 1.5
4 Conduct data collection and consultations with relevant stakeholders. Conduct field research: the qualitative research will involve individual meetings and/or FDGs with representatives of various stakeholders, as key informants, such as government officials, dairy private sector, MBGs/ cooperatives and CREMPA etc. 8
5 Organize and conduct consultative workshop Organize a workshop with CREMPA to verify problem description, examine joint vision and objectives, develop a functional business model and organizational set up, including roles and responsibilities, action, and finance plans. 1
6 Submit and present a draft strategic plan to CREMPA and Land O Lakes Formulate strategic plan and action plan according to what was discussed and agreed with CREMPA. After which feedback will be shared with consultant. 3
7. Incorporate feedback and share final strategic plan Submit final strategic plan to CREMPA and Land O Lakes 2
8 Organize and facilitate a validation workshop Facilitate a validation workshop to share final strategic plan to stakeholders 1
       
Total days 20

In the process of developing the strategic plan, the consultant will ensure that the following issues from CREMPA will be considered.

  • CREMPA’s current strategic plan and its implementation
  • Its current governance structure and its implementation
  • Its expected and current services
  • Its current financing structure, systems and income generating activities.
  1. Consultant requirements

The consultant must comply with the following requirements.

  • The consultant must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree with minimum of five years extensive working experience in organizational and business development consultancy.
  • The consultant be fluent in English and Chichewa.
  • The consultant must have the ability to facilitate processes on sensitive issues with people at all levels of organizational hierarchy.
  • Knowledge of the social, political, and economic landscape in Malawi the sector of dairy development would be an asset
  • Excellent techniques and experience in conducting field research and data collection, through interviews, focus group discussions, participatory presentations, etc.
  • References on related work (which should be submitted with the consultancy bid)
  • Demonstrate excellent interpersonal and professional skills in interacting with government and other development partners
  1. Outputs
  • An inception report, including a roadmap of activities during the assignment with a work plan covering all planned meetings and workshops, field trips, budget etc, will be presented five working days into the assignment.
  • Strategic plan with associated implementation plan
  • A draft report including CREMPA’s ideas collected during conducted workshops and meetings on the verified problems, joint vision, and objectives, identified goals and progress, hindrances and challenges, opportunities, areas of improvement and solutions to develop a functional business model and organizational set up, including roles and responsibilities, action and finance plans.
  • Present the report to CREMPA and relevant CD4 staff.
  • A final report including comments from the presentation.

Interested individuals should submit:

  • Interpretation of Terms of Reference
  • Methodology to undertake the assignment.
  • Daily consulting rate
  • CV of consultant

To the following e-mail address: Procurement.CDP@landolakes.com

The deadline for applications is February 16th, 2023; only shortlisted consultants will be contacted.