GARDEN Project TOR Notes

BACKGROUND

• IFC (International Finance Corporation) is part of the World Bank Group and focuses on private sector development in emerging markets. It works with ~2,000 businesses worldwide to create opportunities where needed.
• IFC’s Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Forestry (MAF) unit covers sectors critical for food, goods, and services, job creation, government revenue, and SME growth.
• Agribusiness is a priority sector for IFC due to its potential for development impact, food security, and poverty reduction.
• IFC aims to support environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive growth by combining investments with advisory services. Focus is on firms working with smallholder supply chains to raise yields, productivity, and adherence to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
• Strategic objectives in Agribusiness: (1) Enhance food security; (2) Enhance inclusive growth and shared prosperity; (3) Make sustainability a business driver.
• Smallholder farmers provide approximately $30 ext{ percent}$ of global food. In LMICs, they often face hunger and malnutrition, leading to fatigue, illness, and hindered skill development, with broader negative impacts on farm productivity and supply chain stability.
• Well-nourished farmers are essential for resilient supply chains; improving farmer nutrition strengthens agribusinesses.
• The Global Agricultural Resilience, Dietary Enhancement, and Nutrition (GARDEN) Project aims to design a cost-effective model to help IFC agribusiness clients promote improved nutrition among smallholder farmers within their business models.
• Prior nutrition interventions piloted by IFC with smallholder farmers include:
  • Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire pilots promoting good agronomic practices and climate-smart keyhole gardens for year-round access to nutrient-dense crops.
  • Uganda pilot promoted biofortified high-iron beans and optimal preparation/consumption practices for nutrient-dense crops, plus other nutrition-related services.
• GARDEN aligns with IFC’s commitment to nutrition-sensitive agriculture and aims to support clients in agriculture value chains with nutrition outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

• Timeframe: From $2025$ to $2028$, the GARDEN Project will partner with an IFC-leading coffee client to implement nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions with smallholder coffee farmers in the client’s supply chain.
• The Consultant (service provider firm) should combine data collection and nutrition expertise to:
  • a) Co-design and conduct a baseline assessment in coffee farming communities, primarily in the Mt. Elgon area, to quantify gaps in nutrition and related health practices, gender gaps, and other challenges affecting nutritional status and potentially impacting the Client.
  • b) Validate project targets and propose additional KPIs for the GARDEN Project if necessary.
  • c) Measure project success by comparing baseline and endline data for participating farmer households on production and consumption of nutritious foods (including animal-source foods), key household nutrition practices, and business benefits of the Client’s nutrition-sensitive interventions.

SCOPE OF WORK

• IFC seeks to hire a Firm to collect baseline data and, later, endline data (contingent on IFC’s business needs and deliverables from the baseline).
• Target population: smallholder farmers in and around the Mt. Elgon region in Mbale District, Eastern Uganda.
• Data collection methods:
  • Quantitative data collection via Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).
  • Qualitative data collection via In-Depth Interviews (IDI) and Focus Group Discussions (FGD).
• The Client will facilitate farmer connections for interviews.
• Key data collection topics include but are not limited to:
  • Household food production and consumption, including a dietary quality questionnaire (DQQ) for women.
  • Knowledge and use of climate-smart homestead gardening practices.
  • Access to and use of relevant agricultural inputs.
  • Cropping schemes in main farm fields.
  • Use of key nutrition practices.
  • Gender roles in food production and consumption; gender gaps relevant to household nutrition.
  • Use of available agriculture and nutrition services.
  • Income and spending.
  • Cost of a healthy diet.
  • Link between low household food production and children’s participation in farm labor.
  • Parameters related to farmer–Client business relationship (e.g., farmer loyalty, coffee yields and sales).
• Quantitative Data Collection (Sampling and Survey Design):
  • Sample size: $n=600$ farmers in the Mt. Elgon area; $n<em>{ ext{intervention}}=350$ and $n</em>{ ext{control}}=250$, with at least $p_{ ext{female}}=0.50$ (50% female representation).
  • Rationale: initial plan involved ____2000 farmers (representing 1000 households) in the treatment group and 2000 farmers in the control group; the current design focuses on the Mt. Elgon area in Uganda.
• Project Familiarization & Literature Review: firm to review project docs, implementation plans, progress reports to inform the inception report and data collection structure, supervisory procedures, and data quality controls.
• Survey Design & Development:
  • IFC will share a draft quantitative questionnaire; consultant to provide inputs to ensure local relevance and finalize; bring nutrition-intervention data needs to support business rationale for the Client.
  • Include gender mapping indicators, developed in collaboration with IFC gender team for gender-sensitive actions.
  • Tasks include translation, back-translation, pre-testing, and programming the quantitative instrument on an online platform for CAPI.
  • Program the baseline survey electronically using SurveyCTO or similar software with skips and logic checks to ensure data quality.
  • Questionnaire pre-testing in two phases: (i) internal pre-test with feedback to IFC; (ii) field testing with at least 20 interviews under IFC supervision. Final revisions to be implemented after IFC agreement.
  • Quantitative instruments translated back to English and formatted to IFC layout; final approval required from IFC before full deployment.
  • Interview duration: ideally $45 ext{ minutes}$ to $60 ext{ minutes}$ per farmer interview.
  • Data cleaning and tabulations of key data points to be prepared by the Firm.
  • Weekly data collection progress reports to IFC.
• Qualitative Assessment:
  • Six FGDs (approximately ten participants each) with the following groups: female farmers, male farmers, mixed-gender group of farmers, community leaders, VSLA members, and relevant Client staff.
  • KIIs: approx. 30–45 minutes each with four female farmers, four male farmers, five Client staff, and seven community leaders.
  • Final list of FGDs and KIIs to be finalized in collaboration with Client and Consultant.
  • Recording, transcription, and translation of FGDs and KIIs to English.
  • Data analysis will use both inductive and deductive coding, with a draft coding guide from the Nutrition Expert (based on IFC-provided guides).
• Data Collection Logistics & Quality Assurance:
  • Consultant to handle logistics, respondent invitations, and ensuring attendance composition for FGDs.
  • FGDs to take place in secure, private, accessible locations; steps to reduce attendance barriers.
  • Collect contact information of all attendees at FGDs.
  • All FGDs to be recorded digitally and note-taker records kept; data quality and security must be maintained.
• Training of Field Staff & Enumerators:
  • Consultant to hire and train interviewers with the right skills; training before data collection; sessions for field supervisors, auditors, and interviewers for both quantitative and qualitative components.
  • Training to include question-by-question review, role-play, and field-testing; data collection protocol to ensure high-quality standards.
  • Data collection teams organized with appropriate data-collector-to-supervisor ratios for oversight.
  • Field supervisors to randomly accompany data collectors on some interviews; back-checks for at least 10% of interviews by telephone or in-person.
  • Discrepancies and changes from back-checks to be reported to the IFC task leader via progress reports. IFC may conduct its own checks and will have real-time online access to data.
• Project Design Provisions:
  • Based on assessment findings, the Consultant will contribute to intervention design by providing written recommendations tailored to farmers’ needs and Client context (may include online meetings and written feedback).

DELIVERABLES / OUTPUTS

• All outputs must be in English and approved by IFC in writing before finalization.
• a. Inception report and enumerator manual:
  • i) Detailed work plan with timeline.
  • ii) Team structure (supervisors and enumerators).
  • iii) Enumerator training manual for IFC technical review.
  • iv) Data quality control procedures and tools.
• b. Data collection instruments:
  • IFC provides draft questionnaires; consultant localizes, finalizes, translates, pilots, and programs onto the data collection platform.
  • GPS coordinates collected at interviewed farms.
• c. Training:
  • In-depth training of enumerator teams before data collection; may be supervised by IFC/Client staff.
• d. Data collection progress reports:
  • Ongoing data access and weekly reports (response rates, baseline respondent substitution, data-quality activities).
  • Back-check data (random subset) shared with IFC for independent verification of discrepancies.
• e. Cleaned and coded data file:
  • Cleaned dataset with variables named and labeled; GPS coordinates included; farmer contact information recorded for verification.
  • Deliverables: data in .dta and Excel formats; a codebook with variable names, labels, data types, value labels, ranges, missing values, and summary statistics.
  • FGDs transcripts: translated, cleaned, and categorized transcripts organized by question and theme, in .docx or .xlsx.
• f. Data analysis completion report and analysis:
  • Detailed report of data collection activities, response rates, substitutions, accompaniments, back-checks, and analysis results.
• g. Project design inputs:
  • Proposed solutions, timing, validation of project targets, and other contributions for implementation.
  • Consultant available to answer questions within two weeks after deliverables for data collection and on-site observations.

TIMELINE / SCHEDULE

• Estimated timeline:
  • Start of assignment: $September ext{ 2025}$
  • Inception report: $September ext{ 2025}$
  • Data collection: $October ext{ 2025}$
  • Cleaning quantitative data and coding qualitative data: $November ext{ 2025}$
  • Final dataset and analysis report: $November ext{ 2025}$
  • Project design inputs: $December ext{ 2025}$
• Note: Data collection should occur outside peak harvest or busy farm periods.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

• Task/Deliverable and % of total contract value:
  • Signing of contract: $10\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Brief inception report: $5\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Finalization of survey instruments & enumerator training: $5\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Cleaned baseline survey data file and coded data file for qualitative data: $20\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Baseline survey completion report, data analysis, and project design inputs: $20\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Cleaned endline survey data file and coded data file for qualitative data: $20\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
  • Endline survey completion report, data analysis, and project design inputs: $20\frac{ ext{ percent}}{}$
• IFC will require up to five business days to review any draft material.

INPUTS FROM THE WORLD BANK GROUP

• IFC will provide the Consultant with:
  • Relevant program documents, draft key project indicators, and draft Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
  • Facilitation and coordination with the Client.
  • Participation and facilitation of field visits.
  • Administrative assistance as needed.
  • Intervention and control group farmer lists.
  • Draft quantitative and qualitative tools.

REQUIREMENTS / QUALIFICATIONS

• Firms must demonstrate:
  1) Experience in similar nutrition- and agriculture-related studies with country knowledge.
  2) Capacity in data management and data analysis.
  3) Proficient written/spoken English; staff fluent in local languages; female staff available for discussions with female farmers.
  4) Experience with nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions, with a focus on female farmers and gender-sensitive actions.
  5) Ideally experience with agriculture, food security, and nutrition in Eastern Uganda.
  6) Knowledge of off-taker agribusiness models to help understand data needs for the Client’s nutrition business case.

SPECIAL TERMS & CONDITIONS / CRITERIA

• The Firm is expected to start by $September 2025$ (unless otherwise specified) and complete the quantitative fieldwork for the baseline by $March 2028$; endline to be discussed after baseline conclusions.
• IFC reserves the right to conduct checks on $5 ext{-}10 ext{ percent}$ of interviews in addition to back-checks.
• If data integrity fails to meet IFC requirements, IFC may reduce or renegotiate payments or require additional data collection at no extra cost to IFC.

LEGAL / PRIVACY / IP

• Financial Proposals should include all costs for personnel, transport, training, printed materials for the survey, and analysis. IFC does not anticipate covering transportation or travel costs.
• Privacy Statement: All data and information from IFC will be treated confidentially and used only for this assignment. All intellectual property rights arising from these Terms of Reference are assigned to IFC. Content from written materials used in this assignment may not be disclosed to third parties without IFC’s express written permission.