Food Systems Grant Facility – Mapping consultant

Lebanon has been facing multiple crises growing in intensity since 2019: economic, financial, health, humanitarian, which slowed and continue to slow down the economy and productivity of the country. As a result, the national currency has lost around 90% of its value, 55% of Lebanese live below the poverty line of 3.84USD a day and unemployment rate stand at 39%. Before the crisis, the median salary was 630USD, while it has reached currently less than 50USD.

Prior to the financial and economic crisis, Lebanon’s agricultural sector was already beset with series of challenges such as productivity constraints, limited access to finance in rural areas, insufficient agricultural technologies, weak post-harvest systems, and limited market access specifically to non-traditional markets such as Europe.

The crisis added further pressure on the sector, putting food security at risk given the increase in food prices of which 85% if imported. WFP’s assessments conducted in 2020 indicated that deteriorated purchasing power is one of the main reasons why food security in Lebanon is at risk. Lebanese and refugees are increasingly struggling to buy food, pay rent and access health care, with high inflation and stark currency devaluation worsening the situation.

Building a resilient agri-food sector in Lebanon is key in overcoming these challenges and establishing sustainable solutions based on local resources and productions. A resilient food system in Lebanon relies on supporting farmers with credit facilitations, strengthening the linkages between the different segments of the agri-food production, and developing the capacities of SMEs working in the agri-food production in business investment in order to ensure better production that may satisfy a large part of the local market. There is a need to shift from a traditional and conventional food culture to a smarter more efficient one where technology, innovation, sustainability and optimization take an active role.

Within this framework, World Food Programme (WFP), in line with its Country Strategic Plan, has recently launched a cooperation with Berytech to implement Food Systems Grant Facility programme with the aim of improving food security and resilience of food system actors to economic shocks and stresse

Berytech is a leading organization in the Entrepreneurial Eco-system in Lebanon that has been working on the Agrifood sector mainly through the Agrytech program and the establishment of the QOOT Cluster which aims to support innovation in the Agri-food sector, improve its competitiveness and expand employment opportunities. Since then, several programs have been developed and implemented targeting the sector and SMEs resilience and growth.

Spread over 18 months, the programme aims to enhance competitiveness, efficiency and resilience of cooperatives and SMEs working across different streams of the food, supporting around 30 Cooperatives and SMEs with financial, technical, and in-kind support to improve performance and inclusiveness of food systems.

Berytech seeks an external consultant to carry out mapping, identifying the different organizations and stakeholders working on food systems in Lebanon, be it on production, transformation, or food consumption. The main purpose is to brainstorm on the current challenges and set the overall priorities and the timeline of the activities, in line with the WFP call outcome. The stakeholders may involve, but not exclusive to:

• Three food system pillars (food production; food transformation; and food consumption): input providers, farmers, labor, service providers, post-harvest facility owners, retailers, wholesalers, exporters, consumers etc..
• Donors and actors working within the Lebanon food security sector
• National and international stakeholders’ agendas and strategies: WFP; Ministry of Agriculture, FAO, and others.

The consultant will work under the overall direct guidance of the Program Director, in close coordination with Agri-Food Specialists. The key activities should include:  

• Conduct desk review of major studies, reports, assessments produced by international organizations and donors such as WFP, FAO, USAID, AFD, ILO, World Bank among others. Main purpose is to obtain more up-to-date information on general country situation pertaining to food system, needs/gaps of the SMEs, coping strategies of the vulnerable population with focus on youth, women, and refugees.
• Undertake research to identify the different stakeholders working along the three pillars of the food system: production, transformation and consumption.
• Conduct Key Informant Interviews with different stakeholders for the challenges to be tackled through local solutions.
• Identify areas of complementarity with organizations as well as areas overlap to gear the project into a more beneficial direction.
• Provide Detailed Reports on the findings, as well as updates on the matching process and findings from the key interviews. 

Key Deliverables:

• List of Stakeholders Identified and interviewed for the mapping along with recommended stakeholders further interested in collaboration.
• List of documents, reports reviewed and considered for more updated referencing on the needs and gaps of food systems.
• Final Report with the Main Findings, Priorities, and Key outcomes for moving project forward. This report should include also the challenges to be used for the call for applications.

Applicants must fulfill the following requirements:

• Be able to comply with national fiscal context and rules for receipt of international funds.
• BSc/BA diploma in management or a relevant field; MSc/MA is a plus

• 7 to 10 years’ experience in the economic development sector with focus on agriculture and food sectors or a related field
• Proven experience in working on projects preferably within the Agri-Food or food systems development, at policy or ground levels.

• Possession of strong network and links to different organizations working in the field
• Excellent moderation skills and experience in qualitative research
• Excellent English writing skills

IMPORTANT:

The header of the technical and financial offers must clearly note the candidate data (Name, address, country, telephone, email and fiscal identity number or other official number).

Offers will be assessed according to the following criteria and scores:

Points

Criteria

Maximum 40 points

Quality of the technical offer to meet the work objectives

Maximum 40 points

Proven track-record

Maximum 20 points

Financial offer