Consultancy Service for technical training on Frozen Potato Production and Food Safety

Organizational background and mission brief

Mada is a non-partisan, non-sectarian Lebanese NGO, established and registered in 2000 in Lebanon which aims to reinforce the relationship between local communities and their natural environment for the satisfaction of their substantial needs.

Mada association in collaboration with ARCS as Project Leader currently has funding from the Italian Agency for International Cooperation to implement a 30 months’ project entitled “Promoting Vulnerable Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt” – AID 011528”.

The project aims at supporting vulnerable women of hos communities and refugees, in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, in setting off on the path towards social and economic empowerment assisting them with the creation of real opportunity for job and income generation initiatives (IGA). This will be realized through specific training intended to strengthen/launch their own business.

Job Brief

Mada is seeking one local consultant to provide agriculture and agro-food cooperative members located in Akkar, North Lebanon with the following training topics:

1. Frozen potatoes’ production (i.e. potatoes’ variety, steps of production: cleaning and peeling, cutting, blanching, Drying, Par-Frying, Freezing, Packing and storage, how to use the machines, etc…)
2. Food safety (rules and principles, etc…)

The consultant is needed to support the intervention by providing production continuity, coaching, and advisory services, to strengthen their sales and production skills for better placement of food products in the market.

The selected consultant will provide the mentioned training topics and work closely with the Cooperative members, main women to create a healthy training environment while using interactive training approaches and provide support where necessary. Furthermore, the Mada project team will work in close cooperation with the selected trainer to ensure that training is adequately delivered.

Main responsibilities

• Develop a clear outline of sessions based on the mentioned topics, and a clear schedule and timeline of training.
• Provision of onsite 10 to 15 training days, equivalent to 3 hours per day for 10 to 15 participants
• The consultant has to share the training curriculum that will be used to deliver the training sessions.
• Agree with Mada on the training approach and training curriculum.
• Develop pre and post-tests to assess the capabilities of the beneficiaries and to monitor their progress during training sessions.
• The consultant has to monitor the attendance of beneficiaries and report any issue to Mada’s focal point.
• Provide periodic reports to Mada’s focal point on the progress of the beneficiaries, attendance, pending issues, challenges, weaknesses, difficulties, strengths, and planned activities.
• At the end of the first training cycle, provide Mada’s focal point with a final report that includes the remaining areas of support needed and specific areas of focus required for the skills development of the cooperative members.

 Minimum Qualification and experience

• 3 to 4 years of experience in delivering similar training.
• Demonstrated experience in food production and safety mainly on frozen potatoes
•  Strong interpersonal and facilitation skills

Time Frame/Duration

The total period of the consultancy is 8 weeks. The training consultant is expected to start delivering training sessions to cooperatives by mid of July 2021.