Tor for tender sust standards resource centre version 20130125-1x

INVITATION TO TENDER
SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS
RESOURCE CENTRE
Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125 Introduction
There is a rapid increase in market shares of agricultural products produced in
compliance with voluntary standard systems. There is also an increasing body of
capable service providers to support producers towards better agricultural and
management practices. In addition, a mountain of training materials has been produced
over the years for many different crops, countries and topics. However, both service
providers and training materials are hard to find and even then it is difficult to quickly
assess their credentials and relevance. This intransparency and lack of access holds
many producers, producer organizations and agribusinesses back from managing
improvement processes and contributes to difficulties to comply with standard
requirements.
Another key trend relates to the increasing need of the global food sector to develop
sustainable trade relations with small-scale producers. Standards and certification is an
important element here too. But a precondition is that producers are well-organized and
able to run a professional operation. This creates a growing demand for high quality
service providers and well-structured capacity building materials and tools.
To a varying degree, the sustainability initiatives have built their own, often isolated
programs and support structures related to the content of their standards. However,
sustainable farm management is not uniquely related to one standard. There is a
common interest across standards initiatives and many other players to promote
farmers’ management of sustainable agriculture and improve access to good service
providers and training materials. In a process initiated by ISEALdifferent sustainability
initiatives have agreed to collaborate on this challenge.
SECO, Hivos, IDH, UTZCertified and the 4C Association jointly aim to initiate a shared
online Resource Centre to facilitate access to information and capacity building
materials to support producers and producer organizations to reach increased
performance and market access.
Target groups

The Resource Centre focuses on management of (small scale) sustainable agricultural
production, and agribusiness enterprises in developing countries and emerging
economies.
These agribusinesses and producer organizations vary in needs as they differ in
development. The Resource Centre will be a community-managed online platform to
enable access to reliable and good service providers (and to enable them to offer
themselves) and to create easy and efficient access to tools and materials based on a
(quality) management approach for various levels of organizational development (from
low entry groups to advanced agribusinesses).
Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125 User community

As farmers and emerging producer organizations and enterprises will not always be
able to access or use the resources on their own, the direct users of the Resource
Centre will be service providers, business development services (BDS), trainers,
consultants and NGOs, facilitating the development and up-scaling of value chains, and
the more advanced producer organisations and buying companies. The Resource
Centre will need to be easy – even fun – to use. The educational level and electronic
literacy of practitioners should not be overestimated.
Services of the Sustainability Standards Resource Centre (SSRC)

Based on a feasibility study done in 2011, the proposed Resource Centre consists of an
internet platform with the following services:
1. A one-stop-shop library, where practical and copyright/distribution free tools like
training materials, templates for quality management and internal control systems, management tools, relevant photos and posters (e.g. of pests and diseases) can be uploaded by registered users, using an (obligatory) indexation method with relevant criteria, which should make it easy for users to find the tools they need; 2. Community rating / review functionality of available documents mentioned under 1 (preferably with a rate-the-rater option a la Amazon); 3. A Yellow Pages find & to be found place for providers and clients of capacity building services; Provider profiles includes selection criteria (crops, standards, working area, languages), credentials (education, courses followed) and standard contact info. Both individuals and organisations can promote themselves via the platform. Quality control and community review functionality of service providers mentioned under 3 (preferably with a rate-the-rater option a la Amazon); 4. A Community of Practice (CoP) portal for knowledge exchange and (moderated) 5. An interactive calendar for workshops and trainings (community managed); 6. Links to existing websites like the ISEAL library, the ITC standards map, e-learning Reports on the feasibility study can be found and downloaded at
http://hivos.org/sustainability-standards-resource-centre.
OWNERSHIP, MODERATION AND HOSTING

The implementing organization(s) needs to be neutral concerning the different voluntary
standards, and be able and willing to host the SSRC in the long term. It needs to have
the technical capacity to design and run a cost-effective online, community managed
platform. It needs to be familiar with the sustainable agricultural capacity building
network in developing countries. A consortium of implementers, covering the different
capacities required is possible, as long as continuity of the relationship between the
parties is assured. Reporting and accountability is done towards a Steering Committee
consisting of donors and representatives from the stakeholder community.
Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125 Setup and first period of hosting and moderation will be financed with public and private money. The aim is to make the Resource Centre self-supporting. The proposals should therefore include a convincing business case, based on an entrepreneurial, innovative approach to expected sources of income and revenue generation, which should be realistic and tested with different stakeholders. Scope of the work
Implementing agency will carry the responsibility for: • Organize technical set up, hosting and servicing of indicated services including collection and indexation of documents and testing need for level of (initial) moderation of CoP; • Strategic alliance building and maintenance with sustainable standard owners and (inter)national capacity building agencies; • Make a joint plan with sustainability standard owners on market placement of • Communication and collaboration with technical teams; • Develop a realistic and tested business case for the Resource Centre, with proposal Deliverables

Deliverables under this mandate will be:
• A functional online platform accessible in English, Spanish and French, (and
possibly other languages) with the services outlined above, including: o Library of training materials (min. 100 documents submitted by project sponsors, their affiliates, and users) with upload function which includes relevant compulsory indexing and review system; o Yellow Pages (min. 50 capacity building service providers submitted by project sponsors, their affiliates and users), which includes relevant quality control and review system; o Community of Practice (with capacity for min. 200 registered users, min. 6 facilitated discussions); a go/no go on this functionality is included based on projected cost of set-up and level of moderation required, if any (including its costs); o Q&A service; o News service related to capacity building; o Interactive calendar of capacity building events; o Page to place links, possibly also community managed and searchable. • A business plan for further implementation and roll out of the resource center, that can be implemented starting from year two, including (tested) plans for collaboration with relevant stakeholders and for promotion/ marketing. • Hosting and implementing the Resource Centre for two years after its launch • A new name for the Resource Centre can be proposed, and need to be approved by Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125 Timeline

• Project end: 2 years after launch of web platform Budget frame

• Funding has been secured up to Euro 530.000 for the total period • In the second year of hosting, 50% of operational costs need to be covered from • After the second year the project should be financially self-sustaining. The present funding should be seen as “seed” funding to set up and start running the facility only. No further funding is foreseen from the main donors after this phase. Profile of the Implementing agency

The minimum qualifications required for this assignment are as follows:
• Neutrality and independence concerning specific voluntary standards and field-level
• Institutional capacity to run the resource centre for a period of at least 10 years • Familiarity with sustainable agriculture capacity building network in developing • Track record in cost-effective IT design and management, including the use of open • Experience with working in a multi-stakeholder setting • Experience with program management, M&E, reporting and financial administration. Proposals

We expect to receive full proposals (max. 15 pages, excluding CVs) covering the
following aspects:
• Approach to setting up the Sustainability Standards Resource Centre (SSRC)
• Specification of ICT structure for implementation and servicing of the SSRC • Outline of an entrepreneurial innovative business case demonstrating financial sustainability of the SSRC after two years of operation • Work plan with main activities and milestones • CV of project team leader and short description of the participating organizations/institutions, proof of their capacity and their experience • (A new name) Please send proposals by e-mail to: [email protected] Deadline: Friday 15 March 2013 17:00 hours (Dutch time) Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125 Evaluation procedure
Proposals will be judged by the Steering Committee (consisting of SECO, Hivos, IDH, Utz Certified, 4 C Association and ISEAL) by 1 April 2013. The following criteria will be applied (weight in %): • Institutional capacity to host the Resource Centre (15%) • Experience in developing and running (open source) web portals (15%) • Familiar with sustainable agriculture capacity building network in developing • Financial competitiveness (10%) If no proposal meets the criteria, the donors reserve the right not to reward the tender to any of the applicants. In particular, the convincing business case is a necessary condition. Tender Sustainability Standards Resource Centre Final Version 20130125

Source: http://hivos.or.cr/sites/default/files/tor_tender_sust_standards_resource_centre.pdf