Financial Inclusion Consultant (Short Term)-BRIGHT Project IFDC UG

Terms of Reference

Consultancy services to support Financial Inclusion Assessment

Background and rationale of the activity

Building Resilience and Inclusive Growth of Highland farming systems for rural Transformation (BRIGHT) project, is a 4-year project, being implemented by IFDC in cooperation with Agriterra, the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), district local governments, local implementing partners and beneficiary farmer households. The project is being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Dutch development policy. Bright project is operational in Kigezi. Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori areas in Uganda.

BRIGHT project aims to build resilience of 106,560 highland farm households in Uganda to adapt better to economic and climate-related shocks and stresses through capacitating participating highland farming households in inclusive decision making, (with specific on/off farm skilling, create women spaces and attract and involve rural youth in identified rural-based agricultural economic activities) and integrated farm-planning, introducing appropriate climate-smart agriculture techniques and technologies to strengthen local farming systems, ensuring natural resource conservation and development of strategic value chains.

In times of crisis, community groups, such as VSLAs, provide an important means of support for households to fall back on, providing social as well as financial support. Access to credit is widely recognized as a decisive factor in eliminating poverty and building local resilience and development. In 2018, a mere 10% of all agricultural households had access to credit (UBOS, 2018), and of those, 45% gained access to credit via VSLAs, making these self-help groups the most important means via which farm households gain access to finance: (1) self-help groups (45%), (2) Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) (16%), (3) microfinance institutions (8%), (4) family and friends (8%), and (5) farmer associations (6%) (Ibid.).

VSLAs are established at the community level to reduce the vulnerability of households by financially and socially empowering the poor and vulnerable to respond to emergencies that require limited finance. VSLAs are self-managed groups that do not receive external funding and provide members with a safe place to save and obtain emergency funding. VSLA members experience significant improvements in household resilience, health, and well-being and an overall improved quality of life. The approach is suited for all layers of rural societies, including the very poor and the extremely vulnerable and is well understood by communities. The VSLAs themselves are 100% member-owned, and results show that members avoid becoming dependent on aid.

BRIGHT will, where possible, build on VSLAs to connect farm households to formal financial service providers (FSPs) to overcome investment capital and working capital constraints that hinder economic growth and development, as VSLAs are limited in this capacity. This solution will be particularly important as relates to market-oriented and entrepreneurial farmers, but particular attention will be paid to ensuring more subsistence-oriented farmers also obtain credit.

This assessment will present the existing farmer financial services options, financing mechanisms/schemes, barriers to access credit and opportunities available for subsistence, Market-oriented and entrepreneurial farmers in the 3 regions of Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori highland areas.

1.0 Rationale for the Financial Inclusion Assessment

 This assessment will be critical in identifying the existing financing options for the smallholder farmers, barriers to access to the credit facilities as well as financing opportunities for subsistence, market oriented and entrepreneurial farmers categories. The assessment will further enhance the findings of the baseline study, farming systems and value chain and actors analyses that will inform the interventions to increase access to both informal and formal financial service providers and other identified communal and social safety nets options for the farmers in Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori Bright project areas.

To provide a status situation as a basis for designing adaptive financing schemes options for the participating farmers and VSLA groups in Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori regions. 

• Conduct a secondary literature review to concretely, establish the existing situation (global, regional, national level and high land regions of Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori regions ) concerning financial inclusion options.
• Highlight the existing financial services providers in Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori regions, their financial products and services offered, access criteria, and the likely barriers to hinder the uptake of their financial products and services offered.
• Triangulate area-specific economic activity enterprises and perceptions on repayment history by interviewed area financial service providers.
• To recommend the necessary strategies and practical training modules to enhance access to social networks (communal and safety nets with an initial focus on VSLAs).

3.0 Scope of Work

The consulting services will cover the following activities:

• The short-term expert will review current secondary literature on financial inclusion at global, regional, national and project focus areas.
• Conduct KII financial inclusion interviews at national level with financial service providers such as DFCU, Equity bank, Centenary bank, Post Bank, Stanbic, Microfinance support centre (MSC), Agricultural Development Centre, Agriterra, Uganda Development Bank Limited, selected social, equity investors and lenders and digital credit such as Root Capital, Beyco, aBi finance, Financial sector deepening Uganda and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD).
• The short-term expert will also work with the Project Financial Inclusion Manager to analyze collected primary data and develop a consolidated Financial Inclusion assessment report.

4.0 Deliverables/Outputs of the assignment

• An inception report detailing the methodology.
• Submission of analysis datasets
• Submission of a draft Financial Inclusion assessment report with findings, conclusion, and recommendations for targeted farmers and VSLA groups in Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori in highland regions for validation input.
• Final report with findings, conclusion, and recommendations.

5.0 Expected Timelines and Deliverables

Within ten (10) days consultancy period, the consultant is expected to complete the above-mentioned scope of work. The deliverables are as follows:

• Technical and Financial proposal -
• Inception report – 2 days
• Less than ten years secondary literature review – 2 days
• Analysis of collected primary data using appropriate methods – 2 days
• Submit draft report for validation – 1 day
• Hold validation input meeting with selected participants – 1 day
• Fair copy and Final report submission and datasets analysis workbooks – 2 days

6.0 Reporting Arrangement

The Consultant will work under the overall guidance of the BRIGHT project Deputy Team Lead and supervised by the Financial Inclusion Manager.

7.0 BRIGHT project responsibilities

• BRIGHT project shall provide funds to the consultant based on agreed budget.
• IFDC will share tool and cleaned primary data sets collected via FGDs and KIIs with selected stakeholders of Elgon, Kigezi, Mt. Elgon and Rwenzori highland regions.
• Review the reports.

8.0 Financial proposal

Please submit your quotation for this assignment clearly indicating cost in Uganda Shilling or USD, applicable taxes inclusive.

1. Proposed Payment Schedule

The Payments are made upon satisfactory completion and acceptance of the deliverables:

• 40% of the contract value upon submission and approval of the Inception Report
• 30% of the contract value upon submission of the data analysis report
• 30% of the contract value upon submission/presentation of the final report and participation in the validation meeting.

1. How to apply.

Provide a proposal on how you intend to carry out the assignment, state similar needed expertise and experience. Include a tabular work plan and timing plus a financial proposal with daily level of effort rate as well as anticipated additional field costs. Proposals should be attached to the cv section (When doing the application on the career website)by close of business on Thursday 9th March 2023. For queries/Clarifications, you can reach out to Grace Babirye at gbabirye@ifdc.org or cell: +256 752-877-130/ +256-772-345-314

The Person/ firm shall have the following experience/requirements:

A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Economics/Agribusiness, Statistics, Economics, Demography economics, or a closely related field.

1. At least 5 years of experience in a related field.
2. Training in qualitative and quantitative data analysis
3. Experience working with big data, both qualitative and quantitative.
4. Has proven experience in similar assignments.

Individual consultants (Experts) experience/requirements: 

The CVs must contain the qualifications and experience of persons to be deployed to undertake the assignment as follow;

1. Team Leader Qualification: Master’s Degree in Agricultural economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, or related field with over 5 years of working experience in Agriculture Financing and Agribusiness projects.
2. Data scientist: Qualification; Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/Information Technology, Statistics, or related field with over 5 years of working experience.
3. The selected Individual/firm will be required to have a combined set of skills and specified experience and must provide qualified and experienced personnel for the assignment.

How to Apply:

Click on the 'Apply Here' section to be redirected to the application portal.