Company Profile

The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) is a public international organization (PIO) governed by an international board of directors with representation from developed and developing nations. The non-profit center focuses on increasing and sustaining food and agricultural productivity in developing countries through the development and transfer of effective and environmentally sound crop nutrient technology and agribusiness expertise.

Job Description

<span style="&quot;color:rgb(255," 0,="" 0)"="">INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT, FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF USAID WAFP SUPPORTED FERTILIZER SUBSIDY TRACKING SYSTEM AND ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE OF FERTILIZER REGULATIONS IN GHANA

• Position:  ICT IMPACT EVALUATION CONSULTANT (Ghana)
• Type of contract:  Short-Term
• Duration:   20 working days
• Indicative starting date:  FEBRUARY 25, 2016
• Location:  Accra, Ghana
• Closing date of application: FEBRUARY 17, 2016.       

Context

The USAID West Africa Fertilizer Program (WAFP) is a five-year USAID program implemented by IFDC in ECOWAS Member States. The program aims to make high quality fertilizer available and affordable by smallholder farmers throughout the West Africa sub-region. To achieve this objective, WAFP focuses on four main intervention areas among which include:

• Support to ECOWAS and its Member States in the implementation of regional fertilizer regulations governing the quality control of fertilizers in the region;
• Provision of evidence-based information (through analyses and matrices) for policy makers to make informed decisions leading to an improved policy enabling environment for private sector investments, including the design and administration of subsidy programs using best approaches based on lessons and experiences from similar programs in different countries.

From 2013 to date, WAFP has provided support to the Government of Ghana (GOG) in the development and implementation of the Fertilizer and Plants Act 2010 (Act 803) and related policy and program areas including fertilizer subsidy program through collaborations with the USAID-funded Agricultural Policy Support Project (APSP) and two technical directorates of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) of Ghana. WAFP support has been also extended to piloting of two information and communications technology (ICT) systems to improve the efficiency in managing the fertilizer subsidy program and implementing fertilizer regulations in the country in partnership with ImageAD – the systems designer. These include the Electronic Tracking of Fertilizer Subsidy Distribution (2013 - 2015) with the Directorate of Crop Services (DCS-MOFA) and the  Electronic Surveillance System for Fertilizer Regulations (Plant and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (Act 803) Monitoring (2014 - 2015) with the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD-MOFA).

IFDC is seeking to use a consultancy service to equip the partners (WAFP, APSP, MOFA and ImageAD) with evidence based outcomes of these two electronic systems in Ghana to assist the Government of Ghana (GOG) in their sustainability and their regional promotion and scaling-up in other West African countries.

Specific job responsibilities

The consultant will provide technical assistance needed to improve the ability of both WAFP and C4CP to achieve their goals through the establishment of effective collaboration mechanisms with regional institutions. He/she will:

• Conduct a technical evaluation of the various modules of the Fertilizer Subsidy Tracking System and the Electronic Surveillance System for Fertilizer Regulations Monitoring software applications developed and deployed by ImageAD and MOFA’s manual (paper) based regulatory processes.
• Capture various levels of perspectives of a representative sample of fertilizer stakeholders in the subsidy supply and fertilizer regulations – Plant and Fertilizer Act chains (retailers, distributors, MOFA district, regional and national desk officers) on the use of both systems in Ghana
• Assess the internal and external factors that have positively or negatively affected the achievement of the expected outcomes and propose the sustainability and exit strategies for future implementation of such systems in West Africa.
• Evaluate the extent to which the Fertilizer Subsidy Tracking System and the Electronic Surveillance System for Fertilizer Regulations Monitoring have impacted the efficiency of MOFA DCS and PPRSD management of fertilizer subsidy program and fertilizer regulations monitoring in Ghana respectively and recommend corrective actions for future management of such systems in West Africa.
• Consolidate, review all assessments from all the relevant stakeholders and draft/finalize/present two (2) separate evaluation reports on 1) Fertilizer Subsidy Tracking System and, 2) Electronic Surveillance System for Fertilizer Regulations to have a compelling case to ensure sustainability of both systems in Ghana and to better support their regional promotion, scaling-up and replicating in other West African countries.

Required Skills or Experience

• Education: A Master’s degree in Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Economics, Economics, Management Information Systems or a related field
• Work experience:
  • At least five years of professional work experience, preferably in agricultural policy with government or international donor-funded projects/programs in the areas of fertilizer, food security or economic development
  • Work experience in Ghana or ECOWAS Member States and with regional institutions (preferred).
• Skills/knowledge:
  • Excellent analytical, oral and written communication skills
  • Competence in the use of computers, MS Office and mobile based software
  • Ability to develop data collection methodologies and tools.
  • Ability to work independently with little or no supervision
  • Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
  • Demonstrated ethics, integrity and sound judgment;
  • Strong organizational skills and ability to work with relevant staff and counterparts
  • Ability and availability to travel to other parts of Ghana required.