BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

Sudan is host to a large population of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants. It is also a country of origin for migrants and asylum-seekers because of conflict, insecurity and extreme poverty. Sudan hosts over 1.1 million registered refugees and asylum-seekers and some 1.86 million internally displaced people. The Government estimates that the actual number is as high as 2 million, with the added complexity of secondary migration from Sudan towards Europe as the country stands at the crossroads of the Horn of Africa’s complex migration route. Approximately 78 per cent of all refugees in Sudan are women and children.

Rural populations in Sudan are equally vulnerable. Human development progress has been grossly inadequate in Sudan with the Human Development Index making a slow progress from 0.268 in 1980 to 0.414 in 2012 (UNDP, 2013). Sudan’s 46.5% of the 37 million population live, mostly in rural areas, below the poverty line. According to a survey conducted by the Zakat Chamber in 2011, there were 2.3 million poor families (about 14 million people representing about 40% of the population) requiring urgent access to basic services. The value of consumption of the poor is only about 65% of the national poverty line and most of them either lack access to essential services or get further impoverished by paying for essential services. About 23.5%, who are classified as non-poor, are vulnerable with high risk of falling into poverty if they are exposed to financial and health shocks.

The first official cooperative organization was formed in the northern state of Sudan in 1937 followed by another in the Gezira region, central Sudan, in 1947. The latter helped the farmers to buy tractors, ploughs and other farming machinery. The cooperative movement was instituted officially in 1948 and kept growing and progressing under the support and encouragement of the government. The government facilitated the registration process of cooperative organizations, established the national centre for cooperative training in 1976, and the Cooperative Development Bank in 1982, leading to the flourishing and expansion of the cooperative movement. But from 1989 and onward the cooperative movement started to weaken and lose its foothold in the economy due to the sudden political change, which led to the dismantling of the National Cooperative Training Centre and the Cooperative Development Bank.

Before the Bashir regime took over there were 4000 registered coops. While this number grew to 29.000 most are considered corrupt and unproductive. The most recent cooperative-regulating law was passed in 1999. Under this law, the cooperative movement is supervised and regulated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry at the national level and the Ministries of Finance at the state level. This law does not acknowledge refugees in one way or another, hence, currently, there is a legal vacuum in where refugees are not forbidden to join cooperatives, nor are they allowed to do so. A new cooperative act is currently being produced.

Recent developments in Sudan have created renewed potential for cooperatives. This includes the lifting of comprehensive sanctions on Sudan by the United States in October 2017, as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s (MoTI) renewed interest in reviving the cooperative movement in Sudan as a means to further local economic development, especially for youth and women. The MoTI’s declared ambitions include to empower the coop department through additional funds and resources, as well as administrative changes that would link the department more closely to the private sector, making it a council with an independent secretary. Furthermore, the MoTI is keen on developing stronger relationships with international organizations to promote cooperatives and expand their activities beyond agricultural and trade-related activities.

In response to this context, UNICEF, UNHCR, ILO, IFC and the World Bank, in collaboration with and supported by the Government of the Netherlands, are developing a joint and fully integrated approach

OVERALL OBJECTIVES

The objective of these outputs are to collectively work to significantly increase the produce of farmers, build their capacity to negotiate collectively and engage displaced people and refugees in the agricultural cooperatives and improved agricultural practices at the production level of the following value chains: groundnuts, sesame and sorghum..

This is to be achieved through continued consultations with PROSPECTS project team and using a results-based approach. Consequently, this overall objective is divided into three parts as follows: pre-training, during-training and post-training objectives. Further breakdown of deliverables is detailed in the Key Deliverables section.

PART A: Pre-training objectives

This is expected to be delivered after 6 weeks of signing the contract.

• To develop and design sessions plan for thecooperatives training and the agriculture mentoring training packages. Both to be tailored to build the capacity of 1,000 farmers in the targeted states.
• To finalise all preparations needed to deliver the training at the states level. This includes discussion and proper engagement of the Local Economic Development Committee(LEDC) to agree on the selection criteria, select beneficiaries and conduct thepre-training assessments.

PART B: During-training objectives

This is expected to be delivered after 26 weeks of signing the contract.

• Deliver the cooperatives training and the improved agriculture mentoring at the states level for 1,000 smallholder farmers; 250 per each of the following localities El Nimir, Assalaya Settlement, El Kharasana Settlement, El Meiram Settlement.
• Ensure timely delivery of in-kind support to farmers taking in consideration the restrictions caused by the rainy season.

PART C: Post-training objectives

This is expected to be delivered after 32 weeks of signing the contract.

• To elaborately report ondelivery of the overall objective of this output and to comprehensively shed light on achievements, challenges and lessons learned as well as disbursing the graduation kit and submitting the post-training survey and analysis report.

All of which will be embedded in the wider approach of competency building by the ILO and partner agencies. Therefore, the implementing partner chosen by ILO is expected to familiarize themselves with the other components of the COOP training package (i.e. Start.COOP and My.COOP). It will also be an advantage if the supplier has experience at state level and is able to include refugees in the process of delivering the aforementioned objectives. The chosen implementing partner would be expected to conduct the training in an approach that helps smallholder farmers to grasp and apply the competencies reflected in Think.COOP and to be responsive to their questions to help them establish a cooperative that is productive and results in direct benefits to its members.

KEY DELIVERABLES

PART A: Pre-training deliverables

• Design and propose a 3-day training program and session plan (including all materials) following the ILO's Think.COOP methodology submit the design to the ILO's project team, incorporate feedback and finalize;

With the support of the agricultural advisor, design a step-buy step agro-mentorship training approach and relevant kits after consulting with beneficiaries for the following three crops, sorghum, sesame, groundnuts, submit the proposed improved-agriculture kit to the ILO prior to implementing the training, incorporate feedback and finalize;

• With the support of the PROSPECTS team, jointly coordinate with the Local Economic Development Committee (LEDC) members on the consecutive implementation of the Think.COOP cooperative training and the training on improved crop cultivation (for selected crops, groundnut, sesame, sorghum);
• Design and propose a beneficiary selection procedure to identify suitable farmers for training in close collaboration with the ILO's project team and LEDC at state level, submit proposal to the ILO, incorporate feedback and finalize. Implement the beneficiary selection procedure, collect their contact information in a beneficiary data-base.
• Design a pre- and post-training survey to capture beneficiaries’ prior training knowledge, attitudes on social cohesion and working with members of a different group, and their current main livelihood and expressed interest and commitment in being a member of a cooperative (by type of crop) and willingness to farm improved seeds. This survey to be submitted to the ILO's project team to incorporate feedback and finalize.  
• Administer the pre-training questionnaire for all beneficiaries, analyse the data collected and share a written report and present the finding to the ILO team.
• Design a graduation kit (taking into consideration the farmers’ interest) for the following three crops: sorghum, sesame, groundnuts, submit the proposed graduation kit to the ILO prior to implementing the training, incorporate feedback and finalize.

PART B: During-training deliverables

• Deliver an integrated 3-day training on cooperatives and social cohesion to 1,000 smallholder farmers, 250 per each of the following localities El Nimir, Assalaya Settlement, El Kharasana Settlement, El Meiram Settlement on cooperative principles between April and June 2021 (commencing before the start of the rainy season) following the Think.COOP methodology;
• Conduct the improved agro-mentoring training that will be delivered in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Centre, LEDC and an ILO national expert on the aforementioned crops);
• Arrange and administer a transparent competitive process to procure the improved-agriculture kit, timely procure (taking into consideration the rainy season)  and disburse kits for farmers who meet the selection criteria of the training program throughout the agricultural season;
• Provide weekly reports on enrolment, implementation of improved agro-practices and engagement of refugees and receipt of improved-agro-support.

Part C: Post-training deliverables

• At the end of the agricultural season provide weekly updates on number of beneficiaries successfully managing to increase their produce and those who want to register a cooperative.
• Arrange and administer a transparent competitive process to procure and disburse the graduation kit to farmers who completed both the agricultural and the cooperatives training and mentoring as well as those individuals who received either the improved agricultural kit. This to be delivered in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Centre, LEDC and an ILO project team;
• Conduct the post-training survey and analysis report, including a contact base of graduated beneficiaries who have expressed interest to work in a cooperatives.
• Submit a final implementation report, detailing relevant information (e.g. no of beneficiaries, challenges faced, lessons learned) and detailed spending to-date as agreed with the ILO

REPORTING LINES

The selected implementing partner will work under the direct supervision of the PROSPECTS team in Sudan. This includes regular planning and progress meetings, joint discussions and agreement on best approaches and regular progress reports. The Arabic version of Think.COOP facilitator guide as well as the Ethiopian adaptation of the tool to refugee contexts provides the learning material and tools to execute the training to beneficiaries. The selected implementing partner will agree with the team on the division of Think.COOP content across the three days of training delivery at states.

SUBMISSION

The interested implementing partner should submit a technical, financial proposal and evidence of proven technical expertise and institutional and financial capacity no later than 21 March 2021, 4 pm [CAT].

1. The financial proposal is to include sufficient breakdown on spend items. It should also explicitly indicate the sub-total budget of delivering Part A, B, and C separately and breakdown by unit (i.e. trained individual).The financial offer to be in USD.

2. The technical proposal should lay out, in detail, the comparative advantage of the organization in implementing the aforementioned deliverable and include at a minimum:

• A detailed work plan for the first cycle of implementation taking into account the specificities of the agricultural season (by crop)
• A training plan proposing a combination of aforementioned trainings and duration of each component (by crop); and
• A staffing plan detailing required number and distribution of staff to conduct the training and training requirements of staff themselves, including for training that could be provided by the ILO.

Both the technical and financial proposals should reflect planning to mitigate against issues relevant to the rainy season and security challenges.

3. The organisation should also submit;a) evidence of proven technical expertise (including:a list of projects delivered to date, experience and CVs of senior staff and providing contact information of references); and b) Institutional and financial capacity to carry out the programme/project activities and manage funds (including:the organogram, internal controls and risk management approach, ethics and code of conduct, monitoring and evaluation and results management, availability of asset registers, a recent financial audit report and the Value for Money approach ).

Note: For organizations without an office in both target states, the proposal should further clarify how they intend to bridge distances between target localities.

All interested organization can send questions to Ms. Fatima Sirelkhatim (sirelkhatim@ilo.org)to the ILO until 25 February 2021. Questions will be answered and shared with the interested organizations by Close of Business on 4 March 2021.

Please note that the ILO will not consider incomplete submissions. All responses and supporting documentation received will be treated as strictly confidential and will not be made available for the public.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

• 1st payment will be 20% of the total budget and to be disbursed once the contract is signed and an inception report is submitted.
• 2nd payment will be 30% of the total budget and will be disbursed on completion and submission of Part A deliverables;
• 3rd payment will be 30% of the budget which is to be disbursed upon satisfactory progress on deliverables under Part B; and
• 4th payment of 20% is to be disbursed upon the submission of deliverables under Part C.