Opportunity Title:

Carbon Study Consultant - Mozambique

Short Description:

With the objective of closing the financing gap for the agriculture space in Mozambique, we believe carbon finance could play a role tapping into that gap and enabling and accelerating the transition to inclusive, resilient and decarbonized value chains. There is a strategic opportunity on leveraging the learning on carbon finance from Ghana, and analyzing how carbon finance could best contribute to FCDO Mozambique inclusivity and resilience priorities in the agricultural sector in the country.

Detailed Description

TechnoServe is seeking proposals from qualified consultants for the following scope of work. For information on timeline, application requirements, and evaluation criteria, please review the full Request for Proposals here. An amendment can be found here. Please submit your proposal for this consultancy to buy+US+P0022595@tns.org by Aug 11, 2023.

Scope of Work

Role: Consultant

Location: Mozambique and remote

Timing: ~3 months

Languages: Portuguese, English

Background

TechnoServe has been working on carbon finance opportunities for smallholders in the last couple of years. In 2022, TechnoServe published a report on opportunities in the carbon finance space, with a particular focus on how such solutions may be used to channel finance to smallholder farmers. In early 2023, TechnoServe worked on a study that identifies specific opportunities for smallholders to access carbon finance through engaging with Ghanaian agri-businesses. This study has shown a lot of potential for carbon finance to play a funding mechanism role on enabling a transition to more inclusive, climate resilient and decarbonized value chains. As a result of the study, TechnoServe and FCDO Ghana will be working with 3 specific agribusinesses supporting them on unlocking those opportunities and using those case studies to have a sector level impact.

With the objective of closing the financing gap for the agriculture space in Mozambique, we believe that carbon finance could play a role tapping into that gap and enabling and accelerating the transition to inclusive, resilient and decarbonized value chains. Thus, we believe there is a strategic opportunity on leveraging the learning on carbon finance from Ghana, and analyzing how carbon finance could best contribute to FCDO Mozambique inclusivity and resilience priorities in the agricultural sector in the country.

Overall Project Objective and Deliverables

The headline objective is to generalize a set of recommendations on the nature of the smallholder carbon finance opportunity in Mozambique and the required activities and investments of donors like FCDO to unlock through engaging agri-businesses on tangible opportunities to access carbon finance for smallholders.

The consultant will work with TechnoServe’s Strategic Initiatives team and lead the project execution, including conducting in-country research in Mozambique, which will contribute to the project’s overall deliverables.

The project’s overall deliverable is a PowerPoint presentation (est. 30-50 slides) that describes the smallholder carbon finance opportunity for 2-4 agri-businesses in Mozambique and builds on these examples to create generalizable recommendations for development of the sector. The deliverable will include the following:

Overview of the main smallholder-relevant carbon finance solutions available
- Profile of main Mozambique-relevant smallholder carbon finance solutions relevant to agriculture and agroforestry
- Brief overview of how they work, what is required from partners to operationalize, presence and interest working in Mozambique
Profiles of high potential agri-business in Mozambique for whom such financing is relevant and profile of bankable concept
- Brief overview of main agri-business sectors in Mozambique and identification of sub-sectors for which carbon finance for smallholders is most relevant
- Process to identify 2-4 agri-businesses interested in piloting such a model
- Profile of these 2-4 agri-businesses including:
  - Information on their core business: size, capacity, target market, historical growth, growth objectives
  - Supply chain dynamics: number of farmers in supply chain, current level of inclusivity (investment in farmer base, nature of buying relationship, technical assistance support)
- For each business, description of green finance concept for their farmers: how model would work and flow of financing, potential impact for farmers, potential impact for business, potential impact for environment
Level of alignment between supply of smallholder carbon finance and requirements from business
- Establishment of basic framework to assess requirements of business vs. requirements of finance solution
- For each profiled agri-business, identify extent to which priority finance solutions offer suitable solution for agri-businesses or not
- Define areas of strong alignment, and areas of mismatch
- Establish likelihood of agri-business being able to access one of the current green finance solutions
Strategic recommendations
- Based on opportunities identified for 2-4 priority agri-businesses, identify level of potential for this type of financing to drive impact with smallholders and commercial growth, i.e., how scalable and impactful coulfd this be
- Based on process of unlocking smallholder carbon finance, identify how effectively current solutions match needs of Mozambique's agri-business sectors and where mismatch currently exists
- Given this, identify set of strategic opportunities for different actors in sector (private sector, FCDO, other donors, climate finance players) to catalyze change in the sector
An 8-10 page executive summary of the most salient points described above to be used in external communications

Proposed sub-objectives and elements of work are the following:

Interviews with identified smallholder carbon finance solution providers (e.g., carbon project developers) on the types of projects they are looking for and the information they need to be able to finance a program
Engagement with high-potential agri-businesses for whom such solutions may be relevant to introduce the concept, solicit their interest and identify 2-4 businesses interested in collaborating in this process
Higher-touch 1:1 work with the identified 2-4 agri-businesses to flesh out the proposed solution considering the farmer base within their supply chain
Development of plan requiring smallholder carbon finance and engagement with carbon finance providers to establish suitability and relevance of their concept to the solution
Documentation of above process and identification of main strategic implications for different actors in the sector

Key Activities and Timelines

The project should conduct the core research and analysis, and deliver the recommendations over a 12-week period. There would be an additional month at the end where we envisage engaging with relevant stakeholders on the suggested recommendations that would be mainly led by TechnoServe team.

Skills and Requirements

Demonstrated research experience evaluating agricultural value chains utilizing both primary and secondary resources
Professional experience in developing countries
Demonstrated leadership skills, teamwork, and relationship building
Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
Strong computer skills, including MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
Able to work independently, flexibly, and responsively
Able to adapt to changing working conditions
Able to prioritize and meet deadlines
Professional level of spoken and written English and Portuguese

Logistics

The consultant will need to conduct primary research and interview relevant stakeholders in Mozambique during at least 3-4 weeks. TechnoServe will pay the consultant on a daily rate basis. The project would ideally start in November 2023.

The consultant will report into and have regular check-ins with TechnoServe’s Strategic Initiatives group. The bulk of the consultant’s work will be performed independently.

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Carbon Study Consultant - Mozambique