CONSULTANCY FOR TRAINING OF BUSINESS SERVICE PROVIDERS CBO, TATABA AND LESUYAI ORGANIC BANANA FARMERS COOPERATIVE ON CAPACITY STRENGTHENING. Full Time NEW

ELIGIBILITY: KENYAN REGISTERED FIRMS

MESPT-DMDP-17-2025 – CONSULTANCY FOR TRAINING OF BUSINESS SERVICE PROVIDERS CBO, TATABA AND LESUYAI ORGANIC BANANA FARMERS COOPERATIVE ON CAPACITY STRENGTHENING.

1.0 Introduction:

Micro-Enterprises Support Programme Trust (MESPT) is a Kenyan development organization established in 2002. The Trust’s overall objective is to promote economic growth, employment creation and poverty alleviation through enterprise development. This is achieved predominantly through supporting the development of agricultural value chains whilst embracing and promoting the green growth and climate change agenda. Through its vision of building a more Prosperous Society, MESPT facilitates increased commercialization, decent employment, and green transformation through targeted interventions in the selected value chains. The Trust is a multi-donor entity jointly founded by the Government of Kenya and the European Union who later relinquished their position to the Royal Danish Embassy in Kenya, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA). To learn more about MESPT, please visit www.mespt.org.

DMPD Banana Programme dubbed Spurring Job Creation in Kenya by Enhancing the Competitiveness of the Banana Sub Sector is a Market Development Partnership Project aiming to contribute to increased and sustainable incomes and decent jobs within the banana subsector in Taita Taveta County with emphasis on women and youth. The project has rolled out interventions geared to enhancing the competitiveness of the banana value chain and hence improved market access for the targeted farmers. Production capacities of small holder farmers and service providers have been developed, and vertical and horizontal linkages facilitated thereby sustainably creating value and business efficiencies.

The main development interventions included establishment of farm estates, training of Business service providers, training of farmers on Good Agricultural Practices & agribusiness, establishment of demonstration farms, facilitating Market and Financial Linkages, facilitating organic certification and greening interventions. At the business level key interventions include organic banana production, aggregation, processing and marketing of fresh banana and banana pulp. Partnerships with key stakeholders, including regular communication with a special focus on the county government have been carried out. Through the project interventions at least 2,000 smallholder farmers have been organized and equipped through training and linked to various value chain actors.

Programme Goal: – The overall objective of these activities is to contribute to poverty reduction, climate adaptation and mitigation by embedding sustainability and green growth practices in the banana value chain in Taita Taveta County leading to increased income and employment opportunities.

1. Background of Banana Value Chain

Banana value chain has been identified as a potential driver of social economic development within the Taita Taveta County as per the 2021-2022 HCD validated report. Taita Taveta latest acreage under banana production is 3,183 Ha with equivalent volumes of 154,023 MT annually and value of Ksh 1,703,849,000 as per the HCD 2022 report. This presents a great investment opportunity in the banana value chain.

Majority of this is grown in Taveta sub-county under irrigation. The main varieties grown include improved cultivars like Dwarf Cavendish, Giant Cavendish, Williams, Grand Naine, PHIA17, PHIA19 and Gross Mitchel. The local varieties include; Matoke, Ijighu, Imange, Sweet banana, mkono wa tembo, ng’ombe and gross bandia.

The programme is engaging a pool of business service providers (BSPs), TATABA cooperative and Lesuyai banana farmers cooperative whose activities are anchored in the achievement of the programme objectives. On the other hand, the programme is banking on the BSPs, TATABA cooperative and Lesuyai banana farmers cooperative sustainability as one of the ways of achieving continuity of the programme activities even beyond the project life cycle. The BSPs/TATABA cooperative and Lesuyai banana farmers cooperative will continue to work closely with farmers and the county government by providing direct linkages to banana traders and nursery operators to ensure seamless sustainability outputs beyond the project in terms of training and marketing linkages.

3.0 Objectives of the Consultancy.

The consultancy aims to train business service providers CBO, Lesuyai Organic famers Cooperative society LTD and TATABA Cooperative Society on the following areas:

1. Cooperative Management

2. Sales and Marketing

3. Leadership and Governance

4. Proposal writing

5. Partnership engagement

6. Networking

7. Records and bookkeeping

8. Group dynamics

4.0 Scope of work

Reporting to the project officers, the consulting firm scope will include the following at the minimum:

1. Develop comprehensive training modules that will be an outline of the training programme and will cover the following topics: Leadership and Governance, Strategic Plan Implementation and Monitoring, Cooperative Management, Sales and Marketing, Proposal writing, Partnership engagement and networking, Group Dynamics and Records & bookkeeping

Train the following groups as follows: Cooperative Management, Strategic Plan Implementation and Monitoring, Sales and Marketing, Leadership and Governance, Proposal writing, Partnership engagement and networking Group Dynamics, and Records & book-keeping.

Timeframe

• The consultancy is proposed to start on 20th August 2025. There will be provision for discussion on the implementation schedule with MESPT Team for validation and inclusion of comments where applicable.
• The consulting firm will be selected based on proven experience, qualifications, team composition and technical expertise, and ability to interpret the TOR and develop appropriate methodology to execute the training.
• The training session will be physical and delivered within 9 days. After completion of the assignment the final report is expected to be submitted to MESPT in 2 weeks period after the training.

Competencies

The scope of the consultancy requires a competent consultant firm with relevant experience and knowledge in Leadership and Governance, Strategic Planning, Cooperative Management, Sales and Marketing, Proposal writing, Partnership engagement and networking and Records and book-keeping. The consulting firm is expected to be domiciled in Kenya with the following expectations: –

1. The consulting firm should have at least 5 years of professional management experience in undertaking similar assignments.
2. The lead consultant should have background in Sales and Marketing, Cooperative management, project management, Agricultural Economics, Economics, Business Administration or any other related discipline (at least a Bachelor’s degree) from a recognized university with profound knowledge of and work experience in value chain analysis and smallholder market development work.
3. The lead consultant must have demonstrated analytical work experience in the Agriculture Sector in Kenya, especially Business Development Services and Market Systems.
4. The lead consultant should have carried similar assignments successfully and verifiable impact on the ground through trainings of MSME’s, farmers, stakeholders etc
5. The lead consultant should have experience in adult learning and group training.

Tagged as: Kenya, Micro Enterprises Support Programme Trust