Request for Proposals: Increase Household Access to Safe and Nutritious Foods

Deadline: 31-Mar-23

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is issuing proposals to provide technical support on establishment of home gardens to increase household access to safe and nutritious foods.

GAIN is implementing the Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples (SNIPS) project which will add a nutrition lens to and deliver an integrated suite of activities to support GIZ’s Green Innovation Centre (GIC) in Nigeria. This nutrition project will strengthen the GIC priority value chains and improve food security and safety through improved diets for farmers, farm workers, other workers in businesses in these value chains, and among the wider population in Nigeria. The following broad objectives for this programme are:

Increased consumption of safe, nutritious foods by smallholder farmers, their families, and the wider population.
Strengthened cassava, maize, sweet potato, and rice value chains in Nigeria which provide more, safe nutritious foods to consumers.
Increased use of nutritious varieties of the target staples in processed foods.
Improved productivity & efficiency of farmers and other businesses to improve the production of safe, nutritious foods in the cassava, maize, sweet potato, and rice value chains.

Scope of Work

GAIN Nigeria seeks an implementing partner who will work closely with GAIN and its partners on an annually renewable contract (from 2023 to 2025) to develop (and implement) technical trainings on home gardens establishment for 5,000 households, to drive increased consumption of safe and nutritious foods among smallholder farmers and their families for the Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples (SNIPS) Project.
The Project will be designed to;
- train households on the establishment and maintenance of home gardens;
- improve access to quality planting materials (seeds, vines, seedlings, e.t.c) for the home gardens
- improve knowledge and technologies on good agronomic practices for home gardens;
- improve nutrition education of households on the need for consumption of nutritious foods planted in the home gardens;
The selected implementing partner will support planning and implementation of Workforce Nutrition Component of the Project: encourage the consumption of safe and nutritious foods (including orangefleshed sweet potatoes, green leafy vegetables, fruits,e.t.c. ) by farmers and their household members, encourage adoption, cultivation and improved production of green leafy vegetables, fruits, vit A biofortified crops, farmers training and capacity building around best home gardening practices, encourage consumption of the produce by the farming households, ensure adequate follow-ups to measure adoption and output progress and to support community resilience and participation. The partner would also be expected to engage with relevant programme stakeholders and undertake advocacy activities for Workforce Nutrition and relevant programme objectives.
Building on this, the implementing partner will develop a work plan for the training, including strategy and proposed methodologies, as well as a quality assurance plan to improve access to targeted nutritious foods through home garden techniques among smallholder farmer families. The implementing partner is expected to work under the direct supervision of the SNIPS Project Manager for Workforce Nutrition Component to carry out the following:
- Farmer’s Communities
  - Identification of communities with farmer based cooperatives/groups, clustered communities of rice and maize farmers in the project states (Benue, Kaduna and Nasarawa) and assessment of the local context of the identified communities.
  - Farmers enagagement and capacity building – Production and Good Agronomic Practices (GAP);
    - Develop training curriculum for home gardens, onsite practical demonstration sessions in the communities.
    - The design should include capacity building of Field and Extension Agents on Good Agronomic Practices for home gardening establishment and management.
  - Support purchase and distribution of seeds, seedlings, vines and other inputs to farmers.
  - Conduct training on nursery establishment and management.
- Home Garden establishment and management
  - Ensure households establish home gardens and manage them till harvest for consumption.
  - Assist the monitoring and evaluation of the project’s knowledge transfer activities and review knowledge uptake under the project’s training programme.
  - Support the review of knowledge uptake under the project’s training programme.
- Project Management
  - Provide project updates on a consistent basis to various stakeholders about strategy, adjustments, and progress.
  - Write quality narrative reports, reflecting the progress and status of projects in a transparent, timely and professional manner.

Activities

Design Home Garden training curriculum to include cultivation of vegetables, fruits and orange fleshed sweet potato
Conduct and supervise training sessions
Provide technical assistance to all 5,000 participants that received planting materials to establish their home garden
Carryout follow-up activities on the establishment and management of home gardens by 5,000 households
Planting materials distribution
Provide Monthly progress report

Eligibility Criteria

Must be a Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) including Business Members Organizations (BMOs), Local Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and Private for Profit Organizations with valuable experience in home garden establishment and management.
Must operate as an independent non-politically affiliated organization.
Must be a registered legal entity in Nigeria, as applicable, at least one year prior to the submission.

For more information, visit Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).