About IFDC
IFDC is a public international organization active in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems development, an enabling policy environment, and strategic partnerships to assist farmers and countries to identify and scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency. These approaches are needed to boost soil health and crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, safeguard the soil on which our lives depend, and generate economic resilience for farming households and the countries in which they live.
IFDC is currently seeking passionate individuals to join its team, as the organization continues to expand its impact and work towards creating positive changes in agriculture and sustainable soil management across the world.
Responsibilities
- An inventory of common organic fertilizer products in West Africa.
- Minimum requirements (for nutrient content, heavy metals, packaging and impurities) for the registration of fertilizer product.
- A production guide developed in consultation with organic fertilizers stakeholders in West Africa.
The consultant will work with the project team to clarify some of the expected outputs and provide advice on additional outputs necessary to attain the main objective as specified.
The consultant will submit the following deliverables:
- Guidelines will be available in English or French in the form of a neatly presented guidelines in MS Word and PDF, with illustrations and templates as needed.
- A PowerPoint presentation to be used during dissemination, providing illustrated highlights of key points detailed in the guidelines.
Job Requirements
- Should have extensive experience in organic products facilities management. eJnXCNe BIpnb
- Should have practical and extensive knowledge about organic products and the process of organic fertilizer producing particularly for African markets as well as existing ECOWAS regulations on fertilizer trade and quality control.
- Have been directly involved in the process leading to the development of similar guidelines or standards in other countries would be an asset.
- Must have strong oral and written communications in French and English and be able to work effectively and build relationships with others.
- Fluency in French and in English would be an advantage
Reporting and Work Relationships
Supervision: The project is responsible for supervising the consultant’s work, including reviewing progress reports, providing feedback and guidance, and evaluating the consultant’s performance. The consultant will be supported by the Josias Toviho ([email protected]), Ernest Osei-Assibey, ([email protected]) and Kido Kouassi ([email protected]).
The consultancy period runs from May 15th, 2024, until November 30th, 2024 (4 months). The final guidelines document is to be submitted to IFDC/EnGRAIS not later than November 30, 2024. The assignments above can be done remotely using the pertinent means of communication and, when necessary, the consultant may travel within the West Africa region.
Location
This is a national recruitment with a duty station in the IFDC office based in any country in West Africa.
Benefits
The consultant will provide a detailed breakdown of the budget required for the work and any other necessary resources associated with a work plan and a clear calendar.
Salary Clause
The project is responsible for ensuring that the consultant receives payment for his work in accordance with the terms of the contract.
Diversity Clause
IFDC is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, and offers equal employment opportunities based on ability, performance, and potential. Equal opportunity is integral to the recruitment and selection practices at IFDC. IFDC recognizes the value in recruiting employees with different backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and beliefs. IFDC recognizes and values the contribution of people with a diverse background in capabilities, experience, and perspectives. Diversity encompasses gender, age, experience, education, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds as well as other dimensions such as lifestyle and family responsibilities.
About Program/Project
The Feed the Future Enhancing Growth through Regional Agricultural Inputs Systems (EnGRAIS) project funded by USAID/WA mission is actively working with African-led regional institutions to address critical issues that constrain the effective supply and use of agricultural inputs in West Africa. The goal of EnGRAIS is to contribute to improve sustainable agricultural productivity and inclusive growth for West Africans through its strategic objective of sustainably increasing regional availability and use of appropriate and affordable fertilizers. The project is applying a multi-faceted approach, working throughout the fertilizer supply chain as a facilitator and enhancing strategic actors’ ability to improve the business environment and transition to a private sector-led fertilizer market that responds to an effective demand for productivity-enhancing inputs in West Africa. The project has been collaborating with various partners such as ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS, NARS, AGRA and WAFA in the context of the promotion of the regional fertilizer industry.
The introduction and use of organic fertilizer products has become more prominent in West Africa particularly due to impacts of a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled supply chain issues, Russia’s war in Ukraine leading to high inflation, and price hikes for inorganic fertilizers, thereby making them unaffordable to many smallholder farmers. Some governments in the region therefore substituted their fertilizer tender requirements with organic products to curtail this crisis. Farmers on the other hand, found alternatives to supplement their fertilizer needs such as purchasing locally produced or imported organic fertilizers which were mostly cheaper as compared to mineral fertilizers. This period has undoubtedly drawn attention to the use of organic fertilizers and the potential for domestic production in the region.
As production and importation of organic fertilizers continue to increase, Member States have expressed concern about the lack of specific guidelines and regulations that oversee the importation, production and distribution of these products. The existing regional fertilizer regulations and accompanying manuals have largely been skewed towards inorganic fertilizers. In addition, the minimum requirement for the analysis of organic fertilizer products is not fully covered in the existing regulations (eg. level of pathogens, impurities etc.)
Thus, during this extension phase of the project (2023-2026), EnGRAIS aims to develop a regional guide on the that will specify the minimum requirements and production of organic products. The envisaged guideline will harmonize the definition of organic fertilizers in the region and specifications that they should meet. From a practical standpoint,
some of the products on the market will be assessed to identify common quality issues and provide the necessary remedial actions on how to fix or avoid them.
The organic fertilizer guidelines will facilitate the regulation of organic fertilizers produced, imported and distributed in the West African Region by providing regulators with the necessary information for quality control. To achieve this, the scope of work has been developed to hire a consultant who will be responsible for developing a methodology for developing a repository of organic fertilizer products in the West Africa region as well as guidelines for its production.
The consultant’s job is to develop a repertoire of best practices and key principles for organic fertilizer production. This manual will give the information for organic fertilizer quality control for the region.
The specific objectives are as follows:
- Develop an inventory of commonly traded organic fertilizers in West Africa to highlight common quality issues of organic fertilizer, how to evaluate them a
- Identify the current gaps in the current ECOWAS inspection and analysis manual in the context of organic fertilizers.
- Propose a definition for organic fertilizers and parameters of interest in ensuring their quality.
- Determine the minimum requirements for organic fertilizers in West Africa.
- Provide guidelines to meet specific requirements for organic fertilizer production in West Africa.