Ghana faces significant vulnerability to climate change. Rising sea levels, drought, higher temperatures, and erratic rainfall are all expected to negatively impact food security and agricultural livelihoods. These impacts on agriculture include increased rates of crop loss and failure, shorter growing seasons, and loss of arable land. Forty five percent of the workforce still depends on rainfed agriculture, and total crop failure is expected to occur approximately once every five years in Ghana’s northern region due to delayed or diminished rains. Rising temperatures are projected to lower yields in major staple crops (cassava, yams, plantains, maize, and rice) and increase the incidence of pests and crop diseases. [1]
According to Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, Ghana will need between $9.3-15.5 billion USD to implement all intended climate adaptation and mitigation investments from 2020-2030, or an average of $930M-1.55B a year. [2] In comparison, Ghana received $776.5 million from international donors from 2013-2017 to address climate change, about $155M per year. [3] Bridging this financing gap will require large-scale mobilization of private finance for climate adaptation and mitigation, particularly in agriculture.
The Feed the Future Ghana MFA Activity is a $24.99 million, five-year (2020-2025) program that aims to increase the availability of commercial financing for agriculture to facilitate capital investment and promote trade. Using financial incentives and technical support, MFA stimulates changes to Ghana’s agricultural finance system, so that underserved groups, including small producers and enterprises in the “missing middle,” can access finance that will support their growth. MFA is designed to drive finance and investment into several agricultural value chains (VCs): maize, cowpea, groundnut, soy, cashew, mango, shea, and other high-value export crops, targeting agribusinesses with operations that impact smallholder farmers (SHFs) in the Feed the Future Ghana Zone of Influence (ZOI). [4] MFA accomplishes this through work across three objective areas: (1) Mobilize new sources of capital ; (2); Expand the supply of agricultural finance and (3) Form strategic partnerships to expand access for the smallest actors.
As of October 2023, MFA has mobilized $230.99M in financing for 46,561 agribusinesses. This includes $94.1M for 781 agribusinesses facilitated via transaction advisors (O1); $165.3M for 30,818 agribusinesses via partner FIs (O2); $32.9k facilitated jointly between transaction advisors and partner FIs and $2.5M for 9,212 agribusinesses via strategic partnerships (O3). MFA employs rigorous environmental screening processes, and a review of deals closed to date suggests that many of these investments support climate adaptation, and several support climate change mitigation. However, MFA was designed without a specific climate focus, and therefore it has not employed a standard methodology to categorize deals that constitute climate finance. MFA has also provided training and technical assistance to local FIs to launch new financial products that support lead firms and farmers to access finance that supports greater resilience to climate change and plans to scale support to partners in climate finance in the coming year.
Given MFA’s increased engagement in this space, and USAID Ghana priorities around climate, MFA is conducting an assessment that seeks to: a) better understand MFA’s impact in mobilizing climate finance to date; b) establish tools to categorize future transactions to enable ongoing reporting to USAID; and c) focus upcoming MFA work with partners where it can have the greatest impact and add most value.
B. Objective
MFA is seeking a local Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Consultant who will serve as a member of a five-person Climate Finance Assessment team, assist with data collection and analysis, and coordination and scheduling of interviews in Ghana.
The goals of the Climate Finance Assessment are to: 1. Develop a standard taxonomy that can be used to categorize past and future transactions and enable reporting on relevant USAID Indicators (EG.11-4 Amount of investment mobilized (in USD) for climate change adaptation as supported by USG assistance; and EG.11-5 Number of people supported by the USG to adapt to the effects of climate change).
2. Develop modified transaction advisor/FI screening tools that integrate climate criteria.
3. Screen a subset of past transactions to identify those that constitute financing for climate adaptation/mitigation and determine an overall figure for MFA’s likely climate finance impact to date. The assessment team will conduct an initial deal screening to identify transactions that merit further review/assessment, followed by document/data review, and interviews (remote and in person) with transaction advisors, agribusinesses, and FIs to classify deals that constitute climate finance transactions.
4. Provide actionable recommendations on how MFA can mobilize increased climate finance within the life of the Activity (e.g., improvements in FA training content/STTA opportunities; recommended climate-focused funds MFA should link transaction advisors to; training priorities for transaction advisors).
5. Produce a final report incorporating the above.
The M&E Consultant will primarily provide support to the assessment team related to goal #3 above.
C. Specific Functions and Responsibilities
The M&E Consultant will undertake the following tasks under this consultancy:
- Participate in interviews with transaction advisors who have supported MFA deals, FIs that have provided climate financing and/or received training/TA from MFA on climate, and agribusinesses that obtained financing via MFA partners to support climate mitigation adaptation. Interviews will focus on a) validating findings from document and data review, and probing details of the transaction to enable classification, and b) identifying opportunities to strengthen MFA’s interventions in this space.
- Transcribe and sort data from interviews, identify gaps and conduct follow up as needed.
- Support coordination and scheduling of interviews for the assessment team with agribusinesses, FIs and transaction advisors, especially during the assessment team’s field work in Ghana (planned O/A February 19 – March 1, 2024)
- Prior to and after the completion of the assessment team’s field work in Ghana, conduct any necessary follow-up data collection, phone calls, emails, and interviews to fill gaps and enable deal classification.
- Other data collection, research, and analysis tasks as determined by the Climate Finance Assessment team.
The Climate Finance M&E Consultant will report to the MFA Chief of Party (COP) or any of his assigned staff. The Consultant may also work with other members of the MFA technical teams where necessary.
D. Qualifications
- At least 5 years of professional experience in fields related to the project scope of work. This may include, but is not limited to, agribusiness development, agronomy, climate smart agriculture, agricultural economics, agricultural finance, climate change adaptation, private sector development, or another related field. eBAMimO BIpnb
- An advanced degree in a related field of study, e.g., agricultural economics, sustainable development, economics, statistics, monitoring and evaluation. Professional experience directly related to the consultancy scope can substitute for an advanced degree.
- At least 3 years of direct experience implementing monitoring and evaluation frameworks and assessments in international development projects, including data collection, data analysis, research, reporting, and learning.
- Demonstrated experience designing and conducting stakeholder interviews, including developing questionnaires, facilitating discussions, logging quantitative data, and synthesizing qualitative inputs.
- Strong analytical capabilities and organizational skills.
- Understanding of Ghanaian agriculture sector and climate-smart agri-inputs, services, and practices that support resilience.
- Professional fluency in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to write clear interview notes and summaries.
E. Deliverables
- Datasets, quantitative and qualitative
- Field visit reports and interview notes
- Follow up notes
F. Level of Effort and Timing
The consultancy is expected to commence on January 30, 2024, and be completed on March 30, 2024. The level of effort to complete this consultancy is 15 days. The assignment would involve field visits to the communities where the assessment would take place.
[1] USAID’s Climate Risk Profile: Ghana (2017). https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/climate-risk-profile-ghana
[2] https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-06/Ghana%27s%20Updated%20Nationally%20Determined%20Contribution%20to%20the%20UNFCCC_2021.pdf
[3] https://careclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Ghana-Climate-Adaptation-Finance-Tracking.pdf
[4] Northern Region (Gushiegu, Karaga, Mion, Sagnerigu, Nanton, and Yendi districts); North East Region (East Mamprusi and Mamprugu Moagduri districts); Upper East Region (Bawku Municipal, Bawku West, Garu, and Tempane districts); and Upper West Region (Daffiama Bussie Issa, Nadowli Kaleo, Sissala East, Sissala West, and Wa East districts).
Company Overview:
About Palladium – Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people’s lives.
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at [email protected] and we will be in touch to discuss.
Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.
