SNV is a not-for-profit international development organization that applies practical know-how to make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty. We use our extensive and long-term in-country presence to apply and adapt our top-notch expertise in agriculture, energy and WASH to local contexts. SNV has an annual turnover of €130 million, over 1,250 staff in more than 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We are proud to be a not-for-profit organization that uses project financing to implement our mission. This requires us to work efficiently and to invest in operational excellence.

In its current Strategic Plan period (2019 – 2022), SNV will more explicitly aim for systems change during project preparation and implementation - by strengthening institutions and kick-starting markets that help many more to escape poverty beyond our projects. We will continue to position ourselves as a premium organization, with decentralized management.

For more information on our operations in Kenya and SNV generally visit our website: www.snv. org

Investing in Agriculture, Agribusiness and Value Chains

SNV recognises the urgent need to increase productivity and the income of smallholders while reducing their vulnerability to climate change and lowering overall emissions from farming systems. Given the potentially far-reaching impacts of climate change and the enormity of the challenge, such changes need to happen at scale. Climate change disproportionately affects smallholder farmers as their livelihood is linked to climate-sensitive natural resources. The agricultural sector, from production to processing, input and trade, can provide meaningful employment to many while making use of young people’s innovative capabilities.

According to a World Food Program report (2020) one third (33%) of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, equivalent to 1.3 billion tons. Post-harvest food loss is a leading cause of food insecurity for millions of families across the world. Annual post-harvest food losses are as high as 30% of the total produce in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of this loss, 28% occurs at the producer level and 22% during the post-harvest handling and storage. Food losses predominantly occur between the production and distribution stages of food supply chains (FAO, 2017). For Kenya, the Ministry for Agriculture estimates high post-harvest losses of 20–30% for cereals and 40-60% in fruits and vegetables (WFP, 2018). Food gets spoiled due to various reasons and often interrelated causes such as untimely harvesting, poor practices and techniques, insufficient value chain infrastructures and limited access to markets. Inadequacy of processing facilities, inappropriate packaging and handling, transportation limitations and poor logistics, along with knowledge gaps, are also important underlying causes of post-harvest losses. In rural areas, food losses are often connected to insufficient access to reliable energy infrastructure and technologies, particularly for value-adding activities such as processing and cooling.

SokoFresh Target Market

Cold storage has a very low adoption rate in Kenya, especially for a country so dependent on agriculture. For comparison, in 2016 the Refrigerated Warehouse Capacity per urban citizen in Kenya was 0,002 m3, compared to 0,958 m3 in the Netherlands. For Kenya to get to the level of the Netherlands, it would require over $120 billion of investments in cold storage capacity. The services of SokoFresh have the highest value for horticulture products for export markets. Taking into account the demand, seasonality and cooling requirements, the company has started within the value chains of avocados, mangoes and French beans.

About The Dutch Fund For Climate And Development (DFCD)

SNV is a member of the €160 million Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD) (www.thedfcd.com), a Netherlands-based consortium (led by FMO, Dutch development bank). DFCD objectives are to (i) provide finance and Technical Assistance (TA) to projects with a focus on climate change adaptation; (ii) mobilise external private sector funding at scale; and (iii) align directly with DFCD Theory of Change (ToC).

The DFCD allows for investments in projects aimed at climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. SNV, as part of the DFCD Origination Facility, will identify and develop, together with local companies and stakeholders, bankable business case propositions, which can subsequently be picked up by the DFCD Investment Facilities (Water and Land-use) for further development, match-making and investment. The DFCD presents an important additional instrument for the Dutch government’s efforts in contributing to the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

About SokoFresh Agri Innovations East Africa Ltd.

SokoFresh Agri Innovations East Africa Ltd is a 100% owned subsidiary of Enviu Venture Lab BV which in turn is wholly owned by Enviu Holding BV whose main objective is to invest in other businesses and provide management services where required.

SokoFresh integrates cold storage, market linkage and value-add processing activities into smallholder farmer value chains through an “as-a-service proposition”. Enviu has 17 years of experience in launching over 20 social ventures for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) and smallholder farmers in developing countries. Through its services, SokoFresh is able to reduce loss to less than 10%, and drastically increase the income of smallholder farmers. At the centre of its operations, it is providing off-grid cold storage at the farm level. Furthermore, SokoFresh empowers producers by linking them to buyers directly to provide better prices, and it works on the integration of near-field processing to ensure a profitable destination for 2nd grade produce.

SokoFresh Agri Innovations East Africa Ltd. requires the services of an independent environmental and social consultant (“a Consultant”) to perform an Environmental and Social Assessment (ESA) of risks and impacts leading to the preparation of an Environmental and Social Action Plan to fulfil DFCD requirements to progress from the currently ongoing Origination Facility to the Land Use Facility. Additionally, the consultant will undertake a Gender Assessment study and develop a Gender Action Plan to guide gender mainstreaming actions at SokoFresh

The following Terms of References are applicable to the execution of the requested services.

1. Description of the Project

SokoFresh provides first-mile cold storage solutions to smallholder value chains bundle additionality including fresh produce aggregation, transportation, and linkages to end markets with competitive prices for farmers. SokoFresh cooling-as-a-service operates in the following fruit and vegetable value chains; mango, avocado, banana, and French beans in Murang’a, Kitui and Makueni counties of Kenya.

SokoFresh’s progression to the Land Use facility for debt financing of the DFCD will be informed significantly by concrete actions in setting up E&S management systems in its journey towards being investment-ready. Several E&S management frameworks need to be formulated with adequate financial and human capital allocations for their implementation arrangements with regular monitoring and reporting.

A desktop preliminary assessment of SokoFresh’s environmental and social risks and impacts based on its business model indicates risks and impacts that are of environmental and social in nature. The DFCD Origination Facility technical support on E&S will be benchmarked against the industry-leading IFC Performance Standards in categorizing and managing SokoFresh’s E&S risks.

2. Objective

The requested services are to support SokoFresh Agri Innovations East Africa Ltd. in the graduation from the origination facility and progress to the Land Use Debt Facility. DFCD’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts which must be managed in a manner consistent with the below described reference framework.

3. Reference Framework

The reference framework will be:

• SokoFresh’s ESMS policies and procedures
• IFC Performance Standards including relevant IFC industry sector guidelines
• World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) including EHS guidelines
• UNGP for businesses and Human Rights
• UN Principles for Responsible Investing
• Voluntary framework standards that apply to sustainable agriculture produce supply chain e.g. Fairtrade Standards, Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard 

4. Team

The assignment has to be carried out by suitably qualified independent environmental and social assessment expert, with appropriate background and experience in the sector and region.

5.  Scope of Work and Tasks

The scope of work comprises the independent assessment of all material environmental and social aspects of the project, within the framework stipulated in Section [3].

Specifically, this work will entail:

1. Review county, national and international environmental and social (including occupational health and safety) legislation and regulatory compliance.
2. Review SokoFresh’s environmental and social programs and management systems, and implementation, and assess compliance with / benchmark them against the Reference Framework;
3. Review processes, procedures and the institutional capacity of SokoFresh to manage environmental and social risks and impacts in accordance with Good International Industry Practice (GIIP), as defined by the IFC Performance Standards and the World Bank Group EHS Guidelines (both General and Industry Sector guidelines.
4. Assess the capacity of SokoFresh to comply/operate in accordance with/develop a Project in accordance with GIIP, identifying gaps to compliance and recommending actions as necessary with implementation prioritisation.
5. Reviewing and, where necessary, recommending improvements to the Environmental and Social Assessments (ESAs) and Gender Assessment and their proposed environmental and social management plans
6. Perform site visits to assess the implementation of SokoFresh’s environmental and social management systems and plans and the adequacy of the Company’s management practices against the Reference Framework;
7. Identify opportunities for value addition through environmental and social improvements and initiatives.
8. Prepare an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) and Gender Action Plan describing the actions to be implemented to achieve compliance with the Reference Framework within a reasonable timeline.
9. Conduct a review to identify from publicly available information sources if there are any potential environmental and/or social issues, including, sectoral associations standards, regulatory compliance requirements, NGO advocacy campaigns, or media articles that may lead to reputational risks to the Company.

The assessment will comprise Five tasks:

A.       Kick-off Meeting:
The Consultant will organise a kick-off meeting involving SokoFresh and Enviu, to align on project timeline, schedule, deliverables and goals.

B.       E&S Documentation Review:

The consultant will review SokoFresh’s ESMS documentation covering its company policies, procedures, and standards that they have in place for the management of Environmental and Social Risks Impact. In addition, a review of relevant Kenyan legislation, policies & regulations at the national and county government level that have a bearing on SokoFresh regulatory compliance on environmental and social safeguards will be done as well.

C.       Site Visit: 
The Consultant will undertake ground truthing of SokoFresh operations by conducting a site visit that will include field surveys to collect primary and secondary data on E&S assessment of potential risks and impacts. This will include stakeholder engagement and grievance redress mechanisms in the form of Free Prior and Informed Consultations (FPIC)with local community stakeholders including community administrators, opinions leaders and marginalised groups leaders i.e., local women, youth & PLWD leaders. An assessment of gender equity and inclusion in the smallholder farmer out-grower contract partnership with SokoFresh

D.       ESA & GA; Assessment of the Company’s capacity and track record:
The consultant will review SokoFresh’s ability to assess and manage environmental and social (E&S) risks and opportunities, focusing on focuses on the internal processes, practices, capacity and accountabilities that underpin the successful assessment and management of E&S issues.

E.       Preparation of the deliverables (see Section [6]):

The Consultant will prepare the deliverables as described below.

6. Reporting and Deliverables

The Consultant will provide:

    i. Preliminary Summary of Principal Findings – shortly after the conclusion of the site visit, the Consultant will provide a concise back-to-office report focusing on principal findings and identified risks, impacts and opportunities. A meeting/conference call will be scheduled between SokoFresh, Enviu and the Consultant to discuss the principal findings and the timeline for the preparation of the ESDD report; and

   ii. Environmental and Social Assessment & Gender Assessment Report – the Consultant will provide a detailed report fully reflecting the scope of work.  Where compliance gaps with the Reference Framework and/or opportunities for value addition through E&S improvements have been identified these will be presented in Environmental and Social Action Plans and Gender Action Plan, Grievance Redress Mechanism, initial stakeholder engagement plan.

The proposal for the ESA & GA study should contain the sections listed below:

1)       Scope of Work: 
The scope of work should include a description of the specific activities that will be performed in order to accomplish the required tasks identified in Section 5.  This should include any proposed site visits/reconnaissance, documents to be reviewed, interviews, etc.  If the Consultant feels that additional tasks or components within a required task are suggested or warranted, these should be stated and delineated as “Optional Tasks”.

2)       Project team and qualifications: 
This should include the name of the principal staff members and any sub-contractors and a brief description of their role within the project team. Qualifications of staff should include relevant technical capabilities, specific previous project experience similar to this Project, specific in-country experience and knowledge, and specific language skills.

3)       Budget and Payment Schedule:

The total cost of the contract should include all fees, travel and logistic expenses, and applicable taxes. Payments will be made to the Consultant based on satisfactory completion of milestones, e.g. (to be confirmed at the contract negotiation stage):

Application and Submission: Through the "I'M INTERESTED" tab on this page, interested applicants should submit their expression of interest on or before 8th August 2022.

NB:

Only applications that meet the above criteria will be considered.

We do not appreciate third-party mediation based on this advertisement.

Applicants are not required to undertake any medical checks before selection or pay any money at any stage of the recruitment process.