Terms of Reference

 

Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness in South East Asia

(GRAISEA) Program

 

Rice Regional Learning & Reflection Event

 

Dates

Tentatively in the first half of July 2021

 

Learning & Reflection Program Mix

• Target audience and stakeholders: GRAISEA’s national and regional partners, country teams and allies, including influencing targets. 
• Combination of on-line and in person events in three countries of Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam permitting by the local Covid-19 conditions and context.
• Interactive webinars on chosen learning topics through combined plenary and panel.
• Documentation and synthesis.

 

Background and rationale

The GRAISEA 2 Program (1 Aug 2018 – 31 July 2021) is a joint initiative led by Oxfam GB, Oxfam Novib, Oxfam US and Oxfam Sweden, with a total budget of USD 9.7 million. The program operates at the regional level and in four countries in the Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines) and Pakistan. The program is funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok with smaller grant contributions from other institutions.

 

Drawing on progress and lessons from the first phase, GRAISEA 2 aims to transform opportunities for less-privileged women and men in the agriculture sector in Asia by acting as a catalyst for the emergence of inclusive value chains and responsible business practices that respect human rights and drive women’s economic empowerment and climate resilience.

 

With a potential extension of the program for two years until 31 July 2023, the GRAISEA Program Management Unit (PMU), with country teams, regional partners and Oxfam advisors are planning a combined regional learning and reflection which is proposed to include three country-level learnings in Cambodia, Vietnam and Pakistan and a regional-level reflection.  

 

For rice, this second phase works in 3 countries (Pakistan, Vietnam and Cambodia) to engage women and small-scale producers and small and large private sector actors and influences national and regional policy and governance.

 

The three GRAISEA 2 result areas are:

Result 1: Women and men small scale producers participate and benefit fairly from economic opportunities in agriculture and seafood value chains

Result 2: Private sector (SMEs, national firms, MNCs) deliver opportunities that integrate small producers, promote women’s economic empowerment and support climate resilience

Result 3: National and regional policy frameworks drive inclusive business models that support women’s economic empowerment and climate resilience.

 

The ultimate goal of GRAISEA 2 is to enable systems change: 1) working with market actors smallholder-led business models and sourcing strategies and embedding this practice throughout value chains (from producers to SMEs to local, national and multinational buyers and retailers), 2) influencing multi-stakeholder platforms to make changes at national, regional and international levels in political and private sector spaces to support and encourage (and sometimes, mandate) responsible agribusiness and 3) support national and regional public policy frameworks to drive/enable responsible agribusiness.

 

The interplay between the levels (result areas) in the system is crucial so that the changes in the producer, agribusiness and policy spaces reinforce each other, build up pressure and change the system towards more inclusive and responsible practice that is mainstreamed (scaled) and intrinsically embedded (sustainable and not dependent on external forces or a development project).

 

With respect to rice value chain programming, it is foreseen to have a mid-term learning and reflection event that will:

 

1. Learning: Create space for cross-learning and capture changes achieved with small-holder women and men farmers and private sector as well as relevant lessons from country models of the rice value chain and the regional advocacy work.
2. Adaptation and planning: Reflect and adapt as necessary the action plans for the remaining time of the program until July 2023.
3. Longer term brainstorming / co-creating: brainstorm rice innovations’ objectives, outcomes, activities, responsibilities and potentially budget (post GRAISEA Phase 2)
4. Amplifying and disseminating lessons: Conditions permitting, to disseminate lessons and insights to non-GRAISEA audience, tentatively OI’s Private Sector team, networks/MSI, ASEAN.

 

Scope of work and approach

 

The learning exercise will have two parts which will run in sequence.

 

The first part focuses on in-country learning in all three countries namely Cambodia, Vietnam and Pakistan, tentatively during May – June 2021. Subject to C-19 conditions, the in-country learning could be in person or virtual with same facilitation across all three countries.

 

The second part builds on the country-level learnings to create a broader learning agenda and wider audience and participation. Tentatively, this could take form of three set of 2-hour virtual conference, during July 2021.

 

Organization of this learning exercise, inclusive of co-designing, hosting/administering the virtual meeting, documentation and synthesis will be assisted by internationally qualified consultant and/or consulting company.   

 

Learning and impact questions[LM1] 

Learning and being inspired from each other’s successes and lessons, motivations and innovations. 

 

1. What have we learned in each of the three countries over almost three years of GRAISEA 2 implementation, and how will this inform our main lines of work in the remaining time?
   1. What are the changes that we aimed to achieve?
   2. What were the strategies used?
   3. What changes actually happened?
   4. What worked/did not work and what did we learn? What could we do differently?

 

2. How can the rice value chain support gender transformative and responsible inclusive agribusiness? Demonstrate with concrete examples/stories.

 

3. What changes do we seek and what progress have we made with respect to (1) women’s economic empowerment, (2) sustainable production practices and climate resilience, and (3) private sector engagement/responsible business practices?

 

Data sources

1. First-hand reporting of event participants: Cambodia, Pakistan, Vietnam plus regional work especially towards inclusive model and gender transformation.
2. Presentation and discussion of pilot and research products: (1) Basmati rice value distribution and price-setting pilot in Pakistan; (2) rice SME and BDS pilot in Vietnam, (3) MSI effectiveness report and (4) CSR Platform in Cambodia.
3. In-country consultations and regional evaluation as part of mid-term program review.
4. Stories of change on gender transformation from three countries.

 

Output Products

Products include:

1. Adaptation plans for national and regional level rice programming for GRAISEA 2.
2. A synthesized report of country-level and regional-level influencing learning and practices.
3. Results of the pilots and research products noted above, with possible external engagement and advocacy to follow (e.g. webinar for external stakeholders).

 

Budget:  XXXXX

Participants: To be confirmed, provisionally about 40 people max.

Country	Organisations	Total number
Cambodia	DPA PMUAC AmruRice SMP/Ibis Rice/WCS Signature of Asia SanoRice*	8
Pakistan	AGAHE University of Faisalabad Helvetas/WWF? Galaxy RPL, Atlas Foods Matco* ? Axfood and consortium	8
Vietnam	MDI, IPSARD Gentraco, Lotus Food, and ?	6
PMU	GRAISEA PMU Advisors (Minh, Madeleine, Moe, Henk’s replacement, Tuan) Mira, Caroline (Oxfam Sweden) Shubert, Vin, Anoushka	10
Other participants	Allies/targes: SRP (Wyn Ellis) UN Women MARS SIDA, Embassy of Sweden in BKK CSR Asia / Elevate Aidenvironement (Jan Willem) Regional GRAISEA partners Reps of SRP national chapters/ working groups.	8
Total

 

 

Ends.

Contact : hr_thailand@oxfam.org.uk

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ที่ปรึกษา / Consultant