Scope and Working Arrangement:
This consultancy, set to commence in March 2024 and conclude in October 2024, involves an effort of approximately 80 working days.
The role is predominantly home-based, complemented by some international travel, particularly to East Africa. Travel is paid for by CGIAR.
We have a strong preference for candidates situated within -3 or +3 hours of the Central European Time (CET) zone to facilitate coordination.
Background
In the face of today's fast-evolving global challenges, finding innovative solutions in agriculture is more crucial than ever. CGIAR stands out as a key player in this space, committed to fostering groundbreaking ideas that bring meaningful change to smallholder farmers, consumers, and communities worldwide. Notably, the CGIAR team has been hard at work developing frameworks to measure its performance and results.
Now, CGIAR is recruiting a consultant to support developing, piloting, and mainstreaming a scaling strategy design process for organization-wide use. The scaling strategy design process is to build on existing experiences within the sector and collaborating with partners, including the Bill amp; Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). In this partnership, we will co-develop a process to support CGIAR and partner innovation teams in creating and implementing strategies for scaling their innovations. This partnership acknowledges and seeks to build on the knowledge and experiences existing in different CGIAR Centers and programs. UC Davis and Wageningen University are key partners in the project to ensure that scaling strategies process builds on key responsible/ inclusive innovation and scaling principles.
Requirements
Objective and delivery
Join us in revolutionizing agricultural innovations and scaling! Our mission is to establish a ‘scaling strategies’ process that CGIAR can adopt across our diverse innovation ecosystem, ensuring the design, implementation, and monitoring of practical, responsible, and impactful scaling strategies.
As an experienced consultant, you will spearhead the co-creation, testing, and integration of a Scaling Strategy design process aligned with CGIAR Innovation Package and Scaling Readiness (IPSR)[1] approach. Over a 9-month period, you will lead a collaboration with three high-impact CGIAR Initiatives and partners, aligning with CGIAR's 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Your central role will involve driving the process, bringing stakeholders together for successful co-creation and implementation.
This will include developing a basic model for market sizing and establishing a framework for market prioritization. Additionally, our work will explore an impact model, assessing the potential role of given innovations in contributing to agricultural sector transformation, and their economic, gender, climate, and nutrition impacts. We will also consider the pipeline and financing requirements for selected scaling partners, their access to finance, and necessary financial instruments to scale the innovations. Moreover, we will examine sources of co-financing and the financial return profile, as well as the structure and governance of the proposed financing mechanism, ensuring alignment with strategic goals of scaling partners and co-investors. This integrated approach will enhance our scaling strategy design, aligning it closely with the needs and insights identified by key stakeholders and partners.
To accomplish this, we are looking to bring on an experienced consultant with a deep understanding of innovation processes and the realities of agribusinesses and smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries, who will skillfully facilitate the process of co-creating three scaling strategies, while aiming to address the following questions:
Harvest existing experiences
· How can existing experiences, approaches, tools, funding mechanisms, and expertise for responsible scaling strategy design by BMGF, and other organizations inform the design of CGIAR’s approach for scaling strategy design?
Collaborative design and validation
· What steps and mechanisms are essential in developing, testing, and validating a responsible scaling strategy design process with CGIAR Initiative and Centers innovation teams and partners?
Pilot the scaling strategy design process with SAPLING, EiA, and ILRI BMGF-funded bilateral projects.
Learn and scale
· Document key lessons that can be drawn from the co-creation process, and how these lessons can form the basis for mainstreaming and broader roll-out of responsible Scaling Strategies within CGIAR. Use learnings to finetune the process for broader roll-out across the CGIAR.
Requirements:
1. Advanc