CLIC Agrifood Investment Connector Consultancy Support

Terms of Reference (TOR)  - CLIC Agrifood Investment Connector Consultancy Support

Mitigation and Adaptation Impact Assessment Guidelines

November 2023

CLIC and Connector Background

CPI is the Secretariat for the ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC), an action-oriented group for leaders in the impact investment community working in agriculture and food systems. This member-driven coalition aims to collectively scale-up and accelerate finance for agriculture and food systems globally, with the goal of shifting them to a low-carbon and climate-resilient pathway by 2030. CLIC is funded by the UK FCDO.

The CLIC Agrifood Investment Connector (the Connector) is one of CLIC’s workstreams which develops a high-quality pipeline of climate and nature-positive agrifood businesses in developing countries. The Connector identifies suitable SMEs and works with them to assess their climate and nature risks and impacts in preparation for investor pitching and due diligence. In parallel, the Connector identifies pools of interested investors and builds a solid understanding of their requirements to facilitate meaningful connections with SMEs. See more here.

The Connector is completing work with its first cohort of 8 SMEs in collaboration with AGRA and CGIAR. The type of agribusinesses supported are wide ranging and have so far included companies doing one or more of the following activities:

• supplying farm equipment and inputs
• off taking, distributing, processing, and exporting produce
• running digital marketplace/trading platforms
• providing CSA/agronomic advisory, EWS
• facilitating agroforestry and land restoration
• provision of ancillary farmer services (e.g., insurance, finance).

Consultancy Support Sought

The Connector seeks expert input to enhance and further develop The Connector Impact Assessment Guidelines, including methods for climate mitigation and adaptation impact assessment which will be used by CLIC Secretariat analysts (typically with economic, finance or environmental science background) to perform climate impact assessment of agribusinesses activities, which typically includes the following activities:

For each cohort, the CLIC Secretariat’s team of analysts typically have a window of 1-2 months to work with each agribusiness on their climate and nature impact assessment (and pitch preparation) ahead of a pitching event.

Analysts work with the business on their impact narrative, identifying key areas of climate and nature impact. Where possible the team aim to produce quantitative assessments of climate mitigation, adaptation and nature impacts of the agribusiness to date and potential going forward, using existing data from the agribusiness, complemented by evidence from scientific literature. Where a quantitative impact assessment is not possible, the team seeks to collect and present activity data or statistics on the company activities that help to demonstrate potential impact. Results are then integrated into PowerPoint pitch deck of each agribusiness and in their talking points.

Following the pitch event, the CLIC Secretariat prepares an Impact Overview document, outlining in more detail the areas of impact assessed, the methods and data used as well as suggested areas for further/deeper assessment going forward, to be used as an internal reference document by the agribusiness to support investor discussions, business planning etc. The CLIC Secretariat also seeks to provide a small amount of ongoing support to agribusinesses which may focus on enhancing the assessment of certain impacts beyond what was achieved pre-pitch event.

Scope

The existing guidelines include the agribusiness activities listed in the box below. The consultants should work on those highlighted in bold (the CLIC Secretariat will work on the others in parallel). For climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and organic practices, the consultant should advise on 5 priority practices (based on commonly used definitions and typologies of CSA activities) where methods can be developed and focus on elaborating methods for at least 5 of those practices, including however irrigation/water savings.

1. Mitigation:

• Food loss reduction

• Reduced synthetic fertiliser and pesticide use.

• Increased organic fertiliser use.

• Restoration of degraded land and agroforestry.

• Use of solar power for on and off farm operations.

• Improved efficiencies in transport of produce.

2. Adaptation:

• CSA and organic practices.
• Improved incomes and financial access.
• Insurance
• Early warning systems and CIS.

Tasks

Task 1: Scoping report.

Brief report (Word or ppt format, up to 5 pages/slides) summarizing feedback on CLIC Secretariat’s existing internal draft guidelines for impact assessment. This report should include initial suggestions for improvements that can be made to the guidelines under this contract as part of Task 2 including suggestions on any additional or alternative areas of impact that should be considered for inclusion in the guidelines and for related impact assessment methodologies. The report can also include advice on any areas currently included in the guidelines that should be deprioritised and why e.g., due to complexity of carrying out a simple assessment or relative importance. The report should also identify the 5 CSA/organic practices the Consultants will focus on in Task 2, one of which should be irrigation/water savings. Key findings should be discussed with the CLIC Secretariat.

Task 2: Revise climate impact assessment guidelines (first draft) to:

1. Enhance methods, identify and fill gaps and propose alternative or additional approaches for climate mitigation and adaptation impact assessment.
2. Identify additional or alternative sources of literature, tools, and calculators to facilitate assessment
3. Identify clearly key data requirements including methods, strategies and systems for agribusinesses to collect data
4. Ensure guidelines are clearly written and structured, references are fully and clearly included, default assumptions are specified and caveated etc. Guidelines are currently in PowerPoint format but may be moved to Word format if preferable.

Task 3: Final Guidelines.

Provide final revised guidelines incorporating CLIC Secretariat feedback.

Additional considerations:

Given the short amount of time available to support the agribusinesses and the limited time the agribusinesses have to implement impact assessment amidst their daily business activities, the principal methods proposed should be simple and quick to implement with minimal data requirements. Ideally they should also be time-proof and/or easily updatable by the respective agribusinesses i.e. remain relevant unless there are significant changes to the business model. However, any areas of complexity should be highlighted separately, and suggestions should be included for additional methods/tools to be used in the future.

Methods proposed should highlight points of caution and complexity that should be considered and caveats that should be added to any results to ensure the assessment does not risk greenwashing.

Methods should be flexible to allow application to multiple business contexts and geographies. Work to date has focussed on sub–Saharan Africa but will expand to support SMEs in Asia and LAC in future years.

Background Materials Provided to the Successful Consultant

CLIC will provide the following materials to the Consultant(s).

Information on the agribusinesses supported in the first Connector cohort (2023) including final investor pitch decks and impact overview documents.

Draft impact assessment guidelines as developed by the CLIC Secretariat.

A working draft typology of agribusiness activities that are eligible for the CLIC Connector.

Presentation delivered to CLIC member and friends providing an overview of the impact work to date.

Outputs and Timeline

Outputs will be delivered to the CLIC Secretariat team. The precise scope, structure and length of outputs will be agreed with the consultant(s) during the assignment kick-off meeting and where appropriate, amended during regular check in meetings between the consultant(s) and the CLIC Secretariat team.

All changes to the agreed scope, structure, and length of outputs of outputs following the kick-off meeting must be approved in writing over email by the CLIC Secretariat team.

The table below sets out a possible sequencing of outputs.

Possible sequencing of outputs.

Milestone 1:  Delivery of Scoping Report. Initial review and discussion with the CLIC Secretariat team should take place before the end of the calendar year 2023 ideally.  Deliverable Date: 20 December 2023

Milestone 2: Revised Guidelines. First draft output of task 2 (revised guidelines) should be provided by the end of January, ideally for review by the CLIC Secretariat team. CLIC Secretariat to provide review and feedback within 2 weeks. Deliverable Date: 31 January 2024

Milestone 3:  Final guidelines. Consultant to provide final output (Task 3), addressing comments from CLIC Secretariat, 2 weeks thereafter.

Delivery Date: 29 February 2024

Proposal Requirements

The consultant(s) must be able to demonstrate the following areas of expertise:

• Significant knowledge of climate mitigation and adaptation relevant activities in the agrifood sector in developing economies.
• Extensive experience of developing and implementing quantitative and qualitative impact assessment methodologies, tools and guidelines for Life Cycle Assessment, GHG emission and climate adaptation and resilience assessments.
• Knowledge and understanding of the IPCC guidelines for GHG inventories and other similar core resources and tools.
• Experience of working with agribusinesses and understanding of their specific challenges and operating contexts.
• Deadline for proposals is 6th December 2023.  Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis so interested parties are encouraged to apply early.

Proposals for this work will need to set out:·

• CVs of all proposed experts.·
• Technical proposal (3-4 pages max) including: consultancy team skills/experience and how these meet the above requirements; a proposed methodology for the work, including any suggestions for adjustments to these TORs where appropriate; a proposed work-plan and timeframe for delivery of the outputs.·
• Budget proposal A milestone-based budget proposal. Please also include a seperate list of the names of all experts proposed on the consultancy, their years of experience, and individual cost rates per day (to support with programme auditing).

Budget

A maximum budget of £30,000 is available for the assignment inclusive of UK VAT. Financial proposals must detail all proposed experts individually in the budget proposal as per the requirements above. The successful consultant(s) will be contracted based on milestone payment points.

Keywords

climate mitigationadaptationimpact assessmentagribusinessguidelinesagriculturefood systemsSMEsinvestor pitchingdue diligenceimpact narrativequantitative assessmentspitch deckImpact Overview documentclimate-smart agricultureorganic practicesCSAirrigationwater savings