Request for Consultancy Proposals

Development of an Electronic Procurement System for Cashew Raw Material

I.         BACKGROUND

The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) was established in 2006 as an association of African and international businesses with an interest in promoting a globally competitive African cashew industry. Today, nearly 200 member companies work under the ACA banner and represent all aspects of the cashew value chain, including producers, processors, traders, and international buyers.

Our vision: A globally competitive African cashew industry that benefits the value chain– from farmer to consumer.

Our mission: Support the African cashew industry by:

·      Providing technical assistance and facilitating investments

·      Promoting market linkages and international standards

·      Sharing information and best practices

Our objectives:

·      Increase processing of cashew within Africa

·      Improve competitiveness and sustainability of the African cashew industry

·      Facilitate public-private cooperation for the cashew sector

The African Cashew Alliance (ACA), serves as a platform of information in the African value chain industry, and runs a Market Information System (MIS) to address the private and public stakeholders’ cashew marketing and policy decision making in cashew producing countries. Information collected from the MIS contributes to the development and capacity building of both private and public sector organizations.

     II.         CONTEXT OF ASSIGNMENT/ WORK PLAN REFERENCE

Introduced in March 2012, ACA’s Market Information System (MIS) includes a weekly market report (AfricashewSplits), SMS price info (AfricashewBits), and country specific price data for cashew-producing countries in Africa, as well as India, Brazil, and Vietnam. ACA’s MIS is a subscription service providing prices, export data, seasonal updates, and policy news to cashew stakeholders.

The MIS sustains its activities through technical partnerships with national private sector organizations, cashew industry public entities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and donors. In 2013, ACA and RONGEAD, one of the leading pioneers in cashew MIS signed a partnership agreement to further develop market information sharing. Thus, ACA and its partners seek support from the Trade Hub and African Partners Network (THN) to develop an action plan to master the delivery of cashew market information services to its value chain actors.

ACA aims to improve all processes within its market information services, from data collection to dissemination, market linkages, and the delivery of information to our members and others stakeholders in the cashew sector.

   III.         CONSULTANCY OBJECTIVE & ASSIGNMENT

The objective of this assignment is for the consultant to develop an electronic procurement system in order to improve raw cashew buying in remote communities.

   IV.         DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

The consultant will carry out the following activities:

1.     Develop a database for farmer-based organizations: This feature will allow an ACA processor to register their farmer communities and track each transaction of raw cashew purchased from farmer cooperatives and community based traders.

2.     Design an electronic scaling system: The objective is to facilitate raw cashew nut purchasing at various collection points. Each transaction operates between a procurement agent and farmer cooperatives. The information related to the transaction should be reported to the processing company database for computation.

3.     Money transfer: The system should take in account a process to facilitate payment orders to suppliers. An electronic order form should be delivered to the supplier as a proof of the transaction.

4.     Develop a mobile application: Develop a mobile application that will allow market agents to collect and send cashew product transactions on a weekly basis.

    V.         HOW TO APPLY:

1.     Interested and eligible candidates are requested to e-mail their technical and financial proposals to: Olivier Kabre (okabre@africancashewalliance.com) and Miriam Gyamfi (mgyamfi@africancashewalliance.com) before 1^st September 2015 at 17:00 GMT.

2.     Subject of the proposal must read: ACA Market linkages tool. 
Please note that, applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis to select a successful candidate. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

   VI.         REPORTING

The Consultant will report to and work in collaboration with Mr. Olivier Edouard Kabré (okabre@africancashewalliance.com), the MIS and Partnership Development Coordinator of the African Cashew Alliance.

Find a PDF Version of the RFP below: 

Request for Proposal-Market Linkages and Procurement System.pdf