TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)

Technical Assistance & Capacity Building for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA)

Rationale and Background

The ACTIVATE Project is dedicated to transforming Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ATVET) systems across Ghana. Central to this mission is empowering young people—equipping them with market-relevant, employable skills and facilitating their transition into dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities.

Achieving long-term impact across the agricultural TVET landscape requires strengthening the governance, policy execution, and commercial stewardship capabilities of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). MoFA oversees apex policy direction, agricultural modernization, and sector alignment across public Agricultural Colleges. However, despite ongoing investments in physical infrastructure and retooling, MoFA training centers face systemic operational challenges, including fragmented institutional planning, underutilized capital assets, land infrastructure, and limited private sector commercial partnerships. To address these structural gaps, the ACTIVATE Project is soliciting proposals to deliver targeted technical assistance, strategic optimization, and asset commercialization frameworks for MoFA.

Objective of the Assignment

The primary objective is to design, deploy, and institutionalize a 6-month Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Program tailored specifically for MoFA. Specifically, this assignment aims to:

• Transform Public Agricultural Training Centers: Convert MoFA Agricultural Colleges and Farm Institutes into market-aligned centers of excellence that respond directly to agricultural labor-market needs and attract youth into ATVET.
• Establish Agricultural Public-Private Partnership(PPP) & Commercialization Frameworks: Formulate legal, administrative, and risk-management guidelines enabling public training institutions to establish sustainable, revenue-generating commercial joint ventures with private agribusinesses while protecting public assets.
• Strengthen Institutional Performance & Governance: Build organizational capacity across MoFA national directorates and institutional leads to execute performance-based management and private sector engagement.

Target Stakeholders/Agency

Primary Beneficiary Agency: Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) — Human Resource Development and Management Directorate (HRDMD), and Principals, across MoFA Agricultural Colleges and Farm Institutes (where applicable).

Secondary Stakeholders: Private sector agribusinesses, anchor farms, agricultural value-chain actors, and local farm communities.

Scope of Work and Deliverables

The Service Provider for the proposed technical assistance will execute agency-tailored technical assistance, strategic planning, and commercialization capacity building for MoFA as detailed in Table 4.1 below.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

5.1 Technical Proposal Guidelines

The Technical Proposal must not exceed 15 pages and must contain:

• Firm Track Record & Institutional Experience: Evidence of 10+ years leading public sector agricultural reforms, agribusiness commercialization, and ATVET development.
• Technical Approach & Methodology: Detailed conceptual framework for executing thematic areas, including agribusiness commercialization, PPP structuring, and organizational change management.
• Work Plan & Gantt Chart: Comprehensive 6-month schedule mapping sequential activities, expert level-of-effort (person-days), execution milestones, and deliverable sign-offs.
• Team Composition & CVs: Operational structure and CVs for Key Experts assigned to the proposed technical assistance.

5.2 Financial Proposal Guidelines

The Financial Proposal must be submitted separately and include a lump-sum summary, detailed daily fee rates for Key Experts, and itemized reimbursable expenses for workshops, field assessments, and travel across MoFA institutions.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated using Quality and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) applying a 70:30 ratio (70% Technical, 30% Financial). The minimum technical passing score is 50 points out of 70 (70%).

Duration of Assignment / Number of Days

The assignment will run for six calendar months, with a cumulative level of effort of 30 person-days across all key experts, distributed over the contract period.

Governance, Transparency, and Performance-Based Disbursal

The Service Provider will report directly to the ACTIVATE Project Director and submit monthly progress reports. Payments will be disbursed in milestone tranches upon formal verification and sign-off of deliverables outlined in Section 4.1.

Required Consultant Expertise and Team Composition

The Service Provider should propose a multidisciplinary team of 4 core experts with the following expertise:

• Team Leader / ATVET Institutional Transformation Specialist: 12+ years of experience in agricultural TVET systems, institutional transformation, organizational development, performance management, and development of institutional strategies and plans. Experience working with public agricultural training institutions and government agencies is highly desirable.
• Agricultural Labour Market & Agribusiness Development Specialist: 8+ years of experience in agricultural labour-market analysis, value-chain skills assessments, youth agribusiness development, incubation models, practical farm-based learning, and private-sector engagement. The expert should have experience developing market-responsive training and youth recruitment strategies.
• PPP, Agribusiness Investment & Commercialization Specialist: 10+ years of experience in PPP development, agribusiness investment, commercial venture structuring, contract management, and development of revenue-generating models for public institutions. Experience in agricultural land, farm, processing facility, or other public-asset commercialization is preferred.
• Public Asset, Risk & Financial Governance Specialist: 10+ years of experience in public asset management, asset valuation, financial management, risk assessment, governance, and development of mechanisms for revenue retention and reinvestment. The expert should have experience developing safeguards for public assets and commercial partnership arrangements.

Submission Guidelines

Technical and Financial Proposals must be submitted as separate PDF files by 5th November 2026 to the link below: Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. WUSC reserves the right to proceed to the next stage of the procurement process once suitable submissions are identified during the rolling review.