Request for Proposal For Consultancy For Agri-Enterprise Commercialization And Market Access Advisor

Request for proposals for Consultancy for Agri-Enterprise Commercialization and Market Access Advisor Location: kigali Deadline: Friday, 16/10/2026 12:54 1. Introduction AGRA invites qualified consulting firms to submit proposals to bid for aConsultancy for Agri-Enterprise Commercialization and Market Access Advisor. This document outlines the requirements and guidelines for the submission of proposals. 2. Background AGRA is a not-for-profit organization working with African governments, other donors, NGOs, the private sector, and farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa. AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. For more information about AGRA, please visit www.agra.org. YEFFA supports young people to participate in agriculture as viable entrepreneurs across Rwanda. Phase 1 interventions, delivered through implementing partners, have equipped youth with production skills, value addition capabilities, business development services (BDS), financial literacy, and linkages to VSLAs and financial institutions. As enterprises mature, the principal constraint shifts from production capacity to commercialization. Youth-led and women-led enterprises continue to face challenges in securing reliable buyers, meeting market requirements, negotiating commercial agreements, accessing growth capital and integrating into competitive value chains. Women-led enterprises constitute a core target group; YEFFA commits to a minimum 70% participation rate. A defining feature of the YEFFA target population is that participants are predominantly underserved and economically excluded rural youth with limited formal education and business management experience. Many enterprises are not legally registered and operate informally. For the purposes of credit access, financial inclusion and collective marketing, enterprises are typically organized into cooperatives or youth groups. Any service provider engaged under this ToR must demonstrate a deep understanding of the peculiarities and complexities of working with such market actors, including their literacy levels, geographic dispersion, limited digital access and the trust dynamics that govern group-based economic activity. AGRA therefore seeks to engage a suitably qualified consulting firm to act as the strategic Commercialization and Market Systems Advisor for the entire YEFFA programme portfolio, facilitating the transition of youth-led and women-led enterprises from capability-building interventions into commercially viable and scalable agribusinesses. YEFFA Rwanda Commercialization Pathway The diagram below maps the structured progression from foundational capacity-building to sustainable commercial income for YEFFA-supported enterprises. The Commercialization and Market Systems Advisor will operate primarily across stages 58, while reinforcing upstream stages through feedback loops with implementing partners. Shaded cells (stages 58) indicate the primary mandate of the Commercialization and Market Systems Advisor. Stages 14 remain the responsibility of implementing partners, with the Advisor providing demand-side feedback to strengthen upstream programming. At stage 4, youths are expected to transition from subsistence to commercially oriented enterprises that will be sustainable long after the YEFFA programme. 3. Objectives General Objective To serve as the strategic commercialization instrument for the YEFFA programme, facilitating the transition of youth-led and women-led agribusiness enterprises from production-oriented activities into commercially viable and scalable businesses through structured market access, private sector engagement, enterprise readiness development and market-driven financing mechanisms. Specific Objectives Develop a national commercialization strategy for the YEFFA enterprise portfolio. Assess commercial readiness and develop structured enterprise readiness pathways for 16 anchor firms working with AGRAs Implementing partners across Rwandan country Establish and manage a dynamic buyer engagement platform connecting youth enterprises to domestic, regional and export markets. Facilitate deal-making, contract negotiations and off-take arrangements in shared responsibility with implementing partners. Develop and implement an enterprise readiness framework aligning quality, compliance and packaging standards to market requirements. Leverage commercial market linkages to improve youth enterprise access to growth capital. Ensure inclusive commercialization with a minimum 70% participation by women-led enterprises. Convene a national YEFFA commercialization showcase event to demonstrate outcomes and attract investor and buyer interest. 4. Scope of Work and Workstreams The Advisor shall deliver four primary outputs that together constitute the strategic commercialization architecture for YEFFA. Actual transaction facilitation is a shared responsibility between the Advisor and implementing partners, with the Advisor providing frameworks, platforms and deal support, while implementing partners manage enterprise-level relationships on the ground. Scope of Work 1: Commercialization Strategy A national-level strategy defining the commercial positioning of the YEFFA portfolio, target value chains (chili, avocado, French beans, poultry, passion fruits, and maize )and market segments, competitive entry strategies for youth enterprises, aggregation and collective marketing models, and a phased commercialization roadmap. The strategy shall be context-sensitive to the realities of rural youth operating in group-based enterprise models. For the sake of helping AGRA Rwanda to achieve its intended results, the consultant will work closely with 19,651 who are identified as youth in work and 84,504 identified as work enabling outreach by connecting them with buyers, suppliers, aggregators, processors, and anchor firms, and track their sustainable social economic status throughout the journey. At the end of the day, the consultant will indicate the graduation levels in market facilitation as follows: Youth will be outreached through being given training, information about market access and awareness of local and internal market standards requirements Market-Readiness: The beneficiaries will be given the capacity to get local and international market certification. Market linkage: Youths will be connected to the buyers, aggregators, suppliers, through contract farming and job placement due to market facilitation. Youth in Work: Youth will be earning significant income through sales which might be increasing at the rate of 10%. (Employment, self-employment, entrepreneurship, or agricultural value-chain activities). Scope of work 2: Buyer Engagement Platform A structured, living market platform comprising: a buyer and market actor database; an active supplier/buyer engagement log; a framework for business-to-business (B2B) facilitation; and documented off-take arrangements and memoranda of understanding. The platform shall track the progression of enterprises from initial buyer introduction through to concluded commercial agreements, and shall be designed for handover and ongoing management by AGRA or implementing partners beyond the assignment period. Scope of Work 3: Enterprise Readiness Framework A practical framework enabling youth enterprises including those organized as cooperatives and youth groups to meet the quality, grading, packaging, traceability and compliance requirements of target markets. The framework shall include differentiated pathways for cooperatives versus individually operated enterprises and shall be operationally accessible to enterprises with limited formal education and administrative capacity. It shall also include a commercial finance readiness component facilitating access to growth capital. Scope of work 4: Deal Facilitation Support Structured support for the negotiation and conclusion of commercial agreements between youth enterprises and buyers, aggregators, processors, exporters and institutional purchasers. The Advisor shall lead deal structuring and documentation while implementing partners provide ground-level enterprise support. The Advisor shall maintain a deal pipeline tracker and report on transaction value, number of agreements concluded and finance mobilized. Workstream 5: Womens Economic Empowerment All outputs shall be designed with an explicit gender lens. The Advisor shall identify barriers facing women-led enterprises in accessing commercial markets, design targeted commercialization solutions, and track and report gender disaggregated outcomes throughout the assignment. Workstream 6: YEFFA Commercialization Showcase Event Towards the close of the assignment, the Advisor shall plan and convene a national YEFFA Commercialization Showcase Event. The event shall bring together youth and women entrepreneurs, buyers, financial institutions, government representatives and development partners to demonstrate the commercial outcomes of the YEFFA portfolio, facilitate business matching, attract investment and generate evidence for programme scale-up and replication. The Advisor shall be responsible for event design, participant mobilization, facilitation and post-event reporting. The consultant will be responsible for tracking the event outcome such as participation target, buyer engagement, and clear guidance on YEFFA Commercialization pathways. Workstream 7: Financing Strategy For the sake of improving the aspect of access to finance, the financing pathway for at least 16 anchor firms will be performed, including bankability assessments and tailored financing solutions such as working-capital loans, asset finance, guar Tender Link : https://www.jobinrwanda.com/job/request-proposal-consultancy-agri-enterprise-commercialization-and-market-access-advisor