Consultancy Assignment to develop a Strategic Plan for Strengthening and Harmonisation of Veterinary Education and Research in Africa

Background

The African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is a specialized Technical Office of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE) of the African Union Commission. Its mandate is to support and coordinate the sustainable development and utilization of animal resources (livestock, fisheries and wildlife) to enhance food and nutrition security and contribute to the wellbeing and prosperity of the people in the Member States of the African Union (AU). AU-IBAR accomplishes its mandate through supporting and empowering the AU Member States, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other stakeholders in the sector. AU-IBAR’s vision is of an Africa in which animal resources contribute significantly to the reduction of poverty and hunger.

AU-IBAR led a multi-stakeholder process that brought together livestock sector actors from across the African continent in the formulation of the Livestock Development Strategy for Africa (LiDeSA). The Strategy, which provides a 20 year framework for the collective and coordinated development of the livestock sector on the continent, was approved and endorsed by the AU Heads of States and Government in January 2015.

To kick start the implementation of the continental components of the LiDeSA, the European Union funded an AU-IBAR initiative the Sustainable Development of Livestock for Livelihoods in Africa (Live2Africa) Project, which is being implemented in partnership with Member States, Regional Economic Communities and other key livestock stakeholders. The overall objective of the project is ‘To support transformation of the African livestock sector for enhanced contribution to environmentally sustainable, climate resilient, socio-economic development and equitable growth. The specific objective of Live2Africa is to strengthen the systemic capacity of continental, regional and national livestock sector stakeholders for the economically, environmentally and socially sustainable transformation of the livestock sector.

Live2Africa project addresses all the subcomponents of livestock development utilizing a value chain approach, focusing on selected priority regional livestock value chains.

Veterinary Training and the Association of Veterinary Education Establishments (2A2E-V) in Animal Resources Development in Africa

In Africa, the Livestock sector is a key contributor to food and nutrition security, employment creation and economic development. However, inadequate human capital with appropriate knowledge, skills and competences within the African livestock value chains limit the exploitation of the potential of the African Livestock sector. Tertiary institutions in Africa are not able to produce skilled and professional workforce able to meet the needs of the industry and societal expectations due to inadequacy of the curriculum among other aspects (Study of AU-IBAR, 2011). To compound the problem, individual countries/Universities face difficulties in addressing the gaps. Across the VEEs there is incoherence of the education and training offered limiting quality and mobility of students and veterinary professionals across borders. There is therefore need to reform veterinary education and training in African VEEs to ensure supply of quality and quantity of skilled workforce required for the transformation of the livestock sector in line with the target of Malabo declaration and the Agenda 2063, the Africa we want.

To inform reforms of Veterinary Education in Africa, AU-IBAR in collaboration with EISMV, organised a Continental Meeting on Veterinary Education in Dakar, Senegal on 5th to 7th July 2017 whose theme was ‘improving quality of Veterinary training for enhanced veterinary services and socio-economic development’. One of the recommendations coming out of the meeting was the need to ‘Accelerate the process of setting up of the African Association of Veterinary Education Institutions (2A2E-V) and plan the launch of the Association in July 2018 in Cairo’. The association was launched by the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, H.E. Prof Dr. Ezz El Din Abostate in Cairo, Egypt on the 26th July 2018 during the 1st Pan-African Conference of the Association that took place on 25th to 27th July 2018. The conference agreed to reform training programs to reflect the needs of the industry and the society; strengthen quality assurance systems in veterinary education establishments and work towards the establishment of a continental framework; work towards harmonisation of the veterinary curricula in VEEs through development of a continental framework on harmonisation of curriculum; support the twining programme for Veterinary Education Establishments in Africa and enhance networking of 2A2E-V with other networks and associations such as the Council on International Veterinary Medical Education (CIVME) among other recommendations. The Meeting was attended by 77 representatives from 51 Veterinary Faculties, Colleges and Schools from 25 African Union Member States (Algeria, Angola, Cameroun, DRC, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Representatives from Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Regional Office for Africa; Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and World Animal Protection (WAP) also participated in the Conference

The Problem Statement and the Rationale

In Africa, the availability and quality of Veterinary Education Establishments (VEEs) is highly variable and this reflects in the quantity and quality of veterinary graduates, various veterinary personnel and services in the different AU Member States. Overall, there are inadequate competencies among graduates from VEEs in Africa to meet the evolving needs of industry and society. This results in graduates who are unable to compete effectively at national, regional and international levels. This situation contributes to the poor access of animals and animal products from Africa to regional and international markets due to inability to comply with OIE sanitary standards and other sanitary measures imposed by trading partners based on risk analyses. Furthermore, such personnel are often poorly equipped to deal with emerging global issues impacting on animal and human health and well-being including climate change, antimicrobial resistance and the one health approach. Thus their contribution to the socio-economic development of Africa in line with the aspirations of agenda 2063 will be sub-optimal unless measures are undertaken to remedy this situation.

To enhance quality of veterinary education, training and research in Africa, the African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) under the Framework of the Sustainable Development of Livestock for Livelihoods in Africa (Live2Africa) project has supported the establishment of the African Association of Veterinary Education Establishments (2A2E-V).

In order to guide evidence based scientific information for a Strategic Plan on Strengthening and Harmonisation of Veterinary Education and Research in Africa AU-IBAR in partnership with 2A2E-V proposes to engage a subject matter specialist consultant to collect, collate and analyze data and information on veterinary education establishments in the continent to inform Strategic Planning process that would inform the Strengthening and Harmonization Veterinary Education and Research in Africa.

Overall Objective of the Consultancy

The overall objective of the consultancy is to provide support to 2A2E-V to achieve its objectives:

1. To enhance collaboration among all Veterinary Education Establishments.
2. To establish continental quality assurance.
3. To harmonise veterinary curricula, research and community service by establishing reference standards.
4. To enhance dissemination of innovation and good practice.
5. To build capacity among educators in African Veterinary Education Establishments.
6. To promote quality facilities at African Veterinary Education Establishments

The Consultant will undertake the following tasks

1. Review and summarize the available VEEs evidence in the continent of Africa and clearly map their locations in each country;
2. To develop a framework to maintain an updated database of African VEEs ;
3. Conduct a review on veterinary curricula, research and community service to establish reference standards;
4. Conduct a review on the SWOT analysis on VEEs in Africa;
5. Illustrate the existing gap in evidence (data and information) where further collaboration is required for developing and implementing effective expertise, teachers, students exchange in the strategic plan;
6. Review and summarize the available quality assurance evidence in VEEs in the continent of Africa and propose the possible quality assurance standard to be established in coherence with international standards and industry needs;
7. Develop a strategic plan to enhance the capacity of veterinary education in Africa;
8. Develop draft strategic, implementation and risk plans for enhancing the quality of veterinary education, training and research in African VEEs;
9. To present findings of the outputs at the general assembly of 2A2E-V for inputs by members
10. Finalize the strategic, implementation and risk plans incorporating the inputs (comments and suggestions) of the General Assembly and submit the final report in two weeks’ time.

Expected Deliverables

1. An Inception report within 14 days of the service contract signature with a clear Purpose, Objectives, Approach and Methodology of the study and strategy development;
2. Mid-term Progressive Report with Preliminary findings of the tasks;
3. Consultant expected to update the development of the tasks to the 2A2E-V- as required;
4. Presentation at the General Assembly of 2A2E-V;
5. Submission of the study findings and draft Strategic Plan within 40 days of the contract agreement;
6. Submission of the final report and the final Strategic Plan within 60 upon incorporating all comments obtained from the validation workshop and other provisions from relevant sources.

Proposed Methodology and Approach

The consultancy will outline the indicative approach and methodology that shall be followed by providing an elaborate outline of the approach as a response to the terms of reference. The approach should include at least and not limited to the following:

1. Conduct telephone calls, teleconference, emails etc with key informants or dispatch e.g google form questionnaire to obtain required information;
2. Where absolutely necessary and if it is possible, develop a tentative itinerary to visit the target country(ies) to meet with relevant stakeholders and institutions;
3. Approaches for designing, enriching and validating the final documents

Minimum Recruitment Qualifications

Education

MSc/ PhD in Veterinary medicine

General Professional Experience

At least 10 years of experience in clinical veterinary medicine education

Specific Professional Experience

1. Five years’ experience in quality assurance especially in clinical veterinary medicine Education;
2. At least 5 years’ relevant experience in strategic planning;
3. Fair knowledge and experience of science scenario or scenario processes in identifying alternative possible options for strategic planning.

Preferred Attributes

1. Familiarity with global continental and national quality assurance schemes and curriculum harmonization mechanisms;
2. Knowledge and experience of initiatives towards veterinary curriculum harmonization and quality assurance in Africa;
3. A clear understanding of global, continental and national players in quality assurance of veterinary education and training and existing quality assurance and harmonization frameworks.

Language Requirements

Proficiency in English or French (verbal and written) is essential. Working knowledge of an additional AU language will be an added advantage.

Duration of the Consultancy

The assignment will take sixty (60) man-days spread over a period of four (4) months. The consultants will develop and submit an inception report detailing timelines of delivery of outputs in accordance with the TOR.

Location

The consultancy will be home-based with travel on specific assignments agreed with AU-IBAR management.

Reporting

Reports will be submitted to the President and the Secretary of 2A2E-V and to AU-IBAR

Payment

The maximum funds available for this call is twenty one thousand dollars (USD 21,000).

• 30% after the signing of contract and submission of the inception report, study findings and draft proposal of Strategic Plan and Mid-term Progressive Report to AU-IBAR and 2A2E-V.
• 70% after the submission and acceptance of the final report and documents as per the expected outputs and deliverables in this ToRs.

Travel outside duty station (Home country) if necessary

Air tickets and Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will be covered for field work upon approval of travel schedules. Costs for stakeholder and validation workshops will be met by AU-IBAR

Insurance Cover

The consultant will be responsible for his/her own medical and life insurance covers for the duration of the assignment.

Technical Scoring

The evaluation of the Technical Proposal will weigh 70% of the total rating and will be evaluated against the Minimum recruitment qualifications and competencies.

Financial Evaluation

The evaluation of the financial proposal will weigh 30% of the total rating. The financial proposal will be evaluated on the basis of total cost, cost realism and used in combination with the assessment of the technical quality to determine the best value for money.

How to apply:

How to Submit Applications

The entire proposal, including all supporting documentation should not be no longer than 8 A4 pages in length, and should be emailed as a single document to:

procurement-210518-2@au-ibar.org, with a copy to Khalid.seid@au-ibar.org by no later than 17.00hrs East African Time on 14^th June, 2021.

Specific questions not answered in this call may be emailed to: procurement-210518-2@au-ibar.org not later than 31^st May 2021.

Please ensure that the appended Declaration Form is duly filled in, signed, and stamped.
The Declaration form has to be submitted together with the other application requirements. Failure to do so nullifies your application.
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