Job Description

Company Information: About HarvestPlus

At HarvestPlus, we believe that hidden hunger should not be inevitable for the people most at risk. We work at the interface of agriculture and nutrition to develop creative solutions to combat hidden hunger. The HarvestPlus mission is to transform food systems to be more nutritious and more economically vibrant while improving public health. HarvestPlus develops and promotes staple crops that are enriched with vitamins and minerals through selective breeding and agronomic methods – a process known as biofortification. For the past two decades, the HarvestPlus program has led a global effort to scale up the production and consumption of nutrient-dense staple crops scientifically shown to improve nutritional status and health. Our vision is a more nutritionally resilient food system, with a goal to sustainably reach one billion people worldwide by 2030.

HarvestPlus works across CGIAR as part of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). To learn more about HarvestPlus, visit our home page here .

Biofortification in Zambia

HarvestPlus in Zambia has been a pioneer in testing biofortified vitamin A maize in school feeding programs, with the aim to a) reach school children with improved nutrition, b) create demand for biofortified crops in a manner that will support the building of a market system for biofortified crops for smallholder farmers, c) increase smallholder and medium entrepreneur (SME) processing of various products for school feeding and other markets.

HarvestPlus with its new project PORRICH, funded by Seeding the Future Foundation and the Institute for Food Technology (IFT), now aims to leverage to scale the nutritional benefits of biofortified crops by developing ready-made food products that can be consumed by children through the strategic mechanism of school feeding. By involving the processing stage, we aim to develop nutrient-dense flours for porridge or other products that can be easily stored, handled, and prepared for a large number of consumers.

Home-grown school feeding programs aim to source the ingredients required for the preparation of meals from local suppliers. Our project responds to a gap in the supply chain: the linkage between the production of biofortified crops by local communities with a consumer group that requires nutrient-rich ingredients that are affordable and accessible to schools.

The products shall contain high iron beans, vitamin A orange sweet potato and vitamin A maize. The development of new formulas of nutrient-dense flours for porridge or other suitable products will add value to biofortified food crops produced mainly by small-scale farming communities in Zambia. The products will communicate the relevance of nutritious foods and balanced diets by highlighting the benefits through branding and marketing. Schools are thus enabled to make a conscious consumer choice in favor of more nutritious ingredients for school meals.

HarvestPlus is committed to the scaling and reaching more people with biofortified seeds, grains and foods, using a tried and tested delivery model and a scaling strategy. An essential part of this work is to understand the drivers of demand from schools.

Details of this Request for Proposals

Scope of Work

The successful candidate of this request for proposals will be responsible for assessing and testing the nutritional (micronutrient) content and impact of nutritious food product prototypes initially targeted for the market of school feeding programs in Zambia. The candidate will contribute with technical expertise to ensure successful product testing and assessment, as well as overall project evaluation for any nutritional and health requirements. The candidate will contribute to the documentation of lessons learnt, including recommendations for further commercialisation of the developed products.

The main objective of this RFP is to test the nutrition content of food prototypes and assess their impact on nutrition and health of school children.

Specific Deliverables

Prototype and Product Development

• Assess and advise on the creation of flour formulas and food products for school feeding under consideration of nutrition, health, hygiene, food safety regulations for schools, as well as consumer/end user preferences in Zambia
• Identify the requirements for food products for school feeding from a nutrition perspective
• Assess and advise on school feeding guidelines, food and nutrition regulations, and indicators for monitoring and evaluation of nutrition and health in schools by the government

Testing of nutrition content

• Coordinate or conduct laboratory testing for the prototype and first product line
• Contribute the the development of a survey for prototype and product testing, by advising on qualitative or quantitative methods and indicators for nutritional impact, in general, and particularly if used in Zamia for the monitoring and evaluation of nutrition and health statuses of school children or the nutrition and health impacts of school meals

Marketing and Communication Strategy

• Contribute to the marketing and communication strategy for the food products by advising on the placement and communication of nutritious benefits
• Develop a marketing strategy based on the assessment of market trends and consumer awareness for nutritious foods in Zambia

Product evaluation

• Assess the potential of the food products in regards to nutritional impact, end user acceptance, and market viability
• Contribute to an analysis of the Zambian market for biofortified food products including food trends and product sales

Timeline

Deliverable	Deadline
RFP Issued	March 21, 2024
Proposal Submission	April 15, 2024
Review committee complete and choice of vendor	April 30, 2024
Contracting process finalized	May 21, 2024
Inception meetings and project kick off	May 30, 2024
Project completion	January 2026

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in food product development, prototyping, testing, and consumer-oriented development based on user feedback and market requirements under special consideration of nutrition and health aspects
• Understanding of regulatory requirements, marketing requirements, market trends, and user preferences linked to school feeding in Zambia
• Access to or knowledge of nutrition analysis for micronutrient content and other requirements for food product development
• Expertise in nutrition impact analysis, ideally with children in school going age, including governmental guidelines, monitoring and indicators used in Zambia
• Knowledge of specific challenges in creating local food products involving institutional off-takers
• Ability to align with overall work plan and work alongside HarvestPlus expert agronomists, nutritionists, and project managers

To Apply

Submit a technical proposal (including understanding of scope of work, understanding of deliverables, comprehensive work plan, risk mitigation measures, team information, if any, etc.) and a financial proposal to the IFPRI website. In the event of any questions please reach out to [email protected].