Consultant - Research ,WRI Africa

The World Resources Institute is seeking a Consultant for Research in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on food loss and waste measurement in the potato value chain. This role is part of WRI Africa’s Vital Landscapes Pillar, aiming to integrate measurement of food loss and waste into operations to support impactful prevention and reduction strategies. The consultant will help address data discrepancies and support Kenya's commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.
WRI Africa Research Consultancy

Terms of Reference

Food loss and waste measurement in the potato value chain in Kenya

Institution overview

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982. The organization has been working in Africa for more than 30 years, supporting local partners and African governments to advance forest protection, landscape restoration and sustainable cities. Our vision for Africa is an inclusive transformation so that Africa’s people and landscapes can flourish. WRI Africa generates actionable knowledge across three strategic pillars: Vital Landscapes, Thriving and Resilient Cities, and Institutional and Economic Transformation. The goal of the Vital Landscapes pillar is to revitalize and protect landscapes for people and the planet in four programmatic areas: Food, Restoration, Water and Forests. Because Africa’s population will continue to grow rapidly in the next decades, and climate change will remain an obstacle for development, the vital landscapes pillar aims to build the resilience of our natural ecosystems so that they can continue to provide vital ecosystems services - food, water, carbon sequestration and climate regulation sustainably. The pillar aims to catalyse comprehensive transformation of African food systems, so that the way we produce, transport, store, process, trade and consume food is done in such a manner that protects the environment and guarantees human health and well-being.

Assignment background

The current assignment is part of WRI-Africa’s Vital Landscapes Pillar, and more specifically, the food loss/waste (FLW) portfolio domiciled in the food program. One of portfolio’s goal is to contribute to impactful FLW prevention and reduction through collaborations that scale-up the Target- Measure-Act (TMA) approach. This approach encourages entities to integrate measurement of FLW in their operations. Measuring helps to better understand how much, where, and why food is being lost or wasted, and provides an evidence-based foundation for the Actions to be prioritized. For governments the actions might include aligning policies or developing action plans while for businesses these might include changing practices, adopting improved technologies etc. Measuring further enables tracking of progress towards the set target when specific actions are being implemented.

A major obstacle in the efforts to mitigate FLW is the lack of reliable and consistent data on the magnitude of FLW, the hotspots (geographical, product, value chain stages) of food loss/waste, and the key drivers. A review of the literature shows there exist variations in scope/boundaries of measurement– even in the same value chains, which raises data discrepancies as well as reporting and accounting issues[1]. These situations make it impossible to measure progress against any targets because there is no standardised way of defining and measuring the problem. Additionally, without accurate data, the formulation of robust policies with clear actionable recommendations for to the public and private sector actors becomes untenable.

Kenya has committed to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) target 12.3 of reducing food loss and halving food waste by 2030. This commitment requires national frameworks to be supported with credible/standardized approaches for measuring FLW. Conceptually, the methodological considerations of FLW measurement must consider the fact that food commodities are highly varied in their very nature. Variations also exist in the causes and drivers of FLW depending on geographical contexts and other circumstances. For instance, FLW can entail quantity and quality dimensions. A difficulty in measuring the quality dimension is that it is not always discernible (even when it could have health and food safety implications). However, some quality dimensions can be associated with sensory attributes whose loss can constitute a major cause of food waste as well as economic loss when consumers discard or pay a reduced price for the inferior-quality product.

An important dimension of FLW measurement also relates to understanding the destinations of food (and associated parts) that, for various reasons, end up not being consumed. For example, food commodities generate a significant amount of waste arising from market failures, deterioration, and processing by-products. Food entities targeting certain markets need to measure and evaluate where fractions of the unsold or unconsumed produce end up. These could include donation/redistribution as human food, conversion into processed products, repurposing for animal feed, upcycling into bio-based products, channelling to value (nutrients, energy) recovery processes (e.g., anaerobic fermentation, controlled composting and controlled combustion), incineration, and landfill. The target is to evaluate these destinations and keep reviewing them, with a focus to reducing the quantities that end up in high-GHG emitting destinations (e.g., landfill, incineration, and uncontrolled compositing), while maximizing material flows to destinations that return the highest value and benefits.

In 2016, WRI developed the global Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard. to standardize the way FLW is measured. WRI-Africa contextualised this standard to make it fit-for-purpose among local businesses and decision makers in government. The product of the contextualisation exercise is a six-step process (Figure 1), accompanied by guidelines and tools for capturing the relevant FLW data. The piloting and refining these guidelines and tools have been accomplished.

Figure 1: Standardized framework for FLW measurement and actioning.

The assignment

Following the successful piloting of the contextualised FLW measurement protocol, WRI-Africa intends to generate nationally representative data on the levels, causes and drivers of FLW in priority value chains in Kenya. Besides collecting the data, the intention of this assignment is also to engage stakeholders, build collaborations with businesses and sub-national governments, and increase awareness of the protocol while building capacity for use of the relevant guidelines to generate complete, accurate and consistent data sets. The exercise will generate a pool data for FLW decision making in the counties where specific priority commodities are predominantly produced.

This assignment will focus on the potato value chain in major producing agro ecologies (Nyandarua, Bomet, Nakuru and Meru counties). The implementer will generate data using direct FLW measurement approach where possible focusing on the entire value chain - targeting on farm and near-farm nodes, aggregation centres, wet markets and processing while paying attention to business entities as entry points. The businesses entities may include agricultural firms, food processing companies, large aggregators/packhouses, established cooperatives, major retail outlets (supermarkets), and established food service outlets. The implementer will be required to observe the principles underpinning effective FLW assessment and accounting: relevance, completeness, consistency, accuracy, transparency. The implementer of the assignment will be required to employ complete accounting approach at each value chain node to quantitatively document all possible FLW destinations.

Specific tasks
• Assist in the organization and facilitation of two pre- and post- data collection meetings with local stakeholders in Nyandarua, Bomet, Nakuru, and Meru counties.
• Work with WRI team to design the data collection plan, identify a representative sample, and map the geographical locations for the actual data collection in the two counties
• Recruit and train qualified enumerators ensuring gender/social inclusivity considerations and adequate representation of business entities and county staff.
• Digitize the data collection tool and deploy enumerators according to the data collection plan in (2) above.
• Coordinate and supervise the data collection exercise ensuring quality assurance is maintained at all stages of the exercise.
• Curate and analyse the data and prepare a detailed completion report.
• Participate at a national stakeholder workshop to share the findings and collate the feedback to inform the next steps.

Deliverables
• A report (including list and roles of participants, engagement methodology discussion points and feedback) of pre-and post-data collection stakeholder meetings
• A FLW assessment report upon completion of the data collection exercise detailing, methodology, findings – (magnitudes of FLW across the selected value chain stages, causes and drivers) and recommendations on possible interventions)
• Seminar presentation: submit a ppt deck and participate in one webinar or physical seminar session with WRI-Africa partners to present the findings and recommendations

Duration of the assignment

This assignment is scheduled to take place in between 15th June 2025 and 31st August 2025.

Required Qualifications.
• A master’s degree or above in social science, development studies, food Science/technology postharvest technology, or a related field.
• Extensive experience in conducting research in the agricultural sector, specifically on food loss and waste.
• Strong analytical skills (qualitative and quantitative) and ability to synthesize large amount of data to produce desired outputs.
• Knowledge of Africa’s agri-food sector, food systems and how they are linked to issues of food loss and waste, food and nutrition security in Africa.
• In-depth understanding of the Kenyan agricultural sector and food value chains
• Experienced researcher with ability to work multiple stakeholders including public and private sector.
• Proven track record of producing high-quality, policy-oriented research papers.
• Excellent English writing and oral communication skills
• A great team leader and team player
• Good work ethics

Expression of Interest

Expression of Interest should contain:
• A brief (Max. 2 pages) document outlining your approach. This should explain why you are qualified for this assignment. It should also illustrate your grasp of the concepts involved, methodologies you intend to apply and timelines.
• An indicative work plan and budget proposal. The budget should provide a breakdown of the consultant fee and the costs of field activities.
• CV(s)
• All these documents should be in one pdf file.

We invite qualified persons to submit their Expressions of Interest by 6th June 2025 to [email protected] for the attention of Samuel Gaturu, with cc to [email protected] for the attention of Christopher Mutungi, Senior Research Associate-Food Program at WRI Africa.