The Consultancy (Consulting Firm) will carry out Feasibility Study including the Strategic Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (SESIA), in line with the approved Terms of Reference (ToRs). As part of capacity building, 2 Government counterpart staff will be attached to the Consultant and be provided with on-the-job training in order to improve their knowledge and skills in design of the proposed Programme. The Grant activities will be implemented in 2 components, namely, Component 1 "Feasibility Study" and Component 2 "Study Coordination". Component 1 Feasibility Study. Phase 1 Pre-feasibility Study (Preliminary Assessment): This phase will commence with "Inception St age" which will mainly consist of desk study and extensive consultations, facilitation of "2-day National Stakeholders' Workshop", and selection, together with Government, of one agricultural growth corridors including Programme Districts with the aim of producing an inception report. With respect to ToRs, in summary, the consultancy activities will include baseline socio-economic survey, engineering surveys and designs, Bill of Quantities (BoQs) and Tender documents, identification and development of institutional and financing models for commercial cash cropping and complementary livelihood enterprises, agronomic study including crop production gap analysis, various technical assessments, Private Sector analysis, entrepreneurs/investors analysis, commercial/marketing analysis, commodity value chain analysis, institutional and management assessment, policy assessment, legal assessment, gross margin analysis, gender analysis (gender equality and gender gap analysis), food and nutrition security analysis, financial and economic analysis. During field operations, the Consultant will facilitate Provincial Stakeholders workshop at the end of Provincial-level activities. The SESIA will be carried out to provide (a) desirable safeguards and mitigation measures, and (b) guide the environmental and climatic change categorisation of the proposed Programme. The Consultant will produce a Pre-feasibility Study Report which will be discussed at a 2-day National Stakeholders' workshop whose resolutions will inform the detailed Feasibility Study. Phase 2 Feasibility Study (Detailed Assessment): The Consultant will carry out detailed assessment of Phase 1 agreed activities and incorporate stakeholders' workshop resolutions, and environmental and social issues in the final design of the proposed Programme. The Consultant will compile and submit separate (i) Feasibility Study Report and (ii) SESIA Report and summary. Component 2 - Study Coordination: The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) will be the Executing Agency (EA) with overall responsibility for implementation of the proposed activities including operational issues. The Director of Policy and Planning (MoA) will be in charge of study-implementation which will be monitored by the Government Technical Team, with membership from all the participating 5 Ministries (MoA; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries; Ministry of Commerce, Trade & Industry; and Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection) and IAPRI. The Cabinet Office (Private Sector Development, Industrialisation and Job Creation Secretariat) is currently responsible for coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of "National Strategy on Industrialisation and Job Creation" and will liaise with the Ministry of Finance and MoA to provide a coordinating or steering role. In terms of quality control, the Bank has established multi-disciplinary Technical Team which will review all the study documents submitted by the Consultant, through the EA. The Bank's Technical Team will work with the Government Task Team. During implementation, no separate Supervision Missions will be scheduled for study activities, but the Bank staff will monitor the activities when supervising other Projects in Zambia. The EA will submit quarterly implementation progress reports (IPRs), using the Bank format. At the end of implementation, the Bank and EA will prepare a completion report in order to evaluate the impact of the Grant, highlight lessons learned and expected outcomes. The main expected outputs include: (a) Inception Report, Pre-feasibility Report and Feasibility Study Report which will cover all aspects of the Terms of Reference and will be the basis for preparation of a bankable Programme, with a current estimated investment cost of more than USD 100 million; (b) SESIA Report which will provide an assessment of the environmental and social risks associated with the proposed Programme. The SESIA findings and recommendations will be shared with the infrastructure design team, for incorporation into the Programme design; and (c) Stakeholders' Workshop Reports which will highlight resolutions, commitment and undertakings by key stakeholders.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.