Organization and Management

Contracts with Service Providers

Some of the activities will be contracted out to service providers for implementation. Although in the Appraisal it was envisaged to contract OCIR-Thé and TWIN for most of the activities of the tea component, at re-formulation this situation has changed. This is in line with the government’s policy on the restructuring of the tea sector, where the role of OCIR-Thé would be mostly confined to regulatory, promotional and research work. The role envisaged for TWIN was (a) the formation and training of smallholders’ institutions, (b) the assistance and capacity building of smallholders with regards to management and ownership of the Nshili Tea Factory and, (c) the development of innovative marketing possibilities especially through the Fair Trade Organizations and the implementation of the necessary structures managed by smallholders. Apart from the formation and training of smallholders’ associations groups and the training of the smallholders’ representative seating at the Board of the Nshili Tea Factory (and assistance as a non-voting observer at each Board meeting), the implication of the PI in the revised design of the component nullifies the recourse to TWIN, especially with regards to marketing and commercialization of NTF production. In the absence of future services provided by OCIR-Thé and/or TWIN, suitable NGOs both local and national will be contracted based on their comparative and competitive advantage to undertake the following activities:

• Training of extension officers in both Nshili and Mushubi plantations (including technical and technological innovative aspects of tea production, supervision techniques of smallholders’ plantations, nurseries and demonstration plots, collection of data for monitoring and evaluation, training techniques, activity reporting);
• Baseline survey in Nshili and Mushubi;
• Formation of zonal, local, provincial and national smallholders’ associations (including legal aspects such as registration, charter, internal regulations, procedures);
• Orientation and training of smallholders’ associations members as well as members of their ‘bureau’;
• Training of staff of the Smallholders’ Financial Holding (carried out by a commercial bank through a specific contract).