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Crop Analytics Network Development Consultant

Tetra Tech Development Services headquartered in Arlington, VA is seeking a qualified Network Development Consultant as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Enabling Crop Analytics at Scale project. This is a short-term consultancy.

 

Level of Effort and Term

Maximum level of effort (LOE) will be 25 days, with up to 5 days spent in India or another location, and up to 20 days spent in his/her ordinary place of business. This LOE may be amended to add additional days if deemed necessary by both parties.

 

The Enabling Satellite-based Crop Analytics at Scale project seeks to catalyze the development, availability, and uptake of agricultural remote-sensing data and applications by public and private actors, to improve strategic and operational decisions for improvements in smallholder productivity, income, and nutritional security. The project seeks to leverage strategic development of innovation frameworks, partnerships, and data-sharing infrastructure, and to unlock the ability to remotely generate accurate, near real-time, high-resolution insights on agricultural conditions and performance (crops planted, area planted, and yields). With the goals of accelerating innovation in ground-truthing and scaling dataset availability, the initiative’s primary objectives are to:

 

1. Develop and test innovative strategies, methods, and technologies for dramatically reducing the costs of collecting ground-truth data and in so doing, develop common standards for the collection and exchange of ground-truth data;

2. Facilitate the scaling of ground-truth dataset creation and facilitate the exchange of existing datasets through a network or consortium-based approach; and

3. Provide global access to repositories of regularly updated ground plus core insights layers to enable scalable satellite-based analytics in emerging agricultural economies.

 

Statement of Work

Tetra Tech seeks to engage a Crop Analytics Network Development Consultant to develop and maintain partnerships and knowledge products that will contribute to improved availability, uptake, and use of agricultural remote sensing data. Specifically, the consultant will mobilize and engage stakeholders working on these issues through use of workshops, strategic communications, and documentation of knowledge captured through this process. This is a part-time consulting assignment starting as soon as possible and with a total Level of Effort (LOE) of approximately 25 days over an approximately 3-month period. However, additional assignments are possible, based on the expected need for future deliverables and workshops. The consultant will work remotely but will be required to travel within the US, to India, or to other sites, to be determined collaboratively with the project team and subject to international travel guidelines or restrictions.

 

Deliverables:

1. Review and analyze existing project database of key crop analytics stakeholders and networks for engagement.  Contribute additional ideas for network sourcing or maintenance processes. (3 days LOE)

2. Design one stakeholder workshop/technical working group focused around specific crop analytics issues in the US, India, or another site as determined in consultation with the project team. (5 days LOE)

3. Coordinate communication and planning with priority US or international stakeholders to ensure their participation in the event/meeting, solicit input for agenda, and maintain communication and outreach after the event concludes.  These communications will be captured and summarized in a basic database. (7 days LOE)

4. Facilitate event/meeting sessions and document outcomes. (5 days LOE)

5. Synthesize lessons and outcomes from stakeholder engagement and develop one or more of the following products:

a. Lessons learned one-pager to be disseminated among diverse stakeholder audiences. (2 day LOE)

b. Detailed “key takeaways” document for use by the project team for continued stakeholder engagement or future workshop/meeting design. (3 days LOE)

 

Qualifications:

* Master’s degree in agriculture, remote sensing/analytics, business, communications, international development, or relevant field required;

* Fluency in English required; knowledge of Hindi is a plus.

* Experience convening/mobilizing public and private stakeholders toward common goals, preferably within a related technical field;

* Experience with agriculture, agricultural technology, machine learning, and/or remote sensing data and applications preferred;

* Ability to travel on internationally on short notice, and experience in India is a plus;

* Continued availability for follow-on assignments through as late as August, 2021 is strongly preferred.  

*CA ARDc