Invitation to Tender- review of Nature Friendly Farming

UPDATED 18 MAY 2023: Please note we are no longer accepting submissions.

We are looking to work with an external consultant over 8 weeks from mid-June to mid- August 2023, to carry out a short review to inform our work in “Nature friendly farming”. We estimate the work will take 25 days, and have a budget of £15,000. We’re looking for someone with experience in evaluation and research, who is good at listening, comfortable working with varied sources of information, and can summarise their findings clearly and simply. Knowledge of the environment, sustainable food, or farming sectors would be an advantage, but is not essential.

If you are available to do 25 days’ work, beginning in the week of 12 June 2023:

• read the Invitation to Tender Nature Friendly Farming review 2023 ITT
• please send a CV (including day rates) and links to your work to Gina Crane by 17 May 2023.

Background

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s strategy was launched in October 2020, setting out the impact goals and priorities we wanted to see happen over five years. As we approach the three year point, we want to understand what’s changed in the context for our strategy in Nature friendly farming, and look at the progress made so far. We’ll use what we learn to inform what more we can do to deliver the long-term outcomes we set and how we can improve our support in future. We also want to share the findings with the organisations we fund, and the wider sector.

We have 43 active grants under our Nature friendly farming priority, and support work across food systems, policy and legislation, farmer advice and skills, and food production and growing.

Questions for our review

We know that our actions and funding are one part of a complex process of change. To keep our eyes on the bigger picture, our mid-strategy review will cover four context questions, in addition to two about progress:

1. The context for our goals – in what ways it is better or worse?
2. The need for our support – what’s changed in the funding situation?
3. The opportunities for progress – what are the levers for change?
4. The blockers for progress – what are insurmountable?
5. What difference our work and funding has made so far, and where is it struggling.
6. What feedback is there on the way Esmée has been working in this space?