Consultant on Conducting Online Training for Conservation Friendly Enterprises – Topics of Value Chain Development and Business Planning

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT SCOPE OF WORK

A. DAI ORGANIZATION AND VALUES

DAI is a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.

DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work. DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner.

DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.

B. PROJECT BACKGROUND

The USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) will work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN) to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation, the degradation of natural forests, and poor plantation management. The Project will implement a “Green Prosperity” approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

1. Improve and expand community forest management

2. Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities

3. Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes

4. Improve production forest management practices

5. Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The Project will be implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

C. DESCRIPTION OF CONSULTANCY SERVICE:

I. Background

Under Objective 2 (Increase Conservation-Friendly Enterprises in Forest Dependent Communities), there are two main tasks as follow:

1. Identify Target Value Chains, Barriers, and Opportunities

2. Strengthen Conservation-Friendly Value Chains in sustainable forest management (SFM) Landscapes

Conservation Friendly Enterprises (CFEs) are hereby understood as formal or informal undertakings that generate incomes for one or more people, usually based on natural resources, with the purpose of achieving conservation and environmental outcomes. Social and economic benefits are generated as a means to achieve conservation ¹outcomes.

Under the Project’s activities, CFEs are expected to manage natural resources in an efficient and sustainable manner, contribute to biodiversity conservation and achieve overall goals of the Project on reducing carbon emission and increase of carbon sequestration.

By conducting Task 1 - Identify Target Value Chains, Barriers, and Opportunities, the Project has identified potential value chains and CFEs to participate in project’s activities.

However, the initial assessment shows that potential CFEs have unequal awareness on the concepts of conservation, sustainability, forest protection and management, value chain development and efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. In addition, some CFEs, despite huge potential to contribute to conservation goals, still lack of professional knowledge on governance and enterprises development.

According to the very first findings from the rapid assessment, four areas of knowledge that needs to be equipped for CFEs in the initial phase are presented as follow:

1. Circular Economy: One of the fundamental principles of circular economy is to “preserve the existing values”, thus, an understanding and application capacity of the concept of circular economy will help CFEs to better design and implement activities towards conservation goals, environmental outcomes and sustainable development.

2. Sustainability Development Approach: Equipping methodology, tools and knowledge on sustainability approach and sustainability certification for CFEs as a guide to achieving conservation and environmental outcomes.

3. Value Chain Development associated with sustainable forest management: This topic is to increase capacity for CFEs in balancing value chain development and forest conservation targets as a means to achieve project’s goals.

4. Sustainable Business Development planning: This skill is of crucial importance to ensure sustainable enterprise development.

In order to support CFEs in achieving conservation goals, a collaboration trajectory between the Project and CFEs by deploying Private Sector Engagement approach (PSE) is needed. This trajectory should start off by capacity building and training activities on the aforementioned activities for potential CFEs. Improving knowledge on conservation goals, sustainable value chain development and forest protection and management principles will set a strong foundation for CFEs’ development trajectory and contributing to project’s goals.

In response to the demand of CFEs, DAI is seeking a short-term consultant to provide services on conducting training on the two topics – value chain development and business planning. This activity will directly contribute to two indicators including ID1 – Number of people trained in sustainable landscapes and ID2 – Number of institutions with improved capacity to address sustainable landscape issues. In addition, this activity is also expected to indirectly contribute to the ID indicator 5- Number of people receiving livelihood benefits from the Project's support (amongst 11 monitoring and evaluation indicators of the Project).

II. Purposes of the assignment

The main purposes of training on the two aforementioned topics are follow:

1. Value Chain Development: participants, including CFEs, grasp a solid understanding on methods for value chain development and integration sustainable forest management goals into value chain.

2. Sustainable Business Development planning: participants, including CFEs, grasp a solid understanding of business planning methods and being able to consider and integrate conservation goals into business plan and enterprise development strategy.

III. Scope of the assignment 

The scope of this assignment covers a range of activities including designing, conducting and assessing results of training workshop with the following details:

• Number of participants: approx. 50 persons

• Participants:

  • Central Project Management Unit (CPMU): 2 persons

  • Provincial Project Management Units (PPMUs) of seven provinces: 2 persons/PPMU x 7 provinces = 14 persons

  • Representative of CFEs: 1 person/CFE x 34 CFEs = 34 persons

• The training workshop covers two main topics: i) value chain development; and ii) Business planning. This training will be divided into modules at appropriate timeline to ensure that participates have adequate chances to absorb theory and framework and spend sufficient time for practical assignments. Total estimated duration of the training workshop (with all modules) is 5 (five) days. Integration of sustainable management and conservation goals in this training is emphasized.

These details can be subjected to adjust based on the results of pre-training assessment and agreement between the Consultant, the Project technical staff and CPMU and PPMUs.

A participatory method with focusing on learners is strongly encouraged.

IV. Location 

The training will be carried out in online mode, with at least eight connection points including Hanoi and seven provinces in project sites. Individual participants can access this training via a link provided by organizers.

V. Tasks 

The Consultant is expected to conduct the following tasks:

1. Prepare work plan, approach to conducting activities related to this training on value chain development and sustainable business development planning; discuss and reach consensus with the Project technical staff before rolling out implementation.

2. Prepare questionnaires on CFEs’ profile and business performance, capacity building and training needs on value chain development and sustainable business development planning; and the possibility to collaborate with the Project.

3. Conduct rapid assessment (online mode) on CFE’s capacity and knowledge (list of CFEs provided by the Project) on value chain development tools, business planning and capacity of integrating sustainable and conservation goals into enterprise development strategy.

4. Collect, process, and analyze the findings on capacity and training needs assessment on value chain development and sustainable business development planning.

5. Design training curriculum and agenda for training on value chain development and sustainable business development planning.

6. Conduct training workshop in online mode on value chain development and sustainable business development planning.

7. Assess the results of training.

8. Write final training report including recommendations and the proposed follow-up activities.

VI. Anticipated Level of Effort (LOE) and Deliverables

The estimated LOE for this assignment is 18 (eighteen) person-days, from August 23, 2021, and ends up on September 30, 2021. All final deliverables must be prepared in Vietnamese. The final report must be in both Vietnamese and English. The specific deliverables and timeframe are listed below in the following table:

VII. Qualifications

• Vietnamese National

• Have a bachelor’s degree or higher in business administration, development economics, agriculture, forestry, natural resources management or relevant areas

• Have at least 5 years of experience in enterprise development and value chain development

• Experience in agriculture sector and natural resource management is preferable

• Have at least 5 years of conducting training

• Experience in conducting training in online mode is preferable

• Have skills in analyzing statistical data; synthesizing and writing reports

• Have Vietnamese and English proficiency in speaking and writing

VIII. How to apply and requested documents

Interested candidates are requested to submit:

• A CV in English and Vietnamese

• A cover letter in English

• Scanned copy of highest related degrees

• Technical proposal in English and Vietnamese on approach to this assignment (methodology and work plan), and list of relevant completed assignments

via email to our recruitment email at [email protected] [1] and copy [email protected] [2].

Please quote the position title in the subject line: “Candidate’s full name _ Consultant on conducting online training(s) for Business Planning and Value chain development”

Deadline for application: 5.00 p.m. (Hanoi time), August 20, 2021

To learn more about DAI, please visit our website www.dai.com [3].

DAI is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer with a commitment to diversity. DAI does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, parental status, veteran status, or other non-merit factor.

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