TERMS OF REFERENCE
TITLE
(International/National
Consultants)
LOCATION
Develop a guideline on the mechanism for arrangement and
management of production development support project for
the transfer from agricultural production structure to
commodity production in poor districts under Program 30a
(Project 1 NTP-SPR) pursuant to Decision 2621/QD-TTg dated
12/31/2013 of the Prime Minister
- 01 National Consultant
Hanoi (Vietnam) and selected provinces
1) General Background
The project "Support to the implementation of the Resolution 80/NQ-CP on directions of
sustainable poverty reduction 2011-2020 and the National Targeted Program on Sustainable
Poverty Reduction 2012-2015" (PRPP), supported by UNDP with cost-sharing from Irish Aid, is to
provide support to the management, coordination and implementation of Resolution 80 and the
National Targeted Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction (NTP-SPR 2012-2015) to Ministry
of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and co-implementing partners. It will be
realized through achievement of the project specific outputs (i) Poverty reduction policies under
the responsibility of line ministries are streamlined, and poverty reduction is mainstreamed into
line ministries’ plans and policies; (ii) National Targeted Program on Sustainable Poverty
Reduction (NTP-SPR) is designed and implemented effectively, contributing to rapid poverty
reduction in poorest districts, communes and villages and of ethnic minority people through the
application of innovative and gender sensitive modalities and approaches; (iii) System for
monitoring and analysis of multi-dimensional poverty and vulnerability and high level policy
dialogues on poverty and vulnerability contribute to inclusive, equitable and pro-poor development
outcomes. The project is funded by UNDP and co-funded by Irish Government with a counterpart
fund from the Government of Vietnam. Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA)
is the implementing agency of the project, Ethnic Minority Committee/Department of Ethnic
Policy and selected provinces are co-implementing agencies. The project is implemented from
May September 2012 to December 2016 under National Implementing Modality (NIM - see the
attached Project Document for more details). The Resolution 80 and NTP-SPR mention about the
new approaches in poverty reduction strategy for the next period that community should be
empowered to lead meaningfully in order to sustain and improve poverty reduction achievements
and gains from previous NTPs such as P135, P134, 30a including livelihood models, production
development models and commune investment ownership. Strengthened decentralization and
participation are two core pillars in the poverty reduction programmes in the past years and that
will continue to be applied and enhanced in the NTP-SPR 2012-2015. The model of Community
Investment Ownership (CIO) in Programme 135-II leaves good lessons learnt in improving
participation and ownership of the communities in the implementation and monitoring of the NTPSPR. The NTP-SPR commits to pilot a block-grant mechanism and other innovative models for
sustainable poverty reduction based on the experiences in Vietnam of national and international
organizations/development partners (both bilateral and multilateral) and NGOs with the objective
of accelerating poverty reduction in the targeted areas of the program. This new approach is
emphasised specifically to enable a new NTP decentralization management mechanism that will
best meet the demands of poor women and men while promoting their pro-activeness and
mobilizing local indigenous knowledge, traditions and cultures of EM/local people as have been
piloted in selected benchmark projects supported by the NGOs (both national and international)
and development partners in Vietnam.
In order to implement efficiently general poverty reduction policies and specific poverty
reduction policies under Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP, the National Targeted Program on Sustainable
Poverty Reduction Program 2012 - 2015 focuses on the following 4 projects: Project#1: support
construction of infrastructures in poor districts, most disadvantaged communes in coastal areas and
islands; Project #2: support construction of infrastructures in most disadvantaged communes,
frontier communes, safe zone communes and most disadvantaged villages; Project # 3: replication
of poverty reduction models; and Project #4: support capacity building, communication,
monitoring and evaluation of the program implementation. Pursuant to Resolution No. 1489/QDTTg on approval of NTP-SPR (2012 – 2015) which assigns MOLISA to be the focal point for
coordination and implementation of the Project # 1, 3, 4, and CEMA is in charge of Project # 2.
While NTP-SPR has been designed and developed under the guidance of R/80 it must be
recognised that three of the above projects namely project 1, 2 and 3 have individual production
development components that need to be designed and developed in a harmonised and
complimentary manner to avoid repetition, overlaps, confusion and wastage in both human and
material resources. It has been recognised that in many targeted districts and communes that there
is a high probability that the four projects in NTP-SPR will be implemented simultaneously
focusing on small scale infrastructure and production development. Given that the production
development component in Project1, 2 and 3 will be implemented through the technical guidance
of MARD and its respective line sections it is paramount that there is a close harmonisation and
compatibility of all guiding circulars and technical and managerial mechanisms to counter the high
risk of overlaps and wastage.
Resolution 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated 12/27/2008 of the GOVN on rapid and sustainable
poverty reduction for the poorest districts, including agricultural - forestry - fishery production
support policies to transfer from agricultural - forestry - fishery production mechanism to
commodity production so that new breedings/technologies are applied, productivity/quality/market
value/income are increased, and poverty reduction are sustained. Policy beneficiaries are all of the
households in target areas, who participate in production structural transfer (poor households will
receive more support: money to pay for cage building, grass planting, vaccination, each poor
household can borrow 5 additional million VND with no interest rate for livestock development).
For policy implementation, 30a poor districts developed their Master Plans on socio-
economic development which include production structural transfer and development of
agricultural - forestry - fishery planning and demographic arrangement. Some districts used annual
allocated budget arranged the implementation of production structural transfer based on their
approved agricultural production plans such as pineapple production project in Muong Khuong
district (Lao Cai province), fattening cow raising project in Thanh Hoa etc. Commodity production
zones have been formed in these areas while most of their districts provide one-time support for
poor households' purchase of rice/corn breedings or fertilizer etc. In fact, the support is at a low
level, fragmented manner in the context of limited capacity and technology access so these
households turned back to the old production methods after the support schemes phased out. As a
result, after 5 years of R30a implementation, a number of localities failed to transfer agricultural forestry - fishery structure to commodity production. Therefore, on 31 December 2013, the Prime
Minister endorsed Decision 2621/QD-TTg on revision of some levels of support to production
development prescribed in Resolution 30a/2008/NQ-CP of the GOVN, assigns MARD to take the
lead and cooperate with line ministries in guiding localities to implement production structural
transfer projects, form commodity production zones, increase agricultural products' value and
ensure SPR.
- Legal basis: Decision 2621/QD-TTg dated 12/31/2013 of the Prime Minister, on revision
of some levels of support to production development prescribed in Resolution 30a/2008/NQ-CP
of the GOVN, assigns MARD to take the lead and cooperate with line ministries in guiding
localities to implement production structural transfer projects, form commodity production zone,
avoid fragmentation and inefficiency. Decision 899/QD-TTg dated 6/10/2013 of the Prime
Minister on restructuring agricultural sector on directions of added value increase and sustainable
development.
- Practicality: Recently, SPR production development projects have been well implemented
in some localities. These projects and their good practices have enhanced GOVN's support and
local people's/communities' resource for income increase, socio-economic development ans SPR in
poor districts. However, there are not so many similar projects, no documentation or replication of
good practices. Therefore, GOVN's support failed to promote people's proactiveness and
creativeness. CEMA's EM poverty research report 2013 have some recommendations as follows:
 "Two main factors leading to the increase in household's income are the considerable
increase in working hours and in work productivity. Work productivity in paid work,
agricultural sector and non-agricultural sector increased. The increase in work
productivity in agricultural sector make a great contribution to the improvement of
work productivity in general.
 The movement from agricultural sector to non-agricultural sector is quite slow, which is
seen in the slight decrease in working hours in agricultural sector and the small increase
in working hours in non-agricultural sector. The decrease in plantation productivity
seen in rice, annual crops and perennial crops is another cause of income decrease.
 Enhance empowerment approach and development of flexible support policies in
consideration of differences in cultures, customs and cultivation methods to develop
more appropriate programs and projects.
 Improvement of important crops' productivity is a key strategy for income growth in a
short term. Agriculture continues to be main source of income for most of the
households in extremely disadvantaged communes. Although agricultural products have
great contributions to households' income, there are plenty of difficulties and challenges
in improving agricultural productivity.
 Provide an appropriate social protection policy system and agricultural insurance to
reduce farmers' vulnerability.
 Improve work productivity through the improvement of people's knowledge and skills.
Work productivity is the second key to changes in households' income."
To provide a comprehensive assessment of successful SPR production development
projects and develop a Guiding Circular on systematic implementation of policy mechanism and
implementation arrangement. MARD proposed the development of a research: "Develop a
guideline on the mechanism for arrangement and management of production development
support project for the transfer from agricultural production structure to commodity
production in poor districts under Program 30a (Project 1 NTP-SPR) pursuant to Decision
2621/QD-TTg dated 12/31/2013 of the Prime Minister" and then point out good practices/
lessons learned and propose solutions/methods for implementing production structural transfer
projects so that commodity production zone with competitive advantage is formed; point out
typical characteristics of EM areas that can be linked to the development of projects for income
increase, particularly in EM areas,and for SPR in 30a poor districts.
MARD will institutionalize this product into a Guiding Circular to support localities'
implementation of Project 1 in poor districts in an appropriate manner that is harmonized with
production development components in Project 2 and 3 NTP-SPR.
2) Objectives of Work
The overarching objective is to provide technical support to inputs for MARD's
development of a Guiding Circular on the implementation of production development component
for poor districts under Project 1 NTP-SPR. The Circular will support localities to effectively apply
the procedure for implementing guidelines in production development component in poor district
and for poverty reduction objective achievement.
This research will be a systematic assessment of production development projects in terms
of contents, methods, practices, support/contribution/benefiting mechanism, target beneficiaries,
scopes, on-spot resource mobilization etc. and hence propose a mechanism for implementing
production development/agricultural production structural transfer projects in 30a districts in
consideration of local conditions and regional products' competitive advantage. See details below:
- Reseach the development and implementation of the project to support the transfer from
agricultural - forestry - fishery production structure to commodity production zone in consideration
of regional competitive advantage for income increase, particularly in EM areas, and for SPR:
(1) Set necessary factors/prerequisites to guarantee feasibility and sustainability of
production development projects in poor areas, particularly the areas with large EM
population.
(2) Development of production development support project for agricultural - forestry fishery production structural transfer in poor districts named in local production
development plan in consideration of local conditions and regional competitive
advantage.
(3) Process of implementing production structural transfer project, its implementation
mechanism (arrangement and management) to form a commodity production areas for
income increase and SPR, particularly in EM areas;
(4) Institutionalization of mechanism for implementing production development structural
transfer project: technical/management/monitoring training for better support to this
project;
(5) Renew implementation method by enhancing local people's ownership and
involvement from project preparation stage to benefiting stage;
(6) Responsibility of (province, district, commune) government for the implementation of
production structural transfer project;
(7) Resource mobilization and integration in implementing production structural transfer
project; further clarification of "block-grant" mechanism in implementing production
development project;
(8) Production arrangement to support farmer households, including poor households, to
connect to each other in commodity production.
- Evaluate, describe lessons learned from experiences in previous NTPs and integrate these
lessons into an effective and coordinated guideline that harmonises with the production
development guidelines of Project 2 and 3 in NTP-SPR.
- Integrate experiences and methods of replicating effective poverty reduction models
developed by national and international organizations, (i)NGOs, localities; consolidate these
experiences and methods into a procedure of replicating poverty reduction models;
- Promote the application of community-based development of poverty reduction
production development guidelines relevant to local characteristics, indigenous knowledge, culture
and market linkage.
- Develop guidelines to promote and maximize stakeholders' pro-active participation and
utilization of local resources (human and material); decentralize and empower local levels and
communities in the replication of poverty reduction production development models.
- Enhance local ownership of production development models to ensure cultural and socioeconomic relevance and sustainability.
- Review good practices for production development support in P135, P30a, NRD etc. to
propose an appropriate practice that will be put in MARD's Guiding Circular.
3) Scope of Work
Develop a Guiding Circular for the Project 1 NTP-SPR Production Development Component for
poor districts through the following interventions.
+ Review and institutionalize 8 themes based on research objectives mentioned in Section 2.
+ Survey, evaluate some production development projects in former 30a (Project 1 NTPSPR) districts (achievements, shortcomings, lessons learned)
+ Collect people's/management agencies' ideas about implementation contents/arrangement
in production development projects with a particular emphasis on the harmonisation of guidelines
for project 1, 2 and 3 in NTP-SPR in order to avoid complicated and overlapping procedures.
+ Provide technical support to 02 regional consultation workshops in Thanh Hoa, Ha Giang
or Lao Cai: invite local individuals and organizations joining production development projects in
NTP-SPR to attend and share about lessons learned, implementation arrangement, stakeholders'
roles, effectiveness and practical material and human resource inhibiting factors.
+ Provide technical support to national consultation workshop: central level (line ministries,
(I)NGO, DPs, local individuals and organizations in Ha Noi) to share about lessons learned from
production development projects; consult about the draft Circular guiding the implementation of
Decision 2621/QD-TTg on support to the production structural change, income increase, SPR for
poor districts.
+ Complete a guiding Circular and send a request to MARD for issuance.
4) Time Allocation
This assignment is planned to start on 15 August 2014 and finish on 30 September 2014.
01 national consultant will be recruited and will have 24 man days to complete this
assignment.
5) Deliverables
Consultancy team is required to deliver the following products which must be approved by
MARD/Department of Cooperative Finance, UNDP and central PRPP PMU.
Intermediate products:
- Propose a work plan elaborating research methodology, implementation plan, approaches,
stakeholders, tentative timeframe, expected outcomes etc.
- Draft research framework
- Minutes from consultation meetings/workshops with INGOs, NGOs, line ministries and
field trips
- List of representatives from line ministries and stakeholders joining this consulting process
Final reports:
- Overall review report:
o Include the best sustainable production structural transfer projects; details about their
contents, methods, practice/mechanisms for supporting beneficiaries/ contributions/
benefiting, target groups, scopes, on-spot resource mobilization;
o Propose a mechanism for arranging the implementation of production structural
transfer projects, used as guidance for the implementation of these projects for SPR
objective
- Draft guiding circular on the implementation of production structural transfer projects in
30a districts is issued by MARD.
All products must be in both hard copy and soft copy, both Vietnamese and English and meet
the abovementioned contents and requirements.
6) Monitoring Responsibilities
The consultant will work frequently and closely with PRPP PMU, Poverty Reduction
Coordination Office (MOLISA), CEMA and UNDP to ensure all of their products meet the
objectives and requirements from PRPP PMU/UNDP and MOLISA.
The consultant will carry out this assignment under direct supervision by PRPP PMU and
UNDP. The consultancy team will report on paper to PRPP PMU about their implementation
progress as well as advantages and challenges .
The consultant is responsible for fulfilling all of the assigned duties and submits their
complete products based on the timeframe mentioned in Section 4 of this TOR. All of the products
must be in Vietnamese and English.
7) Degree of Expertise and Qualifications
Interested consultants can send their personal profiles including an implementation proposal
that compiles a tentative work plan, research methodology, analytical framework and tools, a
tentative timeframe, and curriculum vitaes.
Specific requirements:
- At least Master degree or equivalence in agriculture, rural development, development
economics, social science, public management and project management, community
development;
- At least 15 years of experience in managing programs/projects, particularly those related to
poverty reduction;
- Experience and good relationship with INGOs, NGOs in Vietnam, and development partners;
- Preferred experience includes working with line ministries related to poverty reduction,
including MOLISA, MOF, MPI, CEMA etc., and localities;
- Experience in assessing poverty reduction projects/poverty reduction models in Vietnam and in
other countries;
- Good consulting skills and experience in consulting central level and local levels; experience in
working with INGOs and development partners;
- Very good skills of conceptualization, analysis, facilitation and communication in Vietnamese
and English;
- Familiarity with current computer software;
8) Admin Support and Reference Materials
The Project will provide the recruited consultants with necessary support to fulfill this
assignment, including the following documents and a working space at PRPP Project's office (if
necessary).
Related materials for this assignment include:
1. Approved detailed project outline of PRPP (August 2012);
2. Decision 1489 on approval of NTP-SPR (October 2012);
3. Approved project document of NTP-SPR;
4. Resolution 80 on directions of Sustainable Poverty Reduction 2011-2020;
5. Action plan for implementation of Resolution 80;
6. Decision 2621/QD-TTg dated 12/31/2013 on revision of some levels of support to
production prescribed in Resolution 30a;
7. Circular 02/2014/TTLT-BKH-BTC on mainstreaming budget lines for the implementation
of rapid and sustainable poverty reduction program in poor districts;
8. Draft Project document of NTP on PR (2012-2015) (September 2012);
9. Other related documents: Research report on the assessment of poverty reduction models by
DPs in 2013, Report from the workshop on sharing poverty reduction models in Hai Phong
in 2013.
9) Terms of Payment
Payment for the recruited consultant will be made based on workday under UNDP cost
norms and the completion of assignment and the delivery of quality and on-time products
according to following 03 main instalments:
1.
First installment: maximum at 20% of the contract value once the consultant submit
the assignment implementation proposal;
2.
Second installment: maximum at 30% of the contract value upon submission of all
drafts of final products;
3.
Third and final installment: remaining 50% of the contract value on submission of
all final products (revised drafts based on feedbacks on paper or from related meetings) endorsed
by PRPP and MOLISA.
10) Consultant Presence Required on Duty Station/UNDP Premises
 NONE
 PARTIAL
 INTERMITTENT
 FULL-TIME