Call for EOI: Analysis of market systems, value chains and access to finance for agroforestry and forest products in Northwest and Central Highlands of Vietnam

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI):

ANALYSIS OF MARKET SYSTEMS, VALUE CHAINS AND ASCESS TO FINANCE FOR AGROFORESTRY AND FOREST PRODUCTS IN NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM

RESTORING LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN SON LA AND LAM DONG PROVINCE, VIETNAM (RESTORE) PROJECT

E AGRICULTURE SECTOR

BACKGROUND 

About SNV

SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation driven by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Founded in the Netherlands in 1965, we have built a long-term country presence in over 20 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors works with local partners to equip communities, businesses, and organizations with the tools, knowledge, and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to markets and basic services - empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development. Our work focuses on three sectors - Agrifood, Energy, and Water.

SNV has been working in Viet Nam since 1995, and currently has over 40 national and international staff. SNV Viet Nam’s team works hand-in-hand with communities, government agencies, and businesses in about 40 provinces, including the most remote and poorest areas of the country. We operate from a country head office in Hanoi and regional offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat.

SNV Viet Nam’s Agrifood programme today is strongly focused around promoting socially inclusive climate resilient agriculture. In recent years, SNV Viet Nam has implemented a wide range of projects promoting climate smart approaches and inclusive value-chain development throughout the country in numerous sub-sectors, including rice, shrimp, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), medicinal plants/herbs, coffee, fruits, vegetables, and spices. Many of our interventions support vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities in rural uplands access markets and opportunities and women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in agricultural value chains.

For more information on SNV, please refer to our website: www.snv.org [1]

About the RESTORE project

“Restoring Land and Livelihoods in Vietnam” (RESTORE) is a 5-year programme to be implemented from 2024 to 2029. SNV Viet Nam is the prime recipient of the funding and leads the preparation and implementation of the programme in consortium with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

The project aims to deliver sustainable and resilient livelihoods for local communities, improved biodiversity conservation, and restored ecosystem health in the target landscapes. It will do this by the promotion of agroforestry, forest products and fruit tree value chains. By planting over 16 million trees, the project aims to restore over 25,000 hectares of agricultural and forest land and bring livelihoods benefits to over 20,000 farming households. RESTORE focusses on two key climate-vulnerable landscapes in Viet Nam – the Central Highlands and Northwestern Region

One of the proposed project components is on inclusive markets and value chain development. The objective of this component is to ensure diversified, higher and more resilient household incomes for local communities and a long-term market system to ensure the long-term sustainability of agroforestry and forestry investments. Indicative activities to be delivered under this component include:

• Establish and/or strengthen community groups and cooperatives.
• Identify and facilitate viable financing options for selected value chains from local financial institutions.
• Provide training on value chain development, business planning, financial literacy and market access.
• Facilitate business plan development, branding and market development through technical assistance.
• Facilitate offtake agreements for the sale of products.

About the inception phase

The Project is currently undertaking an Inception Phase in order to assess feasibility and produce a detailed design for the project. The Inception Phase, starting in April 2024, aims to (1) Establish the project management structure including (approved) coordination mechanisms with the different national provincial government, public agencies and partners; (2) Precise identification of, and agreement with local government on, the target locations and communities of the project’s activities; (3) Develop full technical and financial sections of the project implementation document; and (4) Submit the official Vietnamese version ‘pro-doc’ as per Decree 80 for provincial approvals.

This Market system, Value Chain and Access to Finance assessment is a key deliverable under this inception phase and will inform the design and delivery of the inclusive markets and value chain development component outlined above. SNV seeks a qualified, experienced and multi-disciplinary short-term firm, institute or team of consultants group to undertake the assessment.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall objective of this analysis is to inform the final design of project activities and provide evidence-based information for programme intervention development and assurances that this design is contributing to the aims of the project.

The assessment will determine appropriate opportunities for market development and value-chain strengthening as well conduct an economic and financial access assessment to determine opportunities and constraints for access to finance for smallholder farmers, cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium sized enterprises in the relevant value-chains.

It will also identify potential partnerships and opportunities to cooperate with private sector value chain actors and financial institutions for the project delivery, and the subsequent support the project will be required to provide to farmers, financial institutions and enterprises in order to enable this access to finance.

The assessment will also ensure that the project design meets a number of criteria, namely that the agricultural practices, business models and value chains promoted by the project, are socio-economically sustainable (other activities will assess agronomic suitability, technical feasibility and the environmental impacts and sustainability) i.e. the practices promoted by the project must:

• Improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the target landscapes.
• Be sustainable – i.e. viable in the long term, clearly supported by market demand (domestic or international).
• Improve economic resilience of the farmers to market and price volatility.

The assignment will be conducted in tandem with other assessments and analyses e.g. concerning landscape analysis and agronomic suitability; a livelihoods and socio-economic assessment; Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) analysis and environmental and social safeguards assessment; and a biodiversity assessment. SNV will coordinate these assessments and ensure complementary information gathering and analytical efforts.

METHODOLOGY

The consultants/consultancy group will be expected to use various methods in carrying out this assignment. The successful consultants will be expected to propose an appropriate methodology and an analytical framework. SNV and the consultants will agree on final methodology and structure of the report during the inception phase.

These methods would, however, be expected to include some or all of the following:

• Desk review of the project and requirements, background information and related reports (existing relevant VCA reports, provincial/district government reports and statistics, etc.) on agriculture, agroforestry and forestry models in the project sites in Northwest region and Central Highlands. The desk-review will help enable the formulation of ideas and questions for further discussion with local authorities, communities, and other stakeholders during the inception visit.
• Conduct a research visit to each province to meet relevant government departments and stakeholders to obtain an overview of the local agriculture/forestry development (i.e. agricultural-forestry production situation, local development and orientation plans and programs), identify and meet potential private companies and buyers, develop a list of relevant contact points for each targeted project site (including relevant local authorities, value chain actors) to be in-depth surveyed. The inception phase will help the consultant/consultancy group refine the key product value chains and design detailed field surveys and questionnaires.
• Conduct field surveys and data collection of key agricultural, agroforestry, forestry product value chains in the project areas with special attention to the analysis of chain weaknesses and strengths on on-farm practices and off-farm side such as planting, harvesting and postharvest processing knowledge/practices, agri inputs, financing, and commercial viability for potential value chain upgrading. Note that certain key information could also be collected through other assessments e.g. the livelihoods and socio-economic assessment is likely to involve household interviews and collect data on farmer practices, products produced, access to finance etc. The surveys are expected to allow development of economic and financial analysis (such as cost-benefit analysis, or cash flow modelling) of the farm models promoted by the project market potential and demand assessment (levels of domestic and global consumption, capacity to absorb additional supply, demand trend and requirements for local and global market access for small-holders, etc.), and recommendation of initial Market-based Solutions for project interventions.
• Conduct local-level ground-truthing and consultation (for example focus group discussions with farmers participating in the selected value chains) facilitated by the SNV team, to collect data and/to test and revise the findings;
• Conduct interviews with selected officials (local and national government officials) and other key actors from the private sector and financial sector in relevant supply/value chains.
• Interviews of farmers organizations, agricultural-forestry cooperatives, and trader's associations, among others participating in value chain activities.
• Develop a farm and household-level CBA/EFA based on secondary data, cross validated with interviews and on the ground research.

The final output of the analysis will be an internal report.

KEY DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

The work specified above is expected to be completed within 5 months, commencing June 2024 and completed by October 2024.

The precise timeframe for the deliverables will be discussed based on a submitted workplan with the successful bidder. The expected deliverables are:

1. Detailed and phased workplan, theoretical framework and methodology no later than a week after signing the contract.
2. Participate in kick off workshop with SNV, consortium partners, and other consultant teams supporting this inception phase (early April, exact date TBC).
3. Desk-based report based on existing data and literature on market system, value chains and access to finance, 6 weeks after signing.
4. Field visits to both project sites for local consultations.
5. Other consultations in Hanoi, online, etc., as needed.
6. Report on market system, value chains and access to finance.
7. Participate in and present at, in close cooperation with SNV and consortia partners, a validation workshop with stakeholders to validate the findings of the study
8. Final report with incorporated comments from ICRAF, IUCN and key stakeholders from the validation workshop.
9. Prepare and deliver a PowerPoint Presentation of the report to the consortium partners.

For more details on the Expression of Interest process, submission requirements, and evaluation details, please see corresponding sections below:

Selection Process

SNV will review all Expressions of Interest received in accordance with the guidelines and criteria in this solicitation. SNV reserves the right to exclude any EOIs that do not meet the guidelines. Please note that SNV is unable to provide detailed feedback to those EOIs that are not selected.

Step 1: SNV will shortlist selected EOIs, and unsuccessful respondents will be notified. Successful applicants will be contacted by SNV.

Step 2: SNV will release Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the specific activities and contract with the selected organizations/ consultants.

Protection of Information

We request that Expressions of Interest responses be free of any intellectual property that the applicant wishes to protect. Should offerors wish to include proprietary intellectual property that they believe would be helpful for SNV, please note the proprietary nature of such information. Costing information will be kept confidential and will not be shared beyond SNV.

Issuance of this EOI does not constitute a commitment, award, or engagement on the part of SNV nor does it commit SNV to any future commitment or engagement.

Note: SNV reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement in the EOI/or solicitation process at any time.