Consultant to assess progress and learning review for agriculture/ rice development project (TRVC)

Call for Expression of Interest (EOI)

Consultant to assess progress and learning review for agriculture/ rice development project (TRVC)

BACKGROUND

About SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

SNV is an international not-for-profit development organisation, working in more than 25 countries in Africa and Asia. SNV is a mission-driven global development partner, rooted in the contexts and societies where we work. And that mission is to strengthen capacities and catalyse partnerships that transform the agri-food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all. Our global team of advisors use their specialist expertise to facilitate sustainable change in the livelihoods of millions of people living in poverty.

Lessons learned at SNV

‘Lessons learned’ refers to the learning gained from the process of performing a project. It is a core part of project management and essential for quality assurance. It relates directly to understanding the effects of project activities, successes, failures, and any needed improvements.

This consultancy directly corresponds to activities and deliverables in the TRVC Learning Framework. At SNV, the Learning framework supports projects to effectively manage lessons learned, analyse learning and apply it to inform project adaption and knowledge generation. The consultant will be responsible for the successful completion of the relevant learning activities in the TRVC Learning Framework.

About the TRVC project

Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the project “Transforming the rice value chain for climate resilient and sustainable development in the Mekong delta (TRVC)” is implemented by SNV, Netherlands Development Organisation, in 3 provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang. Using Pay-for-Results (PfRs) mechanism, TRVC Project incentivizes and attracts the participation of private enterprises in the Rice Value Chain as competitors, aiming to scale-up innovative technologies to achieve higher economic outcomes for smallholder farmers (SHFs) and all Rice Value Chain (RVC) actors, improve rice quality and inclusive social values while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating environmental footprints as co-benefits. The overall objective of the project is to facilitate the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient rice production practices. This transformation aims to support the sustainable development of the rice value chain in the upper Mekong Delta. To achieve this goal, the project has identified three key pathways: Pathway 1 - Climate-Smart and Low-Carbon Rice Production, Pathway 2 - Inclusive Rice Production Markets and Pathway 3 - Low-Carbon Enabling Environments.

The project aims to facilitate a transition to low-emission rice production on 200,000 hectares by 2027, contributing to MARD’s national goal of 1 million hectares. Competitors who meet greenhouse gas reduction targets verified by independent verifiers will receive a cash incentive at the end of each cropping season. Additionally, support is provided to enhance farming practices and inclusivity within the supply chain, ensuring equitable benefits for men, women, and persons with disabilities across the community. In 2024, nine competitors are participating in the TRVC project for the Summer-Autumn 2024 crop (Crop 1) across the three provinces. This season involves 1,720 household representatives managing 6,256 hectares across 2,563 fields. These competitors have established agreements with 12 cooperatives, 27 farmer groups (informal associations of farmers that come together for a common purpose, such as sharing knowledge or resources), and 175 individual SHFs to provide essential services and resources, including production-consumption linkages.

Smallholder farmers have improved access to critical resources and services such as capital (e.g., loans, savings, grants), machinery and equipment (e.g., tractors, irrigation systems), seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. They also benefit from training, capacity-building programs, extension services, and market information. Input procurement is facilitated through various payment methods, including immediate payment, credit with payment at harvest, or a combination of both. 1,720 households in Crop 1 have implemented the interventions they committed to and planned for their fields, adopting low-carbon farming practices such as reducing plant density, minimizing fertilizer usage, exploring fertilizer substitution, employing Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) techniques, and removing straw.

As of September 2024, most households have completed harvesting, with a few expected to finish by late September due to late planting. Data from Crop 1, including GHG emission reductions and profit margins, is being collected and analysed.

OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

SNV is seeking an agriculture research consulting firm or group of qualified consultants (herein Consultant) for designing and conducting the assessment of results and learnings of the Summer-Autumn crop 2024 – the very first crop of TRVC.

Under the close coordination and supervision of TRVC’s Team Leader and MEL Advisor, the Consultant will design and conduct the Assessment of the 1^st crop’s results and learning. Crop results include quantitative and qualitative assessment that cover but not limited to farming area with sustainable approaches/practices, good agronomic and economic practices and outcomes/profit for SHFs, success stories, innovations, change of behaviour, women economic empowerment, disability inclusions, contract farming and other type of business linkages between SHF/Coops with private sector companies and other opportunities for farmers/coops and their communities.  Lessons learned identify areas that needs improvements from both agronomic and economic practices for the subsequent crops; challenges and barriers that prevent or hinder farmers and the Companies (herein named as Competitors in TRVC) to practice low carbon rice farming; or scaling to other rice areas/Coops/communities; reasons for farmers and or Competitors dropped out from 1^st crop season; and or uncertainties from farmers/Coops/Competitors on the modality of the results-based financing of TRVC. 

Key objectives include:

1. To design, conduct and develop an evidence-based assessment of Summer-Autumn 2024 crop season in Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang province with both quantitative and qualitative data set/evidence from key stakeholders participating to TRVC project. The assessment report highlights key results, good practices, innovations, and failures to support project learning to inform contextual adjustment/refinement if needed and enhancement of efficacies and values for money.
2. To develop a learning review for the TRVC Project focused on the overall learning questions from the learning framework.
3. From the findings, produce success stories and factsheets to support capitalization of early successes.

DETAILED TASKS

Task 1. Desk study

• Conduct a desk-based review and provide overview of current development project/programs on low-emissions/sustainable rice that have been implementing or soon implementing in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
• Review of TRVC project documents (Theory of Change, relevant part of the technical proposal, MEL documents, Learning Framework) and enrolment data for Crop 1.
• Perform a desk study on the current status of interventions that farmers have committed to and planned for their fields, including the adoption of low-carbon farming practices.
• Conduct a desk-based analysis of companies' offering services and support to SHFs/Coops participating to Crop 1.

Task 2. Field study design and execution

Design the field study to collect the required information:

• Design research methodology including sample sizes (for quantitative methods) and instruments
• Conduct data collection (quantitative and qualitative) with selected key stakeholders that include:

1. Senior leaders/managers of nine competitors who are enrolling in Crop 1 and operating in An Giang, Kien Giang and Dong Thap.
2. Sampled cooperative members working with the above companies (with GEDSI inclusive participation).
3. Sampled rice farming smallholder farmers participating in the project (with inclusive participation).

Task 3. Field study data collection and analysis

The consultant proposal should give details of how data collection processes will be implemented, managed, and quality assured. What resources will be required and how will the data collection process be contextually appropriate and in line with do no harm principles. Details of how the consultant will comply with GDPR should be part of the proposal.

The consultant should submit an analysis approach as part of the proposal to ensure that all data collected has a purpose and clear use and will be handled properly.

Task 4. Develop final report and presentation on key findings to present at the Annual learning workshop event

The consultant presents the assessment findings at the project's annual learning workshop event in a visually stimulating and interactive manner. This also includes the documentation of lessons learned, success stories, good practices, innovations, and failures of participating competitors and SHFs enrolled in Crop 1.

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.