Consultant to provide support to develop the project in Development of cultural space for performance and experiment of Red Dao medicinal bath and remedies

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 implements 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:

1.    Background

Under Objective 2 - Increase Conservation Friendly Enterprises (CFEs) 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

The Project has collaborated with stakeholders to review and selected the medicinal plants in Sa Pa for value chain development in Lao Cai province to enhance the environment and conservation – friendly enterprises’ participation into the ultimate goal of the Project to reduce Greenhouse Gases and increase carbon sequestration. In Sa Pa, the Red Dao people have been holding extremely valuable knowledge of medicinal plants. In the past years, along with the development of tourism, herbal products of the Red Dao ethnic group have gradually been developed and become unique products for tourists, to name but some, bath and foot bath medicine and essential oil extracts from medicinal plants from Sa Pa.

Although Sa Pa's bath medicines and medicinal plants have been introduced and promoted and integrated with local tourism activities, the information of medicinal and bath medicines value of the local Red Dao community remains limited. In 2022, the Project has signed a Partnership Agreement to provide technical support to Hung Dung Trading Joint Stock Company in the local medicinal value chain development, among which is the activity to establish a cultural space for performance and experiment of Red Dao medicinal bath and remedies in Sa Pa town, Lao Cai province. To fulfill this activity, the Project is looking for 01 short-term consultant. This activity [2.2.3.6] is under the FY2023 Work Plan. This activity will directly contribute to three main indicators including ID1 – Number of people trained in sustainable landscapes and ID2 – Number of institutions with improved capacity to address sustainable landscape issues; and ID 4- investment leveraged for sustainable landscape management; and ID5- Number of beneficiaries (amongst 11 monitoring and evaluation indicators of the Project).

2.    Purposes of the consultancy assignment

To support for the local partner and the Hung Dung Trading JSC to develop and implement successfully “Establish a cultural space to perform and experiment Red Dao herbal bath and medicinal remedies in Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province, in order to further provide capacity building for the companies, increase income for forest – dependent communities, reduce forest degradation and deforestation and increase carbon sequestration.

3.    Location

There will be activities conducted at the office of the Consultant and other activities in Sa Pa town, Lao Cai province.

4.    Tasks

The consultant is expected to fulfill the following tasks:

• Review secondary documents, including but not limited to: Lao Cai medicinal plants development master plan, local tourism development master plan, land use planning and other sector development planning, forestry development strategy.
• Review and study the non-confidential information enterprise's records including registration certificate, land records, financial/audit reports, cashflow and capital capability, etc.
• Work with local government and line-departments of the province, Sa Pa town and communes on development strategy, consultation on relevant local development program and projects to come up with the project outline.
• Conduct field survey to assess land legality in the planned investment area, construction and architecture concept and plannings to ensure the harmony between the cultural and architectural space and the requirements for space and environmental management of the locality.
• Develop the sketch and overall plan for the whole culture space including separate areas for planting, harvesting, collection, preliminary and in-depth processing, health care, and product exhibitionin the area of ??about 2 hectares (depending on the field survey and consultation with local authorities) in Sa Pa town, Lao Cai province.
• Work closely with the Project and Hung Dung Trading JSC and/or the consulting agency hired by the Company and the locality to develop and complete the technical dossier, together with environmental and social management measures demonstration and description to submit to competent authorities for approval.
• Advise Hung Dung Trading JSC to consult stakeholders and submit to competent authorities for approval of the project/scheme.
• Write final report including consultancy activities, results with specific recommendations for the Project, Hung Dung Trading JSC for the implementation of the project.

Level of Effort and Deliverables

This consulting package is expected to be complete within 50 working days, starting from January 1, 2023, to August 31, 2023.

Qualifications:

• Master's degree or higher in sustainable development, natural resource management, economics, public policy, tourism or other related fields.
• Having at least 10 years of experience in conceptualizing and developing projects in planning, policy formulation, rural development, tourism, natural resource management, medicinal plant development, ethnic minorities, indigenous knowledge.
• Extensive knowledge of the ethnic culture, community tourism and the medicinal plant industry.
• Vast knowledge of the context and situation of medicinal plants development and tourism in Lao Cai province and Sa Pa district and neighboring provinces is an advantage.
• Experience andskills in information consolidation, critical thinking and report writing.
• Fluent in Vietnamese and English.
• Vietnamese National only.

How toapply and requested documents

Interested candidates are requested to submit:

• A CV in English
• A cover letter in English
• Scanned copy of related degrees
• Technical proposal in Vietnamese and English (max 05 pages) on approach to this assignment, and list of relevant completed assignments.

via email to our recruitment email at [email protected]. 

Please quote the position title in the subject line: “Candidate’s full name _ Red Dao medicinal bath and remedies”

Deadline: 17.00, December 12, 2022

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

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.