Local Consultant to Support Rikolto in Vietnam’s Mid-term Review with Strategic Reflection and Guidance

Terms of Reference

Local consultant to support Rikolto in Vietnam’s mid-term review with strategic reflection and guidance

1. Context

Rikolto (formerly VECO/Vredeseilanden) is an international NGO with more than 40 years of experience in partnering farmer organisations and food chain actors across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Rikolto runs programmes in 14 countries worldwide through seven regional offices. Rikolto in Vietnam is the Vietnamese regional office of Rikolto, located in Hanoi. We envision a world with production and consumption systems that allow poverty and hunger to be eradicated and that do not burden our planet more than it can bear. Therefore, we empower farmer groups to become solid business partners and implement future-proof, sustainable practices. We support them so that their products meet quality standards. We connect them with innovators in the food industry to explore new ways of doing business.

In 2019, Rikolto in Vietnam will conduct a mid-term review for its 5-year programme “Supporting Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural Value Chain Development Benefitting Smallholder Farmers in Vietnam”. Rikolto’s impact assessment framework covers all three levels at which the organisation strives for impact:

• Improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers (m/f);
• Improved business and organisational capacities of targeted farmer organisations;
• Improved institutional environment (public/private policies, regulations, etc.).

During the mid-term review, the focus lies rather on measuring the effectiveness of its approach regarding the outcomes that are more closely connected to its intervention strategies. The objective of the mid-term review is twofold:

• to feed discussions on the strategic orientation of Rikolto beyond 2021 (irrespective of who would fund that work);
• to orient the last two years of implementation of the 2017-2021 programme funded by the Belgian government (DGD).

Rikolto in Vietnam is looking for a Local Consultant (LC), who will team up with Rikolto’s international consultant (IC) to feed the mid-term review process with critical-constructive questions and guidance that can further and deepen the analysis and reflection of our colleagues.

2. Scope of work

• In-person facilitation support of the strategic reflection meeting held by the regional offices in October 2019 (prior to the Beyond 2021 discussions at the November IMT & Board meeting): supporting the process (i) to connect expected target values with observed indicator values and with the pathways of change, and (ii) to assess the impact thereof on the overall strategy in view of the general objective of each programme;
• From the facilitation of the strategic reflection meeting, provide inputs for IC to review of the draft 2019 strategic reports assessing the effectiveness of Rikolto in Vietnam’s general 2017-2021 strategy based on accomplished 2017-2019 outcomes [all donors combined], providing critical-constructive input on gaps in the effectiveness analysis and distilling cross-cutting strengths and weaknesses (first half of November 2019)
• With backstopping by IC, review of the draft mid-term analyses of the DGD-funded country programme, providing critical-constructive input on gaps in the effectiveness analysis (between September 2019 and mid-March 2020, depending on the timing of farmer survey and SCOPEinsight data collection in the respective countries);
• Provide recommendations on the exit strategy for the country programme based on good practices and challenges identified in the mid-term analyses (March 2020)
• Contribute to methodological recommendations by IC to improve future effectiveness analyses, based on good practices and challenges identified during the consultancy (mid-April 2020)

For the proposed accompaniment, we anticipate around 10 working days for the LC.

3. Expected results

• October 14, 2019: In-depth discussions on programme strategy effectiveness, including forward-looking recommendations based on good practices and challenges;
• February 14, 2020 – March 13, 2020: Critical-constructive written comments on the draft mid-term analyses;
• By March 28, 2020: One report with recommendations on the exit strategy for the country programme based on good practices and challenges identified in the mid-term analyses.

4. Required profile

• Expertise with effectiveness reviews and counterfactual analysis, preferably with farmer organisations and in food systems (min. 5 years)
• Solid understanding of change dynamics in food systems, agricultural value chains and farmer organisation capacity development (min. 5 years)
• Capacity to provide critical-constructive feedback and transmit methodological improvements
• Ability to write clear, realistic and relevant recommendations
• Professional fluency in the local language; working knowledge of English
• Methodological affinity with Rikolto’s impact assessment framework

5. How to apply

Interested applicants should send their latest CV to [email protected] by July 22, 2019. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.