Short-term National Consultant

Terms of Reference for Business Due Diligence Consultants

Position Title: Short-term National Consultant
Location: Hanoi, Lao Cai, and Son La
Period: September to December 2018
Inputs: Approximately 36 working days
Reporting To: Deputy Team Leader

1.    Background

This Aus4Equality|GREAT project is a socio-economic development initiative working in Son La and Lao Cai provinces and funded through the Australian Aid Program in Vietnam. The Program aims to increase women’s economic participation and decision-making through improved access to markets and more effective engagement in the agriculture and tourism value chains in ethnic minority regions of North-West Vietnam. The objectives of the Aus4Equality|GREAT are:

• Objective 1 - Empowering local women: Women living in local communities have increased capacity, space and choices to beneficially engage with agriculture and tourism businesses.
• Objective 2 – Inclusive businesses partnerships: Selected private sector actors within the agriculture and tourism sectors innovate to profitably and sustainably trade with more women entrepreneurs and operate in gender sensitive ways.
• Objective 3 – Improving sector governance and policy: Government agencies reinforce policies, and enact plans, regulations and services that enable more inclusive socio-economic development.

The programme will be implemented in Son La and Lao Cai provinces with total funding of over AUD 33 million. Of this, AUD 18,500,000 will be invested through multiple co-investment agreements.  Three funding schemes on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Policy Funding (Fund 1), Inclusive Business Funding (Fund 2) and Innovation Funding (Fund 3) have been designed to co-invest in promising solutions to achieve the Programme Objectives. In total the Programme will work with up to 70 – 80 partners in the two provinces.

Provincial People’s Committees of Son La and Lao Cai are the Program owners. Within each Province a Project Management Unit (PMU) works collaboratively with CowaterSogema as the DFAT-appointed Managing Contractor to provide essential coordination, liaison and advisory roles.

Proposals applied for Fund scheme 1 will apply two main approaches which are (1) Market Systems Development (MSD), and (2) Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). MSD aims to create pro-poor inclusive and sustainable growth by changing the way whole sectors of the economy or industries operate, using a mix of methods in partnership with local market actors, whilst WEE will help women improve their ability to succeed and advance economically and have power to make and act on economic decisions at all levels (household, community, market and society). Applying these approaches, Program partners are encouraged to cooperate with market players in agriculture and tourism sectors, including for example (a) enterprises, cooperatives, social enterprises and foreign invested enterprises, who play key roles in the market development and product or service supply chains; (b) agencies who provide supporting services such as financial institutions, training providers or business advisory providers for business development; and (c) agencies facilitating a business enabling environment, such as government departments, business associations, professional associations, non-governmental organizations, universities/colleges, research institutes and mass organisations. Fund Scheme 1 will co-invest innovative solutions up to 90% of the investment costs.

Aus4Equality|GREAT will award non-reimbursable funding to Vietnam-based enterprises through competitive calls for inclusive business plans that propose innovative business solutions to increase their profitability as well as to benefit women involved in the company supply chain and be commercially sustainable in the long run. Matching fund is available for up to 49% total investment cost per inclusive business plan in two sectors – agriculture and tourism.

The first Round of Call for Concept Notes for Fund 1 and Fund 2 has been launched in Son La on August 10, 2018 and in Lao Cai on August 21, 2018. Aus4Equality|GREAT is preparing for selection of shortlisted applicants applied for Fund 1 and business applicants for Fund 2. by Selection Panel comprising one member from Project Management Unit, GREAT technical staff and independent consultant. 

To co-facilitate this process, Aus4Equality|GREAT is seeking for a team of 2 Vietnamese business consultants to support the Aus4Equality|GREAT team in conducting the concept note assessment and due diligence of the shortlisted applicants. Subject to good performance of the business consultants the assignment can be extended to the consultants for the second round of Call for Concept notes which is scheduled for January 2019.

2.    Scope of Work

The consultants are expected to perform the following tasks:

2.1.    Selection of concept notes (by lead consultant)- estimated up to 6 days per province

• Review and score all submitted concept notes applied for Fund Scheme 1 and Fund Scheme 2 as independent evaluator following the selection criteria specified in the Call for Concept Notes
• Discuss with other members of the Selection Panel on the list of shortlisted Concept Notes.

2.2.    Conduct business Due diligence (by both consultants) up to 31 days per province

It is expected to conduct due diligence between 10-15 businesses.

• Work with GREAT team to design due diligence assessment framework and report templates specifically for the use of business partner assessment

• Jointly conduct business due diligence with assigned GREAT and PMU members to assess independently individual full IB business plan, business capacity with focus on at least but not limited to the below key questions to help the Selection Panel in its decision-making as well as to provide inputs and suggestions for business plan improvement:
  
  • Is the business plan technically, financially and commercially feasible?
  • Will the business plans’ implementation significantly contribute to the achievement of Aus4Equality|GREAT desired impacts and results;
  • What would be the capacity gaps, if any, for the candidates to implement the proposed business plan l? What activities should be conducted by GREAT and the applicant to fill the capacity gap?
  • Does financial investment by the project be justified by the potential impact of the business plans?
  • What would be the risks inherent to the business plan? And possible measures to cope with such risks?
  • If the GREAT should further consider investment in the proposed business plans? And what would be the recommendations of conditions for GREAT to initiate such investments?
  • Is there any issue that may negatively affect the achievement of the business plan result?
  • What adjustments need to be made by the applicant?

2.3.    Produce assessment reports

• Submit the report in Vietnamese with factual findings, implications, potential risks and recommendations for  final selection.

3.    Methodology

The due-diligence methodology is risk-focused, especially on the issues that may unfavourably affects achieving the inclusive business plan objectives. The members of Due Diligence team need to obtain information from various sources, including those provided by business applicants and from other independent sources that may be, not exhaustively, as follows:

• Internet and mass media;
• Industry experts;
• Other companies in the sectors;
• Employees, suppliers and distributors;
• Local government and other stakeholders as relevant.

Therefore, the following due-diligence process will be applied:

• Work with AUS4EQUALITY|GREAT team to get thorough understanding of the programme objectives
• Conduct desk review to get overall knowledge on the industry and business level, in which the submitted plan will be carried out;
• Identify major success assumptions and associated risks, and develop the field due diligence plan;
• Jointly conduct due-diligence including interviewing the business applicants and relevant stakeholders;
• Analyse findings and write due-diligence report and recommendations.

The consultants are required to sign and comply with the CowaterSogema’ Code of Conduct.

4.    Timeframe: the assignment is expected to start in Mid September till end December, 2018 in Son La and Lao Cai provinces as presented in the table 1 below

Table 1: Timelines of the consultants’ activities

5.    Deliverables
Submission of scored concept notes and a list of shortlisted concept notes applied for Fund 1 and Fund 2  by Week 3 of Septembers for Son La and Week 1 of October for Lao Cai
Due diligence assessment framework in Vietnamese and assessment report template by November 7, 2018
Assessment reports in Vietnamese for each selected business applicant covering issues mentioned above and recommendations to GREAT by 6 December 2018 for Son La and 10 January in Lao Cai

6.    Minimum profile

• Vietnamese citizen
• Educational background on business administration, finance, audit, business management or equivalent
• At least 7 years of relevant working experience, preferably in the business development services, business consulting, investment
• Experience with Investment analysis and/or Due Diligence work
• Experience with agricultural and tourism investments that involve small farmers supply chains is an advantage
• Experience with agriculture and tourism business inclusive projects is a plus
• Ability to think independently, analyze problems, and identify solutions;
• Good understanding of field realities; ability to link different professional spheres: business, government, and civil society
• Good computer skills in MS-applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet, Etc.)
• good communication and presentation skills in both English and Vietnamese;

7.    How to Apply

Interested consultants should send their most update CV (with details of at least two referees) and short proposal to [email protected]  indicating Business Consultants” in the subject by 10 September 2018