Consultant for Innovative Climate-risk Finance in Agriculture

Project name:  Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region

Project No.: 21.2269.5-002.00

TERMS OF REFERENCES (TOR)

1.     Background of the programme

The “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region” (Agri-Climate Risk Finance) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, works with Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region” project is developed based on the ASEAN Secretariat’s continuous supports to find for financing solutions for climate risks in agricultural sector, such as the ASEAN Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (ADRFI) in 2016, the 37^th ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) Meeting in 2015 on the relevance of climate risk insurance in the agricultural sector, and the ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC) in 2019 about crop insurance in the Strategic Plan of Action for the ASEAN Cooperation on Crops (2021-2025).

The main objective of the regional project is farmers, both men and women, in the ASEAN region are more resilient, and less exposed to climate related risks as they are protected from accessible innovative climate risk finance products and services such as credits, loans and insurance integrated with sustainability standard. In Vietnam, the project is supposed to work with financial services companies (insurance, loan, credits) and small-scale farmers (from the rice and/or coffee value chain)  

The project will provide technical assistance to achieve the following key outputs: 1) The promotion of resilience-enhancing and gender-responsive climate risk finance for small-scale farmers; 2) The technical and technological foundations for resilience-enhancing and gender-responsive climate risk financing for farmers have improved; 3) The capacity of actors at institutional and target group level on gender-responsive climate risk financing for farmers has increased; 4) The conceptual prerequisites for combining agricultural sustainability standards and gender-responsive climate risk financing for farmers have been created.

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) is specified as project governing organization and one department under MARD will be defined as the project implementation partner/owner. As key project data for the implementation in Vietnam the outcome, outputs as well as indicators has been defined as summarized in the box below:

Additionally, first ideas on project management structure had been developed. A Project Management unit (PMU) will be created. The project management unit (PMU) will conduct regular management meetings and joint planning sessions, especially between international and regional long-term experts. Joint annual planning sessions for project activities and elaboration of regional work plans will ensure a coordinated implementation.  

2.     Background of the assignment

In accordance with the Decree 114/2021/N?-CP on the Management and Use of Official Development Assistance (ODA), each ODA project implemented in Vietnam shall be approved in accordance with the Decree 114/2021/ND-CP. Basis for the approval is the Implementation Policy (IP) and the Project Document (PD), which are developed in line with the Annex V of the Decree 114/2021/ND-CP and the IP and PD is prepared by one department under MARD, who will become the Project Implementation Partner, in collaboration with GIZ. According to the Article 23 in Chapter 3 of the Decree 114/2021/ND-CP, the “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region” will have to follow the formalisation process applied for regional technical assistance project. It means that the project will need to be approved by the Prime Minister. MARD needs to work with GIZ to develop the PD and IP and submit those documents to Ministry of Planning & Investment (MPI), MPI will collect comments from other related ministries such as Ministry of Finance before submitting the documents to the Government Office of Vietnam (GOV) for the approval. Then MARD will base on the approval result from the GOV to issue a decision to assign official Project Implementation Partner to implement the project.

3. Activities of the assignment

To have sufficient inputs for the PD and IP development and elaboration the offer of BMZ for the “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region”, MARD and GIZ plan to conduct a study:

1. To assess lessons learnt and experiences from previous projects and pilots on agricultural insurance scheme, agricultural insurance products, business model, technological foundation for climate-risk insurance in Vietnam, specifically for rice and coffee sectors
2. To provide overview of existing climate risk finance/insurance products offered in Vietnam, provide an assessment on their suitability being promoted in the frame of the proposed project and define needs for further adjustments of these products.
3. To conduct an institutional assessment and stakeholder analysis of potential public partners, and private financial service providers to work with and to provide climate-risk financing products to small-scale rice and coffee farmers in provinces within scope of GIZ agriculture team project portfolio, e.g An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Son La and Dien Bien provinces.
4. To design a project for Vietnam that contributes to the defined outputs and outcomes of the regional project. The project design should reflect the local context, potential contributions from private and public institutions as well as synergies to current GIZ projects in terms of geographical coverage, value chains and partnerships mobilizing existing structure.

Therefore, GIZ is looking for a team of 02 consultants to i) develop/compile a project design for the implementation in Vietnam, the Implementation Policy (IP) and the Project Document ii) generate/ facilitate mutual agreement between potential project stakeholder and iii) revise the IP and PD based on the comments from relevant stakeholders during the formalisation process according to the Degree 114/2021/ND-CP for Vietnam component of the project “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region”.

4. Objectives

Under GIZ project “Innovative climate risk finance for the agricultural sector in the ASEAN region”, the objectives of this assignment are:

• To develop/compile the Project Design based on above presented key project data [1], Implementation Policy (IP) and the Project Document (PD) in line with the Annex V of the Decree 114/2021/ND-CP, with the approved project offer by BMZ, as well as the Technical Cooperation Guidelines for German Development Cooperation.
• To generate/ facilitate mutual agreement between potential project stakeholder during bilateral talks and workshops, and define roles and responsibilities of project stakeholders
• To revise the IP and PD based on the comments from relevant stakeholders during the formalisation process according to the Degree 114/2021/ND-CP
• To provide background information on previous projects/pilots in the sector and available financial products including their need for adjustments

5.     Scope and responsibilities of the service provider

A team of 03 consultants will be contracted, who will have to coordinate closely with GIZ and MARD to perform the following main tasks:

• Task 1: To develop the Project Design, Implementation Policy (IP) and Project Document (PD) including the detail of information to be provided in the PD as required in the Annex V of the Degree 114/2021/ND-CP. This PD will be discussed and agreed between MARD and GIZ and should consider the needs and requirements by MARD and GIZ and the objective to allow a flexible project implementation
• Task 2: Follow up with government partners for project revision and approval process.

6.     Detail workplan

7.     Deliverables

8.     Duration and location of the assignment

Time: It is expected that the consultant will start performing the task from 4 December 2022 and 30 June 2023, with an expected

• TL: 30 working days and 3 travel days
• TM1: 35 working days and 4 travel days.
• TM2: 15 working days and 3 travel days.

9.     Qualifications of the Contractor

Team Leader:

• Educational background in the field of economics, or business or a comparable programmed of study (preferable PhD degree)
• At least 15 years of professional experience in agricultural sector.
• Having good knowledge in agricultural insurance and insurance topic. Sound knowledge of or experience of agriculture sector in Vietnam
• Sound understanding of rice and coffee sectors in Vietnam, especially about coffee sector in Son La and Dien Bien provinces and rice in An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, Kien Gian and Soc Trang provinces, where are linked closely to climate risk issues.
• Proven record of writing project document in accordance with Degree 114/2021/ND-CP.
• Fluency in Vietnamese, Fluency in English.
• Strong drafting and reporting skills in Vietnamese and English

Team member 1:

• Educational background in the field of economics, or business or a comparable programmed of study (preferable master’s degree)
• 15 years of professional experience in agricultural sector.
• Having experience in agricultural financial and insurance services industries, of which at least 5 years working experience in agricultural insurance and insurance topic, and sound knowledge of or experience of agriculture sector in Vietnam
• Proven record of writing project document development
• Strong drafting and reporting skills in Vietnamese and English

Team member 2:

• Educational background in the field of economics, or business or a comparable programmed of study
• Having at least 10 years of experience in private financial services industries (loan, insurance, credit, etc)
• At least 5 years working experience in agricultural insurance and insurance topic, and sound knowledge of or experience of agriculture sector in Vietnam
• Strong reporting and presentation skills.

10.     Other issues

• Unless otherwise agreed in the contract, the contractor assigns to the client all transferable rights to the work results, waiving the right to designate the author. Insofar as the transfer of rights is not legally possible, the contractor irrevocably grants the client a worldwide exclusive right of use to all work results valid for the duration of the statutory copyright and other property rights, which also includes commercial exploitation outside of the measure.
• As the Agri-Climate Risk Finance is acting in a sensitive environment the contractor will coordinate with the program team prior to give any kind of information to third parties.
• Interested candidates are invited to send confirmation of availability for the assignment, CV and proposal to [email protected] [1] by 30 November 2022.