Project Implementation Consultant

SCOPE OF WORK (SOW)
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTANT (STTA)

Project: USAID Green Annamites Project
Office: ECODIT, 5 th Green Plaza, Da Nang, Vietnam
Positions: Project Implementation Consultant (Part-time Consultant)
Duty station: To be based in Huong Van Ward, Huong Tra Town, Thua Thien Hue Province.
Work area: Huong Van Ward with occasional duty travel to ECODIT Project Office and the Provincial city of Hue when needed
Starting date: As soon as possible

I.    PROJECT OVERVIEW

ECODIT is implementing the USAID-funded Green Annamites activity (GA Project) in Quang Nam (QN) and Thua Thien Hue (TTH) provinces in central Vietnam. The purpose of the Green Annamites activity is to assist Vietnam’s transition to climate-smart, low emission, and resilient development that protects people, landscapes, and biodiversity in Vietnam’s priority forested provinces. The project’s overall period of performance is September 26, 2016 to December 16, 2020, subject to the availability of funding, and includes three main tasks:

• Increase application of low emission land-use;
• Strengthen biodiversity conservation; and
• Increase resilience for vulnerable communities.

Key program results include improving the livelihoods of 20,000 forest dependent people; improving biodiversity of over 400,000 hectares of natural forest, mobilizing at least $20 million in public and private resources for sustainable livelihoods and forest conservation; and avoiding and/or removing the equivalent of at least 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The GA Project awarded a grant to Huong Van Agricultural Production Cooperative for implementing the “Project for developing Thanh Tra Hue pomelo value chain in accordance with VietGAP standard to improve people's livelihoods, with link to biodiversity conservation”.

II.    WORK BACKGROUND

Huong Van Agricultural Production Cooperative (HVC) was established in March 1979 and located in the hilly areas of Huong Van Ward, Huong Tra District. The main crops of the HVC are rice, other crops and Thanh Tra special fruit tree. As of December 31, 2017, the Cooperative had 1820 members and organized activities to supply input material for production and to provide others services such as: agricultural supplies services, irrigation and drainage services, land preparation services, seedling services, plant protection and harvest services, construction and maintenance of concrete channels.

The grant awarded by the GA Project will support HVC to promote the Thanh Tra pomelo value chain. To strengthen the Cooperative’s capacity in grant project management, the GA Project is now recruiting for the position of Project Implementation Consultant (PIC), to strengthen the capacity of the HVC in grant project implementation and management.

III.    DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall management of the GA Project’s Chief of Party (COP), and the direct supervision of the ECODIT’s Project Manager (PM) of HVC Grant, the PIC will build capacity and support for the HVC to implement and manage the “Project for developing Thanh Tra Hue pomelo value chain in accordance with VietGAP standard to improve people's livelihoods, with link to biodiversity conservation”.

The position is mainly based in Huong Van ward, Huong Tra Town, TTH Province with required regular travels to GA Project Office in Danang, Provincial Coordination Office in Hue, related organizations in Huong Tra Town and Hue City.

Specific duties include, but are not limited to the following:

• Review all detailed activities in the grant agreement.
• Work closely with the Project Manager (counterpart) assigned by HVC Management Board (MB) to prepare detailed work plan for the life of the project in collaboration with the assigned ECODIT’s Project Manager of HVC Grant.
• Provide technical support for HVC- MB to improve capacity on planning, organizing, coordinating, managing, implementing the project activities as planned.
• Advise and support HVC to collaborate smoothly with related organizations, local agencies (e.g. Department of Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, People’s Committee of Huong Tra Town, People’s Committee and Women’s Union of Huong Van Ward, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry, Hue Center for Agricultural Research and Development) to implement the project’s activities as planned.
• Support HVC- MB to set up a model of Thanh Tra pomelo production in accordance with VietGAP standards, including main activities: organizing a kick-off workshop, investigating and formulate a planning of Thanh Tra pomelo plantations in accordance with VietGAP standards, building the model of Thanh Tra pomelo production with the VietGAP standard on an area of 10 ha in Huong Van Ward.
• Support HVC- MB to successfully build geographical indication of Thanh Tra Hue pomelo with the support from the consulting company.
• Support HVC- MB to create the product traceability system (QR code) for product quality and origin management with the support from TTH Department of Science and Technology.
• Support HVC- MB to better communicate and promote the project’s activities and Thanh Tra pomelo brand of TTH; and raise awareness of local people and students towards forest protection and biodiversity conservation. Also, ensure smooth communication between the GA Project and the HVC.
• Provide technical support for management board and members of HVC to monitor and evaluate (data collection, data entry, data maintenance and analysis, and reporting) the project’s activities. This includes field records, communication materials, success stories, short videos, photos and interviews with beneficiaries and local partners.
• Assist the management board of HVC in preparing deliverables required under the Grant Agreement between ECODIT and HVC and lessons learnt reports.
• Prepare and submit reports as required by the grant agreement.

IV.    ANTICIPATED LEVEL OF EFFORT (LOE), DELIVERABLES AND DUE DATES

The estimated LOE for the services under this Scope of Work is not to exceed 120 days. Any additional tasks/deliverables to be carried out by the Consultant in addition to the activities described under this SOW will be developed by ECODIT in coordination with the Consultant and elaborated in an amendment to this SOW. All deliverables must be submitted in Vietnamese language. The tasks/deliverables, due dates and LOE allocation are shown in Table 1 below.

V.    TIME AND LOCATION

• Time: 12 months starting from August 2019 to August 31, 2020.
• Location: Huong Van ward, Huong Tra District, Thua Thien Hue province.

VI.    REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Hold a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Development Studies or Natural Resources/Forest Management or related field;
• At least 2 years working experiences in Sustainable Livelihoods, Sustainable Forest Management, Community Forest Management, especially Agri-businesses/ Value chain development is preferred;
• Familiar with community-based development concepts, approaches and processes with good facilitation skills;
• Experience in building similar models with VietGAP standards and capacity building for local stakeholders/partners.
• Project management experience with strong communication skills (skillful to work with local people and governments at grass-root levels) and reporting skills.
• Basic command of written and verbal English is an advantage, but not requirement
• Prior field project working experience in TTH is an advantage.

Interested candidates should send application including:

• A cover letter
• Latest CV, and
• Three references.

By August 10th, 2019 to the following address: [email protected] [1]

Table 1. Tasks/Deliverables, LOE and Due Dates

Please note that these are estimated lengths of time to complete tasks. Direct supervisor will work with the Consultant on timeline and schedule.