Senior National Sustainable Aquaculture & Mangrove Polyculture Adviser

CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

SENIOR NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE & MANGROVE POLYCULTURE ADVISER

– TRA VINH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

SNV Netherlands Development Organization

SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation. Founded in the Netherlands in 1965, we have built a long-term country presence in over 24 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors works with local partners to equip communities, businesses, and organizations with the tools, knowledge, and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services - empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development.

SNV has been working in Vietnam since 1995, and currently has over 30 national and international staff. SNV Vietnam’s team works hand-in-hand with communities, government agencies, and businesses in more than 50 provinces, including the remotest and poorest areas of the country. We operate from a country office in Hanoi and project offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Lam Dong province. Our work focuses on three sectors - Agriculture, Energy, and Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH).

The Tra Vinh Community Development Project

SNV Vietnam has been contracted by Climate Fund Managers (CFM) and two near-shore wind power project developers – the Tra Vinh Wind Power No. 1 Joint Stock Company (TWPC) and Ecotech Tra Vinh Renewables JSC (Ecotech) – to design and develop a long-term Community Development Project (CDP) to deliver net positive environmental and social impacts for affected communities in coastal Tra Vinh province. CFM is the fund manager/investor in both wind power companies, while TWPC and Ecotech have developed and are in the process of constructing two separate but adjacent projects along the Tra Vinh coastline.

The CDP is expected to focus on improving local livelihoods by investing in market-based approaches and the development of inclusive value-chains for sustainable aquaculture and horticulture, as the main livelihood sources in the area. Interventions will have a strong emphasis on promoting climate resilient approaches and on women’s economic empowerment in the respective value-chains in the target areas. In addition to designing and developing the CDP, SNV will support with the delivery of a set of WASH interventions that are expected to rapidly provide affected communities and households with immediate tangible benefits from the wind power projects.

Assignment Objective

SNV is seeking a Senior National (Vietnamese) Sustainable Aquaculture and Mangrove Adviser to lead the design of a CDP component focused on improving the livelihoods of local smallholder shrimp (and other aquaculture) farmers through the introduction of climate-resilient/sustainable production practices and inclusive value chain development for more diverse and/or higher value products. Where feasible, the consultant will also explore the possibility to promote integrated mangrove-shrimp systems and mangrove restoration.

The Sustainable Aquaculture and Mangroves Adviser is expected to perform the following tasks in service of the assignment objective:

1. Under the overall guidance of the CDP Project Manager (PM), provide technical leadership and management of the design of a sustainable aquaculture component and associated activities. Provide simple progress reports, update the PM and attend monthly meetings with the clients throughout the assignment
2. Conduct a desk review of the project, its respective clients and requirements, as well as relevant information or data about the current status of Tra Vinh aquaculture sector and mangrove forests.
3. Conduct an inception visit to Tra Vinh to meet the relevant government agencies and stakeholders to obtain an overview of the local situation, potential aquaculture chains and the needs of local people and the development plans of the government
4. Design detailed field surveys and questionnaires. Work closely with the National Gender Adviser to ensure that the survey methodology considers gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the relevant sectors.
5. Lead field surveys and data collection in Tra Vinh (expected to take the form of a value-chain assessment involving interviews and discussions with all relevant actors including government extension agencies, hatcheries, smallholders, middlemen, logistics and storage, and processing/export companies that source shrimp and other aquaculture products from the target area).
6. Draft an assessment report presenting key findings from the desk review and fieldwork and elaborate a logical set of activities and models (extensive/intensive shrimp, integrated mangrove-shrimp, mangrove polyculture, shellfish etc.) for a Climate-resilient/sustainable aquaculture component for target communities in the TWPC and Ecotech project areas. Again work closely with the National Gender Adviser to ensure that proposed activities address gender inequalities and empower women as a key feature of the component design and approach.
7. Identify opportunities to leverage other government and development partner initiatives to achieve complementary goals and maximise impacts.
8. Participate and present key findings and recommendations during a stakeholder consultation workshop to get feedback and improve the assessment report and component design
9. Finalise the assessment report including the sustainable aquaculture components with detailed planning and budgeting of activities. Propose an appropriate M&E framework for the component, including gender indicators and sex disaggregated information.

For more details on the Expression of Interest process, submission requirements, and evaluation details, please see corresponding sections below:

Selection Process

SNV Vietnam will review all Expressions of Interest received in accordance with the guidelines and criteria in this solicitation. SNV Vietnam reserves the right to exclude any EOIs that do not meet the guidelines. Please note that SNV is unable to provide detailed feedback to those EOIs that are not selected.

Step 1: SNV Vietnam will shortlist selected EOIs, and unsuccessful respondents will be notified. Successful applicants will be contacted by SNV Vietnam.

Step 2: SNV Vietnam will release Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the specific activities and contract with the selected organizations/ consultants.

Protection of Information

We request that Expressions of Interest responses be free of any intellectual property that the applicant wishes to protect. Should offerors wish to include proprietary intellectual property that they believe would be helpful for SNV Vietnam, please note the proprietary nature of such information. Costing information will be kept confidential and will not be shared beyond SNV Vietnam.

Issuance of this EOI does not constitute a commitment, award, or engagement on the part of SNV Vietnam nor does it commit SNV Vietnam to any future commitment or engagement.

Note: SNV Vietnam reserves the right to change or cancel this requirement in the EOI/or solicitation process at any time.

The applicant needs to complete the Basic Due Diligence Framework in the Annex HERE [2] to attach to application.