Group Management System Consultant

Background information The Viet Nam Rubber Association (VRA) is implementing the project "Leveraging VNTLAS compliance within the Viet Nam rubber industry" funded by the EU-FAO FLEGT Program via the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The project has been implemented for 12 months since July 22nd, 2020. It covers 02 provinces: Tay Ninh and Binh Duong. The project aims at building the capacity of the Viet Nam Rubber Wood Industry, and in particular, smallholders' supply chains to meet VNTLAS requirements. The project is expected to achieve four outcomes: (1) Build the capacity for smallholders supplying rubberwood to VRA members to comply with the VNTLAS requirements; (2) Develop a standardized Legal Timber Dossier for the Viet Nam rubberwood sector; (3) Increase VRA's capacity to support members with smallholder-based supply chains to meet VNTLAS; and (4) Ensure communication and visibility throughout the project. One of the project components, Group Management System, focuses on exploring potential synergies between VNTLAS compliance and voluntary certification processes such as VRA's Certification Mark "Vietnam Rubber" and the national Vietnam forest certification System (VFCS) at the operational level. Such synergies would theoretically reduce the verification intensity and avoid overlapping processes for all organizations along the supply chains of VNTLAS. According to Voluntary Partnership Agreement between EU and Viet Nam, “Viet Nam shall consider how voluntary certification schemes, voluntary due diligence, and chain-of-custody systems recognized under VNTLAS can be integrated into the OCS methodology”[1]. Therefore, this component activity is well aligned to the Organization Classification System (OCS), an integral component of the risk-based verification under the VNTLAS with the focus on the practical context of the rubberwood sector. The results of these activities will provide practical examples, lessons learned for the preparation of VNTLAS implementation guidelines from operational perspectives. In the framework of the project, VRA is looking for one Group management system consultant with professional knowledge and useful experience to conduct the reports on rubberwood supply chain and compliance against the VNTLAS requirements in the rubberwood industry for this project. The detailed activities a. Sector assessment: An overview of different voluntary certification processes and verification mechanisms that are applied by Vietnam rubberwood industry actors. - The consultant will participate in a national assessment of rubberwood producers and mills to identify the current situation on voluntary certification in Viet Nam. b. Assessment of how certification processes are applied by the two selected rubberwood supply chains - The consultant will participate in the assessment of two selected rubberwood supply chains to identify the potential synergies between VNTLAS compliance with selected voluntary certification schemes that these two selected rubberwood supply chain have been applying. c. Develop the document which specifies the practical steps for the synergies between VNTLAS and certification processes - The consultant will identify the best practice on realizing synergies between certification processes and VNTLAS compliance, especially for smallholder-based supply chain. Improve the suite of VRA guidelines. d. Replication plan - Recommendations for VRA to support their members in certification processes. Tasks and duties - Support to analysis the data and complete the writing to achieve the above activities; - Synthesizing information, processing data, writing and finalizing reports; - Presenting results/findings of the activities at the project workshops/seminars. Deliverables (English and Vietnamese) - Appendix on the voluntary certification processes that would have potential synergies with VNTLAS compliance in the Viet Nam rubberwood context. - Appendix on assessment of selected certification processes in practice: its advantages and challenges to realize synergies with VNTLAS compliance; recommendations for VRA. - Appendix on best practice about synergies between certification processes and VNTLAS compliance, especially for smallholder-based supply chains. - Replication plan for VRA to support members in certification processes. Qualifications - At least a Master's degree in forestry, agriculture, development studies, and other related fields; - Good understanding of Viet Nam rubberwood industry, VPA-FLEGT, VNTLAS, etc.; - Having at least 05 years of experience in group management system for the wood or rubber industry, experience in working with wood enterprises and smallholders is preferred; - Having good skills in analyzing, synthesizing information, and writing reports; - Excellent written and spoken ability in Vietnamese and English Time to start: ASAP Interested candidates are invited to send CVs and application letter via email no later than September 25th, 2020: office@vra.com.vn with cc hongvan@vra.com.vn