Individual Short-Term Consultant

TERMS OF REFERENCE

INDIVIDUAL SHORT-TERM CONSULTANT

VIETNAM SUSTAINABLE PEPPER PROJECT

Position: Individual Short-Term Consultant for field coordination

Location: Central Highland, Vietnam

Contract Term: Up to 150 days (including onsite and offsite)

A. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

International Finance Corporation (IFC) - a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. The Bank Group has set two goals for the world to achieve by 2030: end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in every country. We leverage our products and services—as well as products and services of other institutions across the World Bank Group—to create markets that address the biggest development challenges of our time. We apply our financial resources, technical expertise, global experience, and innovative thinking to help our clients and partners overcome financial, operational, and other challenges. For more information, visit www.ifc.org

IFC’s Vietnam Sustainable Pepper project seeks to assist its Client to build sustainable, traceable, certified, and quality-compliant pepper supply chain in Vietnam.

Objective of this project is to provide technical assistance to 1,700 independent smallholders growing pepper in project areas to improve their compliance with environmental sustainability standards, improve production, produce high quality MRL compliant pepper, and enable them to have access to high value pepper markets.

B. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS ASSIGNMENT

For this particular assignment, IFC proposes to hire the consultant for 150 days from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 to:

Strengthen the capacity of two of McCormick’s suppliers in Vietnam;
Support Capacity Building of Farmers and Farmers’ Groups in these companies’ supply chains.

c. SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant will work closely with IFC team members, project partners and Client’s suppliers to provide the following in the field support:

Work closely with supplier’s field teams and pepper farmers/ farmer groups on adoption of good agriculture practices in pepper production (planting, fertilization, irrigation, pest and disease management, harvesting and post-harvesting);
Assist all project partners in the implementation of project activities in the field, provide support and guidance to teams and farmers alike;
Support extension services delivery to farmers/ farmer groups including women farmers/ farmer groups on sustainable pepper growing;
Build capacity of the trained lead farmers/ group leaders, with a special focus on women, in training delivery to farmers.
Provide coaching and evaluate progress of trained lead farmers/women lead farmers, so that they enhance delivery of services to farmers following participatory delivery approach using training material developed by IFC;
Provide support for IFC and IFC appointed trainers to deliver trainings to farmer/farmer groups and women farmers/ farmer groups, including e-learning modules, and the related registration and on-boarding of farmers to effectively use training materials;
Obtain feedback (including evaluation) from participants on the training workshops and recommend how future training workshops may be improved.
Provide coordination for field activities of Sustainable Pepper Project as requested by IFC.
Assist in data gathering for project reporting purposes, and other reporting requirements;
Provide other project-related support, as requested by IFC management.

d. SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES

The Consultant is expected to prepare monthly progress reports to IFC. The reports will include the status of activities completed for the preceding month, a summary of all meetings held and forecast of activities for the upcoming period. Final reports are also to be prepared and a debriefing session will also be required. Additionally, the Consultant may be required to provide key inputs for IFC’s internal and external reporting requirements from time to time. Specifically, the consultant will also support the development of deliverables for a major IFC pepper sector client, inclusive of value chain and feasibility studies. All reports will be delivered directly to IFC. The consultant will not communicate directly with the client, unless specifically directed to do so by IFC.

LOCATION

The assignment is based in Central Highlands.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

Interested candidates are expected to have:

University degree in Agronomic sciences;
Thorough understanding of pepper growing practices of farmers in Central Highland provinces;
Working experience in extension services especially in pepper sector is preferred;
Good understanding of adult learning styles and learner- centered approach;
Experience in participatory and adult learning training methodology;
Experience in training delivery to farmers;
Strong ability to facilitate feedback giving and receiving sessions;
Be able to work independently as well as collaborate within a team;
Willing to frequently travel to pepper farms in Central Highland provinces;
English language ability is desired.

REPORTING

The consultant will report to IFC’s Manufacturing, Agribusiness, and Services Senior Operations Officer, Ms. Marta Bogdanic (mbogdanic@ifc.org). IFC needs to be informed in advance of any contacts or work arrangements with the producer within this assignment.

CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT

All data and information received from IFC for the purpose of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in connection with the execution of these Terms of Reference.

All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these Terms of Reference are assigned to IFC. The contents of written materials obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties without the expressed advance written authorization of the IFC.

The consultant must guarantee that:

Never transfer or give any things obtained from this assignment including from the producer/client and from IFC to anyone and to any third-party organizations.
Fully take legal responsibilities and commitments including any damage compensations caused by the violations of the consultant to the confidentiality and intellectual property rights of this assignment.

OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS

Any deliverables under this assignment in any form will be the property of the including intellectual property developed under this assignment. All the Project outputs including reports and other creative work called for by these Terms of Reference in written, graphic, audio, visual, electronic or other forms shall acknowledge the support of IFC.

Deadline for applications and contact

If interested, please send a cover letter and a CV to Ms. Nguyen Thuy Linh (Nlinh1@ifc.org) by March 10th , 2020.

Tags: IFC