SNV

Company Description

About SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

SNV is an international not-for-profit development organisation, working in more than 25 countries in Africa and Asia. SNV is a mission-driven global development partner, rooted in the contexts and societies where we work. And that mission is to strengthen capacities and catalyse partnerships that transform the agri-food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all. Our global team of advisors use their specialist expertise to facilitate sustainable change in the livelihoods of millions of people living in poverty.

Lessons learned at SNV

‘Lessons learned’ refers to the learning gained from the process of performing a project. It is a core part of project management and essential for quality assurance. It relates directly to understanding the effects of project activities, successes, failures, and any needed improvements.

This consultancy directly corresponds to activities and deliverables in the TRVC Learning Framework. At SNV, the Learning framework supports projects to effectively manage lessons learned, analyse learning and apply it to inform project adaptation and knowledge generation. The consultant will be responsible for the successful completion of the relevant learning activities in the TRVC Learning Framework.

About the TRVC project

Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the project “Transforming the rice value chain for climate resilient and sustainable development in the Mekong delta (TRVC)” is implemented by SNV, Netherlands Development Organisation, in 3 provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Kien Giang. Using the Pay-for-Results (PfRs) mechanism, TRVC Project incentivizes and attracts the participation of private enterprises in the Rice Value Chain as competitors, aiming to scale up innovative technologies to achieve higher economic outcomes for smallholder farmers (SHFs) and all Rice Value Chain (RVC) actors, improve rice quality and inclusive social values while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating environmental footprints as co-benefits. The overall objective of the project is to facilitate the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient rice production practices. This transformation aims to support the sustainable development of the rice value chain in the upper Mekong Delta. To achieve this goal, the project has identified three key pathways: Pathway 1 - Climate-Smart and Low-Carbon Rice Production, Pathway 2 - Inclusive Rice Production Markets, and Pathway 3 - Low-Carbon Enabling Environments.

The project aims to facilitate a transition to low-emission rice production on 200,000 hectares by 2027, contributing to MARD’s national goal of 1 million hectares. Competitors who meet greenhouse gas reduction targets verified by independent verifiers will receive a cash incentive at the end of each cropping season. Additionally, support is provided to enhance farming practices and inclusivity within the supply chain, ensuring equitable benefits for men, women, and persons with disabilities across the community. In 2024, eight competitors are participating in the TRVC project for the Summer-Autumn 2024 crop (Crop 1) and ten (10) for Winter-Spring Crop 2) across the three provinces. Over two crop seasons, Competitors reached out and entered the contract farming with a total of 5,163 households over 40,328 hectares of rice cultivation in Dong Thap, An Giang, and Kien Giang provinces. Detailed statistics for each season are presented to the selected EOIs.

Smallholder farmers have improved access to critical resources and services such as capital (e.g., loans, savings, grants), machinery and equipment (e.g., tractors, irrigation systems), seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. They also benefit from training, capacity-building programs, extension services, and market information. Input procurement is facilitated through various payment methods, including immediate payment, credit with payment at harvest, or a combination of both. 1,720 households in Crop 1 and 3.444 households of Crop 2 have implemented the interventions they committed to and planned for their fields, adopting low-carbon farming practices such as reducing plant density, minimizing fertilizer usage, exploring fertilizer substitution, employing Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) techniques, and removing straw.

As of June 2025, all households have completed harvesting of the Winter-Spring crop of 2024-2025.

SNV is seeking an agriculture research consulting firm or group of qualified consultants (herein Consultant) for designing and conducting the assessment of results and learnings of both the Summer-Autumn crop 2024 and the Winter–Spring crop 2024 - 2025.

Job Description

Under the close coordination and supervision of TRVC’s Team Leader and MEL Advisor, the Consultant will design and conduct the Assessment of the 1st and 2nd crop’s results and learnings. Crop results include quantitative and qualitative assessment that cover but not limited to farming area with sustainable approaches/practices, good agronomic and economic practices and outcomes/profit for SHFs, success stories, innovations, change of behaviour, women economic empowerment, disability inclusions, contract farming and other type of business linkages between SHF/Coops with private sector companies and other opportunities for farmers/coops and their communities. Lessons learned identify areas that needs improvements from both agronomic and economic practices for the subsequent crops; challenges and barriers that prevent or hinder farmers and the Companies (herein named as Competitors in TRVC) to practice low carbon rice farming; or scaling to other rice areas/Coops/communities; reasons for farmers and or Competitors dropped out from 1st and 2nd crop seasons; and or uncertainties from farmers/Coops/Competitors on the modality of the results-based financing of TRVC.

Key objectives include:

1. To design, conduct, and develop an evidence-based assessment of the Summer-Autumn 2024 and Winter Spring 2025 crop seasons in Dong Thap, An Giang, and Kien Giang provinces with both quantitative and qualitative data sets/evidence from key stakeholders participating in the TRVC project. The assessment report highlights key results, good practices, innovations, and failures to support project learning to inform contextual adjustment/refinement if needed and enhancement of efficacies and values for money.
2. To develop a learning review for the TRVC Project focused on the overall learning questions from the learning framework.

REQUIRED RESEARCH APPROACH

From the findings, produce success stories and factsheets to support the capitalization of early successes.

The Consultant is required to apply an inclusive and participatory data collection process, in line with gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) best practice, where project participant ownership in the project evolution is encouraged. Consent, confidentiality, and conformity with research ethics are mandated. Use of AI and secondary data without consent from SNV and reference sources is not acceptable.

DETAILED TASKS

Task 1. Desk study

• Conduct a desk-based review and provide an overview of current development projects/programs on low-emission/sustainable rice that have been implemented in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
• Review of TRVC project documents and project data (Theory of Change, relevant part of the technical proposal, MEL documents, Learning Framework) and enrolment data for Crop 1 & 2.
• Perform a desk study on the current status of interventions that farmers have committed to and planned for their fields, including the adoption of low-carbon farming practices.
• Conduct a desk-based analysis of companies' offering services and support to SHFs/Coops participating in Crop 1.

Task 2. Field study design and execution

Design the field study to collect the required information:

• Design research methodology, including sample sizes (for quantitative methods) and instruments
• Conduct data collection (quantitative and qualitative) with selected key stakeholders that include:
• Senior leaders/managers of nine competitors who are enrolling in Crop 1 and operating in An Giang, Kien Giang and Dong Thap.
• Sampled cooperative members working with the above companies (with GEDSI inclusive participation).
• Sampled rice farming smallholder farmers participating in the project (with inclusive participation).

The field study should address the below two end-of-program outcomes (EOPO) and overall learning questions from the TRVC learning framework.

Task 3. Field study data collection and analysis

The consultant proposal should give details of how data collection processes will be implemented, managed, and quality assured. What resources will be required, and how will the data collection process be contextually appropriate and in line with do no harm principles? Details of how the consultant will comply with GDPR should be part of the proposal.

The consultant should submit an analysis approach as part of the proposal to ensure that all data collected has a purpose and clear use and will be handled properly.

Task 4. Develop a final report and presentation on key findings to present at the Annual learning workshop event

The consultant presents the assessment findings at the project's annual learning workshop event in a visually stimulating and interactive manner. This also includes the documentation of lessons learned, success stories, good practices, innovations, and failures of participating competitors and SHFs enrolled in Crop 1 & 2.

Qualifications

Submission Requirements:

Interested consultant teams/ firms should submit the EOIs with following information/ documents via the instructions in this site.

1. Letter of Interest
2. The applicant’s professional qualifications and CVs which requires:

• The Team Lead and team members should possess advanced degrees (PhD, Master respectively) in agriculture, agribusiness, business administration, sustainable development, environment, value chain or similar fields relevant to the assignment with sound records of similar studies, its quality and timeliness.
• Proven capacity and experience in designing and implementing assessment/evaluation of complex agriculture/rice development project. Experience with conducting baseline, mid-term and end-line agriculture project assessment is a plus.
• Experience in conducting similar learning reviews or learning processes for agricultural projects.
• Provide at least 3 references and reports of relevant research thematic/topics.
• Strong skills in designing and conducting both quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Proven ability to manage intuitive processes in a results-based manner with a focus on actionable recommendations.
• Experience in areas related to the rice value chain and climate change adaptation, with knowledge of low-carbon farming practices.
• Solid experience working with smallholder farmers and the private sector.
• Experience in GEDSI analysis.
• Demonstrated written communication skills, including the ability to convey complex concepts in plain English and Vietnamese.
• Ability to effectively present findings and recommendations, both orally (in a visual and interactive manner) and in written reports.

3. Due Diligence Declaration Form via https://c.smartrecruiters.com/sr-company-attachments-prod-aws-dc5/58919688e4b0672cc03331a9/87cff101-0ca8-41df-8349-040da3f8633f?r=s3-eu-central-1

4. Business license of the company (if any)

Deadline for EOI Submissions: EOIs are due 17:00 on June 24th, 2025.

Additional Information

Selection Process

SNV will review all Expressions of Interest received in accordance with the guidelines and criteria in this solicitation. SNV 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 will shortlist selected EOIs, and unsuccessful respondents will be notified. Successful applicants will be contacted by SNV.

Step 2: SNV will release Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the specific activities and contract with the selected 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, please note the proprietary nature of such information. Costing information will be kept confidential and will not be shared beyond SNV.

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

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

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