The Vietnam Agriculture Market Information Project (VAMIP) is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). In September 2005, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) was created within MARD, with a mandate to do research, provide information, training, consulting, transferring technology, and conducting other activities in conformity to current laws and regulations to support the agriculture and rural strategy and policy formulation. The IPSARD has been positioned with a greater emphasis on its presence in Hanoi, but a branch office in HCMC has been opened.

BACKGROUNDS

The Vietnam Agriculture Market Information Project (VAMIP) is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). In September 2005, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) was created within MARD, with a mandate to do research, provide information, training, consulting, transferring technology, and conducting other activities in conformity to current laws and regulations to support the agriculture and rural strategy and policy formulation. The IPSARD has been positioned with a greater emphasis on its presence in Hanoi, but a branch office in HCMC has been opened. The Government of Viet Nam has designated IPSARD to be the counterpart to the CEA for VAMIP, based from its offices in HCMC.

The project goal is to improve rural livelihoods through support for agriculture and rural development. The project purpose is to improve agricultural stakeholders’ ability to access, gather, analyse and use information to better respond to market signals in order to improve overall economic return and productivity. The project will initially be active in 9 provinces in the South of Vietnam. These are: Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Can Tho, Kien Giang, Long An, Binh Thuan, Lam Dong, Dong Nai and HCMC.

In terms of market information services, various organizations in Vietnam (such as the Government Statistics Office (GSO) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the Viet Nam Trade Information Centre (VTIC) under the Ministry of Trade (MOT), and ICARD under MARD) all collected market information to varying degrees and for different purposes. Invariably these institutions have collected and disseminated information for planning and coordination functions of government, rather than as a mechanism for dissemination of information to stakeholders within the production to retail value chain, such as farmers and traders. Therefore a primary rationale for AMIS is to fill a gap.

AMIS development in VAMIP will be based on demand from value chain participants rather than on administrative or legislative imperative, and will seek to address the stated needs of participants rather than offer a platform of government-inspired, supply-side initiatives. Support and development of AMIS requires first assessments and baseline surveys on both the demand and supply sides of AMIS in Vietnam: (a) AMIS demands – emphasizing producers and traders information needs and status; (b) AMIS supply – emphasizing current service provider activities against relevance and utility of the information; (c) AMIS service provider capacity and services related to their mandate.

The assessment emphasizes on the supply side of AMIS. The intention is to first clarify and to source in one central location: who are these institutions? what is their activity? what is their current relationship to IPSARD? what are their resources for supporting AMIS? what is their experience with AMIS, or AMIS related activity (extension, research, coordination, supportive, etc.)? Secondly, this will involve an assessment of IPSARD as an organization responsible for coordinating AMIS. What are the resources – human, financial and capacity, at hand and what is the strategic plan for IPSARD particularly with respect to AMIS and the role of IPSARD-HCMC. Finally, assessments must be conducted about the current AMIS, its applicability, its strengths and where its functionality and relevance can be improved.

The baseline survey focuses more on the AMIS clients, including but not limited to farmers, traders, processors, policy makers. VAMIIP needs to get a better understanding of who they are, what their needs are, what their current understanding of market information is, and how they use it in their production process. This survey intends to provide insights from actors in the market information chain including information service providers such as Government Departments and NGO’s as well as the source of market information – producers, producer group, traders, processors and policy makers (it means that they are not only AMIS clients but also sources of information for AMIS). Besides, the baseline surveys in combination with the assessments would also investigate fruits and vegetables value chains in 9 priority provinces by identifying value chain stakeholders and their market arrangement through which market and marketing information flows are undertaken. In addition, the baseline surveys should provide baseline information for use in the M&E system (the Performance Measurement Framework) of the project.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the assessments and baseline surveys is to evaluate the current AMIS supply and demand, and to provide recommendations for IPSARD HCMC to fill-in the AMIS supply-demand gap, with particular focus on fruit and vegetable sector.

Specific objectives are:

1. To identify stakeholders in the agricultural market and marketing information chains consisted of data collection, processing, description, analysis, dissemination and market intelligence.

2. To evaluate current market information services and perceived needs for improved marketing and market information services in the 9 priority provinces.

3. To evaluate the capacities of institutions and individuals to oversee, administer, participate and/or consult or advise on AMIS and marketing information.

4. To investigate the fruit and vegetable value chains in 9 priority provinces, in order to identify key and strategic areas for AMIS’s support to improve farmers’ ability to market fruits and vegetables to an international standards.

5. To identify the needs of market information clients

6. To understand how producer groups work, what levels of information are typically present, and how they interact with their members to assist with production and marketing decision-making.

7. To undertake functional review of IPSARD capacity in general, and IPSARD HCMC capacity in particular, with the purpose to make IPSARD become the AMIS hub.

8. To obtain baseline information for use in the M&E system (the Performance Measurement Framework) for VAMIP.

9. To provide recommendations for VAMIP to revise strategy, guide project activities and revise the Project WBS.

TASKS

The mission needs to deliver reports on the following issues:

Task 1: AMIS Assessments

The three key AMIS to be evaluated will be ICARD AMIS, Vinh Long Province AMIS and HCACS planned AMIS.

ICARD AMIS

1. Review and update the ICARD market survey for market information conducted in 2006 for the four provinces where the Government Project is operational – HCMC, Vinh Long, Lam Dong and Can Tho.

2. Review and assess the technical protocols and procedures for AMIS in terms of data collection, processing and dissemination, management of agriculture product information database, and national and provincial network operation.

3. At the national level, review and assess the software and database for AMI utilised to support the service.

4. Review and assess the quality of information collected.

5. Review and assess the quality and extent of information disseminated by client group. This assessment will fall into two main categories: AMIS and market intelligence.

6. Undertake capacity assessment of the personnel involved in the AMIS.

7. Identify provinces which are interested in AMIS and their needs of support (apart from those already participating in ICARD AMIS).

8. Recommend for VAMIS support and further analysis to follow up.

Vinh Long Province AMIS

1. Critical assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the Vinh Long Province service with a specific view of the perceived effectiveness of the service to reach VAMIP client groups – producers, traders and private sector.

2. Recommend for VAMIS support and further analysis to follow up.

HCACS AMIS

1. Critical assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the HCACS service with a specific view of the perceived effectiveness of the service to reach VAMIP client groups – producers, traders and private sector.

2. Recommend for VAMIS support and further analysis to follow up.

Task 2: IPSARD-HCMC Capacity Assessments

1. Review IPSARD-HCMC mandate, and identify its strategic objectives and planned activities.

2. Identify needs of IPSARD-HCMC capacity strengthening and TORs for all positions within the organisation.

3. Conduct IPSARD-HCMC functional review: reviewing the strategic objectives against current capacity to indicate the gap between current human resources and human resource requirements.

4. Identify areas for VAMIP support to capacitate IPSARD-HCMC and close the gap between objectives and current capacity.

Task 3: Fruit and Vegetable Value Chain Assessments and Baseline Surveys

1. Review agriculture marketing strategy in 9 priority provinces.

2. Map value chain stakeholders in fruit and vegetable sector 9 priority provinces.

3. Identify and assess strength and weakness of market linkages and information exchange among stakeholders in the fruit and vegetable value chain 9 priority provinces.

4. Identify needs of agricultural market information and marketing information from farmers, traders and the private sector, DARDs, and other relevant stakeholders engaged in fruit and vegetable value chain 9 priority provinces.

5. Develop the priority for fruit and vegetable market development, and identify VAMIP support in terms of agricultural market information and marketing information.

6. Identify the principle areas for marketing research and support from IPSARD-HCMC.

Task 4: Producer Group Assessments

1. Identify locations and producer groups for baseline surveys.

2. Conduct baseline survey on producers groups, regarding their organizational structure, activities, and performance, and their level of support for farmers in terms of production, market and marketing information.

3. Identify relative strengths and weaknesses of existing groups and identify where existing strengths can be maximized to expedite up-take.

4. Identify producer group with some degree of existing market information awareness and applicability for initial project interaction.

5. Recommend for VAMIS support and further analysis to follow up.

Task 5: M&E Baseline Survey

1. Select the sample for on-going M&E.

2. Conduct M&E baseline survey, according to the Performance Measurement Framework of VAMIP.

3. Data processing and tabulation.

4. Statistical description on the target locations and stakeholders in VAMIP.

APPROACH

The mission should follow the pyramid approach, in which key institutions for AMIS are investigated, and therefore they can provide a broad map of locations and institution for further assessment and baseline surveys. Therefore, the mission should start with Tasks 1, 2 and 4. After 2-3 weeks when locations and institutions are identified, the mission may undertake Tasks 3 and 5.

The mission should be implemented in close collaboration with IPSARD HCMC in order to identify locations, organisations and individuals for assessments and baseline surveys.

The mission should incorporate potential provincial AMI service providers into the assessments and baseline surveys. It is envisaged that such assessments and baseline surveys are on-going, rather than once-off; therefore some provincial capacity should be built up.

All information from assessments and baseline surveys should be gender disaggregated

Tentative fieldwork methods are indicated as follows:

o Document review

o Semi-structured interview

o Focus group discussion

o Questionnaire surveys

LEVEL OF EFFORT

The mission should be conducted by a group of consultants with the following expertise:

1. Agricultural market information

2. International marketing

3. Rural communication

4. Capacity development

5. Gender analysis

6. Value chain analysis

7. Fruit and vegetable marketing

8. M&E

9. Statistics

The consultants may call for support of local enumerators for the surveys, and IPSARD HCM staff for the assessment. In addition, the consultant team may look for some interpreters/translators as necessary for documentation.

VAMIP PMU will be available to support and be responsible for timely logistics and organization for the assessments and baseline surveys including organising accommodations, calculating and securing per diems, setting up working areas in the hotels, and vehicle hire and transport.

TIMING

January 20th, 2008 – Deadline for proposal submission

January 25th, 2008 – Approval of proposal by IPSARD and sign contract

January 28th, 2008 – Meeting of team with PMU in HCMC

January 29th, 2008 – Mission begins

February 21st, 2008 – Submission of inception report with clear identification of background information, assessment and baseline survey methods, and locations for further fieldwork.

March 14th, 2008 – Submission of interim report for comment

March 21st, 2008 – Submission of final report

March 28th, 2008 – Contract completion

BIDDING PROCEDURE

Proposals are evaluated on the open-bidding basis, in which technical proposal accounts for 80 percent and financial proposal for 20 percent.

Budget for the consultant team (excluding costs of overhead, workshop, supervision) should not exceed 110,000USD.