National Consultant, FAO Vietnam

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF TASK(S) AND OBJECTIVES TO BE ACHIEVED

Agroecology is based on a complex concept and complex interplay of practices, technologies, innovations, policies, incentives, investment, and governance. Agroecological systems can significantly contribute to the production of healthy diets, gender-equality, climate change mitigation, and adaption, natural resources management including conservation of biodiversity, and last but not least, attract youth and create employment. Agroecology goes beyond technical solutions and innovations based on incremental changes and can drive genuine transformative change in food and agricultural systems by moving towards socio-ecological systems that place people (farmers and consumers) at the center.

In Viet Nam, great progress have been made in reducing poverty and enhancing socio-economic development in the last two decades. Nevertheless, rural and agricultural communities continue to be among the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population. The agriculture and food sector, being by far the country’s most important source of livelihoods for the people of Viet Nam, need to further pursue poverty alleviation and address the most pressing challenges to the country’s agriculture and rural development. In particular, progress is required in adapting to the increasingly severe impacts of climate change on natural resources, the need to enhance the country’s ability to deal with an unpredictable and volatile trade environment, and the pivotal necessity to substantially improve and diversify the livelihoods and income base of farming families – all this while ensuring sustainable environmental and social protection and safeguards. In this regard, the government has recently initiated actions to further develop sustainable
agriculture practices, which fall under Agroecology. For example, the GoV issued in 2018 decree 109/2018/ND-CP and national standard set TCVN 11041, both on organic agriculture.

There are increased interests from the technical government agencies to support farmers in transitioning towards and adopting more sustainable and agroecological practices. However, they face challenges in monitoring and demonstrating the impacts of such practices which hinder their capacities to advocate for broader support and promote their dissemination. Such an issue has been at the core of the request of member states to FAO to develop the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE).

TAPE was presented to several stakeholders of the Mekong Region in a regional workshop organized by FAO in September 2019 with the objective to be fine-tuned and contextualized in specific countries and contexts.

FAO has been requested by the Government of Vietnam / Vietnam Academy of Agriculture Sciences (VAAS) to provide technical assistance to pilot the application of TAPE in selected target areas. Through this TCPf, the intervention will contribute to building the capacities of national technical departments and piloting the application of TAPE in selected provinces with the anticipation that it can play an important role in the future in identifying principal indicators to design effective interventions for sustainable development of agriculture sector.

Under the overall supervision of the National Programme Officer for Food Security, Nutrition and Food Safety in Vietnam, and the technical supervision of the Agriculture and Food System (AFS) Group at FAO RAP, the National
Consultant will support VAAS for the implementation of the different actions of the TCPf.

The National Consultant will carry out the following tasks:

• Support the STEP 0 of TAPE 1 in close collaboration with VAAS (collection of all relevant context information, from territorial and higher scales, including the descriptions of production systems and agroecosystem and the enabling environment) and produce a short report consolidating data at national and local level for each of the target areas.
• Support the organization and facilitate the inception training/workshop (at national level) about the application
  of TAPE
• Provide assistance in the implementation of TAPE at provincial level (on the job training/testing) in close
  collaboration with VAAS
• Support VAAS in the analysis of the data collected through TAPE survey and the production of the final report
• Support the participatory validation of the data collected at the community/territory level (STEP 3) in the
  community/territory where TAPE was tested
• Support the organization and facilitate (at national level) a one day workshop to share findings from farm
  assessments and overall use of TAPE

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Expected Outputs:

1. STEP 0 report for each targeted territory as per the template provided
2. A summary report of the inception workshop
3. A report about the implementation of TAPE at provincial level
4. A consolidated report of analysed data from the TAPE survey and STEP 3
   feedbacks
5. A summary report of the final workshop

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

Minimum requirements:
Candidates should meet the following:

• University degree in agricultural sciences or rural development;
• Good understanding of existing agricultural policies in the country; agricultural practices, agroecological approaches
• Proven experience in leading field research and facilitating workshops at the national and community level;
• Good written and spoken language skills (both English and Vietnamese).

Selection Criteria:
Candidates will be assessed against the following:

• Extent of professional knowledge and experience in agriculture practices and agroecological approaches in Vietnam
• Data analysis skill
• Quality of previous technical outputs produced;
• Proven ability in planning, organizing and delivering quality results and meeting deadlines, and in working independently and in multi-disciplinary teams