Antecedentes

Poverty reduction and growth are the highest priorities of the Government. The Rectangular Strategy Phase III reaffirms government’s commitment to prioritize policies and investment in support of agriculture; infrastructure; private sector development and employment; and human resources development. The global economic crisis and the rise in food and fuel prices have led the RGC to adopt a dual approach. This aims to increase national competitiveness and diversify the economy; and to expand the social protection and safety nets

The government has identified agriculture as the top priority for Cambodia’s socio-economic development, focusing on increasing productivity and diversifying within this sector. This is clearly reflected in the Rectangular Strategy III and the Natioal Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) IV both covering the period 2014-2018. Similarly, the Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy 2014-2018 (CTIS 2014-2018) stresses the need for Cambodia to strengthen and accelerate the diversification of its export base above and beyond its original, two core export sectors – garments and tourism.  To support this major strategic orientation, CTIS identifies: (1) 10 product and service export potentials for export development focus (including cassava) (2) “cross-cutting” reforms and institutional developments required to unleash growth in those potential exports; and, (3) capacity developments in areas of trade policy and Aid for Trade management. The strategy was endorsed by the Sub-Steering Committee on Trade and Trade-Related Investment in December 2013 (the Committee serves as National Steering Committee for all Aid for Trade in Cambodia) and launched officially by H.E. Prime Minister Hun Sen in February 2014
This is also in line with the results of the country’s Trade Policy Review undertaken in 2011 in partnership with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that calls for Cambodia to move away from its dependency on garment and rice and urges to diversify and expand the country’s export basis.

Cassava is the second largest agricultural crop in Cambodia and growing rapidly.  Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) indicates production of nearly 4.250 million MT in 2010, up from 3.5 million MT in 2009.  MAFF sources estimate that 2013 production reached almost 8 million MT. The fast growing importance of the sector for export diversification and export revenues cannot be underestimated.  Additionally, the sector might have been generating anywhere between $300 to $400 million worth of “informal” export revenues in 2013.  Even though Cassava has become the second largest agricultural crop in term or income, employment, hectares cultivated, and exports (more on this in the next section), there is very little technical assistance support provided to the sector.

This lack of technical support is potentially serious considering cassava cultivation could have ecological consequences. Research has shown that continuous cassava cultivation on small plots could contribute to serious nutrient depletion and deterioration of chemical and physical conditions of the soil. When grown on even gentle slopes, continuous cassava cultivation could even contribute to soil erosion. But it need not be the case: cassava cultivation can be made sustainable using proper methodologies or when part of a sustainable integrated system.

The Ministry of Commerce and UNDP Cambodia have partnered since 2008 to tackle the above challenges and provide know-how and best practices to Cambodia’s cassava sector. One key instrument developed under this cooperation was a Value Chain Analysis of the cassava sector carried out in 2009. Five year later, increased investment in the sector coupled with interests from new buyers (in particular from China) for raw and processed cassava products meant that Cambodia’s cassava value chain is changing deeply. As a result, UNDP wishes to update the existing Value Chain study as a tool to assess where support provided through the Cambodia Export Diversificiation and Expansion Programme – Cassava Component (CEDEP II – Cassava component) project could be best used.

UNDP, in its Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP), has vowed to support the above goals of economic diversification and poverty reduction and in particular the human capital development and competitiveness issues. Similarly, at the request of the Government, UNDP has decided to re-engage deeply in the trade sector, trade being an engine for economic growth, through the creation of a dedicated project within UNDP.

The CEDEP II-Cassava Component project has set up a team which can work flexibly within the current context of cassava sector and with stakeholders at all levels to utilize the available dynamism to address issues at their rooted causes.

• At the national level, the National Management Specialist will cooperate with the Ministries and Agencies, Development Partner Partners, and relevant stakholders to work on policies and strategies related issues and manage the overall project implementation.
• At the provincial level, the Provincial Coordinator will be responsible to deliver specific outputs by working closely with the project beneficiaries group at th sub-naitonal level in the areas realted to capacity building and capturing the challenges at the subnational level.

The Cassava component will contribute directly to:

• United Nation Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) outcome on “promotion of equitable, green, diversified economic growth”
• CPAP Outcome #1 on Poverty Reduction: strengthening national and sub-national capacities to develop a more diversified, sustainable and equitable economy.
• CPAP Output #1.1: supporting human capital development and institutional capacity for selected sectors of importance for the diversification of the economy
• CPAP Outcome #2: enabling national and local authorities, communities and the private sector to sustainably manage eco-system goods and services and respond to climate change

Deberes y responsabilidades

The Provincial Coordinator will coordinate the work to be implemented in Pailin province  by working closely with the project beneficiaries group and the sub-national stakeholder to produce the following specific outputs:

1. Successful implementation of the capacity development plan for the project beneficiaries and cassava assocations in Pailin. As the milestone to measure the progress of the consultant work, s/he will need to submit the progress report highlighting the achievement of the key milestone stated in the capacity development plan. It is expected that s/he will need to submit report twice – a) mid  term completion report of the capacity development plan; b) final completion report of the capacity development plan;
2. Raw data for each of the project indicators collected and the preliminary report produced. It is expected that the consultant will collect the data related to each of the project indicator Pailin in at the beginning of his/her assignment to be used as the baseline data, and update the data from time to time (expect to be updated twice – midterm of the project and end of the project period). The data collected will include the gender disagreedgate data. The milestone to measure the progress of the consultant work is the prelimary report developed by the consultant. It is expected that the consultant will provide three preliminary report – a) preliminary report base on baseline data collected; b) preliminary report based on mid term data collected; and c) preliminary report based on data collected and the end of the project;
3. Brief anlaysis report on the price fluction of cassava in Pailin collected with the prilimary analysis on its casue and effect and the potential solutions to address the issue;
4. Final completion report with the brief of all ouptputs done,  proposed exit strategies from the cassava associations, post-assessment result of the capacity improvement of the project beneficiaries, the project outcomes agains the project indicators/logframe, and lessons learned/best practices/success stories

To deliver the above expected outputs, the consultat is expected to carry out the following specific works:

1. Work closely with the National Project Management Specialist to produce the overall work plan to deliver the above ouputs;
2. Keep closely communicate with the Naitonal Project Management Specialist to update the project progress and update on the related issues in order to find solution to ensure the smooth delivery of the outputs;
3. Work closely with the project beneficaires and relevant stakeholder at the subnational evel to ensrue the effective implementation of the capacity plan in response to the needs of the project beneficiaries;
4. keep close communication and conduct consultation with stakeholders at subnational evel where relevant to collect data for the project monitoring purpose, to generated their feedback which can be used to strengthen the project strategy to implement the capacity development plan for the beneficiaries gorup and to effectively support to the development of cassava sector;
5. Caputriing good practices or successful case studies identified during the project implementation for knowledge sharing and replication and share to the National Project Management Specialist to capture in the project communciatio namaterials or to firm up the project implementation strategy;
6. Coordinate the work to be implemented by the project at the subnational level, ex. mission arragnmetn for the consultation, workshop organization of at the subnational level.
7. Base on the experience from the work with the beneficiaries group, provide necessary insight to factor in the capacity development plan if any synergy or improvement is foreseen;
8. Participate in the knowledge sharing session of the project with other target provinces of the project.

To carry out all functions as described above, the consultant can devide the process of delivering the outputs into four phases as the following.

Phase 1: the consultant will formulate an assignment work-plan aligning with the project work-plan submitted for approval by the National Management Specialist. In the work-plan, it should specify activities of each output, timeline, and stakeholders which the project should cooperate with. Its key elements will include (1) a supporting plan to work with consultants hired by the project to formulate an association strategy for the local cassava associations and to conduct a SPS survey, Environmental Survey, Market Access study, and the quality standards of cassava products; and (2) to build and assess the project beneficiaries’ capacity for export readiness; (3) to develop a work-plan and data collection tools to gather information against project indicators (4) gender dissagregate data, (5) price of casssa products; and (6) to distill good practices which can be documented for knowledge sharing.

Phase 2: Once the work-plan are approved, the consultant can start her/his activities in liaision with the National Management Specialist. The consultant will work with the consultants hired by the project to develiver the outputs as below, so her/his role is mainly the coordination and facilitation but it does not limited to technical contribution if necessary:

• To formulate a cassava association strategy
• To develop the quality standards of cassava products
• To conduct a survey of SPS
• To conduct a survey of envirommental impact
• To organize dissemination workshops relating to quality standards, SPS, and Environmental impact at the project target areas

Meanwhile, the consultant will deliver her/his own activities as below:

• To gather data against project indicators
• To gather gender disaggregate data and provide recommendations on gender mainsteaming
• To record cassava price from November 2014 to April 2015 and put it in an analytical format
• Identify one or two interesting case studies

The consultant is required to produce preliminary report including information relating to project indicators, gender disaggregate data, and record of local price and identification of case studies. This report is expected to be updated during the mid term of the project, expectedly in mid 2016.

Phase 3: Since the capacity building of the project beneficiares is on-going works, the consultant needs to work with the project consultants (can be the same or different) hired by the project to implement the plans as below:

• Implementation of the association strategic plan: the key activities can be identified at this stage include organizing study tours, two meetings with SNA per year and four meetings with association members, association registration, and website development. However, other areas of intervention elaborated in the association strategy is subjective to be defined.
• Implementing an SPS plan: it includes the cost sharing agreement signed between the project and project beneficiaries, logistic support for SPS consultant, and assistance to the project beneficiaries
• Implementing an environmental risk mitigation plan: it includes the cost sharing agreement signed between the project and project beneficiaries, logistic support for environmental consultant, and assistance to the project beneficiaries

Therefore, the consultant is required to produce a progress report on facilitating and supporting the project consultants to implement all these plans.

Phase 4: at the last stage, the consultant will produce a final completion report which entails:

• Summary of all outputs which are completed
• An exit strategy of the project from the cassava associations in the target project province
• The finding of the capacity improvement of the project beneficiaries regarding SPS, environmental management, and market access by conducting a post training survey
• The impacts of cassava price on  the incomes of smallholder farmers/the poor (from November 2016-March 2017)
• The findings about the project outcome against the project indicators/ result logframe (for three year periods)
• Lessons learned, best practices and success storie.

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=25652 for more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Competencias

Functional Competencies:

•  Time management (in managing deliverables)
•  Team management
•  Professionalism, courtesy, patience
•  Outstanding inter-cultural communication, networking and coordination skills.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Bachelor degree in Development Studies, Rural Development, Governance, and other relevant fields in economic and community development

Experience:

• At least three years of relevant experiences in local governance and community development
• Substantial experience on research, market analysis, and capacity building in the areas related to trade/agro commodity development
• Experience in advisory roles particularly with local associations and private sector
• Proven experience in coordinating the implemtnation of the capacity development plan
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work with multi-disciplinary team
• Working experiences with NGOs, Donor and/or relevant agencies in province in related to capacity building of association and community development
• Understand Cambodia Cassava Sector, in particular trading system, production, key players and challenges is a strong asset
• Experience working in Kamong Cham province is a strong assets
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages for data analysis and technical reports
• Able and willing to work in remote areas.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English and Khmer

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=25652 for more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email dalis.heng@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org. While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice.