DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: February 16, 2022
Position: Agriculture Production Cooperative Expert
Initiative Name: Support to the Revision of Vietnam’s Cooperative Law under the Technical Assistance Partnership - Expert Deployment Mechanism (TAP-EDM)
Job Type: Short Term/Fixed Term/Part Time/Senior Level
Level of Effort: 60-70 days from March to June
Location: Canada (remote) with travel to Vietnam
Reports to: Project Manager, TAP-EDM
Citizenship: Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status in Canada.
Remuneration: Fees are subject to negotiation and shall not exceed established market rates.
Application Instructions:
- We welcome applications from individuals and from governmental, non-governmental and private organizations.
- Cover letter is mandatory to be considered. Cover letters should detail how you fit the opportunity, your daily fee and current availability.
- TAP-EDM accepts electronic submissions only. Send your cover letter and CV to tap-pat@alineainternational.com.
- Please include following in the email subject line:
- [Cooperative Expert/Vietnam: Your last name, your first name]
- Only successful candidates will be contacted. No phone calls please.
Committed to Inclusivity and Diversity: Alinea provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants on the basis of merit.
Alinea is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. Given the nature of our work, candidates will be subjected to due diligence checks and to enhanced background checks as appropriate.
About TAP-EDM
The Technical Assistance Partnership - Expert Deployment Mechanism (TAP-EDM) Project provides targeted, short-term (up to 12 months) technical assistance to National Government Entities (NGE) from eligible OECD-DAC countries. The Mechanism is expected to deploy over 250 Canadian experts via 120-150 technical assistance initiatives designed to resolve capacity gaps to bring about the desired changes of the recipient NGEs. Fully aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Strategy (FIAP), these initiatives will integrate gender equality, climate action/environmental sustainability, human rights and good governance as key objectives. Canadian experts will come from all walks of life, proudly representing world-class technical human resources but also the diversity and multi-culturalism that is Canada.
TAP-EDM is a four-year C$18,750,000-million-dollar project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and managed by Alinea International. www.alineainternational.com
About the Initiative
TAP-EDM is supporting the Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to evaluate its existing cooperative law and provide evidence-based, contextualized input into its new law. Activities include a review of the government’s evaluation report on the 2012 law; provide contextualized guidance/counsel to the incorporation of fundamental cooperative principles into the new law in a way that is meaningful and practical; independent data gathering using surveys, focus group discussions and interviews from active coops (and other stakeholder) with a focus on capturing the voices/needs of marginalized groups such as women and ethnic minorities vis-à-vis cooperatives; designing, organizing and delivering validation/review workshops with MPI and others on the findings of the review and supplementary data collection; design/deliver a pilot to test different aspects/features of the new law with coops. Integral to this is develop capacity of MPI and other stakeholders to incorporate coop engagement/programming, Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) principles and climate smart agriculture to enhance the legislation/policy review and development process of the Government.
The Role of Agriculture Production Cooperative Expert
The following are indicative duties (these may be refined following contracting and an inception period) to be undertaken with support from MPI and national experts:
- Lead a literature review and consultations with experts from Canada, Vietnam and elsewhere to gain a solid but balanced understanding of the cooperative movement in Vietnam including its strengths and weaknesses and areas of contention.
- Lead and finalize findings of TAP-EDM review and assessment of the GoV’s Evaluation Report on Vietnam’s Cooperative Law 2012. Participate (virtually) in a review workshop to present TAP-EDM’s finding on this report.
- Lead the design and delivery of a series of independent (limited government involvement) Face-to-Face (F2F) consultations (focus group discussions, interviews, surveys) with representatives from cooperatives and other non-government stakeholders from across different regions of Vietnam. These consultations will cover up to 3 regions over a 3-week period.
- Lead the design and delivery of a series of regional and national workshops (specifics TBD), either virtually or F2F, to validate the findings of these consultations and advice/recommendations. This may include training on systems, GBA+ and evidence-based approaches policy, programme and services development / implementation.
- Review, clean, analyze and interpret data, triangulating/validating with data already collected by government following GBA+ methods. Prepare a set of findings/conclusions and assemble into a written report and PPT presentation. Based on these findings, craft recommendations that MUST be relevant for either inclusion in the new legislation (or that will guide future programming).
- Provide legislation/policy advice/recommendations to MPI on (i) applied cooperative principles that is contextualized, meaningful and practical; (ii) cooperative financial and asset management; (ii) coop/enterprises relationship and coops roles in directing future investment in agriculture; and (iii) gender assessments in the coop sector.
- Lead the design and delivery of a pilot exercise to test select features of the new cooperative law, ideally working with coops that have received support from the Canadian funded VCED Project.
- Provide recommendations for improving/adjusting the report and its findings/conclusions as well as reporting.
- Deliver training/capacity development on GBA+ and cooperatives; either separately or incorporated into one or more planned workshops above.
Academic Qualifications and Experience
- Advanced degree in agriculture and/or rural areas development, organizational development (specific to cooperatives)
- 15+ years of agriculture sector experience
- 7+ years of direct experience working for or alongside cooperatives; ideally agriculture production cooperatives. Must have a sound but applied understanding of the fundamental tenets and principles of cooperatives and conversant on the latest international trends in cooperative governance and management models
- Demonstrated experience in designing and conducting consultations as part of a broader evidence-based policy and legislation development approach with a good understanding/experience of how data is used to develop practical policy/legislation that is easily understood and translated into practice/programming
- Understanding of basic legislation and policy development processes
- Applied knowledge of integrating/promoting gender equality, climate smart agriculture and coop principles and best practices; familiarity with GBA+
- Experience designing training and capacity development exercises
- Experience designing/delivering pilots to test the application of new policy/legislation in the real world
- Applied knowledge of systems and value chain approaches to agriculture sector development
- Strong skills in qualitative content and quantitative data analysis techniques (descriptive statistics, etc.)
- Adaptable, flexible and at ease in dynamic environments
- Superior skills in analysis and technical writing
- Prior experience in Southeast Asia/Vietnam is preferred