Assess and document the FLAIR’s initiatives on establishment of Farmer Innovation Forum and Key Farmer Network

  1. Introduction.

Since 2007, Oxfam has been working on promoting agriculture innovations, especially in rice production in Vietnam. This support was a part of program titled “Farmer-Led Agricultural Innovation for Resilience (FLAIR). The program goal is to transform the agricultural systems so that small-scale farmers are empowered to innovate and adapt their agricultural practices on an ongoing basis so that they are able to address challenges and take advantage of opportunities to improve their food security and livelihoods. The program covered 6 provinces in Northern area of Vietnam, worked in partnership with government agencies, NGOs, Research institutes, and Universities.

Since early 2013, FLAIR program and its partners, Provincial Plant Protection Sub-department and Farmer Union have been piloting the new interventions on developing key farmer networks and small scale farmer innovation forums to identify, appraise, recognize and disseminate the innovations of small scale farmer in provinces.

As planned, FLAIR program is phasing out the above interventions with expectation that the program approaches, achievements and good practices will be continued to replicate/scale up by program partners and other interested actors in the future.

Oxfam would like to conduct a review and document the process and results of farmer innovation models piloted in FLAIR project areas. The findings and recommendations from this assignment will be used by Oxfam and partners for future programming.

  1. Objective
  • Review performance of key farmer networks that have been piloted by FLAIR project partners in four provinces.
  • Document process of farmer innovation forum development and successful cases of farmer innovations in two provinces.
  • Provide recommendation for promotion and expansion of key farmer network and farmer innovation in the future.
  1. Methodology, scope of work and key contents

3.1. Implementation Method

Participatory approach will be applied in the assessment process. The relevant stakeholders i.e. Farmer Union, Plant Protection Sub-Departments (PPSD), farmer

groups, local authorities, etc. are strongly encouraged to participate in the preparation, information collection and analysis, result sharing workshop.

The common tools and methods such as desk study, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), in-depth interview will be used for information collection and analysis.

Secondary data/information will also be collected through the reports and recorded documents from farmer clubs/network and FLAIR project partners.

3.2. Scope of works:

The assessment will focus on the initiatives for establishmentofkey farmer network and farmer innovation forums that implemented by FLAIR project’s partners in four provinces: Ha Tinh,NgheAn, Thai Nguyen and PhuTho provinces.

The assignment will also limit to document the farmer innovations that selected through farmer innovation forums inPhuTho and Thai Nguyen provinces

To accomplish this assignment, the works to be carried out by the consultant would include but not limited to the following:

-Prepare detailed work plan, discuss and get agreement with Oxfam in Vietnam

-Review the available materials/reports on key farmer network/clubs and farmer innovation forum

-Conduct field work to assess the key farmer network/club and farmer innovation in the program’s provinces.

-Provide analysis and prepare the assessment report on key farmer network/club initiatives and document the identified farmer innovations.

3.3. Key contents of assignment:

The assessment will emphasize on the following issues:

  • Key farmer network/club:

-Process of establishing key farmer networks/clubs

-How was the key farmer club organized and managed by different project partners?

-What are the results that key farmer networks/clubs have achieved so far?

-How did the key farmer network/clubs get support from local authorities and external resources?

-How have the key farmer network/club’s operation linked and integrated with local mass organizations?

-What are key challenges and lesson learnt for setting up, operating and sustaining the key farmer networks/clubs?

-What isthe plan to sustain the operation of key farmer network/clubs?

  • Farmer innovation

-Document process of farmer innovation forum development in Thai Nguyen and PhuTho provinces

-Interview and document 56 farmer innovations (30 innovations in Thai Nguyen and 26 innovations in PhuTho) that identified/selected by farmer innovation forum in two provinces.

  1. Assignment schedule and expected outputs:

The assignment is expected to start from5th October and complete by 10th November2016.

The consultants are required to submit two separated documents:

  • An assessment report on key farmer network/club initiative in Vietnamese and English.
  • A document that describe the process of farmer innovation forum development as well as describe 56 identified innovations in Thai Nguyen and PhuTho provinces. This document will be written in Vietnamese.

The consultants will submit the draft reports/documents to Oxfam by 5th November and the final products will be submitted by 10th November 2016

  1. Team composition and budget

A consultant team will be recruited to carry out this study. The team will consist of two consultants: one team leader and one member/assistant. The team leader should meet the following qualifications:

•Good experiences and skills in farmer organizational assessment and development

•Strong experiences in project/program evaluation

•Strong experiences in the field of capacity building, survey and assessment

•Good experiences and skills in documentation

•Having experiences on organizing farmer contest, or used to work as contest panel, etc are preferable

•Understand well about rural development issues, agriculture, technology innovation

•Strong analysis and writing skills

•Ability to work under pressure and to deliver high quality output to an agreed timeframe

The budget for this assignment will include consultant fees and expenses for field work (e.g. expenses for interview/group discussions, consultation meeting,travel cost to the selected provinces, etc).

Interested consultants are required to send technical and financial proposals by email to Mr. Luong Dinh Lan () no later than 3rd October 2016.