Forestry Consultant

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT SCOPE OF WORK

A. DAI ORGANIZATION AND VALUES

DAI Global LLC. is a development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and implementing project operations worldwide including Vietnam. DAI tackles fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development, transforming ideas into action and actions into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.

DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work. DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner.

DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.

B. PROJECT BACKGROUND

DAI is implementing The USAID Sustainable Forest Management Project (the Project) in Vietnam to work with the Government of Vietnam (GVN), with MARD as its main counterpart, to reduce carbon emissions associated with deforestation and degradation of natural forests, and increase carbon sequestration by improving timber plantations management. The Project will implement a “Green Prosperity” approach that strengthens local communities’ ability to protect their natural resource base and reduce emissions while building a strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods and equitable economic growth.

The Project will work in seven provinces (Lao Cai, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam) and focus on five objectives:

1. Improve and expand community forest management
2. Increase conservation-friendly enterprises in forest-dependent communities
3. Increase functionality of law enforcement system for forest crimes
4. Improve production forest management practices
5. Mobilize domestic resources for forest management and protection

The Project will be implemented during the period 2020-2025 by DAI in collaboration with RECOFTC and Preferred by Nature as partners, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as the counterpart and the Management Board of Forestry Projects (MBFP) as project owner.

C. OBJECTIVE

Currently, the Provincial Funds are constructing PFES maps using Mapinfo software with the support of the v5PFES tool running on Mapinfo platform. The update and standardize process of the annual forest change by the Forest Protection Department from shapefiles to Mapinfo tab format are encountering errors including font errors, coordinate system deviations, unable to update new watersheds, unable to automatic export/import tables of PFES areas, tables of PFES for each watershed, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to have a new tool to update the PFES map using the open source QGIS software, in order to ensure the consistency of the data fields, the coordinate system of the forest change monitoring map and PFES map. By this SOW, we are looking for an individual forestry consultant based in Hanoi to develop an add-on to QGIS to meet this requirement.

D. SCOPE OF WORK AND TASKS

The selected consultant will have to work as a team member with two other consultants of IT and GIS to develop add-on to QGIS and carry out other activities as below:

1.     Provide information of PFES policy, forestry to other team members

The forestry consultant will need to share information of PFES policy and requirements of PFES maps for the two other members to ensure they understand well the role of add-on in PFES map development.

2.     Meet and consult with provincial partners

The consultant will need to meet with Hoa Binh provincial fund, Hoa Binh PPMU, Hoa Binh FPD, VNFF and 3 other provincial funds of Nghe An, Quang Nam, Quang Tri together with other team members to discuss and identify their needs of the add-on until it’s used fluently by provincial funds.

3.     Contribute to user story, use case and mock-up

The forestry consultant will need to contribute and provide comments for user story, use case which are developed by GIS consultant and comments for mock-up which will be developed by the IT consultant.

4.     Test the tool

The forestry consultant has responsibility to test the tool when the IT consultant has 1^st version of the tool. The test activity is to ensure the tool has no error before training to provincial funds/VNFF, FPD.

5.     Develop guidelines/Manual of add-on use

The forestry consultant will have to work closely with GIS consultant to develop manual or guidelines of the add-on for users and contribute comments for manual of administrator which will be developed by IT consultant. The manual can be in MS Word or PDF and in video format but it should be user-friendly use designed. The manual/guideline must be easy using for FPD, and provincial fund staff.

6.     Develop training documents of the tool

The consultant will support the GIS to prepare training documents for target groups of provincial funds, FPD. The training documents should include exercises for practicing the add-on during the trainings. The training documents can be in MS Word, PFD or any other Project acceptable format.

7.     Deliver training for provincial funds/VNFF and FPD

The consultant will need to work with other team members and with the Project, PPMU, VNFF to prepare and offer trainings. The consultant must be the trainer.

8.     Develop introduction documents of the tool

The consultant will need to work with GIS consultant in develop a brief introduction of the tool in English. The introduction should aim to target readers of USAID, the Project, any other potential users who are interested about the tool. The introduction should be well designed and have maximum 6 pages of A4 size paper.

E. LOCATION

Hanoi and travel to province(s) for training.

F. CONSULTATION TIME (LOE) AND DELIVERABLES

Note:  All submitted deliverables are in Vietnamese except deliverable No. 9. All deliverables must be approved by VNFF and Hoa Binh fund.

G. TIMELINE AND DURATION