Partner for Engagement with Social Impact Businesses (SIBs) at the Inspiration and Inception Stage in Vietnam

Statement of Work

Engagement with Social Impact Businesses (SIBs) at the inspiration and inception stage in Vietnam  

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This Statement of Work establishes the roles, responsibilities and deliverables for conducting the “Engagement with Social Impact Businesses (SIBs) at the inspiration and early stages in Vietnam” initiative. 

2.0           BACKGROUND

The Vietnam Field Support Services Project (FSSP) provides technical, administrative and logistical support services to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) for the planning, delivery and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of Canada’s development assistance program in Vietnam.

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) highlights the need to look for more efficient and effective funding mechanisms and approaches such as multi-stakeholder partnerships, private/voluntary sector solutions and innovative financing mechanisms to close the financing gap for the SDGs. Among innovative financing mechanisms, engaging with impact businesses is an emerging tool that offers diverse and viable opportunities to advance social and environmental solutions through business models that also have the potential to produce financial returns.

As a low-medium income country, Vietnam is facing numerous economic, social and environmental challenges that cannot be addressed solely by traditional Official Development Assistance (ODA). In order to mobilize all resources for socio-economic development, the country is exploring how to use public resources to facilitate private sector engagement towards development impact.

The Vietnam FSSP is supporting GAC to operationalize the FIAP and assists the development assistance program in Vietnam to achieve its priorities. One emerging sector of interest for Canada in Vietnam is the impact investment ecosystem and looking towards innovative new modalities for partnership and financing. To further this interest, the FSSP is seeking to recruit a local organization/intermediary (hereafter called PARTNER) to pilot an “Engagement with SIBs at the inspiration and early stages” initiative to, through a series of targeted interventions, learn more about the challenges and opportunities faced by the impact business ecosystem in Vietnam, strengthen the capacity of SIBs, and help inform Canada’s future interventions in this sector.

With the current unprecedented and turbulent context of Covid-19 which create several difficulties for business operations, the activities should also provide suggestions for impact businesses to turn challenges into opportunities by coming up with innovative responses to future-proof themselves against similar crises.

3.0 DESCRIPTION OF INITIATIVE

The objective of the “Engagement with SIBs at the inspiration and early stages” initiative is to better understand the state of social impact businesses in Vietnam at the aspiration and early stage through networking with the social impact communities and providing some support to selected impact entrepreneurs/ businesses from business idea to product launch.

The direct beneficiary is the Government of Canada, indirect beneficiaries include PARTNER, SIBs and other key stakeholders involved in the engagement process. The tentative time frame of the assignment is, from May 2021 to December 2021 with an estimated budget of up to CAD 50,000.

4.0 SPECIFIC TASKS & ACTIVITIES

The specific tasks will include:

• Organize and host a networking event (or Summit) to promote impact entrepreneurship to wider communities by providing foundation knowledge & showcasing successful cases.
• Organize meetups and forums for SIB founders to share stories, discuss common problems, and rally around a shared agenda so that they can support each other to grow their impact enterprises.
• Organize an incubation program to support start-ups with their product launches by connecting them with veteran experts to minimize risks.
• Organize an advanced acceleration program to continue to support early-stage impact start-ups by connecting them with experts so that they can accelerate their growth and scale their impact.
• Provide targeted assistance or resources for institutional support and training based on mutually agreed upon selection criteria to a limited number of pilot start-ups to be used for future learning and dissemination.

5.0 DELIVERABLES

• One (1) Networking event (or Summit) organized with up to 300 participants by end June, 2021.
• Up to Five (5) meetups and forums organized for aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from July 2021 to December 2021.
• One (1) An incubation program organized for up to 5 start-ups from July 2021 to December 2021.
• One (1) acceleration program organized for up to 5 start-ups from June 2021 to December 2021.
• Targeted assistance to a limited number of SIBs to be used as pilots for future learning and decision making.
• Reports:  A Report on the networking event or Summit by 31st July 2021; via email to FSSP Manager, and a Final Report on the deliverables and the overall initiative, including analysis on the challenges, issues, lessons learned, and recommendations from the engagement with SIBs to be submitted by 31 December, 2021 via email to FSSP Manager.

All these reports on the deliverables will be available in both English and Vietnamese languages.

6.0 QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in impact entrepreneurship community-building activities with strong networks of social entrepreneurs & industry experts in Vietnam.
• Experience in organizing social impact networking events such as the summit or others
• Experience working with and supporting ideation/ early-stage social impact entrepreneurs
• Expertise & experience in digital marketing, event organizing, experiential learning, design thinking
• Having a wide network with and be able to mobilise a number of impact communities. Demonstrated experience working in Vietnam with a diverse group of stakeholders ranging from government departments, donors, civil society organizations, private sector
• Experience in gender lens issues and analyses
• Strong networking, analytical, and facilitation skills
• Good English language skills

Date of Submission: Tuesday, May 4, 2021 at 18.00 (in Hanoi)

Candidates must submit their application by email to: [email protected]. Please quote “Engagement with Social Impact Businesses (SIBs) at the inspiration and inception stage in Vietnam” in the subject of the email. Applications must be submitted in English.