Poverty Forestry Statistician

STATISTICAL ANALYSES ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CROSS-CUTTING OBJECTIVES (CCOs) DATA RELATED TO FORESTRY

1. Background

With the support of the Development of Management Information System for the Forestry Sector in Vietnam Project (FORMIS I, 2009-2012), the Forestry Administration of Vietnam (VNFOREST) has built a platform for the needs in expanding the integration demand of information system. Some applications such as Vietnam Forestry Information Portal, FPD quick reporting system and E-office have been effectively operating through this platform.

Currently, Project FORMIS II (Development of Management Information System for the Forestry Sector in Vietnam, Phase II) is supporting VNFOREST to develop an information system, which will allow different forestry agencies and stakeholders to access and share forestry related information and data, meanwhile, the FORMIS system will provide a modern information and communication technology platform (ICT) for agencies in forestry sector to integrate their own data and applications into FORMIS system, creating an effective data management mechanism for the decision making by different management levels.

Project FORMIS II will focus on achieving the following results:  

1.    Procedures, standards and mechanisms to transfer information among Vietnamese agencies.
2.    FORMIS platform and tools are operational with a focus on forest covered provinces. 
3.    Forest sector data standardized and converted into FORMIS database and reporting forest performance indicators in place.
4.    Strengthened capacity for information management and collection.
5.    Information Centre of the Forestry sector/Forest IT Unit is established and operational.

The consultancy covers following areas:

• Statistical analysis of impacts of the National 5 Million Ha Reforestation Programme (5MHRP) for the period 1998-2010 on poverty and gender
• Statistical analysis of a trend in forestry and poverty related indicators for the period 2011-2020 based upon the implementation of the Forest Protection and Development Plan (FPDP) for the period 2011-2020

• Statistical analysis on socio-economic and forestry related data covering at least the following but not restricted to these:
  
  • Poverty data at different levels (province, district, commune)
  • Ethnic minority data at different levels
  • Gender related data at different levels
  • Forestry data at different levels (forest coverage, forest area by production, protection and special use forest, gross output of forestry, forest income, forest ownership, job creation from forestry,
  • Data related to Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES)

• Concerning the above mentioned data, a part of the data exists already. However, more data collection is needed in certain parts.

The 5MHRP was approved by the Vietnamese National Assembly during its Second Session. The objectives of the 5MHRP were to have 5 million hectares of forests reforested and 9.3 million hectares of forests protected; an increase in forest coverage from 28% to 43%. The 5MHRP ended in 2010.

All the statistical analyses will provide information for the MARD and VNFOREST decision-makers on the objectives and ways to target activities, investments, projects and human resources.

2. Objectives of the consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is to conduct statistical analyses in order to identify and find linkages between poverty, gender and ethnic minorities versus forest cover, forest area, forest plantation area, investments in forest sector as well as other forestry data. The consultancy may require field visits to provinces, districts, communes and villages.

3. Working methodologies

The consultant will work in collaboration with the PMU of Project FORMIS II and VNFOREST during conducting this consultancy. The information and data to be collected and analyzed during the consultancy will be based on the reports, statistics and documents of different organisations, programmes and projects as well as the results from the interviews with the managers, researchers, and officers through different periods at different levels from central level to commune level. The main data sources for historical poverty, gender and ethnic minority data are General Statistics Office (GSO), Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), and Center for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) as well as their corresponding departments at provincial, district and commune levels.

The statistical analyses will be conducted with a help of statistical software, e.g. SPSS.

4. The outputs of the consultancy

The key output to be generated by the consultant will be the statistical analysis reports with following details:

• Report on statistical analysis of impacts of the National 5 Million Ha Reforestation Programme (5MHRP) for the period 1998-2010 on poverty and gender
• Report on Statistical analysis of a trend in forestry and poverty related indicators for the period 2011-2020 based upon the implementation of the Forest Protection and Development Plan (FPDP) for the period 2011-2020
• Report on statistical analysis on socio-economic and forestry related data

All the outputs will be approved by VNFOREST.

5. Tasks assigned to the consultant

In order to achieve the above objectives, the following tasks will be conducted:

a. Review of the 5MHRP and the FPDP data as well as forestry, poverty, gender and ethnic minority data that is already available at FORMIS II and has been collected by FORMIS II experts
b. Recommend the appropriate sample frame for the analytic strata, the characteristics of the sample, the method for the sample (random, stratified, systematic, etc.) and the system for the selection of the sampling units.
c. Conduct deep statistical analyses on all relevant data and create reports.

6. Responsibilities and competency of the consultant 

The national consultant should have:

• Graduate degree in Statistics, Economics, Mathematics or any related field
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in sample design and strategy for large scale surveys across various topics of interest. Preference will be given to those that have worked on forestry surveys.
• Excellent communication skills in Vietnamese and English (verbal and written)
• Strong inter-personal skills

7. Reporting requirements

The report will be prepared in English and Vietnamese. The report will be submitted to Project Director and Chief Technical Advisor within two weeks since the end of the assignment.

8. Work plan and time schedule

The detailed work plan will be prepared by the consultant before the commencement of this consultancy. The total time for this consultancy will be 35 working days for one national consultant. The consultant will implement this consultancy from August to September, 2016.

9. Budget planned for the consultancy

This will be agreed upon later.

10. Mandate

The consultant shall work under the supervision of the Project Director and Chief Technical Advisor of FORMIS II. They shall not have any mandate to make commitments on the behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland or the Vietnamese beneficiaries.

10. Application

Applications including a CV and related supporting documents (e.g. degrees/certificates) should be addressed to [email protected], with the email subject of “Application for STC on Statistical Analysis”.

Deadline for applications is 5pm (Hanoi local time), Monday, 15 August 2016.