Communication consultant(s)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

I. General information

II.  Project Description

1. Introduction to VATJ

The Vietnam Alliance of Tax Justice (VATJ), established in 2018, is a collection of organizations and experts sharing a vision for a sustainable Vietnam through tax policies that ensure justice. Over the years, VATJ has organized research and advocacy activities to promote tax system reform in Vietnam.

2. Background

Smoking is not an uncommon behavior in Vietnam, and for many people it has become a hard habit to break. Tobacco consumption is served by products as diverse as cigarettes, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and, more recently, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco.

Vietnam's tobacco market ranks 32^nd in the world in terms of market size. The tobacco industry is therefore an important economic subsector in Vietnam. Tobacco production in Vietnam is strictly controlled by the Government. All or most of the charter capital of tobacco companies is held by the Government, even in joint ventures with foreign countries.

Tobacco tax is one of the tobacco control measures in the MPOWER package of measures launched by WHO. This is considered a powerful tool, even the most effective, in reducing the number of smokers in the world. In Vietnam, tobacco is a commodity that is discouraged from consumption, so tobacco products can be subject to up to three types of taxes: import tax, excise tax and value added tax. However, the tax rate on tobacco products in Vietnam is currently relatively low compared to other countries in the region and the world. Therefore, increasing tobacco tax is necessary and supported by the government sector (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, etc.), academia and the public.

However, in order to maintain the industry's demand, the tobacco industry has been making efforts to implement strategies to intervene and delay the tobacco tax increase. According to the argument of the tobacco industry in Vietnam, the increase in the excise tax rate brings many harms at the macro level to the economy as well as at the micro level for tobacco consumers. The tobacco industry often uses three main arguments for delaying tobacco tax increases. First, increasing tobacco tax leads to smuggling. Second, the increase in tobacco tax leads to the loss of jobs for workers in the industry. Third, increasing tobacco tax leads to an increase in the financial burden of consumers, especially low-income people. For the third argument, the rationale used is that a regressive tobacco tax would increase the tax-to-income ratio and thus fail to maintain tax justice. Tax justice here is understood as the fact that tax policies aim to create equality in tax burden among different socio-economic groups.

However, with regard to tobacco tax, it should be clearly established that tobacco consumption affects not only the economic benefits of consumers but also other welfare dimensions such as health, education, property, etc., so the justice of the tobacco tax needs to be considered from many perspectives, not just a financial one.

Using a multidimensional welfare approach, the Vietnam Centre for Economic and Strategic Studies (VESS) of VATJ conducted a study “Impact of tobacco taxes on multidimensional household welfare: By Vietnam’s evidence” with the aim of providing relevant scientific evidence for legislators to consider and use as a basis for policy making on tobacco tax in Vietnam. Contrary to the tobacco industry's view that increasing tobacco tax increases inequality by increasing the tax burden for low-income people, the results of this study show that in general, an increase in tobacco spending reduces the multidimensional well-being of households in Vietnam, especially those in the lowest income groups. Therefore, reducing tobacco spending through increasing tobacco tax with a sufficiently high tax rate will benefit consumers, in which the poor - who suffer the most in terms of multidimensional welfare due to tobacco consumption - will benefit more than high-income people when their tobacco spending is reduced.

The economic benefits brought by the tobacco industry (tens of trillions of Vietnam dong a year) should be weighed against the long-term and sustainable human development in the true sense of multi-dimensional benefits: healthy and happy people. Therefore, VATJ focuses on promoting tobacco tax reform based on multi-dimensional justice.

The media plays an important role in influencing government agencies at all levels, as well as raising public awareness and action in this process. Therefore, VATJ sought a communication consultant/group of consultants/service firm to carry out  a communication campaign on the tobacco industry and tobacco tax policies in the period from August 2023 to December 2023.

III. Description of Activity

1. Objectives:

• Raising awareness among policymakers and the media about the need for tobacco tax reform based on multi-dimensional justice;
• Raising public awareness about the tobacco industry and tobacco tax policies, thereby building a community that accepts and supports VATJ's activities and recommendations in the long term;
• Raising awareness among tobacco consumers, especially those with low incomes, about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption on multidimensional welfare – an indicator of human health and well-being – thereby encouraging them to reduce their tobacco consumption;
• Strengthening a network of organizations and experts that promote tobacco tax reform for the sake of health equity.

2. Target audience:

• Having a certain interest in social issues, especially the tobacco industry and related issues;
• Having used/using tobacco or being directly/indirectly affected by tobacco use;
• Having a basic knowledge of tax and policy.

3. Forms of Communication Campaigns:

• Using a variety of communication forms, taking advantage of traditional and modern communication channels to create multiple impressive and easy-to-understand communication products to reach the target audience effectively and widely, and to stimulate the active participation of young people in sharing and spreading the campaign's message.

4. Consultant’s Duties and Expected results:

* The selected consultant/group of consultants/service firm/organization will receive additional professional training with the VATJ's research team, participate in related research activities and actively conduct their own research on project topics to develop content for media products. The results of VATJ's studies will also be used as input for media products.

IV. Contract and payment

• Consultant contract (for consultant/group of consultants) or service contract (for service firm/organization) will be signed with the selected consultant/group of consultants/service firm/organization.
• Payment will be made in installments and depend on the fulfillment of output products in each period, specifically as follows:

V.  Selection criteria

VI. Application procedure

Consultant/group of consultants/service firm/organization who is interested in this position can send an application (English or Vietnamese) including:

1. Competency profile stating the technical capacity, understanding and experience in implementing related projects, communication activities and products of the consultant/group of consultants/service firm/organization and (or) implementing personnel;
2. Preliminary technical proposal (may include contents like overview ideas, messages, expected products and contents, timeframes for implementation, etc.)
3. Reference production costs of previous communication products/projects

Submissions should be sent by email to: [email protected] no later than 23.59 hrs., August 29, 2023 (Hanoi time).

Subject line:                TBC/TOR/230815 - [Name of consultant/group of consultants/ service firm/organization]

We will respond when we receive the application and will notify the results within 05 working days from the submission deadline.

The consultant/group of consultants/company firm/organization selected through the application round will be invited to attend a meeting to discuss details of research results and communication activities with representatives of VATJ.

After that, the consultant/group of consultants/company firm/organization will have time to develop: (1) Detailed technical proposal; and (2) Detailed financial proposal, from which VATJ will select the most suitable consultant/group of consultants/company firm/organization according to the selection criteria in section V.

Contact Information:[email protected]