TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)

FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF LOCAL CONSULTANTS

I.    Background

In recent years, Vietnam increasingly integrate into the global economy and is playing a significant role in global supply chains. As you may know, 16 free trade agreements were signed with major partners around the world and took effect. Currently, 3 other FTAs (ASEAN-Canada, VN-EFTA, VN-UAE) are in negotiation. In the fact that all these signed FTAs helped to bring great opportunities, open-up new markets for Vietnamese businesses to expand export of goods, and services. However, besides the opportunities, Vietnamese businesses face with high standards of technical requirements, food hygiene and safety. On the other hand, companies are also asked being closer to international standards, regulations on sustainable development such as environment, social and governance, which require a careful preparation of business plans and development of their products and brands methodically because almost major partners and investors are from the countries which pay attention to such issues. According to the survey of PwC conducted in 2021 with 325 global investors, it’s shown that nearly 80% of respondents said ESG has high impact on investment decision and capital strategies. Nearly 50% of respondents are willing to withdraw capital if companies do not take prompt action to respond to ESG issues, of which transparency and integrity are under high pressure.

The national economic development is dramatically positive with GDP growth in 2022 reaching over 8 percent. Foreign investors are optimistic about doing business in Vietnam. The Government has been pushing ahead with institutional reforms to increase innovation and competitiveness in the private sector to maintain the current growth and higher. Even though private sector in Vietnam has been considered a key contributor in socio - economic development but in fact they are still dealing with many challenges. According to the project survey with over 1000 benefited participants, the result showed that over 20 percent of those respondents said they were suggested to pay facilitation payments very frequently or frequently; over three-quarters felt corruption was a serious problem and it remains unresolved and became a barrier for the innovation process, undermine business growth and the stability and development of the whole society. And now it is the right time to come up with a more concerted efforts to make change happen.

Vietnam has been stepping up its commitment and efforts to fight corruption. In addition to cracking down on major cases, the Party and State have gradually improved the legal framework on anti-corruption. Vietnam passed a revised Anti-Corruption Law in November 2018, which has been expanded its scope to include the private sector. Additionally, in order to deal with the situation of "petty corruption", on September 24, 2019, the Prime Minister issued Directive 10/CT-TTg on strengthening anti-corruption and preventing harassment and causing trouble for citizens and enterprises in doing business. the Government had ratified a revised Law on anti-corruption in 2018, expanded its scope to include the private sector and is going to introduce a new national anti-corruption strategic plan by 2030, which will help to improve transparency of the business investment environment, facilitation of local administrative procedures toward a sound business environment in Vietnam.

The national action plan (NAP) on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved by the Prime Minister on 10th May 2017 states that actions should be taken to leave no one behind. The private sector has particular strengths to bring to bear in delivering on the SDGs, including innovation, responsiveness, efficiency and provision of specific skills and resources. Recently, the national action plan on law and policy improvement was ratified by the Government dated 14th July 2023 at the Decision No 843/QD-TTg and it’s said that it is essential to contribute to create a favorable business environment to implement responsible business practices and the achievement of SDGs in Viet Nam. Private sectors and businesses also hold important responsibilities. VCCI has been given the mission to further promote responsible business practices among business in Vietnam.

The Office for Business Sustainable Development (SDforB) is an independent departmental level operating as per dependent account regime under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has been implementing the Project titled: Vietnam Business Integrity Network – VBIN, a component of UNDP’s regional project “Promoting a fair business environment in ASEAN” to promote business integrity in Vietnam. SDforB in collaboration with UNDP Vietnam has just developed “The Vietnam Business Integrity Index -VBII” - a simple and easy tool to use to assess how companies perform in terms of business integrity, transparency, and information disclosure. It is referenced to Vietnam regulations, global standards and international best practices that is applicable to the Vietnam context.

SDforB would like to invite any interested consulting firms operating in Vietnam and/or a group of national freelance experts to submit proposal to implement the following assignment to deliver 4 two-day training sessions for Vietnamese businesses, including suppliers of UK companies operating in Vietnam in 4 cities/provinces such as Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang and Can Tho.

II. Training objective

• To improve knowledge and capacity of Vietnamese businesses, including suppliers of UK companies in anti-corruption, including compliance control, risk management, due diligence, ESG
• To increase the number of businesses participated in the VBIN led by VCCI
• To increase the number of businesses used the VBII to measure their level of business integrity

III.  Scope of work and tasks

Local consultants are required to collaborate with international consultant hired by SDforB to develop training materials and to take key responsibility for delivering 4 training session on internal control, risk management, due diligence and ESG framework for Vietnamese businesses, including suppliers of UK companies operating in Vietnam.

Remarks: It’s noted that each training take place intensively in 2 days with different topics, therefore, the training requires a consulting firm and/or national freelance consultants, which can form a team of consultants to deliver trainings to ensure the quality (at least minimum 2 consultants as a team).

The assignment will cover the following:

• In collaboration with SDforB-VCCI to develop a full detailed concept note of a required training program, and training plan, with the thorough integration of UNDP inputs and comments.
• In collaboration with the international consultant, develop training materials and training slides with case studies to train Vietnamese businesses on anti-corruption, including compliance control, risk management, due diligence and ESG to submit to UNDP and VCCI before trainings delivered
• Design and develop pre-test and post-test to measure gained understanding, awareness of attended participants before and after training and then to analyze how the knowledge and skills are improved. The pre-test and post-test might be filled out by attended participants at each training session and/or it depends on any appropriate approach proposed by recruited trainers.
• Prepare all necessary documents, tools, quiz, references, and resources for the trainings to ensure that the training session will be interactive and practical, with plenty of opportunities to exchange opinions and best practices with other companies, in an open and friendly atmosphere.
• Support engaging enterprises in the network to attend the trainings.
• Deliver four required massive and intensive training sessions. Trainers are requested proactively facilitate the training with an aim of keeping interaction and motivating participants to share their opinions and initially consult what attended participants can do to scale up those issues at the company level after training. Trainers will take key responsibilities for arranging relevant logistics for the trips such as accommodation, flights, taxi transportation in accordance with the approved budget of the project.
• Final training material, training slides and/or any relevant training documents and final training reports prepared by trainers in English will be asked to submit once trainings ended. All those requested supporting documents are considered as a means of verification to process the financial payments.

IV.   Qualifications

• Holds PhD’s degree and/or master’s degree of law, business administration, economics, business finance and/ or relevant areas with a minimum of over 12 years of relevant professional experience.
• Having in depth knowledge and expertise on anti-corruption, compliance control, risk management, due diligence and ESG
• Proven experience in providing consulting services to businesses, research, training, and development of training materials, etc. Analytical skills, experience in conducting surveys, doing research, and report writing
• Has provided similar consulting services to SDforB/VCCI and/or UN agencies, or international agencies as an asset 
• Fluency and proven oral and written skills in Vietnamese and English.
• Good understanding about Vietnam business context, business integrity, CSR and 17 SDGs

Final products:

• Training materials, training slides with case studies, and a set of pre-test and post-test
• 4 training courses completely delivered
• An incorporated training report of 4 training sessions with photo/short video illustration to SDforB, UNDP within around 3 working days after trainings

V.  Criteria for selecting the best

Upon the advertisement, qualified consulting firms and/or group of national freelance experts are expected to submit both the technical and financial proposals.

No	Criteria	Score
1	Good understanding of TOR	5
2	Holds PhD’s degree and/or master’s degree of law, business administration, economics, business finance and/ or relevant areas with a minimum of over 12 years of relevant professional experience.	5
3	Having in depth knowledge and expertise on anti-corruption, compliance control, risk management, due diligence and ESG	35
4	Proven experience in providing consulting services to businesses, research, training, and development of training materials, etc. Analytical skills, experience in conducting surveys, doing research, and report writing	15
5	Has provided similar consulting services to SDforB/VCCI and/or UN agencies, or international agencies as an asset	15
6	Fluency and proven oral and written skills in Vietnamese and English.	15
	Good understanding about Vietnam business context, business integrity, CSR and 17 SDGs	10
	Total	100

Note:

• A good proposal will include i) a letter to join the call for proposal, a full technical proposal with budget plan and CVs of expert team.
• The respective weight of the proposals are:

1. Technical Criteria weight is 70%
2. Financial Criteria weight is 30%

The best technical proposal with best competitive price will be selected to sign a service contract.

VI.   Deadline to submit required proposal

The proposal is encouraged to submit as soon as possible but not later than 20^th February 2024 via email: [email protected]. Any proposals submitted after required deadline will be rejected.

The proposal can be made in Vietnamese and/or English (select one of the languages that you really prefer).

Organization: VCCI
Location:
Application deadline: 2024-02-20
Send application to: [email protected]