CAFE REDD - CALL FOR EOI - CREDIT SCORING OF SMALLHOLDER FARMER IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT

<h3>Company Description</h3><p><strong>About SNV Netherlands Development Organization</strong></p><p>SNV is an international not-for-profit development organisation, working in more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. SNV is a mission-driven global development partner, rooted in the contexts and societies where we work. And that mission is to strengthen capacities and catalyse partnerships that transform the agri-food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all. Our global team of advisors use their specialist expertise to facilitate sustainable change in the livelihoods of millions of people living in poverty.</p><p><strong>About Café-REDD+</strong></p><p>SNV has obtained funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) for a project entitled ‘Coffee Agroforestry and Forest Enhancement for REDD+ in Lam Dong’ (CAFÉ-REDD), from 2018-2024. The project aims to establish and develop a public-private-producer partnership (4P) for forest landscape conservation and restoration in one of Lam Dong’s most important forested landscapes - the Lang Biang Biosphere Reserve comprised of Bi Doup Nui Ba National Park and surrounding agricultural land in Lac Duong District.</p><p>Activities of the project include; i) strengthening public sector capacity for climate smart/sustainable land use planning and collaborative management of forests with communities, ii) working with coffee-buying companies to improve monitoring and traceability systems to prevent deforestation in supply chains; and iii) investing in (mainly ethnic minority) smallholder farmers to promote climate smart, sustainable coffee production techniques leading to improved coffee quality and prices, whilst also promoting landscape restoration through mixed agroforestry systems and alternative livelihoods.</p><p>Since its inception in 2018, the project has supported over 3,355 farmers in the district through the provision of more than half of million coffee and tree seedlings, training of the farmers in better practices, formation of farmer groups, and building connections between these farmers and coffee companies in inclusive value chain models. These activities allow farmers to rejuvenate coffee farms and introduce multi-purpose tree species (macadamia and persimmon) and improve the quality of their coffee and their marketing power. This results in diversifying their incomes an creating economic and climatic resilience.</p><p>Longer term sustainability and upscaling of the project’s activities is threatened by farmers’ lack of capital and/or access to credit to invest in seedlings and improved production methods. In 2021 the project commissioned a study into the risks and opportunities associated with improving financial access for farmers. This study found that there is a large ‘market failure’ in the provision of finance in Lac Duong and similar rural populations nationwide, with a large unmet demand for credit products by several groups of stakeholders, especially base-of pyramid customers, poorer farmers and smaller or newer enterprises. However, many of the solutions, including access to finance through farmer groups, were already being put in place by the Café-REDD+ project.</p><p><strong>About the partner banks</strong></p><p>Building on the recommendations of this report, in 2023 the project began strategically coordinating with banks that are operating in the district and who are motivated to grow the lending that they can offer to groups such as those that have been the beneficiaries from Café-REDD+. In March 2023 the project team held consultations with Agribank (Lac Duong branch), VSPB (Lac Duong branch) and Lien Viet Post Bank (Lam Dong branch) to discuss potential collaboration modalities.</p><p>It was agreed with both Agribank and LVPB to sign MOUs for further collaboration. Both banks are interested to work with SNV to lend through the many farmer groups we have established. In LVPB’s case, to expand the lending model they have developed with Him Lam Maca to the macadamia farmer groups that the project has established, and Agribank’s case, to work with farmer groups in communes of the district where their footprint is smallest, such as Dung K’no commune. SNV discussed several activities that we could support the banks with, and they were both interested in support to engage with and on-board these farmers.</p><p><strong>Objectives</strong></p><p>Café-REDD is looking for consultants to support our partner banks to ‘on-board’ new clients at scale, cost effectively. This will be done by conducting Know Your Customer (KYC)/’credit scoring’ checks on farmers that the project has worked with on behalf of the banks. The project requires the qualified consultants to oversee and lead this process by developing the credit scoring questionnaire, method, and process in cooperation with the partner banks; developing tools or survey software to collect the data; training and testing the collecti