Post title

National Consultant in Corporate Social Responsibility

Duration

3.0 w/m

Date required

01 September 2005

Duty station

Hanoi, Vietnam

Counterpart

The counterpart of the new VNCPC project is INEST, Hanoi University of Technology. However, for the specific purpose of this assignment, the CSR consultant will work in close cooperation with the Vietnam Business Links Initiative (Mr Vinh, Ms Giang) at VCCI, the GTZ SME Promotion programme (Mr Finkel, Ms Quynh), the ILO-VCCI project “Worker-Management Factory Improvement Programme” (Mr Keller, Ms Tu Anh), the Danida SEAQUIP project (Mr Andersson, Ms Huyen), the UNIDO VNCPC project (Dr Nga, Ms Anh) and the UNIDO Office in Vietnam (Mr Scholtès).

Duties

The consultant will be expected to:

Main Duties

Expected

Duration

Expected

Results

1.      Compilation of existing case-studies documenting the business case of CSR in Vietnamese enterprises, in its social and environmental dimensions.

Visit the five projects or institutions mentioned in the counterpart above (that is, VBLI, GTZ, WMFIP, Danida, VNCPC and UNIDO) to collect all relevant case-studies demonstrating how greater concern for environmental and social aspects of production has generated tangible benefits for the enterprise (lower energy consumption, higher commitment of workers etc).

Visiting five companies who have been certified by a social standard (SA8000, WRAP or ISO 14001) or applied different codes of conducts or guidelines to collect facts and figures relating to the tangible benefits for enterprises and workers.  

2 weeks

A set of case-studies on concrete examples of CSR in Vietnamese enterprises, following a standard format (both in English and Vietnamese)

2.      Design of a template to report such case-studies in a systematic format

Prepare a reporting template that would make full use of the information available in the case-studies, and articulate the business case for CSR; Submit the template to the five parties mentioned in Activity 1; Finalize the template according to the comments received.

2 days  

3.      Edition of the case-studies in the format defined in activity 2

Convert the case-studies collected in Activity 1, along the standard format defined in Activity 2.

2 weeks

4.      Compilation of guidelines on self-audit by enterprises of the social and environmental incidence of their production process

The GTZ-SME, WMFIP, and VNCPC projects have developed their own guidelines to facilitate the work of experts when preparing factory-level audits of social and environmental aspects of production. The CSR consultant will collect existing guidelines from the three projects.

2 weeks

Detailed guidelines for CSR self-audit by enterprises (both in English and Vietnamese)

5.      Preparation of consolidated guidelines covering both social and environmental aspects of production

Consolidate the existing guidelines currently fragmented over partial aspects of CSR into a comprehensive set of instructions intended to facilitate the process of CSR self-auditing in enterprise

2 weeks

Qualification

The consultant can be an individual or a consultancy company.

If being an individual, the following qualifications are needed:

-          Advanced degree in economics/business management with professional knowledge of the enterprise sector in Vietnam.

-          Having profound experience in CSR related topics, either in auditing or training

-          Well writing English skill is a must.

If being a consultancy company, the main business focus should be on quality, social and environmental management. 

Familiarity with the VBLI work on OHS in the footwear industry, the GTZ SME project and its work on CSR, the ILO WMFIP project covering social aspects, and the UNIDO VNCPC project on environmental aspects of production will be an important asset for the assignment

Background of the assignment

VBLI and the GTZ-SME project launched in September 2004 a series of CSR Round Tables, bringing together most of the Vietnamese and foreign parties interested in promoting CSR practices in local enterprises.

At  the third CSR Round Table held on May 06, 2005, the participants agreed to share their respective case-studies of successful CSR practices in enterprise, for the purpose of building a comprehensive database to:

·          Articulate the business case for CSR practices in Vietnamese enterprises on the basis of existing evidence so far;

·          Guide enterprises and experts in conducting CSR audits at enterprise level, by pooling together existing guidelines developed until now for partial aspects of CSR, and consolidating those into a unique set of detailed guidelines.

UNIDO offered to support the initiative by recruiting a national consultant under the budget of the VNCPC project, which has an increasing emphasis on CSR issues and works already closely to that end with the ILO-WMFIP project.

General description of resources are available at VBLI, GTZ, WMFIP, VNCPC and UNIDO:

1. VBLI was established in 2000 under a project with the Prince of Wales’ International Business Leaders Forum. It has worked extensively in the footwear industry where it had demonstrated the business case for the voluntary adoption by firms of OHS measures. It has also documented this process in detailed guidelines now officially adopted by the Ministry of industry.

2. Profitable Environmental Management (PREMA) and Profitable Social Management (PSM) are two training modules for SME which was designed and transferred to Vietnam by GTZ. As it is reflected in their names, the modules help SME to increase profit by managing environmental and social issues internally through reducing Non Output Products. Each module has its own checklist to guide enterprise leaders observing and analyzing production processes. Since their first introduction in Vietnam three years ago for PREMA and 6 months ago for PSM, many case studies on PREMA and PSM application have been documented, in which benefits generated have been quantified in concrete figures.     

3. WMFIP is an ILO/VCCI executed project launched in mid-2004. It focuses in a first phase on 12 enterprises, to which it offers several modules of training covering various aspects of labour management, productivity etc. The classroom training is followed by on site interventions to directly implement some of the lessons of the training programme. Teams of ILO/VCCI and UNIDO/VNCPC experts work together to cover both social and environmental aspects of production.

4. The Danida SEAQIP project “support to the seafood processing industry” has been very active since 2000 in this industry. It has delivered a range of training on CP, ISO 14000, OHS practices etc and holds a rich database of over a thousand CP options proposed, and their actual implementation and benefits.

5. VNCPC has been promoting since 1998 the business case for cleaner production, whereby firms are encouraged to adopt cleaner production practices not only out of consideration for the environmental incidence of their production processes, but quite simply because it saves energy, water and other resources, hence improving their bottom line. The business case is now substantiated by a growing database of concrete case-studies, collected through over a hundred factory visits to identify and document the costs and benefits of CP options. However, it must be noted that the reference used by CP experts is a well-tested checklist rather than audit guidelines properly speaking, in the sense that the purpose is not to verify compliance with pre-defined standards, but to ensure a systematic coverage of possible CP options.

6. UNIDO is the executing agency of the VNCPC project, as is therefore engaged in promoting spontaneous compliance by enterprises with environmentally sound production practices. However, it has also developed with VBLI a new technical assistance concept to foster corporate social responsibility behaviour in enterprises encompassing therefore labour and broader social aspects of production.