VIET NAM - Project to protect against flooding, saline intrusion and bank erosion in Vinh Long Province

CONSULTING SERVICES
Expressions of Interest

Agence Française de Développement (hereinafter “AFD”) has received a financing from European Union, and intends to use part of the funds thereof for payments under the following project WARM Facility.
The Services of the consultant shall consist of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) Preparation for the Vinh Long Project

The Services of the consultant ("the Services") shall consist of:
• Conducting comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) and preparing Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) for, ensuring compliance with Vietnamese environmental legislation and AFD’s Environmental and Social Risk Management Policy / World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). This includes integrating a previously completed Biodiversity and Ecological Assessment into a final Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP).
• Preparing Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs) including Livelihood Restoration Plans (LRPs), based on a georeferenced complementary census, detailed measurement surveys, asset inventories, and a replacement cost survey. Preliminary estimates indicate approximately 1,104 Project Affected Persons and approximately 320 households requiring physical relocation, with total land acquisition preliminarily estimated at approximately 374,205.7 m². These figures are indicative and shall be verified and updated during RAP/LRP preparation.
The Services shall result in disclosure-ready ESIA, ESMP, RAP and LRP documents, in English and Vietnamese, including associated databases, maps, consultation records, replacement cost survey, Biodiversity Management Plan, monitoring frameworks, and environmental and social requirements to be incorporated into future works bidding documents and contracts.
The total estimated duration of the assignment is 6 months from the start date.
The estimated budget for the assignment is EUR 200,000 excluding taxes. This amount corresponds to the maximum acceptable budget envelope for the Services and shall cover all fees, reimbursable costs, field missions, surveys, consultations, translations, production of deliverables in English and Vietnamese, and all other costs necessary for the proper completion of the assignment. Applicants are informed that the financial proposal to be submitted at the Request for Proposals stage shall remain within this maximum budget envelope.
This Request for Expressions of Interest is open to: Consulting firms; Joint Venture between NGO(s) and consulting firm(s)

Eligibility criteria to AFD financing are specified in sub-clause 1.3 of the "Procurement Guidelines for AFD Financed Contracts in Foreign Countries", available online on AFD’s website: http://www.afd.fr.
The Applicant shall submit only one application, either in its own name or as a member of a Joint Venture (JV). If an Applicant (including any of the JV members) submits or participates in more than one application, those applications shall be all rejected. However, the same Subconsultant may participate in several applications.
If the Applicant is a JV, the expression of interest shall include:
- a copy of the JV Agreement entered into by all members,
or
- a letter of intent to execute a JV Agreement, signed by all members together with a copy of the Agreement proposal,
In the absence of this document, the other members will be considered as Subconsultants.
Experiences and qualifications of Subconsultants are not taken into account in the evaluation of the applications.
Interested Applicants must provide information evidencing that they are qualified and experienced to perform those Services. For that purpose, documented evidence of recent and similar services shall be submitted. A maximum of twenty (20) references shall be submitted. The Applicant is invited to select the assignments that are the most relevant to the present consultancy rather than providing an exhaustive list of past projects.". Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on their respective relevance relative to the services to be performed, as described above.
In addition to the supporting documentation, Applicants shall provide a consolidated summary table presenting all references submitted (maximum twenty (20) assignments). The purpose of this table is to facilitate the assessment of the relevance of the Applicant's experience with regard to the present assignment.
For each reference, the following information shall be provided: Project title; Country; Client; Contract amount (EUR); Period Main services provided; Relevance to the present assignment; Key areas of expertise demonstrated


The column "Relevance to the present assignment" shall briefly explain why the reference is considered comparable, with particular regard to one or more of the following aspects, as applicable:
i. Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA);
ii. Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP);
iii. Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) and/or Livelihood Restoration Plan (LRP);
iv. hydraulic infrastructure, flood protection, riverbank protection, water resources management or climate adaptation projects;
v. biodiversity assessment and management;
vi. stakeholder engagement and public consultation;
vii. application of the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and/or other International Financial Institution safeguard standards;
viii. experience in Viet Nam or comparable regional contexts.
The column "Key areas of expertise demonstrated" shall identify the principal technical competencies illustrated by the reference (e.g. biodiversity, hydrology, resettlement, livelihood restoration, GIS, socio-economic surveys, environmental permitting, cumulative impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, replacement cost surveys, etc.).
Applicants are encouraged to indicate, where relevant, the specific role performed by the Applicant (lead consultant, consortium leader, consortium member or subconsultant), as well as the percentage of the services effectively carried out by the Applicant.

This information should be presented in the form of a dossier consisting of:
i. a letter of expression of interest indicating their desire to be pre-selected;
ii. a presentation brochure showing the turnover for the last three (3) fiscal years;
iii. their references in services of similar complexity and volume within the limit of 10 most relevant references and less than 10 years. The active telephone and/or e-mail contacts of the beneficiaries or donors must be specified for each experiment. The issue of a certificate of good standing is not necessary at this stage of the procedure;
iv. a list of the firm’s permanent staff who can be engaged for the services with a summary of their qualifications and experience;
v. the contact information of the head of the firm to whom to address the outcome of this call for expressions of interest;
vi. any other information to assess the firm’s capabilities;
vii. The duly dated and signed Statement of Integrity (attached to this document or available within the Contracting Directive at www.afd.fr).

The Consultant can send us the CVs of the experts to be mobilised, knowing that these CVs are not considered as a Consultant commitment, and will not be evaluated at this stage of the procurement procedure.
In particular, it is expected that Applicants present past experience for contracts whose characteristics are similar to one or more of the following criteria:
Determination of the similarity of the experiences will be based on:
 contract size and complexity;
 preparation of ESIAs, ESMPs, RAPs and LRPs in accordance with international financial institution standards;
 experience with World Bank ESF, in particular ESS1, ESS2, ESS3, ESS4, ESS5, ESS6, ESS8 and ESS10;
 experience in involuntary resettlement, livelihood restoration, replacement cost surveys, georeferenced census, detailed measurement surveys and asset inventories;
 experience in stakeholder engagement, public consultation, grievance mechanisms and gender-sensitive approaches; and
 experience in Viet Nam.
 experience in biodiversity assessment and biodiversity management planning for freshwater, riverine or aquatic ecosystems;
 experience in climate adaptation, flood protection, salinity control, hydraulic infrastructure, riverbank protection, dykes, sluice gates, dredging, water resources management or urban/rural infrastructure projects;

The Client will also take into account for the evaluation of the applications the following items:
- experience in the area of the study;
- adequate language skills: English and Vietnamese are required for the assignment. French will be appreciated.;
- Local representatives/partners;
- Experience with AFD or European Union or Asian Development Bank
Applications shall demonstrate the availability of expertise covering, at minimum, environmental and social impact assessment, environmental management planning, biodiversity and aquatic ecology, hydrology and water resources, occupational and community health and safety, involuntary resettlement, livelihood restoration, socio-economic surveys, replacement cost survey methodology, stakeholder engagement, gender and vulnerability, GIS and georeferenced data management.
At the next stage of the tender, the selection will be based on quality and cost. As such, the selection criteria for the future Request for Proposals will give an essential part to the quality of the methodological proposal and the organization and qualification of the team that will be proposed.
Among the submitted applications, AFD will shortlist a maximum of six (6) Applicants, to whom the Request for Proposals to carry out the Services shall be sent.
The Expressions of Interest must be submitted to the address below no later than 22nd July 2026 at 1:00 pm, Hanoï time

AFD HANOI OFFICE
Address: ________________________________________________ 28, Thanh Nien, Tay Ho, Ha Noi
Telephone: ________________________________________________________ +84 24 38 23 67 64
Attention: _______________________________________________________ AFD Country Director,
Email: ________________ [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]
Interested Applicants may obtain clarifications by writing to the email address below, no later than 5 working days before the deadline for receipt of Expressions of Interest.

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

AFD will respond to requests for clarification in writing, publishing the responses on the same media as the initial publication of the Request for Expressions of Interest, without identifying the entity which made the request for clarifications.