RFP_006_2026_Natl Firm cover GreenAgricultural FinanceProduct&Financial Training

Agency: UNDP | Reference: UNDP-LAO-00753 | Type: Request for proposal Name of Service: RFP_006_2026_National consultancy firm to support technical assistance for financial institutions strengthening green financial product development, financial literacy enhancement and capacity building.Project:Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management (FARM) in Lao PDR.Duty Station:Vientiane Capital and four target provinces (Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Bokeo, Xieng Khouang).Duration of Assignment: 11 months.Scope of Work:The selected firm will be responsible for the following tasks:Task 1:  Inception, review of completed work and completion of the financial literacy diagnosticReview the financing landscape assessment (financial institutions, national public funds and other financing sources), the project baseline assessments and the financial literacy diagnostic instrument, protocol and any data already collected. Confirm the current context, identify only material gaps or changes in the inception report.Complete the diagnostic in target sites not yet covered (Xieng Khuang,Luang Namtha and Bokeo provinces, using the established instrument and protocol without modification to ensure data comparability across all project sites. Sites with existing data shall not be re-surveyed.Produce a diagnostic report and consolidated dashboard covering all project target areas, combining existing and newly collected data.Conduct stakeholder mapping and consultations with financial institutions (commercial banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs), Village Development Funds (VDFs), public banks including Rural Development Bank and Agriculture Promotion Bank), insurers, government institutions (DOA, the Department of Agricultural Extension and Cooperatives (DAEC), the Bank of the Lao PDR (BoL), the Ministry of Finance (MoF), MAE), private sector actors and farmer organizations.Task 2:  Demand led design of financing arrangements, green finance products and FI operational toolkitFarmer capital-demand assessment: Consult farm households, farmer groups and cooperatives in the target provinces to establish their demand for capital: the purposes for which finance is needed during and after the transition to safer practices (including the indicative eligible uses); the size of capital needed per household and per group; its timing relative to the crop calendar; the tenor and repayment capacity that farm cash flows can support; the sources farmers currently rely on (own savings, relatives, informal lenders, trader advances, Village Development  Funds, input supplier credit) and their cost; and constraints such as the absence of records, collateral or formal registration. Findings shall be disaggregated by sex, ethnicity, value chain and farmer segment and presented as a demand profile by use case.·Demand-informed consultations with FIs, input vendors and off-takers: Using the demand profile  and the completed financing landscape assessment to select counterparts, consult Financial Institutions (public banks, commercial banks, MFIs/DTMFIs, VDFs/SCUs), vendors and distributors of safer inputs (biopesticides, Integrated Pest Management  compatible inputs, organic fertilizers) and off-takers, traders and processors on arrangements that could meet that demand. The consultations shall test each counterpart’s appetite and capacity to extend credit or advances, the terms it could offer and the risk-sharing it would require. As part of this step, assess supply-side readiness for the inputs to be financed in the target provinces and either (a) include a sub-component on financing alternative input distributors (SME credit, working capital for input cooperatives, supplier run demonstration plots) or (b) document the dependency of this consultancy on the parallel FARM activities strengthening that supply chain, so that demand-side finance does not outpace input supply.·Contractual modality: On the basis of  farmer demand assessment and results of consultations, before any product is designed, identify, assess the most realistic contractual modality for each priority use case and farmer segment. Options shall include, among others: (i) advance-payment or contract-farming agreements between off-takers and farmer groups, with advances recovered at delivery, which given the informal nature of many target farmers may be more realistic than FI credit; (ii) input-supplier credit or in-kind input advances; (iii) tri-party arrangements in which an FI lends against an off-take contract or finances the off-taker or supplier, who in turn extends credit to farmers; and (iv) direct FI lending to individuals or groups, including group lending and VDF on-lending. For each option the firm shall assess legal enforceability, side-selling and default risk, cost to farmers, fit with farmers’ degree of formality, and the role of the de-risking instruments  and summarize the result in a modality options note .·Financial product design: Develop innovative green finance products tailored to the capacity and systems of participating FIs that incentiv CONTACT: • Email: lao.procurement@undp.org