[governance-vn] UNDP Jobs: International Development Economist for a Study of Food Price Policy in Viet Nam

[Vern Weitzel]

International Development Economist for a Study of Food Price Policy in Viet Nam
Publish Date: 20-Feb-2008

The consultant is expected to do research and provide support to the drafting 
team for one UNDP Policy Dialogue Paper tentatively entitled, “Rising Rice 
Prices: Who Benefits?” The paper will be made publicly available through the 
normal distribution channels, and distributed to national and international 
agencies. UNDP also actively encourages the researchers to publish the paper in 
other outlets, including scholarly journals and institutional websites as long 
as the support of DFID and UNDP are explicitly acknowledged in these publications.

Attached are the Terms of Reference

Interested International qualified experts are invited to send a letter of 
interest and Curriculum Vitae to the address below.

Contact

Ms. Nguyen Minh Ha
Human Resources Unit
UNDP Viet Nam

Phone: (84-4) 942 1495
Fax: (84-4) 942 2267
Email: registry.vn at undp.org
Deadline for submissions: Tuesday 04:00 PM | 04-Mar-2008


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UNDP, 25-29 Phan Boi Chau, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
  E-mail: jonathan.pincus at undp.org


Terms of Reference for an International Development Economist
for a Study of Food Price Policy in Viet Nam

1. Project background
UNDP and the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID)
have entered into a Strategic Partnership Initiative (SPI) to streamline 
existing arrangements
between the two agencies and to capitalize on the respective comparative 
advantage of each
agency. As part of this partnership initiative, DFID has provided funds to UNDP 
to support
policy research and other new initiatives. One of the areas of policy research 
identified is the
relationship between globalization and poverty in Viet Nam, as well as the 
relationship
between globalization and inequality.

Viet Nam has enjoyed an extended period of food price stability largely stemming 
from the
decline in global grain prices following the 1998 El Nino. For nearly a decade, 
Vietnamese
consumers faced a benign international environment, which rice producers 
benefited from the
liberalization of the trade regime. The gradual liberalization culminated in the 
removal of rice
export quotas in May 2001. This was accompanied by the removal fertilizer import 
quotas so
that international prices for inputs and outputs would align with international 
trends.

International rice prices rose to near El Nino levels in 2005 and continued to 
rice in 2006 and
2007. The price rise is partly attributable to increases in energy (and 
therefore fertilizer)
prices, but also to competition for land across the Asian region between rice 
farms and other
uses, primarily residential and industrial. Most observers therefore expect rice 
prices to hold
onto their recent gains.

Higher rice prices hurt Vietnamese consumers and help producers, but only to the 
extent that
input costs (labour, fertilizers, seeds and water) are rising more slowly that 
output prices. The
impact of higher prices on inequality is not known. Some observers argue that 
higher prices
help poor farmer, and are therefore pro-poor. Others counter that rice farmers 
are now make
up a small and declining proportion of the population of poor households. Since 
most poor
households are net buyers of rice, higher prices hurt the poor more than rich 
(who spend less
of their total income on food.

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Surprisingly, researchers have not addressed these issues since the mid-1990s, 
when a
number of studies were conducted by the International Food Policy Research 
Institute, the
World Bank and the International Rice Research Institute. The time has come to 
revisit the
issue, updating this earlier work, and evaluating of the impact of recent grain 
price increases
on the poor and the wider economy. This analysis is needed to inform rice trade 
and food
price policy in Viet Nam, and to provide input into UNDP/UN policy research 
products
including the Human Development Report.

2. Objectives
The objective of the current study is to analyze the impact of higher rice 
prices on poverty
and inequality in Viet Nam, and to propose trade and food price policies to 
minimize the
negative impact on the poor.

3. Outputs
The output of the project output will consist of one UNDP Policy Dialogue Paper 
tentatively
entitled, “Rising Rice Prices: Who Benefits?” The paper will be made publicly 
available
through the normal distribution channels, and distributed to national and 
international
agencies. UNDP also actively encourages the researchers to publish the paper in 
other outlets,
including scholarly journals and institutional websites as long as the support 
of DFID and
UNDP are explicitly acknowledged in these publications.

4. Timing, duration and location
Research will commence in March 2008 and conclude in June 2008. It is estimated 
that a
maximum of 60 person-days of international expertise is needed to complete the 
research
paper. A minimum of 30 of these days will be spent in Viet Nam to collect and 
check data,
conduct interviews with policy makers and other informed observers and to 
consult with the
UNDP Economics Advisor. UNDP will arrange for round trip travel to Viet Nam for the
international expert.
5. Reporting lines and administrative support
The international development economic will report to the Economics Advisor, 
UNDP Viet
Nam. He or she will also work closely with the UNDP National Economist and UNDP
Development Economist. UNDP will provide administrative support for research and
international and local travel, if required.

6. Tasks and qualifications

Tasks:
1. Review existing sources of time series data for domestic rice prices, and 
based on
these data compile an accurate urban and rural rice price index;
2. Compile an index of domestic and international fertilizer prices;
3. Calculate the incidence of net buying and selling of rice among poor 
households using
the 2006 Viet Nam Household Living Standard Survey;
4. Review existing food price policies and rice and fertilizer trade policies, 
and analyze
the impact of recent changes (since the mid-1990s);

5. Collaborate with the CEU in drafting a UNDP Policy Dialogue Paper on the 
impact of
higher rice prices on poverty and inequality in Viet Nam.

Qualifications and experience:
  Masters degree in development economics or related discipline;
  At least five years experience conducting applied research relating to poverty 
analysis
in developing countries;
  Strong quantitative skills and ability to use standard statistical software 
packages;
  Good English language composition skills;
  Familiarity with UNDP poverty analysis tools would be an advantage.



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