Chief Technical Advisor

Terms of reference – plan international LAOS

Title
Chief Technical Advisor.

Unit
Programme Unit.

Reports to
Project Manager – Lasting Laos and Plastic Smart Laos Projects.

Location
Remote location, which may include being located inside and outside Lao PDR.

Travel
This consultancy may require travel to, and inside Lao PDR, dependent upon request and prior approval by the Project Manager.

Occasional travel to the field offices may be required, as requested by the Projectx` Manager.

Duration of assignment
01 July, 2025 to 30 June, 2028 (36 months), with an average of 10 working days per month for a total of 360 working days over the 36 months of project inception and implementation  beginning 01 July 2025.

Some months may require additional working days. Any invoice submitted for more than 10 days per month must be formally approved by the Project Manager.

Contracts will be offered on an annual basis.

Effective Date
01/07/2025

About Plan International in Laos (Plan Laos)

Plan International has been working in Laos since 2007 and is delivering integrated programmes in Bokeo, Champasak, Luang Prabang, Oudomxay, Saravane, Vientiane Capital and Vientiane provinces, and working through partners in other provinces.  Plan Laos’ 2020-2027 Country Strategy takes a life cycle approach and focuses on supporting children, especially girls to access their rights to public health & nutrition, education & skills, adolescent development and participation, and skills & opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship. We are globally mandated to provide humanitarian assistance in the event of an emergency taking place in Lao PDR.

Plan Laos is a leading INGO in Laos, and participates in a number of civil society and government sectoral working groups, regional and global networks. We work closely with the Ministry of Health; Ministry of Education and Sports; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; UN and civil society partners in accordance with the principles of aid effectiveness, promoting the child rights, especially girls. Our work includes community-based action, partner strengthening, and policy influencing and advocacy. Our values-based feminist leadership principles underpin our work. We are committed to the principles of being locally-led, globally connected.

Globally, by 2027, Plan International wants to have impacted the lives of 200 million girls.

role PURPOSE

This role will be based in Vientiane Capital and work closely with the Project Manager, providing timely advice that ensures the quality implementation of Lasting Laos and Plastic-Smart Laos Projects, as well as the Grants Matching Programme.

Dimensions of the Role

The Lasting Laos project is funded by the European Union (EU) under the SWITCH-Asia Programme with co-funding from Plan International Germany. The project builds upon and scales-up key aspects of the previously EU funded project, SUSTOUR Laos project (2020-2024). Specific actions continued into the Lasting Laos project include: Lasting Laos sustainability certification programme, developing green products and services, tackling single-use plastic (SUP) waste and access to finance for MSMEs in the tourism value chain.

Focusing upon key tourist destinations and urban centres with the highest concentration of MSMEs (Vientiane Capital, Luang Prabang Province, Vientiane Province), while expanding and scaling-up to one additional province (Champasak Province), the project contributes to the tourism value chain in its growth, ensuring MSMEs are sustainable, non-polluting and contributing to the sustainable livelihoods of Lao women, men and children.

Plan International and its partners will achieve this by promoting and standardizing sustainability certifications, and bringing MSMEs in a variety of tourism related sectors into the green transition of the economy. The Lasting Laos certification provides tailored support for MSMEs, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to transform their businesses towards circular economy, decent work and SCP practices while creating spaces and opportunities for young entrepreneurs to innovate in these areas. The project creates a foundation for replication and scale-up across other sectors of the Laos economy and ultimately aims to cultivate a movement for environmentally and socially conscious entrepreneurship and investment in the Lao tourism value chain.

The project has 2 main objectives:

• Specific Objective 1: MSMEs throughout the Lao tourism supply chain adopt SCP, circular economy and decent work practices through the Lasting Laos sustainability certification programme supported by an enabling policy environment.
• Specific Objective 2: MSMEs and young entrepreneurs (YEs) are provided with technical support to access green financing instruments (GFIs) in order to produce and adopt and promote green products, services and solutions that demonstrate circular economy, low carbon and SCP practices for the Lao tourism value chain.

The Plastic-Smart Laos project, funded by the Global Environment Fund with co-funding from the French Fund for the Environment (FFEM), and implemented in cooperation between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Swisscontact and Plan International Laos, will support Laos in its efforts to become a plastic-smart country with the objective of reducing the production and use of SUP, in particular those used for the consumption of food and beverage. By aiming to reduce food and plastic SUPs in Laos, the programme will indirectly help to tackle a key source of plastic pollution in the country (45% is SUP waste), and therefore reduce the leakage of plastic waste into the environment.

The programme will adopt a systemic and integrated approach, taking account of all the links in the value chain. In particular, it will involve deploying upstream interventions to reduce the production and use of problematic and unnecessary food and beverage SUP. The private sector will be empowered to be part of the solution both as drivers of change and innovators of concrete solutions.

Across the programme’s 5 components, Plan will:

• Support component 1: facilitating the adoption of a regulatory framework enabling the reduction of problematic food and beverage SUPs, and incentivize the production and use of eco-friendly substitutes
• Lead Component 3: supporting the transition of the tourism/hospitality sectors towards less SUP and better waste management practices through the Lasting Laos certification programme.

The programme target areas coincide with 3 of the 4 target areas of the Lasting Laos project; Vientiane Capital, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng.

Grants Matching Programme: In addition, the projects will contribute to a Grants Matching Programme which is funded by FFEM, the TUI Care Foundation and Plan International Germany. The programme will directly provide financial assistance in the form of small grants for MSMEs and young entrepreneurs operating in the Lao tourism value chain to innovate, develop, and implement green products, services, and solutions. The small grants programme focuses on fostering sustainable consumption and production, circular economy practices, and tackling priority sectors like agri-food, textiles/handicrafts, and single-use plastic (SUP) waste management.

The objectives of the programme are to:

• Support innovation: Enable MSMEs and YEs to produce sustainable, low-carbon, and circular economy products, services and solutions for the Lao tourism value chain.
• Enable Access to Green Finance: Improve MSME and YE access to green financing mechanisms.
• Capacity Development: Provide technical assistance, mentoring, and training to prepare grant applications and implement their business case (e.g., hands-on support to refine grant applications and identify and integrate circular economy practices into their business cases, workshops on proposal writing, mentorship from industry experts to implement their green product, service or solution).
• Sustainability and Scalability: Ensure products, services and solutions are scalable and contribute to Laos’ circular economy, decent work and sustainable consumption and production.

The Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) will provide strategic advisory inputs across project leadership and project lifecycle management. They will offer technical assistance to ensure alignment with donor standards and project goals for both the Lasting Laos and Plastic-Smart Laos projects as well as the grant matching programme.

Accountabilities

The CTA will:

Inception Period: 

The project will start with a brief 4-month inception period during which the design and commencement of baseline research is undertaken, project staff are recruited, a formal partnership agreement with LNCCI is developed and the project Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is finalised and agreed upon. Specific responsibilities during the inception period are as follows:

• Support development of the Partnership Agreement with LNCCI including selection and development of detailed intervention activities and budgets.
• Support the of the finalization of the project MoUs and participate in a signing ceremony in partnership with Plan Senior Management, LNCCI, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC), Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MoNRE), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
• Oversee the development of the project monitoring, evaluation and learning systems.
• Support the staff recruitment process, including preparing detailed job descriptions, reviewing applications and participating in panel interviews.
• Design and develop the project baseline terms of reference (ToR), for the approval of the Project Manager, providing technical guidance during the baseline study.
• Support development of the ToRs for key service contracts and consultancies.
• Participate in project kick-off activities.

Implementation Period:

The implementation period (32 months) following the first 4 months (Inception period) will see the implementation of the Lasting Laos certification programme with Lao tourism MSME’s and their value chains with the aim to improve their SCP and circular economy practices, SUP waste management in particular, promotion of green financing instruments and roll-out of the grant matching programme.

Key responsibilities of the Chief Technical Advisor during this period are as follows:

1. Technical Assistance

• Provide ongoing technical assistance and expert guidance related to sustainable tourism, SCP, circular economy, SUP waste management, and green financing, including small-grants for MSMEs and young entrepreneurs.
• Support project staff and partners in project implementation through technical advice, coordination, capacity building and close liaison.
• Provide guidance to project manager, project staff and partners to ensure project implementation remains consistent with the project design and objectives and that the project is meeting regular targets and milestones, proposing corrective actions where necessary.
• Ensure robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks are implemented effectively drawing upon Plan Laos and Plan Germany technical assistance where required and agreed with the project manager.
• Directly monitor implementation in project target areas drawing upon Plan and project partners (LNCCI, WWF, Swisscontact) technical assistance as required.
• Ensure Plan programming and policies are integrated into the project lifecycle, especially those related to child safeguarding and gender equality.
• Certify that all project documentation meets all Plan and donor policies and standards.

2. Project Lifecycle Management

• Participate in regular project steering committee meetings, in-person or online.
• Support the project manager to produce high-quality narrative progress reports to the donor agencies and review finance reports ensuring compliance with donor and Plan policies. Reports will be submitted to the delegated Plan Laos project manager line manager, in advance of NO, donor etc. submission.
• Support the project manager to ensure quality and compliance for all other reporting requirements, including bi-annual reports to Plan Germany, quarterly financial and narrative reports of project partners and quarterly MoU reports to the Lao Government. until the end of the combined project period (June 30, 2028).
• Support the development of annual work plans and associated budgets for approval by the steering committee and donor agencies.
• Liaise regularly with the project team, project partners (LNCCI, WWF, Swisscontact), Plan Laos senior management and Plan Germany on project lifecycle matters and ensure rapid identification of any issues likely to have an impact on implementation.
• Together with the project manager, provide regular coordination and open communication with all donors including the EU delegation in Laos and SWITCH-Asia regional office as well as GEF, FFEM and the TUI Care Foundation, including supporting the facilitation of donor visits, as required.

3. Finance & Resource Management

• Together with the project manager, provide regular monitoring to ensure project expenditure remains in-line with approved budgets.
• Support project staff and consortium partners so that they are closely following Plan and donor financial policies and procedures, drawing upon Plan Laos and Plan Germany technical assistance where required.

4. Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

• Represent the project in national and regional forums and platforms and within sector working groups and to government and external stakeholders, upon request.
• Ensure effective coordination with other initiatives within the tourism and waste management sectors.
• Develop specific linkages and direct project collaboration with other actors in the tourism, waste management and development sectors, involving the project manager as and when relevant.
• Identify opportunities for co-financing of activities and/or additional funding for scaling-up project components from other development partners and/or donors.

As with all consultants, volunteers, staff, advisors etc. this role:

• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Essential:

• A Master’s degree in sustainable development, tourism/hospitality or related field.
• A minimum of 7 years’ experience working with non-government organizations and/or international development agencies in Laos.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in working with local partners, Lao government, and private sector organizations/stakeholders.
• A minimum of 7 years’ experience working in tourism development in Laos.
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of SUP and waste management issues in Laos.
• Knowledge of sustainable practices in the tourism sector, including various local and international standards and certifications, and the Lasting Laos certification in particular.
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of green financing in Laos.
• Knowledge and experience with Laos 9th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2015-2025) and upcoming 10th NESDP (2026-2030), Green Growth Strategy, National Plastics Action Plan, SCP Roadmap, Vision 2030 and other relevant policies.
• Ability to negotiate effectively and communicate the project requirements and policies with project staff, partners, government counterparts and other stakeholders, in support of the Project Manager.
• Excellent command of English language (spoken and written) and ability to develop and edit high-quality project reports and other documents.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Willingness to accompany Plan staff to target provinces, upon request.
• Excellent computer skills (including Word and Excel).

Desirable

• Previous experience in private sector focused development projects would be a significant advantage.
• Previous experience implementing EU, GEF and/or FFEM funded grant projects would be a significant advantage.

DAILY RATE

Please nominate your daily rate..

TRAVEL COSTS

All relevant travel costs (to and from Lao PDR) and within Lao PDR for requested field travel, will be covered by the project, in alignment with Plan Laos procurement guidelines.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested applicants are asked to submit a cover lettering explaining clearly how they meet the skills and experience required, along with a current CV with 2 referees and fee structure.

The application should be submitted no later than 5 PM on the 6th June 2025 to Laos.procurement@plan-international.org with cc to Pengmoua.Nengthongpavue@plan-international.org including all supporting documents with subject line “Chief Technical Advisor”.

All applications received after the time of the deadline will not be accepted and only the short listed candidate/s will be contacted.