Preparing for enhanced competitiveness of cooperatives in the market History and context:
The proposal is a clear follow-up to the evaluation mission implemented by a consultant of Agriterra end of 2010. The recommendations from this evaluation mission are included in the proposal. The evaluation mission has recommended this bridge year, to enable QTCA to implement an improved value chain analysis for 3-4 commodities and to gain experience with improved Voucher Fund use and CDF implementation, before entering into a second full-fledged project phase.

Summary of the proposed project:
This one-year bridge project will prepare QTCA for providing better services to their member cooperatives in access to markets and finance. 
The objectives are:
• To prepare a deeper analysis of 3 value chains (pig, high quality rice, safe vegetables), with strongly motivated intervention plans, as bases for a second phase project proposal for mid 2012 - mid 2015
• To prepare a business plan for the Co-operative Development Fund (CDF), through which members can apply for a loan to invest in their cooperative business
• To enhance the competitiveness of 26 membership farming cooperatives in the market through the use of a Voucher Fund which will enable the cooperatives to access innovative technologies and business development services 
• Organisational strengthening of QTCA, especially with respect to M&E, clear roles and responsibilities and impact measurements.

Main activities:
1) Deep value chain analysis of lean pig, high quality rice and safe vegetables
2) Develop business plan for Co-operative Development Fund, train staff in management of the CDF, piloting among member cooperatives, review and lessons learned.  
3) To enhance competitiveness of 26 membership farming cooperatives in the market through the use of the Voucher fund. Make inventory of BDS demanded by cooperatives, make inventory of BDS at regional and national level. Of the 26 coops, 10 will receive training on ICM (integrated crop management) 8 on innovative technologies and 8 on innovative business development.
4) Organisational strengthening of QTCA in M&E, clear division of roles and responsibilities and impact measurements.

Goals, output and impact with respect to team 2 targets:
• Membership increase: not applicable in this stage of the project (bridge year)
• Increase of nr of organised local groups: information is requested from QTCA
• Production enhancement: 200 farmers from 5 coops with get follow-up ICM training on pig rearing and rice cultivation. 300 farmers from 5 coops will get new ICM training on pig rearing and rice cultivation.
• Market access: 26 coops will enhance competitiveness in the value chain through access to BDS services in voucher fund. QTCA is asked to provide more details on how many groups of farmers this concerns.
• Collaboration between producer groups: n/a
• Collaboration with other chain actors: 26 coops will enhance competitiveness in the value chain through access to BDS services in voucher fund. QTCA is asked to provide more details on how many groups of farmers this concerns.
• Business planning: members start applying for loans from the Cooperative development fund for which business plan will be drafted. QTCA is asked to provide more details on how many groups of farmers this concerns.
• Lobby trajectories aimed to enable local economic initiatives: Through the project QTCA will build experience with managing the Cooperative Development Fund, for which 50% is financed by the government. With good results the government and other donors might be willing to allocate more funding for this fund, enabling more members to get access to loans and BDS services to enhance their competitiveness in the value chain.

Which FFP-2 WA and deliverables?
• WA4: business development. Deliverable 16: marketing, target 2 (value chain analysis for e existing products and 1 new product) and target 5 (linkages with market outlets)
• Several other WAs and deliverables are also applicable to this project:
- WA1, deliverable 1, target 4: M&E procedures (viable project planning and monitoring system according to DCED standard = Donor Committee for Enterprise Development)
- WA1, deliverable 2, targets 3, 4, 5, 6: staff capacity in monitoring, new structure of QTCA in which sufficient qualified staff is allocated for 2nd phase of project, tasks and responsibilities of QTCA and member coops are defined and agreed upon in measurement plan for project outcomes and impact on poverty reduction.
- WA2, deliverable 8, target 4: relations with private sector and BDS services
- WA4, deliverable 13, targets 1: relevant business plan (for CDF) and access to credits/loans. 
- WA4, deliverable 14, target 2 (training in ICM)

Estimated outreach of project:
More detailed information on outreach is requested from QTCA.

Financial aspects:
75% of the total budget of € 35,535 is requested from Agriterra (€26,822), and 25% by the PO, of which 16% will be provided by the cooperatives (€5,623) and 9% will be provided by the alliance (QTCA, €3,090 for project management). No institutional costs are requested from Agriterra.
Budget is in line with volume and scale of the planned activities.
Financial management track record of QTCA is reasonable. In previous years the Agriterra financed project budgets were quite substantial which has led to spending pressure on QTCA. Because of this spending pressure only a limited number of different activities have been implemented under the voucher fund in the previous project.  It is easier to spend 32 similar vouchers than to spend them on 4 different activities that all 4 have to be developed and assessed, implemented and controlled.
The financial audits of Vietnamese partners, including QTCA is different from our requirements. For this reason a training on financial management and auditing will be organised by the LO in October 2011 for all Vietnamese clients, including QTCA.

Improving capacity of QTCA on value chain analysis, voucher fund management and cooperative development fund management, to prepare the project proposal phase 2.