Consultancy service - Innovation and Learning Management Training for SHIFT/GIGI Cohort Companies - SHIFT Project

Company Description

1. About SNV

SNV is a global development partner rooted in the African and Asian countries where we operate. With 60 years of experience and a team of approximately 1,600 people, it is our mission to strengthen capacities and catalyse partnerships that transform the agri-food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all.

2. Background and objectives of assignment

As part of its work to strengthen green investment and innovation in Viet Nam, SHIFT is supporting a cohort of approximately 15 small- and medium-sized companies to implement innovative green solutions and business models.

The implementation period provides companies with an opportunity not only to deliver their proposed activities, but also to test important assumptions about their technology, customers, market, business model, delivery approach and potential for scale. To make effective use of this opportunity, companies need a deliberate and structured approach to learning from implementation.

SNV therefore seeks an experienced organisation to design and deliver a one-off Innovation and Learning Management training course for the SHIFT/GIGI cohort. The training should equip companies with simple, practical methods they can apply throughout their projects to determine what they need to learn, identify and test critical assumptions, collect relevant evidence, periodically review what they are learning, and translate that learning into business and implementation decisions.

The objective is not to establish an additional monitoring or reporting system for SHIFT. Rather, the training should help companies treat their projects as structured opportunities to learn and improve their solutions.

Objectives: The training will enable participating companies to:

Objective 1: Identify the most important assumptions and uncertainties underlying their projects and business models;

Objective 2: Determine what they need to learn during implementation and why it matters;

Objective 3: Translate assumptions into clear learning questions or hypotheses;

Objective 4: Identify practical ways to test these through implementation;

Objective 5: Determine what evidence is needed to understand whether an approach is working;

Objective 6: Establish a manageable process for periodically reviewing and interpreting evidence;

Objective 7: Learn systematically from unexpected or negative results, as well as successes;

Objective 8: Use learning to make decisions about their product, business model, implementation approach and potential pathway to scale; and

Objective 9: Leave the training with a practical learning framework that can be applied throughout their SHIFT/GIGI-supported project.

Job Description

3. Assignment overview and scope of work / deliverables

The selected service provider will design and facilitate an applied training programme for approximately 15 SHIFT/GIGI-supported companies. The assignment is a one-off training intervention intended to set the cohort up for success at the beginning of/during early implementation:

- Training design and preparation Review relevant information on SHIFT/GIGI and the participating companies;
- Develop a training methodology tailored to small- and medium-sized companies implementing green innovations;
- Develop practical tools and templates that companies can continue to use after the training; and
- Structure the training around the companies’ actual SHIFT/GIGI-supported projects rather than generic case studies wherever possible.

- Innovation and learning management training: The training should introduce companies to a practical learning process covering Starting with what we need to learn What does the company currently know, assume and still need to understand?
- What are the most consequential uncertainties within the project?
- Which assumptions need to be tested during implementation?
- How to formulate clear learning questions and hypotheses;
- How to prioritise what is important to test rather than trying to measure everything; and
- How to connect learning questions to actual business decisions

- Using project implementation to generate evidence How activities, pilots and interactions with customers and partners can be structured to test assumptions;
- How to determine what evidence is sufficient to inform a decision; and
- How to distinguish useful evidence from anecdotal observations.

- Building a structured learning process How to establish simple, regular learning reviews;
- How to compare expectations with actual results;
- How to record what has been learned and what remains uncertain; and
- How to determine what needs to be tested next.

- Turning learning into decisions How evidence can inform whether a company should continue, adapt, further test or stop an approach;
- How learning can inform changes to the product, customer proposition, delivery model or business model; and
- How learning from implementation can strengthen the company’s approach to future scaling and investment.

- Company learning framework A central output of the training will be for each company to develop its own Innovation and Learning Framework during the session, with support from the facilitators. The framework should be short and practical and capture the company’s priority learning questions, critical assumptions, how these will be tested, the evidence to review, practical review points, the decisions that evidence can inform, and the next test or action.
- Companies should leave the training with this framework substantially developed, rather than simply receiving a blank template to complete afterwards.

- Training approach: SNV is looking for highly applied and participatory training rather than classroom-style instruction. The proposed methodology should: Work directly with the companies’ own GIGI-funded projects built on their innovation clean energy solutions;
- Combine short conceptual inputs with substantial facilitated working time;
- Allow companies to challenge and refine their underlying assumptions;
- Make experimentation and learning practical for small and medium-sized businesses;
- Avoid creating burdensome processes or parallel M&E systems;
- Create space for peer learning between cohort companies;
- Treat unexpected and negative results as useful sources of evidence;
- Explicitly connect learning to management and commercial decisions; and
- Provide companies with methods and tools that they can continue to use independently after the training.

Applicants may draw on relevant approaches from accelerator, venture-building, innovation management and experimentation programmes.

Location and travel: Viet Nam.

Language of deliverables: Preferably bilingual (English and Vietnamese).

SNV inputs: SNV will manage the venue and translation and provide project-level information and inputs to inform the training design.

Table 1: Deliverables, quality expectations and timeline

Deliverable  D1. Training design and materials

Outputs:  Detailed training agenda, methodology, facilitator materials and practical learning tools/templates.

Estimated working days:  To be proposed by the Consultant

Due date:  Prior to training:  ~ December 2026

Deliverable  D2. Innovation and Learning Management training

Outputs:  Delivery of one applied training programme for approximately 15 SHIFT/GIGI cohort companies.

Estimated working days:  To be proposed by the Consultant

Due date:  Agreed training date(s), approximately in Jan 2027

Deliverable  D3. Company learning frameworks

Outputs:  Facilitation during the training enabling each company to leave with a substantially developed project-specific learning framework.

Estimated working days:  To be proposed by the Consultant

Due date: During training

Deliverable  D4. Final training package

Outputs:  Final versions of tools, templates and reference materials for companies to use independently following the training.

Estimated working days:  To be proposed by the Consultant

Due date:  Following training

4. Evaluation criteria

Evaluation method: Quality and cost-based – Table 2A. Proposals will be evaluated only against the criteria below. These cannot be changed after the ToR is issued.

Table 2A: Quality and cost-based evaluation (complex, higher-value or onward funding procurements)

- Compliance and capability: vetting form, sanctions screening: Pass/Fail
- Technical: 70

- Relevant experience designing and delivering practical innovation and learning programmes for startups or SMEs: 20

- Quality and practicality of proposed training approach and methodology: 20

- Demonstrated experience with experimentation, innovation management and structured learning: 15

- Experience and qualifications of proposed facilitators, including relevant climate/green business and Viet Nam/SEA experience: 15

- Financial: 25

- Total price – (lowest compliant price ÷ price of the proposal) × 25: 25

- Sustainable procurement: 5

- Climate and environmental evidence: 5

- Total: 100

*Minimum technical score: 70% of the technical points (49 of 70). Each sub-criterion is scored from 0 (unacceptable) to 5 (excellent).

5. Contract duration

- Assignment period: November 2026 to 31 January 2027.
- The financial proposal should provide a total lump-sum price in EUR, broken down by deliverable. Professional fees and any proposed travel, venue or other direct delivery costs must be clearly identified. The total price must include all applicable taxes and fees.
- Type of contract: Consultancy service agreement

6. Payment terms

SNV will pay against deliverables it has accepted, within 30 days of receiving a correct invoice.

First payment:  SNV approval of D1 (Approved training design, agenda, methodology and materials): 30%

Second payment:  SNV approval of D2, D3, D4 (Completion of the training, company learning frameworks, and submission of the final training package): 70%

Payment is made only to a bank account in the provider's own name. SNV will deduct withholding tax where national law requires it.

7. Due diligence instructions

Vendors must confirm, as part of their proposal, that in the event they are awarded the contract, they will duly complete, sign, and submit the supplier registration and vetting form. All documents required by this form must be included with the proposal submission.

To download the form for completion, click Due Diligence and Vetting Form

What SNV will check before award

- Parts A (general information, documents and payment details) and B (ethics and self-declaration) of the supplier registration and vetting form.
- Screening of the organisation, its owners and key individuals against anti-terrorism, anti-money laundering and sanctions lists. SNV cannot contract any party with a confirmed match.

Vendors already registered and vetted by SNV only need to confirm in writing that their information has not changed. Any conflict of interest or safeguarding-related disclosure must be made in Part B of the form. SNV will assess it before any contract is signed.

Qualifications

8. Submission requirements

This procurement is open to consulting firms only. Applicants must submit the following documents:

Technical proposal:

- Signed cover letter;
- Proposed methodology and technical approach (maximum five pages, excluding CVs, company profiles and references).
- Company profile, business registration certificate, CV of the lead consultant and CVs of other key personnel proposed: identifying the lead facilitator and other proposed personnel;
- Sample Tools or Methodologies : examples illustrating how the firm has previously structured experimentation or organisational learning, where available;
- Relevant Experience : brief examples of comparable innovation, accelerator, experimentation or learning programmes;

Financial proposal:

A lump-sum financial proposal, clearly identifying the proposed professional fees, applicable taxes and any direct costs.

Administrative documents

Completed and signed Supplier Registration and Vetting Form, together with confirmation of willingness to provide the required supporting documents for due diligence and verification purposes, download the form  https://c.smartrecruiters.com/sr-company-attachments-prod-aws-dc5/58919688e4b0672cc03331a9/af299ffe-eddb-4f8e-a4ac-ecccda14328b?r=s3-eu-central-1

How to submit

All proposals and supporting documents must be submitted through the SmartRecruiters link before the submission deadline. Proposals submitted after the deadline may not be considered.

Proposal submission deadline

16/11/2026, 17:00 (GMT+7)

All questions regarding this ToR must be submitted in writing to [email protected] by 10 November 2026. SNV will share the questions and corresponding answers with all bidders, without disclosing the names of the applicants.

Details of the TOR can be downloaded here  https://c.smartrecruiters.com/sr-company-attachments-prod-aws-dc5/58919688e4b0672cc03331a9/40ba4eef-4def-4661-bb57-328e9fec0374?r=s3-eu-central-1

Additional Information

9. General conditions

- SNV may cancel the process or award part or none of the work, and is not obliged to accept the lowest offer. Bidders pay their own costs.
- Only one proposal per bidder. Fraud, collusion or any attempt to influence the evaluation leads to disqualification.
- All bidders will be told the result. Feedback or complaints [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]), within 5 working days.