CONSULTANCY REQUEST FOR A FEASIBILITY STUDY: BMZ-BENGO FOOD SECURITY AND HABITAT CONSERVATION IN THE KAZA TFCA PROJECT PROPOSAL
Consultancy, Research Jobs
- WWF Zimbabwe
- Expires 12 Feb 2021
- Bulawayo
- Internship
Job Description
1. Background
The KAZA region in Southern Africa suffers from the intertwined issues of poverty (most live below the poverty line), the increasing impacts of climate change (prolonged and frequent droughts), natural habitat conversion and land degradation. The resilience of ecosystems is negatively impacted as are the livelihoods and food security of rural communities. Eighty percent of the people are heavily dependent upon natural resources and live largely from subsistence agriculture (shifting cultivation). The ever-increasing encroachment onto conservation areas increases the risks of human wildlife interaction. This leads to increased conflict and loss of life but also an increased likelihood of zoonotic diseases and impacts onto human health. Currently, the survival and income of rural communities are largely based on maize, a staple food with a high-water dependency and which suffers from droughts and excess water. Drought resistant crops and the benefits of agroecological approaches to conserve soil fertility and increase harvests and yields as well as the benefits of sustainable cattle production and local supply chains are not widely known or supported politically.
The threats to ecosystems and livelihoods of local communities are driven by a lack of sustainable and diversified income streams, shifting cultivation (inherently poor sandy, or sodic or eroded soils, low harvest and yields), poor storage conditions and resulting in post-harvest losses, unsustainable, low-quality cattle herding, limited or lack of local market access, amongst others. The political framework in regard to agroecology and sustainable use of resources is still weak and its effective implementation lacking. By building the capacity of governments, CSOs and rural communities about climate resilient agroecological methods (intercropping, minimal soil disturbance, diversification of crops) and support its implementation in ecologically sensitive areas of KAZA, the harvest can improve fourfold, drought resistant crops provide food security even in years of low rainfall and soil fertility is maintained, reducing the need for new fields and deforestation. Awareness building and support for sustainable cattle herding following the One Health approach, will raise soil fertility, reduce habitat encroachment and produce healthier, more valuable cattle. By supporting pilots of private sector – community partnerships (PPP), the access to markets and supply chains for agroecological (organic) products (beef and vegetable) will be created and potential models for diversified income streams established, increasing resilience in communities. To enable a supportive political framework for sustainable agriculture, the project will strengthen national CSO platforms and their advocacy work with the agricultural ministries to provide more financial support for small holder agriculture, building on the success from Zambia. But, also other relevant ministries and sectors should be engaged and lobbied to ensure sustainable supply chains can develop. A regional platform for experience exchange and cooperation between the KAZA countries will support the scaling up of the approaches across KAZA and provides the political framework. The KAZA M&E system will be strengthened by fortifying and expanding the farmer field based monitoring system (smart phone App) to all project sites to allow farmers to monitor their agricultural activities and harvests and in this way learn and improve their practices. This data will be linked to the KAZA M&E systems land use change analysis and should allow decision makers, rural communities and CSOs to evaluate the impacts and implement adaptive management.
These interventions will contribute to the sustainable development goals 1, 2 and 15. Reduction of land degradation and deforestation results in a contribution to SDG 13.
There are WWF offices in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia which have been active in the region for decades. Since 2012, WWF Germany (and other WWF national offices) are successfully working with WWF Zambia on sustainable agriculture and human wildlife conflict mitigation and since 2015 with WWF Zimbabwe on community based natural resource management & sustainable agriculture. The WWF offices work with a wide range of stakeholders. This includes community organizations, such as the community resource boards (CRBs) as well as local NGOs, Green Living Movement in Zambia and the Campfire Association in Zimbabwe. These are community representative organizations which also cooperate with the ministries of agriculture at the national, provincial and field level for policy change, political support and introduction of agroecological methods. Agritex, the district agricultural agency in Zimbabwe has implemented a three-year sustainable agriculture project recently with WWF Zimbabwe. WWF Zambia successfully works with the Zambian CSO Platform for Climate Smart Agriculture and it is planned to establish similar platforms in Namibia and Zimbabwe. The Namibian Nature Foundation (NNF), a national NGO in Namibia is the known expert for sustainable agriculture with communities in Namibia. NNF and WWF Namibia have a long standing and successful work relationship focusing supporting community-based resource use projects.
2. Purpose
The feasibility study and its deliverables should provide sufficient detail to allow the development of the project proposal including screening and other requirements related to the WWF’s Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework (ESSF). The project proposal must be handed in by 30th March 2021. Therefore, the time frame for the feasibility study is end of February 2021. A first preliminary report should be produced by 23rd February 2021. The feasibility consultant is expected to provide input into the write shop and the proposal development.
Duties and Responsibilities
Methodology
The feasibility study is to be designed and conducted in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia (see target areas per country under annex 1) and at regional level. It will include desktop studies, interviews with all relevant stakeholders and implementing partners as well as field visits to selected key sites in the four countries (as needed and COVID19 restrictions allow, preferably by resident/ national consultants/team members). The report will include country specific sections covering the ESSF requirements including project screening, risk analysis, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder database and engagement plans. The consultants will implement a feasibility study inception workshop and preliminary results discussion workshops as well as a final feasibility study presentation workshop.
The consultant(s) is expected to use the following approaches in a good mix:
a) Desk review of at least the following but not limited to it: project concept and related documents such as reports of the ongoing and previous projects, current project proposals in the same thematic area in KAZA, reports and documents from other organisations active in the same field in KAZA, BMZ Bengo requirements and guidelines, WWF ESSF guidelines and documents, administrative documents/handbooks of partner organizations describing administrative and financial management procedures, their social and environmental safeguards systems in comparison with the WWF ESSF
b) Desk review of agriculture related laws, policies, strategies etc for the three countries and the region (SADC) and description of their possible influence/impact onto the project and vice versa in the light of furthering agroecology and sustainable agriculture as a rural development strategy
c) Interviews with all relevant focal points at WWF NL, WWF Germany, WWF Namibia, WWF Zimbabwe and WWF Zambia to assess the need for and feasibility of the project and its activities and goals, assess the current status of ESSF implementation and compare to the requirements, get input into the proposal, etc
d) Interviews and assessment of documents from/with national implementing partners: NNF in Namibia, Campfire Association, ORAP; Agritex in Zimbabwe, Living Green Movement, CFU CRB´s and relevant others in Zambia to get their input into the content of the proposal and opinion on its feasibility. Also, to assess their capability to implement the activities, their financial and administrative management capacity to satisfy BMZ Bengo rules and requirements,
e) Interviews with all relevant government agencies in the three countries and at regional level (KAZA secretariat, SADC) to get their input into the content of the proposal and opinion on its feasibility as well as the projects contribution to implementing national and regional strategies
f) Interviews with community-based organisations such as CRB´s, RDC´s and others as relevant in all three countries
g) Interviews with other NGO´s / research institutes (for Zimbabwe eg: German Hunger aid, ICRISAT, etc, For Zambia: Climate smart agriculture platform, Green Living Movement, PELUM, and COMACO etc) but also IFOAM (esp. the Participatory Guarantee System – PGS) related to the subject of the proposal to get their input and opinion of the feasibility of the project as well as cooperation opportunities
h) if possible: visits (maximum 5 travel days per country) to selected target areas to consult partners and target groups, complement missing baseline data, ensure participation of target groups into the study, (starting a free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) process with target communities on all planned activities and investments) and to conduct a comprehensive ESSF screening and mitigation planning
The consultant will follow the needs for details as outlined in the WWF ESSF guidelines (WWF Checklist for Environmental & Social Safeguards in NEW PROJECTS ) but it will include description of project implementing organisations, the direct & indirect target groups and other stakeholders, stakeholder relations, current conflicts and conflict potentials, risk analysis and mitigating measures (according to WWF ESSF guidelines).
• Relevant preparatory documents will be provided by WWF Germany.
• The consultant(s) is responsible to carry out and write up the Context Analysis, the Stakeholder analysis (including database and engagement plan), identify target groups and related questions.
4. Deliverables
Major Evaluation Task/Deliverable Dates / Deadline
Preparation (Getting documents, Desk review and arrangement of interviews) Starting asap
Feasibility inception meeting with proposal writing core group and KAZA sustainable agriculture thematic group Soon after
Study ongoing: Interviews, stakeholder & target group meetings, documents review, asses ESSF, filling in and writing of documents, writing preliminary reports 15/2-15/3
Preliminary report submitted (max 40 pages without annexes, ESSF documents and filled in templates), circulated for comments until the 9th 08/03/21 (22nd day)
Debriefing meeting on preliminary report with core group and WWF KAZA sustainable agriculture thematic group and collection of comments 09/03/21
Final Report (max 40 pages) finalized by consultant and approved by person/organisation who commissioned the study 15/3/21 (30th day)
Participation in write workshop 3 days in the week of the 15th-19thth March
Support proposal writing 3 days
Total number of days 30 days
Feasibility report covering all the above-mentioned points and including per target site and at regional level according to the WWF checklist and Bengo proposal requirements.
Qualifications and Experience
Qualifications of the Consultant(s)
The consultancy will be conducted by a consultant / consultancy firm with representation/partners in all three countries and with access to the regional level (SADC, KAZA Sec). The consultants will be responsible for the overall implementation of the respective country missions and the report writing.
• A Master’s degree or above in environmental and natural resource management, agriculture or related subject with strong knowledge of sustainable agriculture, nature conservation and CBNRM in the KAZA region.
• At least 5 years, experience in carrying out quantitative and qualitative analysis (including feasibility studies), Environmental Social Safeguard Framework (ESSF) screening and mitigation planning in Africa.
• Sound knowledge and demonstrable participation in projects of the national contexts in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia in the past three years
• Technical competency on conservation, buffer zone management, community development, rural development, sustainable agriculture, agroecology
• Good oral and written communications skills
• Fluency in English
6. Duration and location of the assignment
It is envisaged that consultant(s) will be engaged with the project for a period of 30 days commencing as soon as possible until 20 March 2021 and should be based in one of the target countries with some field travel to other countries.
How to Apply
7. To Apply
Interested potential Consultants should send in their CVs/Company Profile, technical and financial proposals clearly indicating how their qualifications and experience match the Terms of Reference to WWF Germany, Brit Reichelt-Zolho, brit.reichelt-zolho@wwf.de, email tender suffi-cient/ Postcode 100037. Consultants to provide references which include at least title, duration, geographical scope, public entity´s name and the type of the procurement procedure for at least 3 projects that altogether demonstrate the requested capacity which were delivered in the last 3 years.
Consultant(s) will be selected as individual consultant or firm and contracted on terms to be negotiated with qualifying candidates.
Contact Persons at WWF Germany Brit Reichelt-Zolho Brit.reichelt-zolho@wwf.de and Dr. May Hokan May.hokan@wwf.de
Deadline for applications: Friday 12 February 2021
