OXFAM Climate media collaborative Grants Reflection and Planning Meeting Consultants guide Terms of Reference
Consultancy, Research Jobs
Job Description
Event dates : 7-8 Décembre 2022
Location: TBA
Reflection and Planning Meeting Objectives
- To learn and share about progress made; challenges and opportunities encountered in Y2022 under the Ford Foundation grants
-To collectively develop advocacy, research and media visibility priorities that will shape our planned activities for Year 2023
- To enhance collaboration between SAF and OZA particularly on influencing and research initiatives particularly on the agenda of extractive industries governance work within the Southern Africa region
Duties and Responsibilities
Background:
Natural Resource Governance (Extractives Industry) is one of the strategic objectives under SAF’s Just Economies Programme. Acknowledgment is made under our Just Economies Programme Framework that Oxfam South Africa (OZA) and the Southern Africa Cluster share similarities in terms of working in the same regional space which is SADC. As such, collaboration with Oxfam South Africa is key. Currently we have two on-going collaborative projects which SAF and OZA are co-implementing with the support from Ford Foundation grants namely
I. Protecting human rights and promoting economic and climate justice through local to global influencing in Southern Africa’s extractive industries program ( Ford Regional)
II. The Climate Media Collaborative for Economic Justice and Community Rights project
Under the Protecting human rights and promoting economic and climate justice through local to global influencing in Southern Africa’s extractive industries program grant, the following outcomes were attained,
Protection of Human Rights and Communities
Our work here focused on ensuring that extractive industry (EI) affected communities especially women, Indigenous peoples, and those most marginalized from decision-making processes are able to fully realize and defend their rights. To this end, we are following important policy reform processes in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. In Zambia, the new government under President Hichilema is on a drive to reform the country’s mining sector and intensify mining – partly in an effort to service Zambia’s large external debt. The risk here is that the necessary regulator and institutional reforms to safeguard social and environmental protections are sidelined. As such, Oxfam and its partner Centre for Trade and Policy Development convened nationwide townhalls across ten provinces with the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development to provide a space for citizens and mining affected communities – especially those in the Copper Belt Province – to air grievances on legacy human rights issues. Citizens emphasized the need for strengthened health, safety and human rights protections, including the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of project affected communities, and grievances with compensation and resettlement processes. The Zambian government’s drive to increase mining also risks more awarding of licenses in ecologically sensitive areas, like the transboundary Zambezi National Park. Activists have been fighting against the proposed Kangaluwi copper mine for years, but a final court appeal was dismissed in February 2021. In 2022, a Zambian environmentalist filed a Constitutional Court case. Oxfam provided technical legal support for the case and issued public statements. The Lower Zambezi National Park is transboundary, with potential biodiversity impacts on neighboring Zimbabwe. The petition was unfortunately withdrawn after the Zambian environmental agency ZEMA and the attorney general’s office asked the petitioner to withdraw – suggesting further dialogue instead. Oxfam is now considering lodging alternative legal action in either Zimbabwe or Mozambique given the transboundary nature of the impacts. In South Africa, Oxfam and partners recently celebrated a major legal win. In early September 2022, a high court ruled that Shell’s oil and gas exploration license to do seismic testing offshore in the eastern cape region was issued illegally given failure by Shell to adequately consult communities and failure to consider environmental and livelihood impacts on fisherfolk. The ruling follows a protracted legal challenge to offshore oil and gas. Oxfam has been supporting Amadiba Crisis Committee in coalition with several groups. The court win sets a strong precedent for legal protection for FPIC. The broader campaign has been a rallying point for coastal communities and climate and human rights defenders challenging oil and gas. Oxfam is similarly following the South African government’s proposed Climate Change Bill. With our partner Sisonke Environmental Justice Network, we provided written submissions to the government centered on need for provisions to enshrine FPIC and effective grievance mechanism across all renewable energy projects.
Economic and Accountable Governance
Under the outcome, we have continued to call for governments to be more transparent and accountable in the generation, collection, and expenditure of revenues from the extractives industries and press for local participation. Regionally, at the Africa Union mid- year coordination summit in Lusaka, we held a side event and shared findings from our Mopani tax avoidance research with policy makers from ECOSOCC, Africa Peer Review Mechanism and the Zambia Minister of Mines. As a co-convenor of the SADC People’s Summit, which ran alongside the 42nd SADC Heads of States meeting in Kinshasa, we continued to press for EI transparency and accountability, including disclosure of company-government contracts. A communique with recommendations was shared with a DRC government representative as the incoming SADC chair.
Just Energy Transition
Towards SADC policy setting on the just energy transition, the decarbonization agenda and COP27, Oxfam partnered with Natural Resources Governance Institute, Publish What You Pay, Tax Justice Network Africa and Powershift on a five-part webinar series, which ran from April to August 2022 and drew over 120 people per session. We covered a range of topics including climate, the geo-politics of energy transition, transition minerals, renewable energy and the future of oil and gas. Our speakers included academics, climate change researchers, former Tanzania minerals commissioner, the Africa Minerals Development Centre director. The series was also in effort to respond to range of understanding of the implications of the energy transition. Similarly, our participation at this year’s Alternative Mining Indaba in Cape Town in May 2022, included a panel on corruption and human rights risks of the anticipated mineral commodity boom. (With other Ford Foundation support, Oxfam will also be launching a scorecard of companies extracting five critical minerals in the production of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles). For the first time we also participated at the 2022 Africa Energy Indaba and Africa Gas Summit. This industry event largely excludes civil society, labor and communities and we have proposed to convene a knowledge hub speaking session at the 2023 Africa Energy Indaba focused on a just energy transition and energy access
Under the Climate Media Collaborative for Economic Justice and Community Rights project constituting the Southern Africa hub ( Zimbabwe and South Africa) we are contributing towards attaining the long term goal of using communications to defend community rights and shift economic narratives toward clean energy and post-exploitative economic models, leading to transformational change for frontline communities in the Global South who are navigating the COVID economic recovery and the climate emergency. This year, we have managed
• Establish artistic partnerships with creative hubs/ media houses with mainstream civil society organisation advancing climate justice and accountable governance in the extractive sector
• Develop responsive, broad-based, informative, and mixed media communications products to support campaigns and target urban, semi-urban, and rural communities – so that messages inspire action in both mining-impacted communities and among mining powerbrokers and economic elites.
• Supporting and uniting participatory local climate movements driven by women, youth, and Indigenous peoples that builds their connections to global climate justice movements, supports autonomous organizing, and utilizes action-orientated workshops and creative sessions. Help coordinate information exchanges between movements and communities and facilitate common public engagement agendas between activists and civil society organizations.
Qualifications and Experience
Purpose of Consultant /Facilitator
The consultant will provide technical support to the project team during the reflection and planning meeting by providing knowledge on climate justices or media engagement. They will guide the teams reflective and planning processes and document key reflections for future learning. Consulting roles will be spilt in two:
1. Climates justice’s contextual analysis and program development
2. Creative media influencing and documentation.
Key Consultant/Facilitator Deliverables
1. Present a in-depth contextual analysis on the climate justices narrative in Zimbabwe and or present emerging trends relating to media and communications for policy influencing and community engagement.
2. Facilitate a participatory learning session geared at building program development and implementation. Provide technical support through an interactive session on one or both areas identified above.
3. Document lessons and priorities set for future reference.
How to Apply
Application
Submit a two-page proposal and budget of how you perceive the climate justices and or creative media space, an outline of your 3-hour session, recommendation where you completed similar work from at least two referees and a resume. Submission should be made to Zimtenders@oxfam.org.uk
Deadline: 8 November 2022
