Zambia (Remote): Consultant – Integrated Climate Risk, Ecosystem, Gender Equality, and Conflict Assessment for Protected Areas in the Kavango-Zambezi and Greater Virunga Landscapes

Jan 8, 2024 | International Institute for Sustainable Development
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The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is an award-winning independent think tank working to accelerate solutions for a stable climate, sustainable resource management, and fair economies. Its work inspires better decisions and sparks meaningful action to help people and the planet thrive. IISD shines a light on what can be achieved when governments, businesses, non-profits, and communities come together. IISD's staff of more than 200 experts come from across the globe and from many disciplines. With offices in Winnipeg, Geneva, Ottawa, and Toronto, its work affects lives in nearly 100 countries.

IISD, together with its partners the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), are implementing the Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas Initiative (CAPA), which seeks to promote natural solutions to strengthening climate resilience and protecting biodiversity in and around protected areas and critical landscapes in the Global South. The initiative's intervention sites cover marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems and landscapes in Belize, Fiji, and the Greater Virunga and Kavango-Zambezi landscapes in Africa.

This assignment will cover the Greater Virunga and Kavango-Zambezi landscapes in Africa.

ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

 The Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TCA), located at the confluence of five southern African countries-Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe-is the largest terrestrial transboundary conservation area in the world, covering an area of 520,000 km2. It is a mixed land-use landscape with 20 national parks, 85 forest reserves, 22 conservancies, 11 sanctuaries, 103 Wildlife Management Areas, and 11 Game Management Areas. The Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL) is located in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda, and parts of Rwanda. It is an area of exceptional biodiversity and endemism, includes several iconic protected areas, and covers some 58,617 km2. GVL contains at least 150 endemic vertebrate species and 246 endemic plant species. 

These two landscapes are currently threatened by climate change, with impacts already felt at the community and biodiversity levels. Over the last three decades, the KAZA landscape has‚ÄØexperienced a series of climatic extremes, including repeated droughts and dry spells, seasonal and flash floods, extreme temperatures, reduced length of rainy seasons, and increasingly variable precipitation levels, many of these with increased frequency, intensity, and magnitude. These impacts have often resulted in crop failure and increased vulnerability of communities, livestock, and wildlife due to reduced availability of water. The GVL has also experienced increased annual precipitation rates and temperatures, a high frequency of heat waves, and numerous incidents of flooding, landslides, hailstorms, and dry spells. During the dry season, most GVL households experience drought due to reduced water and water scarcity.  

Through the CAPA Initiative, IISD and WWF will design and implement nature-based solutions (NbS) for adaptation in and around these two critical landscapes to increase the resilience of people and ecosystems to climate change and to better integrate climate adaptation considerations into the management of these spaces. For the design and implementation of these NbS interventions to be successful, they must be grounded in a solid understanding of the risks associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, gender, and conflict in each of the landscapes. 

In this context, IISD and WWF are looking to hire a consultant/team of consultants (herein referred to as "Consultant") to assess the current and future climate change, biodiversity, gender, conflict risks, and the vulnerabilities of protected areas and surrounding target communities in the KAZA TCA and GVL. 

The assessment is intended to gather information on climate, biodiversity, gender, and conflict risks and serve as a dialogue to enable women, men, and underrepresented groups to better understand how they engage with existing governance structures and how participation and influence in decision-making can become more gender equitable. Data collected will be summarized in a final report, with specific analysis to inform the choice of NbS activities in the CAPA project in the KAZA TCA and GVL and socialize the need for more gender-responsive, conflict-sensitive participation and influence in natural resource and protected area management and adaptation planning. 

In addition to the above, the information gathered through these assessments will inform the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy for CAPA in the KAZA TCA and GVL and will also be used to provide baseline data for several outcomes and indicators in the project's Performance Measurement Framework. 

The assignment is expected to require roughly four months of effort between January and April 2024.

The full TOR can be accessed in the original job posting.

 APPLICATION PROCESS

All submissions must be in English, and applications will only be accepted through Bamboo HR. Please include:

  • A statement of interest/technical proposal outlining how the applicant would do the work (approach, methodology and proposed work plan). 
  • CV/resume (2 pages maximum). If the assignment will be undertaken by a team of consultants, submit a 2-page resume for the Lead Consultant and an additional page (table) listing the team members and their qualifications, field of expertise, and years of experience. 
  • Financial proposal (include a cost breakdown).

Only those candidates IISD wishes to interview will be contacted.  

IISD is committed to fostering a more equitable and sustainable world and welcomes candidates who uphold its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, to correct the conditions of social injustice and disadvantage in employment around the world, IISD encourages candidates from historically marginalized groups, including women, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities, people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and those who identify themselves as 2SLGBTQ+, to apply for the position.  

IISD does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, colour, disability, marital status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

  • Location: KAZA and GVL
  • Term: Short-term contractor
  • Duration of assignment: 4 months 
  • Start date: As soon as possible.
  • Closing date: January 12, 2024