DRC: Consultant - Environment and Ecosystems Assessment

Sep 10, 2017 | Mercy Corps
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Description

FARM

Consultancy Terms of Reference: Environment and Ecosystems Assessment

Democratic Republic of Congo: Goma Hinterland

Introduction and Context

The Food Security and Inclusive Access to Resources for Conflict-Sensitive Market Development (FARM) program is a 4-year initiative (May 2017 – April 2021) which seeks to build a more efficient, inclusive and resilient market-based environment, contributing to food security and stability.  Funded by the Dutch Embassy of Kigali, the program is to be implemented in the ‘Goma Hinterland’ (Masisi and RutshuruTerritories) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reaching an estimated 26,800 direct beneficiaries. The program is divided into three critical phases: a 9-month inception phase (May 2017 – January 2018), followed by 30 months of extensive implementation support to market actors and government representatives through facilitative approaches, followed by 9 months of light-touch intervention.

In Consortium, Mercy Corps (MC) and Search for Common Ground (SFCG) will work to improve the target population’s access to, control over and use of land (Strategic Objective 1) and improve target market systems through increased cooperation between market actors, contributing to food security (Strategic Objective 2). All activities will be implemented according to equitable access and participative approaches for women, men, youth and members of different ethnic groups. To achieve Strategic Objective 1, FARM will focus on improving access to land through improved conflict management systems, dialogue platforms and negotiations among disputing parties, to the benefit of the target population. In parallel, FARM will facilitate relationship building between male and female farmers, agri-businesses, private sectors actors, cooperatives and government, to strengthen agricultural value chains and facilitate the creation of new opportunities to realize Strategic Objective 2.

Program Context, Goals and Constraints

The causes of conflict in the Chefferies of Bashali, Bwito and Bwisha, and in North Kivu more generally, are numerous and interlinked. Conflicts are concentrated around the mobilization of ethnic identity, which is closely linked to a mobilization around access to natural resources - especially land - and political power. Tensions from conflict around land, power, and identity are high, and violence is often used as a means of exerting power and control.

Since a large majority of families in the intervention zones depend on engaging in the agricultural sector for their survival, competition over and access to resources based on ethnic identity are extremely detrimental to household well-being, and the FARM program intends to ensure its program-supported activities do not exacerbate tension over already limited resources.

If properly facilitated, sustainable resource management and inter-community initiatives could simultaneously:

  1. Lay the foundation to create community collaboration, with potential economic rewards (increase level of production and quality), and provide a space for formalized information sharing - on seed choice, soil type, and planting, climate-resilient farming and market needs. One opportunity identified by FARM to improve trust and community cohesion, while simultaneously addressing the sustainability of eco-system services and natural resources, is environmental hotspot conflict management.
  2. Ensure the FARM program promotes land-scape scale and sustainable agricultural practices which achieves the medium term program goal of increasing quality and volume of agricultural production, without sacrificing longer-term environmental sustainability or accelerating resource depletion.

Key issues threatening sustainable agricultural production:

  • Limited local understanding of climate-proof agricultural practices
  • Soil degradation
  • Deforestation

Specifically, in North Kivu, an emphasis on soil regeneration and re-forestation would limit the impacts of deforestation, mitigate changes in weather patterns and retain biodiversity.


Consultancy Required

The Consortium has decided to seek a third-party organization/consultant to deliver technical expertise and advise for the development of a strategic approach on environment and eco-system services. Mercy Corps in the DRC requires an external expertise to measure changes in ecosystem performance at a project scale. The consultant will assess the environment and ecosystem services within the FARM areas of intervention to enable program beneficiaries to protect and enhance these services. This consultancy will cover the entire period of the program’s inception phase with two key objectives:

Using an ecosystem services screening tool; design, carry out and report on findings of a comprehensive ecosystem services impact assessments;

Support the FARM program staff in the re-design of an ecosystems strategic approach using tailored metrics and decision support systems, and integrate assessment findings across all program activities and components.

This consultancy will support program planning for the implementation of FARM’s two strategic objectives:

  • S01: Improve access to, control over, and utilization of land
  • S02: Strengthen market systems and cooperation between value-chain actors

Assessment Objectives

Primary Research Questions

  • Which ecosystem services underpin crop production, livestock production, and general household needs?
  • How have key ecosystem services changed in the past 10-15 years? What are the primary root causes of identified changes?
  • What ecologic outcomes need to be supported by land-use arrangements to sustain key ecosystem services?
  • What management strategies (including communal resource management) are needed to sustain and improve key ecosystem services by crop producers, livestock producers, and other program stakeholders?
  • What land use (agricultural) strategies and practices can the FARM program support and promote in order to increase production and output of small farmers, while maintaining sustainability of eco-system services?

The assessment will produce a set of recommended ecosystem outcomes and associated management strategies (including anticipated benefits analyses and long-term effectiveness monitoring strategies for restoration components of the program) to be incorporated into program activities. These strategies will be organized according to different types of users (crop producers, cattle herders) and governance structures (conflict management, local administrators). Using assessment findings, the Consortium will determine if there are opportunities for increasing market services and inputs, which will help reduce the vulnerability to climate shocks on agriculture production for producers and value chain stakeholders. Mitigating mechanisms may include increasing off-farm livelihoods to help reduce pressure on land access, and reduce reliance on rainfall-dependent income generation.

Methodology

The consultant will be responsible for determining the appropriate methodology for data collection (including sampling strategy), data analysis and reporting under the supervision of Mercy Corps.  The consultant will be encouraged to propose a methodology that ensures participatory activities (active representation of gender, age, varying income levels, ethnicity and marginalized groups will be required) along with GIS systems for mapping physical landscape, ecosystems, and natural resources (where appropriate) that can actively inform program strategies and interventions.

The consultant will be responsible for synthesizing and analyzing collected data disaggregated by gender and age (where relevant, ethnicity) with his/her preference of data analysis software. Results will allow for a comprehensive overview of the status, key trends, and correlations between natural resource, land use, land cover and environmental risk management. The role of governance systems, peace spoilers and climate shocks precisely affecting land and natural resource use and its relationship to market development will also be examined by the consultant.

Results from the mapping exercises will be analyzed but then combined with data from previous assessments and presented at an analysis workshop (facilitated by Mercy Corps). The workshop will allow for in-depth analysis of key findings, correlations and relationships while taking into account overarching themes of resiliency, gender, conflict and sustainability. Assessment results, and recommendations provided by the consultant, will thus enable program staff under each of the strategic objectives to tailor program interventions to community needs and ensure an integrated approach that achieves improved community-level planning, value-chain development, land access and natural resource management.

 

Post-Assessment Support

Utilizing assessment findings, the consultant will be responsible for supporting the FARM team in the re-design of the ‘Environment and Ecosystems’ programmatic approach, as well as integrating environment and ecosystems thinking across all program activities and outputs, including providing recommendations for the revision of the program log-frame.  The revised program strategy will include considerations ofanticipated benefits of shared-resource management and management strategies which will inform relevant program activities.

Special attention will paid to syste-ms-level ecosystems and resilience thinking across all activities and outputs, including specific consideration of; conflict dynamics, age, ethnicity and gender inclusion, in the proposed management strategies to be supported by the program.

The consultant will work with all partners in of the FARM consortium; Mercy Corps, Search for Common Ground and Fair and Sustainable Advisory Services in the delivery of these outputs.

Deliverables

  • Desk review on context and preliminary assessment of ecosystem services landscape over the target geography
  • An assessment plan detailing a proposed methodology, the calendar, tools for data collection, evaluation report template, as well as data analysis methodology;
  • Data collection; identifying key informants and conducting interviews, mapping, review of program documentation;
  • Data compilation and analysis;
  • A draft technical report, including program and context specific recommendations for the integration of environmental systems thinking across program strategies, and recommendations for environment/ agriculture specific program outputs and activities;
  • A final technical report, with feedback integrated from Mercy Corps.
  • Inputs and back-stopping for the re-development of the Environment and Ecosystem strategic approach, and integrating landscape scale thinking across all relevant program strategies and activities
  • Participation in the post-assessment data analysis workshop, to take place February 2018

Consultancy Timeframe

30-45 working days from mid-October to December 2017 (estimated two-four weeks to be spent in country; Oct 31 – Nov 17 and February2018 )

  • Consultant recruitment deadline: September 15, 2017
  • Deadline for finalizing desk review:  October 6, 2017
  • Deadline for draft evaluation methodology and data collection tools:  October 18, 2017
  • Deadline for finalizing the evaluation methodology and data collection tools:  October 27, 2017
  • Deadline for finalizing data collection: November 18, 2017
  • Deadline for the draft report, including strategy and activity specific recommendations: December 13, 2017
  • Deadline for the assessment deliverables: January 12, 2018
  • Contributions to the refinement of program strategies and activities
  • Participation in the Jan/Feb 2018 post-assessment workshop
  • All deliverables to be completed mid-February 2018

The Consultant will report to:

Farm Program Director, M&E Manager

The Consultant will work closely with:

FARM Program Managers, FARM M&E Officer