Terms of Reference. REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards (SES) Assessment Report Preparation 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Transcription

1 Terms of Reference REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards (SES) Assessment Report Preparation 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Hariyo Ban Program is a USAID funded program with a major goal to reduce adverse impacts of climate change and threats to bio-diversity. There are three key objectives of the program focused on reduction of threats to bio-diversity, ensure effective sustainable landscape management with strong emphasis on reducing emissions from deforestations and forest degradation (REDD+) and increasing capacity to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change. Livelihood, governance along with gender and social inclusion are three cross cutting themes. REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards (SES) development along with its assessment report is one of the most prioritized activities under Sustainable Landscape Management. Nepal has developed Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) in 2010 and preparatory works for REDD+ implementation are continuing based on the R-PP. Identification of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, national REDD+ strategy development, Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system including safeguards and forest monitoring system. According to R-PP, Nepal aims to apply multiple safeguard systems particularly Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) and REDD+ social and environmental standards (SES). The SESA will help to address potential adverse impact of REDD+ program and REDD+ SES will assess the national performance of REDD+ program. Both of them are very important to develop Safeguard Information System (SIS) in the context of Nepal. At present, Nepal is developing a REDD+ safeguards information system (SIS) that will enable assessment of how REDD+ social and environmental safeguards are being addressed and respected. While Nepal s SIS is not yet fully developed and institutionalized, it is sufficiently well developed to be used to make a first assessment, and it is a good time to do so since much of the foundation for REDD+ in Nepal has now been completed or will soon be completed. This assessment will contribute enhance the SIS in Nepal, which will be also useful for Nepal to comply Warsaw REDD+ Framework which has introduced a system for preparation of summary of information report for access to resultbased finance after The development of SIS in Nepal has been based on the generic framework for developing a country Safeguards Approach developed and promoted, in slightly different forms, by the REDD+ SES Initiative, UN-REDD+, World Bank-FCPF and SNV-Climate, Law and Policy: I. Definition of goals of the country safeguards approach and establishment of basic institutional arrangements (linked with steps 1-4 of REDD+SES process as defined in its global guideline) II. Identification of indicators for REDD+ social and environmental performance (steps 5-6 of REDD+ SES process) III. Development of monitoring and assessment methodology and refinement of institutional arrangements (steps 7-8 of REDD+SES process) 1

2 IV. Development of review and reporting methodology and institutional arrangements (steps 9-10 of REDD+ SES process) Having identified a complete set of indicators, Nepal is now at the stage III and plans to complete stages III and IV within the next 6-9 months. Keys steps to do this are as follows: A. Finalize a monitoring plan for the preparation of 1 st national assessment report. [Note: In Nepal this step is partially complete as a draft monitoring plan has already been developed.] B. Collect information on progress in addressing and respecting REDD+ safeguards as defined in the national indicator of REDD+SES. C. Compile and analyse information and prepare draft assessment report considering the selected indicator of REDD+SES. D. Review draft assessment report after getting feedback and comments from and during public comment period. E. Revise and finalise assessment report considering suggestions of stakeholders and REDD+ SES technical working group. Guidance on options to assist with the design of these steps A to E is available from website of REDD+ SES Initiative ( More general guidance is available from a variety of sources, notably UN-REDD. Following the completion of step E, the final assessment report will be submitted to the relevant bodies for sharing and approval and then disseminated to stakeholders along with any other relevant documents. The SIS process in Nepal is currently facilitated by a National Facilitation Team comprising staff of REDD Implementation Centre (RIC) and policy facilitator of community-based Organization-FECOFUN. This Team is supported by a Technical Working Group composed of RIC, Department of Forest, FECOFUN, NEFIN, NIWF, DNF, HIMWANTI and ICIMOD which is called upon to provide key technical inputs at all relevant stages of the preparation of assessment report. Key outputs of this process that need to be approved are submitted to the REDD Working Group (which is also serving as a national standards committee for REDD+ SES) for approval. 2. OBJECTIVES To provide technical support for the remaining steps to finalize monitoring plan of the first assessment process to deliver a high quality safeguards assessment report and capture learning to inform the further development of SIS in Nepal. 3. SCOPE Review and finalize the draft monitoring plan prepared for the first assessment report for REDD+ SES Prepare the first assessment report based on the monitoring plan 2

3 4. ACTIVITIES AND METHODS 1. Review relevant guidance from REDD+SES, UN-REDD and other relevant sources 2. Develop an inception report which will include: i. A review of the existing draft monitoring plan identifying any significant gaps, and making suggestions to address these gaps, ii. A proposed strategy for steps B to E (as mentioned above), in particular clarifying the approach in terms of the key questions included in the REDD+ SES guidance. iii. A proposed work plan to implement steps B to E, ensuring that step D is completed by the end of May 2015 and step E by the end of June This work plan will specify the role of the consultant versus other key stakeholders. iv. A proposed study design viz sampling design, study sites, and methods of analysis. v. A proposed consultation strategy to explore the needed information The consultant must ensure that all three of the above are realistic given available resources, i.e proposing ways to simplify the process if necessary to reduce costs and ensure delivery of the outputs on time. 3. Collect information on progress in addressing and respecting safeguards. The consultant will take the lead on this step. The information will be derived mainly from secondary sources (ie existing information) but there will also be a need for some primary data collection for some indicators (as detailed in the monitoring plan). 4. Compile and analyze information and prepare draft assessment report. The consultant will take the lead on compiling information and drafting the 1 st assessment report. For each indicator, the draft report will summarize the relevant information and identify the source. Analysis of progress versus each indicator and identification of any gaps will be done by the REDD+ SES Technical Working Group with the consultant facilitating this process. The consultant will then develop a summary for each criterion based on the analysis at indicator level of the component indicators. 5. Review draft assessment report. For this step the consultant will provide technical support to the REDD Implementation Centre which will take the lead in facilitating the process of reviewing the report. This review will include a public comment period of at least 30 days (e.g. May 2015) during which time one national level and three regional level consultation workshops will be held. All consultations will be organized by FECOFUN in close coordination with RIC and the financial support for consultations will be provided by CARE Nepal/Hariyo Ban program 6. Revise and finalize assessment report. The consultant will lead on this activity to finalize the report taking account of the comments received during the public comment period. The consultant will collate the comments received and provide a recommendation to address the comments in the final report. The final report should be completed by June 30 th. 7. Coordination: consultant will work in close coordination with RIC, National Facilitation team of REDD+ SES and other relevant stakeholders including REDD+SES Technical Working Group. 5. TEAM COMPOSITION AND QUALIFICATION The study will be conducted by a consultant with expertise in program monitoring and evaluation. The consultant should have minimum of a post-graduate and preferably PhD degree in natural resource 3

4 management. A minimum of 5 and preferably 10 years of relevant experience program monitoring and evaluation is also required. He/she should have a good understanding of REDD+ and its non-carbon benefits. The Consultant should provide evidence of the following (based on previous assignments): Substantial expertise in program monitoring and evaluation Good understanding of the forest sector in general and REDD+ in particular Strong experience in facilitation multi-stakeholder processes Strong report writing skills 6. DURATION The overall consultancy period will be 5 months which start from Feb 2015 to June SUPERVISION AND COORDINATION The contact person for this consultancy will be Pabitra Jha, REDD Specialist, Hariyo Ban Program, CARE Nepal. Ms. Pabitra Jha will coordinate with Dr Narendra Chand, REDD Implementation Center, Mr. Keshav Prasad Khanal, Sustainable Landscape Coordinator, Hariyo Ban Program, WWF Nepal, Mr. Dil Raj Khanal, Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN) to provide necessary technical advice and supervision to the consultant as and when required. Administrative arrangement will be managed by Mr. Dev Raj Gautam, Team Leader, Hariyo Ban Program CARE Nepal. The consultant will contact relevant government line agencies and other Hariyo Ban Program core partners based on relevancy. 8. DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME 1. Inception report (by end February 2015) 2. Finalized monitoring plan (by mid March 2015) 3. Draft assessment report (by end April 2015) 4. Finalized assessment report (by end of June 2015) 9. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY 9.1. CARE/HARIYO BAN Program: Provide technical back-up through close cooperation and communication to the selected consultant to ensure that they clearly understand the work to be done and adhere to the agreed work plan CONSULTANT Prepare a clear roadmap, detailed methodologies (based on participatory approaches), lists of required information (and standards for data management and analysis), work plan, schedule and risk log as required to accomplish the task 4

5 Compile, interpret and elaborate the findings in line with the objectives Submit the deliverables within the contract time frame 10. LOGISTIC SUPPORT The consultant will manage their logistics for the completion of this assignment themselves. 11. BUDGET The consultant should submit a cost proposal that includes the cost of each item. The payment is subject to tax deduction as per prevailing government rules. The total amount will be paid in installment basis. About 25% of the total amount will be paid after presenting the final inception report and remaining 75% of the contracted amount will be paid after submission of satisfactory deliverables. 5