Terms of Reference

ROAM Support consultant: Rwanda Sub-national ROAM process in Eastern Province.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in collaboration with Rwanda Forestry Authority, Ministry of Environment and several other partners is implementing two projects: (1) TREPA - Transforming Eastern Province of Rwanda’s capacity to adapt to climate change through forests and landscapes restoration and (2) AREECA-The Alliance for Restoration of Forest Ecosystems in Africa. 

Funded by BMU and implemented in three additional countries in Africa, (i.e. Kenya, Malawi, and Cameroon) AREECA aims at increasing the economic, ecological, and climate-related benefits from large-scale FLR. In Rwanda, the project seeks to restore 25,000 ha of degraded lands in two districts of Eastern Province (Kirehe and Nyagatare) by the end of 2024. To unblock large-scale restoration in the country, the project aims to provide field technical support and build FLR capacity among local stakeholders, provide policy advice on FLR, and expand restoration-financing mechanisms both at local and international scenes.

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TREPA on the other hand is a GCF- funded project that intends to restore over 60,000 ha of drought-degraded landscapes into climate resilient ecosystems through re-forestation, agroforestry, restoration of pasturelands, and erosion control measures in 7 districts of the Eastern Province of Rwanda. The project will develop climate resilient markets and supply chains to incentivize public and private investments in forests, increase the capacity of communities to renew and sustainably manage forests and agroforestry resources, and support smallholder farmers to adopt climate-resilient agriculture. The agriculture value chains that face key constraints at different stages will be supported.

Community-centric restoration approach is at the heart of both TREPA and AREECA projects. IUCN and RFA are intend to undertake some of the precursory activities for these projects which include detailed landscape scoping and analysis leading to site identification and mapping every year. This will consequently inform the number of hectares to restore, the tree species suitability as well as the availability of lands deemed suitable for different interventions.

To ensure complementarity and consistency of restoration efforts, the two projects have synergized in undertaking a ROAM process in the seven Districts of Eastern Province of Rwanda. To this end ROAM data collection has completed with some component already at advanced levels in terms of data analysis. In order to fast track the analysis  and reporting process  , IUCN seeks to hire   a ROAM support consultant  to provide high-level support on data collation and compilation, analysis, inferencing and validation. Working closely with the project managers (AREECA & TREPA), the consultant is expected take the overall lead in coordinating data analysis and report writing. Further, in reference to the outputs of the ROAM process the consultant will work closely with IUCN ROAM experts and FLR stakeholders in Rwanda, to develop Districts FLR strategies (including Districts Restoration plans) in the seven Districts to support and guide implementation of FLR activities in Eastern Province.

The objective of the sub-national ROAM

The Sub-National ROAM in Eastern province will inform the Implementation of several projects in eastern province. The development of District restoration plans/strategies will attract private

 The assessment will pursue key restoration objectives which include; reduced soil erosion, improved water retention capacity, improved soil fertility, increased carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. The ROAM process will further engage the target communities and local authorities to validate the outputs. The assessment is also expected to ride on the various national development goals to identify opportunities that are politically, socially, economically, and ecologically feasible.

Specifically, the assessment will seek to do the following:

• The consultant will be required to make regular consultation with key stakeholders– preferably drawn from the FLR Cross-sectoral Task force; scientists, practitioners, and public administrators from key institutions.
• Conduct a consultation workshop with key FLR stakeholders
• Identify and map drivers of degradation and overall degradation risks in the Eastern province.
• Identify restoration opportunities in the potential project areas
• Identify possible intervention areas for the project including partners to be involved in its implementation
• Identify key policy intervention needs and gaps at sub-national levels (EP) to create enabling conditions for FLR
• Identify motivated target groups/ local organizations;
• Identify key actors and stakeholders at Provincial levels and analyse capacity and organizational structures.
• Identify suitable concrete restoration interventions for Eastern Province
• Estimate the costs and benefits related to the identified restoration interventions
• Conduct financial analysis to identify potential sources of finance that the restoration initiative may tap into
• Analyze to estimate the potential carbon benefits from each restoration intervention in the project area
• Apply the Rapid Restoration Diagnostic, to identify missing and existing key success factors and provide recommendations on how to address them.
• Develop the district FLR Strategy according to the terms provided.
• Submit inception, draft and final report within the provided timelines.
• Support the validation of ROAM report as well the Districts FLR strategy    

        2. Scope of consultancy: Duties and Responsibilities

The consultancy will conduct the following activities:

1. Support preliminary analysis including and not limited to stakeholder analysis and stock take.
2. Provide high-level technical support in the data compilation, analysis and reporting.
3. Take lead in data cleaning and validation among the ROAM experts.
4. Provide technical inputs in the GIS mapping process; multi-criteria degradation maps, opportunities and interventions.
5. Under the guidance of social economist, support assessing restoration readiness (restoration diagnostics) livelihoods, gender and cultural analysis.
6. Support the identification and design of the interventions/technological packages, their cost and benefits and market analysis.
7. Spearhead ROAM  reporting  process  by  compiling  various components  from  GIS  experts,  social  – economist and Natural Resource Governance expert.
8. Support projects managers in the preparing concepts and works flows for data and report validation.
9. Any other ROAM-specific duties/tasks that may arise within the process.
10. Expected outputs 

        3. Eligibility Criteria

• The consultant is expected to demonstrate competence and experience as indicated below:
• A Master’s or equivalent degree in a relevant discipline (forestry, land use, natural resource, environmental management, or other relevant academic fields). A PhD in the related domain will be an added advantage ;
• At least 10 years of professional work experience in forest management, forest landscape restoration, climate change and REDD related issues;
• Must demonstrate ROAM experiences within Africa.
• Strong knowledge of participatory-based approaches, with a proven track record of ROAM related studies;
• Organizational experience, including a proven ability to compile decision support reports, work on a variety of tasks simultaneously, and perform well under pressure;
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, especially within team members and multi-stakeholder contexts;
• A strong delivery-oriented work ethic with the ability to provide deliverables within challenging timelines;
• Excellent report writing skills. 

4. Evaluation Criteria 

        5. Process of submission

Interested candidates are invited to submit their Technical and Financial proposals (in English) by email to Rwanda@iucn.org and a copy to Valentine.Ikirezi@iucn.org; Joseph.Njue@iucn.org and Ephrem.imanirareba@iucn.org. Offers should indicate “Your Name” and the assignment title in the subject line. NB: Travel related costs (on-ground transport, accommodation outside Kigali and DSA) will be covered by IUCN directly.

The application must be received on or before 12^th September 2023 at 5.00 p.m.

The submission should not exceed 5 pages demonstrating the candidate's specific experience or suitability for the assignment - with CV(s), a description of methodology or clear understating of the assignment, and a work plan.