Job: CONSULTANT - ASSESSMENT OF KEY POLICIES AND MEASURES TO ADDRESS THE DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION AND FOREST DEGRADATION IN SRI LANKA, AND LINKAGES TO NATIONAL REDD+ PROCESS

Location :

Colombo, SRI LANKA

Application Deadline :

17-Dec-13

Additional Category

Environment and Energy

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Post Level :

National Consultant

Languages Required :

English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

15-Jan-2014

Duration of Initial Contract :

90 days over four months period

Expected Duration of Assignment :

90 days over four months period

Background

• The UN-REDD Programme is the United Nations Collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries;
• The Programme was launched in January 2012 to assist developing countries prepare and implement national REDD+ strategies, and build on the convening power and expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP);
• As a partner country of the UN-REDD Programme, Sri Lanka is committed to develop the capacity to implement REDD+ according to the components of ‘REDD+ readiness' jointly identified by UN-REDD and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank;
• The UN-REDD National Programme (NP) in Sri Lanka will thus contribute to ensuring that Sri Lanka is prepared to effectively participate in the REDD+ mechanism resulting from the UNFCCC negotiations, by focusing on key initial elements of ‘REDD+ readiness';
• The overall objective of Sri Lanka's NP is ' to support the Government of Sri Lanka in catalyzing the establishment of key mechanism and process and development of capacities, required to implement REDD+.

This objective will be secured through the following five Outcomes:

• National Consensus reached on the Sri Lanka REDD + programme;
• Management Arrangements contributing to the National REDD+ Process defined;
• Improved Stakeholder Awareness and Effective Engagement;
• National REDD+ Strategy and Implementation Framework developed:
• Forest Monitoring System for REDD+ Activities developed.

Under the programme the UNDP seek the services of a Local Consultant (preferably a team of experts with a lead consultant or a consulting company) to investigate:

• Key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in terms of historical, current and expected future (considering effects of socio-economic development and political decisions) trends;
• Inter relationships between the drivers and interactions among underlying causes;
• Impact of them on forests and forest cover of Sri Lanka;
• Effectiveness of current forestry and other relevant sector policies (ex: MahindaChinthana Development policy, National Physical Plan 2030, Haritha Lanka, Land policy etc), laws and regulations in addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in different provinces of Sri Lanka;
• Potential policies and measures that could be implemented in the context of the REDD+ strategy process;
• Outputs of the study would help to develop REDD+ policies and measures to address the drivers and causes of deforestation and forest degradation effectively as well as engage key stakeholders in capacity development process to support implementation of those policies and measures;
• This work should build on the existing knowledge base;
• As an example,a preliminary assessment of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation was conducted through stakeholder consultations and available under Component 2 of Sri Lanka's Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP);
• These preliminary assessment results, among other existing studies on drivers of deforestation and forest degradationshould form the basis for this assessment to provide recommendations in terms of the areas in which the REDD+ Readiness process effectively address key drivers.

Scope and Objectives Scope

• The Consultant - Assessment of key policies and measures to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Sri Lanka, and linkages to national REDD+ process will work under the guidance of the Forest Department and the UNREDD office to complete the assessment.

Objectives The Objectives of this assignment are to:

• Develop a detailed assessment of drivers; their causes; inter-relationships and impacts across land use sectors by analyzing various factors including, among others, biophysical and technical matters, land use policy conflicts, economic trends, demographics, access to technology and innovation and socio-cultural practices;
• Identify priority drivers to be addressed through REDD+ in Sri Lanka based on the above assessment and stakeholder consultations;
• Evaluate in detail a number of potential policies and measures that can be implemented to address priority drivers in Sri Lanka, building from existing studies on the effectiveness of past and current policies, laws and regulations on specific drivers;
• Identify where and how gaps between the forest management policies, laws and regulations and those of other land use sectors can be addressed;
• Propose recommendations that can be used to elaborate the priority policies and measures as part of the REDD+ strategy process.

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected Outputs

• Output One Inception Report containing the Work plan, outline of the assessment including key issues to be covered, methodology and list of people/organisations to be interviewed;
• Output Two First Draft Assessment report together with a quantitative analysis framework and associated database
• Output Three Second Draft Assessment report including the consultation report annexes based on consultations at national and local levels;
• Output Four. Final Assessment report incorporating meeting findings.

In order to achieve the stated objectives and outputs described above, the following indicative activities are anticipated to be conducted by the Consultant:

• Carry out a desk review to take stock of any existing information and data on drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Sri Lanka; their causes and inter-relationships (and specific provinces as appropriate), covering all categories (if possible spatially expressed)of forests;
• Carry out any necessary additional studies to develop a full understanding of drivers, their causes and inter relationships in the country;
• This will particularly help to identify potential areas of land use policy conflicts (e.g., agriculture, energy and infrastructure) and anticipated effects of national development policies and programmes on forest landscape of Sri Lanka;
• Building on recommendations from existing work on drivers, key stakeholder consultations and the results of additional studies, determine which drivers are a priority to be addressed and the potential policies and measures to be developed;
• Evaluate the different policies and measures that may be implemented in order to address the priority drivers (focusing on a 3- 5 drivers) from an effectiveness, efficiency and equity perspective (including, where possible a robust economic analysis that can feed into the strategy and complement the finance/benefit sharing study).
• Develop a quantitative analysis framework for (if possible spatial referenced)drivers; their causes and impacts to feed into the subsequent spatial analysis;
• Prepare a draft report that details the analysis of priority drivers and potential policies and measures to address those priority drivers, and proposes short-, mid- and long-term policy options for implementing policies and measures in the context of the REDD+ strategy;
• Conduct national consultation meetings at national and regional levels on the draft report to seek stakeholders' inputs and support;
• Improve the draft report based on inputs received from the stakeholder consultation meetings;
• Participate in the national and regional validation meetings organized by the Project Executive Board (PEB) and UN-REDD Programme to ensure stakeholders' buy-in and actions on assessment findings, policy options and recommendations; and
• Submit a final version of the report incorporating all inputs and pledged actions by stakeholders from the national and regional validation meetings.

Competencies

• Ability to analyze the past studies on deforestation and forest degradation in the context of current development programmes of the country;
• Ability to access the data related to forestry, socio economic development programmes and their impact on the forests;
• Knowledge to work in Sinhala or Tamil and English languages;
• Ability to work using MS Office software and common statistical packages;
• Ability to write reports and work in diversified teams Demonstrate ability in assessing laws and policies related to economics, governance, demographics and social impacts of forest management and land use change.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• An advanced degree (Masters) in, forest governance, natural resources management or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in related field;
• Priority will be given to an entity with relevant experience in research in the area of forest governance, combined with experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations at national and local levels.

Language:

• Proficient in English, Sinhala or Tamil.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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