Summary
Date Posted: Monday, August 16, 2021 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Position Title: Consultancy to undertake a study on valuing Uganda’s forests.
Contract type : Firm or individuals
Location : National
Topic: People and forests: A Socio-economic assessment of the importance of forests on rural development
Expected duration of assignment: 3 months
Reports to: Executive Director – ECO

Background and Objectives of the Assessment
Introduction:
The Ecological Christian Organization (ECO) received support from the Forests of the World to implement a project on ‘Valuing forests in Uganda as part of on-going advocacy efforts to influence pro-poor forest policies and legislation in Uganda. This follows increasing concerns on the fate of community forests which are facing massive degradation with untold socio-economic burden on forest dependent communities in the medium to long term.
Uganda continues to lose an estimated 50,147 hectares of forest annually, creating emissions equivalent to 8,253,982 tons of CO2. Uganda is projected to lose its entire forest cover by 2050 at the current trend of deforestation. (See Uganda’s Forest reference level 2017). Much of this degradation is occurring on private lands which constitute over 70% of forest estate in Uganda. In fact, community forests bear most of the degradation yet their conservation/management could provide a cheaper alternative to addressing deforestation. A study by the University of Manchester indicated that community forests conservation is likely to reduce deforestation and poverty by up to 37% and 4.3% respectively. Similarly, the National Forest Authority (NFA) notes that Community Forest management is one crucial path way towards reducing forest degradation in Uganda. Globally, community-based forest initiatives have been promoted as one strategy to enhance human development. It has been noted that local communities legally manage approximately 13% of the world’s forests which is very significant. In Uganda, community forest management concept is still in nascent stages and needs more studies to understand its potential impacts on conservation and poverty reduction. This would provide a strong basis for more policy interventions that amplify importance of community forests.
The government of Uganda is in the process of reviewing the national forest policy and the national forest and tree planting Act of 2003 which provides us an opportunity to influence its outcome based on evidence generated from research. Therefore, ECO and partners are desirous of conducting a socio-economic assessment of impacts of community forests on rural development as part of an expanded study on forest valuation that was undertaken last year. The study is to be conducted in mid western Uganda on similar landscapes/ecosystems in Masindi targeting community owned forests that the valuation study was undertaken.

Main objective of the study
The main objective of the study is to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of community forests on rural livelihoods, so as to inform policy and legislation on how best the people-forest relations can be improved for better management of the forest resource.
Specifically, the study will:
i. Quantify key socio-economic benefits (products/services/resources) from community forests and trees that contribute to community livelihoods, economic welfare and safety nets, food security, landscape identity, nature quality local economy and environment.
ii. Explore the employment benefits accruing from accessing or utilising the forest resources
iii. Identify policy, legal, regulatory and institutional constraints and or enablers necessary to support the efficient management of community forests to realize the full potential of the identified key multiple benefits.
iv. Explore the social components of transformation in accessing services and benefits from community forests including issues of human rights [Assess the social values attributable to forests, which range from their contribution to symbolic capital and community identity to their contribution to social capital building]
v. Assess the impact of community forests including forest related work on the local economic development and more specifically on: livelihoods, demographics, employment, and investments in green enterprises.
vi. Assess the non-market values of community forests, which although not generating immediate income, do create a contribution to the local and national green accounts.
Scope of Work,
Responsibilities and products The Consultant shall perform all the services/work as necessary to fulfill the objectives of the Consultancy contract. More particularly, the Consultant will be expected to carry out tasks such as:

Scope of work:
i. Inception Report: Submit an inception report to the Executive Director and Project Coordinator no later than two weeks from commencement of the consultancy that includes: (i) methodologies and approaches to conduct the socioeconomic impact assessment, including tools, indicators, community and stakeholder engagement plan, (ii) target communities, community groups and stakeholders, and (iii) detailed work plan and schedule. A validation meeting of the inception report with ECO management team will take place before any field execution (for successful candidate).
ii. Conduct the actual study after approval of the inception report
iii. Facilitate the study validation and dissemination workshops;
iv. ensure production of the full study report after validation
v. Prepare overall process report for this consultancy.

Deliverables
• Policy brief extract for advocacy
Methodology/Workplan /scope
• The consultant shall develop the relevant methodology and approach that will enable successful delivery of the assignment. The methodology shall be presented to ECO for review before any field execution (for successful candidate).
• The consultant shall prepare a work plan within the stated timeframe for the assignment and submit it to ECO for review before any work starts.

Qualification and experience of the consultant Qualifications:
The prospective consultant/firm/individual shall be required to posses the following minimum qualifications
• Masters Degree in any of the following fields: Forestry economics, agricultural economics, Environmental/Resource Economics, Natural Resources Management and Economics Experience:
The following experience is required for this assignment:
• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in the field of forestry, agriculture, natural resources management. The experience must be research related, able to produce cutting edge technical and policy knowledge products
• Demonstrated experience in developing and delivering high quality socio-economic assessments, including gender analyses, with livelihood assessments associated with meeting protected areas, natural resource management, and/or conservation objectives
• Excellent, proven management and communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to work in technical teams
• Demonstrated analytical and report-writing skills.
• Submission of proposal The proposal should include a technical proposal (not exceeding 4 pages) and financial proposal. In the financial proposal, the consultant should include all related costs for implementation of the task.
• Payments: The payments will be scheduled as follows:
• 40% upon submission of the inception report,
• 30% on submission of the draft copy of documents and,
• 30% payment upon approval of the final products
NB. Payments are subject to statutory deductions.
Time Duration The duration for the consultancy work is 3 months.
Note Any Proposal submitted will be regarded as an offer by the Proposer and does not constitute or imply the acceptance of any Proposal by ECO. ECO is under no obligation to award a contract to any Proposer as a result of this Request for Proposals (RFP).
At any time prior to the deadline of proposal submission, ECO may for any reason, such as in response to a clarification requested by a Proposer, modify the RFP in the form of a
Supplemental Information to the RFP. All prospective Proposers will be notified in writing of all changes/amendments and additional instructions through Supplemental Information to the RFP.

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
Submission process
Completed application documents (technical and financial) shall be submitted to the stated address through email at: info@ecouganda.org copy to eco@ecouganda.org; and not later than 10 days from the date of publication of this RFP.

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