Consultant to review and capture REDD+ monitoring best practices

Transparency International (TI) is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. Through more than 100 chapters worldwide and an international secretariat in Berlin, Germany, TI raises awareness of the damaging effects of corruption and works with partners in government, business and civil society to develop and implement effective measures to tackle it.

TI has been working on REDD+ since 2010. Originally focused on the Asia Pacific region, TI broadened its work to Sub Saharan Africa in 2014 and the Americas in 2015. At the global level our focus has been on assessing the anti-corruption performance of global REDD+ funds (UN-REDD and the FCPF) and follow on advocacy for the adoption of reforms. At the national level, our focus has been on national level REDD+ corruption risk assessments and advocacy on findings. Since 2015, there has been an increasing focus on monitoring and supporting victims and witnesses of corruption although this is still in its early stages.

In 2016, TI adopted a new Strategy 2020 Together Against Corruption with one of the key focuses on Public Demand for Accountability.  It sets out that as a movement “We will work with a wide range of people to act to confront corruption, demand accountability and contribute to anti-corruption approaches that are systemic and sustainable.”

TI is now seeking a consultant to take stock of our more recent work and other initiatives in the space of REDD+ to ensure our REDD+ work going forward is contributing fully to our strategic goal of strengthening demand for public accountability. The consultant will identify and document how national chapters are working with affected communities to better understand the dimension of their governance challenges around REDD+. This should include a summary of how national chapters are tackling the problems identified and how they feed the perspective of the beneficiaries of the funds/affected communities up the policy chain to influence national or indeed global practices.

The aim of this study is that civil society stakeholders at country level, including those outside the TI movement, are better equipped to ensure effective monitoring of initiatives in and around forests. This review of best practices should push stakeholders to focus on outcomes in order to close the accountability gap between government and the people that projects are meant to serve. It is further intended that the results of this study will be piloted within the framework of projects currently running and used to guide fundraising work by chapters going forward. 

Objectives

• To take stock of the range of monitoring priorities of TI chapters engaging in REDD+ work (from local level monitoring and engagement to a more national focus);
• To capture best practices present within or outside the TI movement that can be adapted for REDD+ monitoring in line with these priorities
• To document core best practices in agreement with TI chapters
• To identify possibilities for alignment of this monitoring work with other actors in this space for greater impact and sustainability. 

Expected Deliverables and Timeline

The consultant(s) will be expected to:

(1) Carry out an initial mapping of chapter monitoring priorities through facilitating a conversation with chapters engaged in REDD+ activities: the mapping will include both work at the level of local project monitoring and national policy level monitoring. The range of activities undertaken by participating chapters should be taken into account, and the link between set up, location, and the capacity, experience and expertise of the chapter with their monitoring priorities should be described. This analysis will be important in order to ensure that guidelines developed at a later stage responds to the broad range of needs identified.

(2) Reach out to other stakeholders active in the REDD+ space to understand their concerns about where blockages in terms of achieving clean and transparent REDD+ currently lie, where they see TI contributing and potential areas of alignment and cooperation moving forward

(3) Conduct an initial mapping of current practices within (and if highly relevant, outside) the TI movement for monitoring REDD+ (with a focus on anti-corruption / governance) and on demonstrated outcomes for affected communities: a wide range of approaches are currently being used across the TI movement to monitor government and private sector activities for integrity. This step should carry out an initial assessment of what is out there, what success has been demonstrated, and how it might be adaptable to respond to the needs identified during implementing deliverables 1 and 2.

(4) Present and facilitate a discussion of the findings from deliverables 1-3 with TI national chapters and engaged external participants and prioritise a small number of best practices for further development (either in person, or through a webinar). A facilitated discussion will not only allow the prioritisation of a limited number of practices for further elaboration but also agreement on the format for the final product (deliverable 5 below).

(5) Based on the agreement at (4), develop the prioritised best practices including, as much as possible, case study examples:  As well as documenting steps taken in setting up the particular monitoring activities, the product should also analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, challenges, and context within which the approach has been adopted, including the capacity of the team needed for the approach to be implemented. This is expected to form the bulk of the work and will entail further interviews and reviews of information available. An important part of this process will be to consult with stakeholders and incorporate feedback before finalisation.

The consultant is expected to work very closely with a TI Climate Integrity and Public Demand for Accountability teams and with strong input from the Climate Integrity team at TI Peru (Proetica).  A timeline for the delivery of the different deliverables will be agreed during contract negotiation but the work is expected to start immediately. 

Selection Criteria

The Consultant / Consultancy Team should have the following qualifications:

• Experience in governance-related (ideally, anti-corruption) work highly desirable.
• Experience with civil society monitoring work and engaging affected communities highly desirable.
• 2 years’ experience and knowledge of REDD+ highly desired.
• Strong writing skills.
• In-country experience in Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Ghana, Zambia or Zimbabwe an advantage.
• Fluency in English required, and a good working knowledge of Spanish an advantage.
• Availability to travel to Lima for 5 days in June/July (TBC based on conference timing)

Renumeration and Costs

The Consultant should provide a detailed breakdown, before any VAT or other charges, of all their estimated costs, including but not limited to; total fee as a lump sum or standard daily or hourly rates, (if applicable), work materials. Any costs related to international travel will be covered by TIS.

The expected number of working days should not exceed 20 days and the daily rate should ideally not exceed EUR 400 per day.

Transparency International e.V. (Secretariat), (TI-S) is registered as a Business Entity in Germany with VAT identification number DE273612486. In order to determine the Value Added Tax (VAT) implications of this tender, we kindly request that the Consultants fill out the VAT Form for Tenders/Vendor Form (instructions inside the form) and submit the completed and duly signed form along with their email application.

The VAT Form for Tenders/Vendor Form is available here.

Other Information

Evaluations of climate work to date can be accessed here and here. Additional reading on TI work on REDD+ can be found on our website here.

Contact Information

The application should include the following documents in English:

• A brief description on the planned approach, including a discussion of potential challenges and a timetable for the assignment
• Financial proposal
• Motivation letter and Curriculum Vitae
• Samples of relevant previous work (confidentiality guaranteed).
• Completed VAT Form for Tenders/Vendor Form.

Unfortunately, and due to the high volume of applications TI does not have the capacity to respond to candidates that are not selected for interviewing. If you do not hear from us within the two weeks following the submission deadline you may safely assume that your application was considered but not selected.

Please indicate “REDD+ monitoring best practice” in the subject line of your email application. Applications should be sent in English by email to Claire Martin at cmartin@transparency.org by close of business of 03/05/2017.